If you feel like a lot is changing and are unsure how to make sense of it all – you’re in a lot of company.

I won’t give you a “Now What” think piece. Because to do that, you have to start with: What. What The Hell Is All This? What is on the table? What is actually in motion? WHAT.

Here’s a way to think critically about change, specifically changes in what’s politically possible to discuss and consider doing. Read on, and check out the IG live I’ll share Friday 12/13 [I’ll link it here afterwards]

Looking around at all the ~~gestures wildly~~ actual changes, and potential changes that seem to be on the horizon in the US, the concept of the Overton Window is pertinent: coming from political science, it explores what ideas are possible to put on the table, without getting kicked out of the room, and how that changes.

Image credit: Hydrargyrum, source: Wikimedia commons, 2024

The Overton Window concept is most frequently used to describe policy, but can be used to understand discourse in general: what is acceptable to propose, discuss, or consider. What may be considered sensible, or eventually become a popularized notion.

When your head is spinning because proposals or events you never believed could be possible are popping up, that’s Overton’s Window changing.

In the last 5 years the content in the “Acceptable + Sensible” part of this window has changed dramatically, for example: the public health behavior and fiscal policy implications of the pandemic, abortion rights rollbacks, book bans… A Green New Deal was Acceptable enough to propose, but called Radical by those who didn’t want it to take steps towards being seen as Sensible. Instead we got the IRA. very sensible.

The reason there’s pearl clutching about the lionization of the shooter of the UnitedHealth CEO is that it moves the discourse on this action from Unthinkable to Radical within this window. 

Coming back to now: in the last six months, the volume of additions broadening the “Acceptable” discourse window have been dizzying: implications of gpt5 capabilities, hurricanes can hit inland, blanket executive pardons [both those promised and those delivered], Project 2025 is driving conversations about rights rollbacks and ending multiple government services, the Syrian govt has fallen, Israel can freely genocide, there’s an expectation of deportation camps in the US, you can be a felon and people can still make you president, Microsoft bought a nuclear energy facility it’s going to spin up to make electricity to power AI, a used house easily costs $400k+, apparently there are aliens after all, you can’t leave Idaho if you’re leaving to get an abortion, trans people’s healthcare rights are up for debate, and right-leaning populist politicians are gaining power in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada … etc etc

There’s likely a long and chaotic list when you pause to reflect! The volume and rate of change is on its own quite a lot to consider.

But the value of such a list isn’t in its nontrivial shock factor – it’s in:

1. Creating a clear picture of what’s changing,
2. The story of what about it is shocking, and
3. What you can do with this information 

Let’s try an exercise to make, then use, an Overton Window to make more sense of the changes happening around us. 

EXERCISE

First: draft your own version of what’s in the window. List recent events and topics that have come up which surprise you. Think of things that you didn’t think could happen but are happening, or in discussions to happen. Heck, get your favorite AI to help jog your memory, or just peruse some news headlines. Feel free to borrow my list above to get you started. 

If you have heard it anywhere besides in your own mind, it’s somewhere between radical and policy. See if you can think of newish ideas that, simply by virtue of being discussed, seem to be edging towards or actually acceptable or starting to be seen as sensible.

Once you have a list that feels complete enough – and it will never be perfect/done – read it over. Try to take it in: this is today’s new window of possibility. While it may not be pretty, it has useful info for you.

Your list of the changes in available discourse which shock or excite you are useful clues that can lead you to understand more about what is both pertinent AND meaningful for you to focus on. 

Second: It’s time to generate some insights or criteria to make sense of all this change – how to relate to what’s important, how to position yourself, stances to take, actions on which ones, deciding to not react to others. A set of observations that are meaningful to you, will ultimately help you prioritize down the line.

I’ve been coaching people dealing with rapid change and uncertainty for many years, so I am speaking from a lot of experience when I say: without generating some insights or criteria you are likely to spin out, just kind of reading the list over landing on this then that, then the next thing, then eventually burning out on all of it and just going back to whatever you were ruminating on before starting any of this.

So how do you get insights or criteria? Do some deeper reflecting.

Look for the answers by asking yourself: what themes stand out in this changes list? What is coming up over and over? What specifically is it that stands out to me?

