STRAIGHT UP · Issue 5

Chaos Is a Ladder

Chaos is a ladder — but before you climb anything, know your emotional triggers.

When you swim with chaos rather than fight it, you minimize how much of it gets to you.

“Cut out the bad bits.”

—Walter Murch

The hard part? No one cheers you on when you make the preventative, composed choice.

In fact, the applause tends to go the other way — toward outbursts, gossip, and emotional performance, misreading attention as growth.

Film editor Walter Murch once described the editing process simply: “Cut out the bad bits.”¹

Do that — honest self-editing — and you become comfortable in chaos, patiently finding opportunities instead of reacting to nonsensical noise.

¹ Book reference: “In the Blink of an Eye” by Walter Murch.