Blog Category: Uncertainty
Be Loved Above All Else
Each of us somehow silently wishes only for pleasant surprises in response to the uncertainties of life. How rare to find the friend who will always be there no matter what, the lover who cares even in the face of indifference and even damage, the client who remains loyal even when others make exaggerated claims.
Uncertainty is the state of being in this experience we call LIFE. Only change is certain. Since none of us really knows what death is, even death is uncertain. Taxes . . . well, taxes – yeah, it’s cute to say that only death and taxes are certain, but there’s a palpable amount of self-indulgence in that comment.
What IS uncertain is how one moment moves to the next. How loyalty can turn to betrayal, vitality to illness, gain to loss. And the converse is true. The reversal of fortunes – of which we “have no idea” – can occur instantaneously.
In this uncertain life, where do you find Faith? How do you maintain a Rock? What allows you to function day-to-day in the face of relentless change in appearance, strength, possibilities and even your belief in your ability to prevail and win? What keeps you going in the face of infinite uncertainty? Therein is the heart of the poignant and exquisitely beautiful Human Condition.
Be Loved This Weekend – Be Loved Above All Else.
Uncertainty And Its Pull Toward Fear Of Failure
Every human being has experienced difficulty when uncertainty became fear, and we’ve found ourselves disillusioned. One of our amazing readers writes:
“I think as we grow older and take the knocks and defeats of life, we start compromising and then we get to the point where we settle. We let our fear of failure blind us from taking leaps of faith. We become more frail to setbacks than we did in our youth.”
Guarding against or minimizing the potential negative effects of uncertainty is a valuable strategy. Uncertainty can be channeled into commitment rather than being allowed to hold us back.
Think of a time when uncertainty stopped you from taking action and making a change. What did you do about it? What did you learn from it?
Can uncertainty be a good thing if used to create more clarity and focus? Have there been significant times when your uncertainty prevented your taking action, and you were glad it did?
What Are Your Strategies For Meeting Uncertainty and *Prevailing*?
And the strategies for dealing with uncertainty keep rolling in! Here is one from someone whom I love and admire, Tobey Crockett:
“Speaking more or less in statistical terms, I have always thought that one is likely to achieve only a certain percentage of what you go after. Therefore, one increases the odds of high achievement by aiming high. That is a way of using uncertainty to one’s advantage – building it into the equation so that it doesn’t disrupt the outcome.”
IMHO, this is a spectacular way to deal with uncertainty. What do you think? Aiming high . . . or some other strategy? What are your strategies for meeting uncertainty and *prevailing*?
How Is Your Friendship Between Ambition And Uncertainty?
What do you do – and how do you become – someone who deliberately engages the uncertainty of whether or not you can accomplish something amazing and fantastic?
Is it like seeing a cliff as you’re floating in the river, and you see a cliff, and you’re inspired to swim to it and jump? Or is it more deliberate and measured like deciding to climb a frozen, distant peak – and acquiring all manner of ice picks and gear to make the trek?
No matter your personal style – and there are, obviously, infinite variations – your intending to engage greatness, as you alone define it, necessarily engages uncertainty because nothing is certain except change.
Making friends with uncertainty and allowing it to co-exist with you is a strategic skill that is well worth cultivating. How is your friendship between ambition and uncertainty? Are they on talking terms? What can be done to have them be best friends forever?
Strategies For Dealing Successfully With Uncertainty
Certainty, like security, is a relative concept as there are few, if any, certainties in life except death and taxes. Change is the only real certainty, so uncertainty necessarily involves resistance to change.
Learning how to engage the unknown with grace rather than with trepidation is a highly valuable exercise. One of the historic barriers to dancing well with uncertainty has been our attachment to the belief that there is security.
One can be secure – for the moment – as compared to someone else. However, life’s shifts can occur so quickly that there is no such thing as complete security.
Are you dealing with a high level of uncertainty now? What are your strategies for moving through it? Have your approaches toward uncertainty changed over the course of your life?