When Chaos Steals Your Life

By Jackie Leon

We're all living in chaos right now.

The notifications never stop. The news cycle spins faster. Social media bombards you with curated perfection, conflicting opinions, outrage, comparison and an endless scroll that devours your attention.

The teenager drowning in it all while trying to meet impossible expectations. The professional caught in workplace disruption they can't control. The parent juggling competing demands with no instruction manual. The retiree watching everything change faster than they can adapt.

Different ages, different battles. Same destabilizing force.

Dr. Oleg Konovalov says that chaos robs you of agency. Think about that. When everything feels out of control, when you're constantly reacting instead of choosing, when you're firefighting instead of building, you lose the ability to direct your own life. You're not making decisions anymore. You're just surviving.

And here's why that matters so profoundly.

Bruce Feiler argues that a meaningful life requires three things: agency, belonging, and cause. Agency is your sense of control over your life and path. Belonging is connection to something larger than yourself. Cause is purpose that transcends your immediate self-interest.

Without agency, the entire foundation crumbles. You can't meaningfully contribute to a cause when you're in constant survival mode. You can't fully show up in relationships when you're perpetually overwhelmed. Chaos doesn't just make life harder. It steals meaning itself.

So what are we missing? : the antidote to chaos isn't doing more, faster.

It's the opposite.

It's slowing down. Creating space. Reflecting on your daily choices instead of being swept along by them.

When you pause intentionally, you begin to see where you actually have control. You notice the small choices that add up to your days, your weeks, your life. You start distinguishing between what you can influence and what you can't.

That's where clarity lives. That's where you reclaim your agency, one conscious choice at a time. (It's exactly where we start when coaching together.)

The chaos isn't going away. The world will keep spinning faster. But you don't have to spin with it.

You can plant your feet. You can choose deliberately. You can move from reaction to intention.

That's not just how you survive chaos. That's how you build a meaningful life in spite of it.

For reflection: What is the price you are paying for living in chaos?