The last two years have been challenging. The world has changed in ways that were unimaginable prior to the Pandemic and before the social, cultural, political, and economic transformations that have taken place. A person waking up from a two-year coma to this new world would likely need months of professional counseling to cope with how things have changed from the world he or she knew in 2019.

This highlights the problem for those of us who’ve lived through these transformative times with full consciousness. Humans have an amazing ability to adapt. We tend to roll with the punches, so to speak, as long as change does not come too quickly. Two years has been long enough for most of us to avoid being overwhelmed to the point of not being able to function. And yet, it’s likely that all of us have changed in numerous ways.

Many of the ways in which we have changed are not for the good. Anxiety and depression are said to be increasing dramatically, as is the suicide rate. In order to thrive in these extremely challenging times, and to help those we love to thrive as well, we’ll need to adapt in healthy ways. As 2022 approaches, here as some things we can focus on. If successful, these will be like superpowers for us relative to what has become normative in our new world.

Quiet Confidence

Imagine for a moment that you own the racing bike pictured above. This amazing machine has the capacity to operate at over 200 miles per hour. Now imagine that this was street-legal, and that it was your daily ride. Would you have the self-control to ride at normal speeds? If someone pulled up next to you at a stop light and challenged you to race, would you take the bait?

One of the most amazing superpowers a person can cultivate is what we call quiet confidence. We tend to see this in individuals who have amazing abilities, and yet who don’t feel the need to display them to others. This takes an amazing amount of maturity.

Here’s the good news. Each of us can choose to incorporate this superpower into our daily lives. As you develop your soft skills and hard skills, you can politely smile at those who challenge you and allow them to think that they’ve won in some small way. Simply smile, and politely gesture for them to go ahead of you if that’s what they want. You can do this knowing that if necessary for survival you could quickly handle the situation. Any yet, not having to prove this in meaningless encounters gives you great, unseen power over others. For a deeper dive into this philosophy, see the article titled “Obstacles vs. Objectives” that we posted on 30 June 2021.

Controlling Emotions

The second superpower that will help us in 2022 is closely related to the first. A few weeks ago I was riding my motorcycle on a busy street. As I approached a turn lane, the driver of a sports car blasted his horn at me and quickly passed to get ahead of me into the lane. Even though this was not a dangerous move, it angered me. When the light turned green, I sped up to follow the vehicle hoping to intimidate the driver. It worked. He sped up to over 60 miles per hour in a 35 zone to lose me. As he did so, I realized that not controlling my emotions could have cost an innocent person their life if the driver hit another vehicle or a pedestrian in his attempt to lose me.

This is a perfect example of me allowing someone else to control my emotions. In effect, I gave that driver a good deal of power over me. Talking this over with others later, they said that what I did was normal and understandable. And that’s the point. It takes super human ability to not act as others would in a situation like that. The ability to control your emotions in a situation in which almost anyone else would lose control of their emotions represents a superpower.

As is true with quiet confidence, not allowing someone else to control your emotions takes maturity. Before such an encounter, we have to decide that if someone else wants to take advantage of us in a meaningless way, we can smile knowing that their attempt to control our emotions failed. We can also smile at the fact that their stress level was raised during their actions while the stress they intended for us never took root.

Being Prepared

Many of the articles we post focus on ways that we can prepare for almost any eventuality. The Panoplia online Soft Skills and Tactics course does the same. Knowing that you and those you love can thrive in almost any circumstance results in a great deal of peace.

As noted above, humans have an amazing ability to adapt. The norm is for people to be lulled into a sense of normalcy when things are not normal at all. Taking the time during 2022 to set aside some food, water, medications, and other necessities takes foresight that in today’s world represents a superpower. This is the case because so few do so, and will find themselves wanting if trouble comes.

We recommend that if you’ve not done so already, make it a goal in 2022 to put aside some provisions. This will allow you and those you love to be provided for if a time comes when others are scrambling and fighting one another for essentials. You don’t have to go crazy on this. There’s no need to spend all your savings or to go into debt to be prepared. Simply think through what you’ll need, and start planning on how you will set it aside in a way that’s practical and that you can afford.

Summary

We consider quiet confidence, controlling emotions, and being prepared as superpowers for 2022 because they will help us deal with things that will likely come our way in the year ahead. There are many things in our world that we cannot control, yet cultivating the ability to control the things that we can, and that most do not, offers us a better chance to meet the challenges that will overwhelm those less ready to face the chaos of today’s world.

There’s a good deal more we could discuss here about superpowers that will help us all in 2022. Lord willing, we’ll keep offering our best advice in the articles we post next year. We recommend that you not only read our weekly posts, but we invite you to share any positive and constructive thoughts you may have in the Comment sections if your experience or insights can help us and others.

No matter how challenging 2022 may be, let’s commit to facing it together, and to doing our best to cultivate superpowers that will help us as we seek to care for those we love.