Five Mental Models that turn Chaos into Clarity.

Happy Sunday, Reader,

Throughout the hundreds of books I’ve read, thousands of podcasts listened to and a decade of insights I’ve picked up…

there are still only a handful of mental models I turn back to when I need to regain a sense of clarity.

In times of cultural and political chaos, like today, or personal chaos when it comes to making your own decisions...

It’s hard to believe that there is any order to this; it feels random, but the truth is randomness doesn’t exist.

There is order, but it’s taking place on a level you’re not seeing yet.

So these frameworks I’m about to share with you help me find equilibrium and see from different perspectives.

Some of them I’ve picked up from eastern philosophy
Some from modern-day business titans
Some of them are just historical truths that have stood the test of time

But firstly, I think it’s important to reframe our understanding on what chaos actually is… because it’s not unnatural.

It is the raw materials the universe was built on. Before there was cosmic order, there was cosmic chaos - clusters of particles, gases, stars, and supernovas floating through space-time for hundreds of thousands of years before the first planets were formed.

In Ancient Greece, Kháos is the first entity, the primordial state that existed before anything else. And from this state, the first beings spontaneously arose…

Our perception of chaos today, is fundamentally different to the purpose it actually serves.

The universe whispers its secrets in the chaos, and to those who are paying attention, they are able to navigate out of it and ascend to the next level.

Chaos and entropy are natural laws; they are the building blocks of the universe, it is what you do to them and how you react to them, that shapes what happens next.

So you see, chaos is the birthplace of clarity and it is essential for your evolution.

Think about any major crisis you’ve suffered, whether it was your business crashing and burning, or a health issue...

I hindsight, had that not happened, would you be able to stand where you are standing today? With the wisdom you have earned as a result? Probably not. Before clarity always comes confusion.

The contrast is what allows you to notice.

"The brilliance of the stars would be invisible without the vast darkness of space behind them. Do not wish away the difficult portions of life. They provide the contrast needed to appreciate the joyful moments." — James Clear

The skill is being able to have the foresight, that it will all make sense in hindsight.

So with that in mind, let me introduce you to the first Mental Model.

I. The Upward Spiral

You cannot fall off the path, only spiral upward. On the path of mastery, the more you learn, the more you seem to loop back on yourself, and this is where the doubt creeps in.

You are moving forwads until suddenly you hit a roadblock.

You think you’ve already slayed this dragon. And so when you encounter it again, you feel like you’re going backwards, and that you aren’t making progress.

But what most of us fail to recognise is, that the path is a spiral, not a straight line.

So when you loop back to a point that feels familiar - a trial, or test - you have to understand you’re not standing where you used to.

Your vantage point is slightly higher on the spiral, so now you get to see this dragon from a whole new perspective.

Remember how I said there is always order at some level, but you can’t see it yet? This is what I meant.

As you begin to ascend upwards, you will be revisited by old habits, chaos and negative influences. Except this time when you approach it, you’ll see it completely differently.

So in the midst of chaos, sometimes it can feel like you’re learning the same lessons over and over again.

And that could be true, or it could be the case that you’re looping back on yourself one level up and it just feels familiar.

II. The Childlike Mind

This model of thinking is not new; it’s an idea that has been sprinkled through time as subtle reminders that nudge us in the right direction.

It’s a call to return to what you once knew, before the conditioning crept in.

In Mark 10, when people bring children to Jesus and the disciples try to turn them away, he says the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children, and that anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom like a child will never enter it.

In buddhism the “beginners mind” encourages being a novice without embarrassment, much like how children approach things.

The taoists like Lao Tzu speak of emptying the mind and embracing a childlike state of simplicity.

Rumi the Persian mystic urges us to return to a state of openness much like a child untainted by the complexities of life.

The irony of self-mastery is, we already had it figured out as children, we lose it as adults, and then very few of us make the return back.

The highest states of consciousness, wonder, awe and imagination are triggered by pure present moment awareness, and funnily enough, it’s the feeling we try to recapture and chase as adults without realising it.

We try to numb our senses with distraction and substances because we unconsciously yearn for those simpler times, but that’s like putting a plaster on a deep wound.

The true anti-dote to chaos, is to unplug and find ways to return to this state.

Find activities that trigger this present-moment awareness in you. Whether it be sports, long walks, reading books, dinner with friends.

Put your phone down, turn your screens off, you’ll realise that the real world is not as chaotic as your controlled devices decide to show you.

My competitive edge is that I am having fun, and you’ll never outperform someone who is doing it for fun.

III. Gradually, then suddenly.

There’s this idea that I heard when I was younger, just beginning my journey of entrepreneurship, and it was from a friends mum.

