How Do We Stay Grounded When the World Keeps Shifting?
The world is changing faster than we realize, faster than many of our systems can keep up. Artificial intelligence, climate disruption, and global interdependence are reshaping nearly every aspect of our work and lives. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, more than 40 percent of workers’ core skills are expected to shift within the next five years (World Economic Forum, 2023).¹ The pace of change is not slowing down; it’s compounding.
Many people feel unsettled. It’s hard to make confident decisions when the ground keeps moving. Some point to federal policy, some to technology, others to climate change or economic instability. All are true and interconnected. What’s also true is that the sense of certainty many of us grew up with (the social contract, the career ladder, the idea of stability) no longer feels guaranteed.
Cultivating Adaptability
In this environment, adaptability isn’t just a professional skill; it’s a survival strategy. Psychologist Susan David, author of Emotional Agility, describes this as *“the ability to be with our emotions, thoughts, and stories in a way that enables us to move forward in alignment with our values.”*²
That’s the balance leaders need now: hold on to your principles, and ride the change.
We can’t control the waves, but we can learn how to navigate them using judgment, experience, wisdom, and intuition to decide when to stay firm and when to pivot.
Seeing What’s Steady and What’s Shifting
Adaptability doesn’t mean chaos. It means knowing which parts of your work, your mission, or your values are non-negotiable, and which can flex.
At Freya + Co, I see this daily in strategic planning sessions. Long-range, five-year roadmaps feel increasingly unrealistic. Instead, we help teams anchor to purpose and principles, then test, learn, and adjust in shorter cycles. That flexibility creates stability of a different kind: one rooted in clarity, not control.
Relationships Are Our Real Infrastructure
When systems feel uncertain, relationships become the safety net. Genuine, in-person connections build the trust and collaboration that technology can’t replicate.
As writer and researcher Priya Parker notes in The Art of Gathering, “We gather to solve problems we can’t solve on our own.”³ Those human bonds across disciplines, sectors, and identities are what will carry us through the turbulence ahead.
Rethinking the Arrival Fallacy
Psychologists call it “the arrival fallacy” the mistaken belief that happiness and security will come once we get there: the promotion, the home, the milestone, the sense of arrival.⁴ But in a world changing this quickly, there keeps moving.
The point isn’t to arrive. It’s to stay present in the process, to notice how we treat people, how we use our influence, and how we adapt together.
Progress is less about reaching a summit and more about learning to walk the ridge, steady, observant, curious about what’s next.
A Closing Thought
Change is the only constant, but we still have agency in how we meet it. We can:
Hold fast to what matters most.
Stay flexible where we can.
Build relationships that ground and sustain us.
Because leadership today isn’t about having the answers. It’s about learning in real time, together.
References
World Economic Forum (2023). The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Geneva: WEF.
David, S. (2016). Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life. Avery.
Parker, P. (2018). The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Riverhead Books.
Tal Ben-Shahar (2009). Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. McGraw-Hill.
