I’m tired of the “New Year, New Me” noise. It’s plastic. It’s performative. And in a world where an algorithm can now write your goals for you, it’s increasingly worthless.
Most leaders are starting this January with a list of “outputs.” I want to talk to you about capacity.
Last year when I was in the Atlantic Ocean in my 6m ocean rowing boat, I faced quite a few terrifying moments. The sleep deprivation was next level, my heart was hammering against my ribs on quite a few occasions and my “strategic plan” for the day had been obliterated by the conditions and sea state. In that space, logic was useless. I couldn’t “think” my way out of what was happening around me. I had to feel my way through it.
That is a transitional threshold. It’s the uncomfortable, high-stakes gap between the person you were yesterday and the person you are becoming. Whether you are navigating a corporate merger or a personal crisis, the sensation is the same: the old rules are gone, and the new ones haven’t been written yet.
To cross it, you need something raw. You need Feral Intelligence.
“Feral” doesn’t mean wild or chaotic; it means unfiltered. It’s the instinctual wisdom we’ve buried under layers of “civilised” busyness.
As we move deeper into 2026, the world is saturated with artificial logic. The “Human Premium” is your competitive advantage to tap into what a machine cannot:
- Solitude (The Birth of Intuition): Solitude isn’t a luxury; it’s a survival tactic. If you can’t sit alone in a room without a screen, you aren’t leading. You’re reacting! It is in the quiet that intuition finally gets loud enough to hear.
- Magnitude (The Scale of Awe): We are often paralysed by the “bigness” of our challenges. But when you stand in the magnitude of a mountain range or a massive industry shift and allow yourself to feel awe, you stop being a victim of the scale. You become part of it.
- Attitude (The Mastery of Fear): Fear isn’t a red light; it’s an energy source. The feral mind doesn’t run from the roar; it uses the adrenaline of adversity to find a gear that “civilized” logic can’t reach.
This month isn’t about optimisation. It is about listening and as you look at the thresholds ahead of you, stop trying to “hack” your way through them with more tools. Find ten minutes of solitude. Put away the screen. Close your eyes and use visualisation to see the person you need to be to handle the magnitude of your year.
The threshold isn’t a place to be feared; it’s where your feral intelligence wakes up.