We were at his house and his mum is an incredibly successful entrepreneur who for sure played a part in inspiring me to walk a similar pathShe said two things as passing comments but they stuck with me until this day, the first was:

“Oh Milan, you do have a way with words...” Afteafter I had made a joke afmade a joke, but (it funny that 10 years later, I write and create for a living(+)
But more importantly she said:

“Well in life, nothing happens for a long time, then it will happen all of a sudden for you.”

I didn’t understand the depth of this idea in the moment, but as it became a lived experience, I realised it was an objective truth about how reality works.

In business, I made nothing for years, then 7 figures in a matter of months.

In content, I had zero views for months, then millions in a few days.

Socially, it was the ‘lonely’ chapter for years, until my network grew exponentially.

The truth is, it’s a game of how long you can endure that ‘nothing’ phase.

And the most important rule I picked up from elite performers is that they never interrupt the compounding.

Because even though it seems like nothing is happening, beneath the surface, the magic is in motion, the work is being done under the hood.

The world prepares you internally before you are ready to receive externally.

Until one day, the evidence you were looking for will burst through the seams. That’s why compounding is the eighth wonder of the world. Just like the story of the bamboo tree.

So if you’re lost, or feel stuck, keep this in mind: as long as you are showing up daily, trust and surrender to the fact that things will happen for you.

IV. Play in Decades.

Another mental model that has served me well has been the art of zooming out.

The ability to consciously remove myself from the nitty gritty, from the day to day and to see the bigger picture.

The ambitious mind measures its progress with its daily actions.

Each action is like a thread, but from time to time, stepping back allows you to see the much larger tapestry that is being woven together.

If you fail to do this, you’ll obsess over minute details that will stop you from working on the bigger picture.

As Ferris Bueller says:

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you're gonna miss it.

In an episode of my show, Sahil Bloom said to me,

“We get caught up in our day-to-day, but the truth is, when you zoom out, as long as your trend line is going upwards, you don’t need to worry.”

And that helps me massively when I feel like I am behind or not going fast enough.

V. The Plateau of Latent Potential

This mental model from James Clear really transformed my thinking when I read his book Atomic Habits back in 2020.

The core idea is that there's a gap between what you expect to happen when you start building a habit and what actually happens, and that gap is where most people give up.

When you start a new habit or practice, you expect progress to be linear, effort in, results out.

But in reality, the results of your efforts are delayed. I often refer to this as time lag in my content.

You might be putting in consistent work for weeks or months and see very little visible change, and Clear calls this the Valley of Disappointment - the space where you feel like your efforts aren't paying off (because your expectations were mismatched).

The Plateau of Latent Potential is that flat line where results haven't caught up to effort yet.

Yet is the key word, because the work is being "stored”, it's not wasted, it just hasn't crossed the threshold where it becomes visible

But don’t leave before the miracle. As you can see in the graph, the line eventually shoots upwards, but if you remain in the valley of disappointment and quit, you’re never going to see the fruits.

If you abandon your habits, ventures or inner work because the results aren't yet visible, that’s a mistake.

Expectations are the hidden saboteur here. Expectations are projections of the conditioned mind.

The suffering you’re experiencing comes from the gap between your expected rate of progress and the actual rate of progress.

Whenever I feel stuck, I remember that often what's really happening is I am measuring my inner transformation against an external timeline that was never real to begin with.

My patterns and conditioning decided that timeline for me, not reality.

But here’s where chaos comes in…

Chaos is the plateau before ascension. If you can recognise that you're in the gap, that the disorder isn't the final state but a transitional one, it changes your relationship to it entirely.

When you see it this way you’re able to detach your emotional state from your current visible circumstances.

Second, you focus on the inputs you can control rather than obsessing over outputs you can't see yet.

Third, you widen your time horizon, chaos feels unbearable when you're zoomed in, but from a longer view it's almost always a chapter, not the whole story.

You’ll notice that theres a through line in all of these mental models.

They all link to one another, and that’s because reality has given us the tools to navigate it, they are not new, but ideas we must remember and rediscover.

So use them, return to them as often as you need to, keep them saved somewhere, print them out.

Because in uncertain times like these, progress and the world belong to those who can maintain equilibrium and focus. Who refuse to be derailed by the uncontrollables and instead turn their attention inwards.

By the way, I go deep into these mental models and practical implementation of them in:

“The Self-Mastery Playbook: How the top 1% Master Flow, Break Hidden Mental Loops, and Rewire Their Inner World for Peak Performance.”

In this book, I show you the ancient secrets that modern day high performers are implementing to marry inner harmony and flawless outer execution.

And how that results in building a life of purpose, meaning and fulfillment whilst operating at an elite level.

It's an instant digital download for just $9. Because I wanted to make this accessible to all. Check it out and let me know what you think. 🙏🏽

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