For example, 

• if you’re noticing human rights policy changes: What rights specifically? What is it about human rights that is happening?
• if you’re noticing political shifts: What is shifting? Policy? Sentiment? Political will?
• if you’re noticing changes to public opinion: Opinions on what? People or certain identities or ways of living or??
• if you’re noticing shocking behavior: What’s shocking about it? Why? How should it be instead?
• if you’re noticing environmental impacts or climate change: Which changes? It is how people are acting about change?

There is a nugget of insight about what’s important ~~to you~~ in the things you’re noticing that are changing. See if you can ponder and get to it. This nugget may be your criteria or it may point you towards it.

WHERE PEOPLE GET STUCK: OVER-PATTERNING

You might be someone who sees lots of patterns when they start looking at this kind of thing, especially if you’re neurospicy. That’s fantastic (I am like this and I find it fantastic, at least!) 

If you come up with a lot of patterns you can either choose one or two that feel really important in your heart, or see if there’s a pattern of patterns or one meta theme across everything that you have come up with.

WHERE PEOPLE GET STUCK: HANDLING THE UNANSWERABLE

The thing about a lot of change or a time of increased change is that it brings out a bunch of unanswerable questions. In fact, life is mostly full of unanswerable questions. Will you keep your job? When will you die? Why did skinny jeans go out of style? Why are some people full of hate and others full of love? Will the stock market go up or down? Why is cryptocurrency happening? What is it about neon signs that make them forever classic? 

There are endless unanswerable questions in life. You’re not making this list and looking for patterns so you can task yourself with figuring out the “why” of it all – you’re looking for a kernel of “what’s standing out to me” so this basket of chaos has a string you can tug on.

WHERE PEOPLE GET STUCK: GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF IT ALL

Also watch out for a tendency to try to find one big pattern that ties everything together so you can make sense of it all or: frankly no one is in a position to respond to everything in the window. So don’t ask yourself to do the impossible and see the forest for the trees. Go for: one biosystem among the forest. I mean: just look for a few themes, ideas, or bigger questions that come to you.

STEPPING INTO THE WINDOW

Next step: with insights or criteria, you can start to figure out the area of change or questions you have that are actually meaningful to you so you can focus on it. By this I mean: you can start to brainstorm with a bit more focus on what you might want to learn more about, try out, explore what’s out there, or go looking for collaborators for.

The Overton window doesn’t only apply to other people or people in charge. In a time of great change, new things are possible for us to do as well. Both: the window can be nudged further, AND the actions possible are broader. It is – apparently – possible to be much more extreme or unhinged than in the past, but if that’s the case: let’s treat that as the truth.

One way to approach your Overton window content and criteria is to ask: what new opportunities are now available to me that I might never have considered before. If the world is changing, what can change about me and my actions as well?

Use your criteria to focus this activity: if more human rights and less death camps are, for example, the main pattern you’re noticing, ask what new thing you can do? What’s timely? What’s a wild possibility that never would have been possible in 2015 that is possible in 2025??

A few examples I’ve thought of include: start a church-like organization so as to leverage the rights these have a la the Satanic Temple, or create helpful AIs like Fight Health Insurance by Holden Karau that helps people make their health insurance companies pay up.

You’re not making a plan at this juncture! Think of it as collecting your options based on areas of interest.

There’s more we can do later to prioritize and be strategic about the actions and ideas that come to mind. But first give yourself some time to ponder: what exactly is changing, and what’s evidently possible now that was not, before.

WHAT’S NEXT?

This is the first ⅓ of a larger strategic exercise. Next week, ahead of Solstice, I’ll be offering a free short workshop on Discernment During Change in which we’ll do this Overton exercise together as well as the next step: assessing risk, timeliness, impact, and doability of ideas that come up. 

When we’re strategizing, the unknown remains unknown; it’s not magic over here. What strategy is successful at is reducing our risk of being way off base, creating guardrails about why we’re working at what we’re up to, and thinking critically about what is a valuable use of our energy. (side note: it’s always ok to do things that aren’t strategic and simply feel right or offer relief – but it’s good to know those are not tactical change actions, but emotionally supportive ones. The more you can identify the outcome an action is intended to create, the more you can lean into it. But more on this, later!)

The gift I hope you leave you with at the end of this chaotic year is: we can respond to change with discernment, when we give ourselves the chance to get clear on what’s happening and what matters.

You can sign up for that workshop here: if you can’t attend, I’ll send out the recording and post a writeup and summary video on the blog after the fact.