Resilience in uncertain times

By Mark Agnew, European Adventurer of the Year

Mark Agnew is a two time world record setting adventurer. He spent an incredible 103 days completing the notorious Northwest Passage by kayak. His speeches recount the epic adventure and lessons from the Arctic.

Resilience in uncertain times

These are uncertain times. Couple the AI revolution with skill and labour shortages, a mass retirement from Gen X that is leaving the market bereft of their experience, rising costs and customers expecting you to do more with less, and you have yourself a headache.

No one escapes these macro pressures. Let’s look at a niche industry like refurbishment and installation professionals – In the long term, immigration policy, lack of trained youth coming through and the retirement of experienced professionals is leaving many scratching their heads – where’s the next generation of professionals going to come from?

In the short term, a cost-of-living crisis and high mortgage rates mean people aren’t buying or refurbishing their houses – where’s the next job going to come from? Material costs, imports, inflation and supply chain delays are all causing costs to skyrocket, but customers want them to do more with less – how can they meet customer expectations? Tighter and tighter regulations are introduced for safety, creating countless time-consuming hoops to jump through – where can they find the time to just do the job?

The list is endless, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

When my teammates and I set two World First Records for kayaking through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, the journey was wracked with uncertainty. One day, we might kayak 40 miles on water as flat as glass. The next, we’d be stuck in our tent as the wind howled around us. Other times, we’d be happily kayaking along, and suddenly ice would drift across the water and trap us. What should have been a simple route to shore turned into hours of uncertainty as we fought to find our way through.

Fortunately, in the build-up to our record-setting expedition, I worked with psychology to build resilience to thrive in uncertainty. It is applicable to the wild Arctic Ocean and the workplace too. Here’s what I learned:

Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Tough things are tough. Accept it. When you accept it, you give yourself permission to sit with discomfort. Facing uncertainty is not easy; you will feel stressed. The alternative – fighting the feelings – only feeds the negative emotions.

You only have so much energy, and if you spend that energy fighting the feelings rather than looking for a solution, you get caught in a vicious circle of fighting feelings, feeding them and not having the energy or capacity to find a solution, which causes more negative emotions.

I have a script: “I am stressed. I won’t be stressed about being stressed. I’ll accept that stress is a normal reaction to have in a stressful situation. I’ll sit with the stress and get on with the task anyway.”

By the time I was in the Arctic, it was second nature to me and I didn’t need the script, but the principle was vital to my resilience.

Threats are challenges

Resilient people reframe threats as challenges. This simple, seemingly miniature, change in mindset can excite you. No longer are stressful times fixed obstacles between you and the goal. Instead, they are exciting challenges to be interacted with – get creative, think outside the box, test your own resolve.

When we take on challenges, we grow, we get a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment. In fact, countless studies show that people who challenge themselves experience a lasting contentment, compared to those who avoid challenges and only seek pleasure. So, from this perspective, challenges are a gift.

A study in 2024, called “Examining the Mediating Role of Challenge and Threat Appraisal Tendencies on the Relationships Between Mastery Imagery Ability, Perceived Stress and Proactive Coping” (I guess ChatGPT wasn’t around to help them think of a snappier title), looked at the link between mastery imagery ability (the mental skill to vividly visualize oneself successfully coping with and performing well in challenging or difficult situations) and threat perception. They discovered people with a high mastery imagery ability tended to view threats/stressful situations as challenges and therefore were better at coping and experienced less stress.

Yes, we are in uncertain times. Don’t be threatened by it. View it as a challenge for you to rise to. Then you’ll experience growth, fulfilment, you’ll cope better and have less stress.

You can’t control the wind, but you can always keep paddling

In the Arctic, when the wind was bad, we would cover 20 miles in the same time it had taken to cover 40 the day before. It might have been frustrating – but what would be the point in getting frustrated at the wind? I cannot control it. We paddled for 10 hours; sometimes that meant 40 miles, and sometimes that meant 20 miles. I did not concern myself with the output, only with the input. I could paddle for 10 hours, and if I consistently met that input, the overall aim would eventually look after itself.

Each paddle stroke might seem small but they add up. Focus on what you can control, even if it’s only something small.

Resilient people focus on what they can control and let go of the rest. In life, there will be headwinds. Keep paddling.

Love the pursuit, define the pursuit

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Why did you get into your current career? What about it do you love? Remind yourself of why you’re there and tough times become tolerable.

That’s easier said than done. I try and be as specific as possible. I define intrinsic motivations and I judge the success of a goal based on my intrinsic motivations, not the outcome. It means I might fail occasionally, but I keep coming back for more so I succeed in the long term where others burn out.

I define the intrinsic pursuit by asking, am I here for:

● a challenge?
● an experience?
● relationships?
● a charitable cause?

Once you can answer the question, you find a new level of resilience. In the Arctic, I was there to challenge myself, for the experience of being immersed in the wild, the relationships forged through shared effort and to raise money for the Wilderness Foundation UK. Another adventure might have just one or two of the four elements.

When we were slowed by headwinds I’d say: “I’m here for a challenge and it just got more challenging. I want to be immersed in nature and now I’m at the whims of the wind. I wanted to forge relationships, and our extra effort will only deepen our bonds. People depend on me to raise money, it’s time to rise above my own suffering.” And suddenly, the wind didn’t feel so bad, it felt like a gift, because I had intrinsic motivations and the wind facilitated them all. The wind was no longer an obstacle between me and my goal. It was part of my goal.

If you love the pursuit, the goal will look after itself.

Don’t be tough – community and adaptability matter

You might think being resilient is the same as being tough. It’s not. If you are too tough, you’ll shut yourself off from the chance to adapt to the situation because you’ll feel like you’re quitting. And you’ll rob yourself of the ability to connect with others. Both of these aspects of toughness make you less resilient.

No one does it alone. When times are tough, take solace in your community, friends and family. Lean on them for support and get a sense of meaning and purpose by giving support to others too. This might be the shortest sub-heading of them all, but it is perhaps the most important.

Toughness is one important element of resilience, but it is not a replacement for resilience. Too much or too little and you sell yourself short. Resilient people give and receive support. Resilient people adapt.”

Uncertainty is certainly stressful, but you can become more resilient, and not just survive, but thrive and grow through tough times with the right mindset.