The human mind doesn’t like to deal with uncertainty. We want to know what is on the horizon, what will happen next, what we can expect. Because we like to feel secure and security comes with certainty. If we know what will happen, even if it might be something negative, we can get ready for it, we can start the process of accepting it, and looking for a way of living with it, but if we do not know what will happen, where we will be in a few weeks or months, that gives us anxiety and worry.
Uncertainty involves operating in unknown situations where the consequences are completely unpredictable. And these kinds of risks make us uncomfortable, but overall, we know that they can be managed & potentially influenced.
Actually, if we didn’t, then there would not be these many entrepreneurs starting new businesses every day, or people making any kind of big decisions like emigrating to another country (just like I did more than a decade ago), starting a new life in a brand new city, changing careers.
Accordingly, one of the biggest challenges we have in coping with uncertainty is anxiety. Being faced with the unknown is scary, it is uncomfortable because we are not in a space that we know and can control. And in my opinion, uncertainty forces us to apply our intelligence, creativity, and ability to learn and adapt to changing circumstances. Embracing uncertainty can, in fact, keep us on our toes and excited about our role in whatever is in our future.
Therefore; we can choose to see uncertain times as an opportunity to challenge ourselves in terms of being flexible, creative, and excited. We can and should choose to be positive and motivate ourselves thinking and believing that whatever is coming our way will bring us goodness, happiness, and peacefulness. Only by being in that state of mind would help us to deal with it.
Never forget that nothing is forever and everything gets better with time…
Ipek…bravo!
Right here…”… uncertainty forces us to apply our intelligence, creativity, and ability to learn and adapt to changing circumstances. Embracing uncertainty can, in fact, keep us on our toes and excited about our role in whatever is in our future.”
It is with the uncertainty we find possibility!
Very uplifting my dear, thank you
Dearest Paula,
Thank you so much for your supportive comment. I am very happy to hear that my words resonated with you.
Take care!
If there is one thing that is sure in life, it is that we are not sure of anything or very few things. It is not possible to keep everything under control or find precise and quick solutions to everything. All that remains is to cultivate a decisive attribute for adaptation: tolerate uncertainty.
Sometimes the answers and solutions only come with time. Other times, they are simply impossible to find. Humanity does not know everything. Furthermore, what we ignore far exceeds what we know. We understand this and agree.
Tolerance for uncertainty manifests itself as the ability to accept the non-existence of a concrete answer. Thus, there is no anguish or disquiet when the answer is not given instantly. It goes on by analyzing the facts in detail. We are not limited to appearance but we try to deepen. This also allows you to discover that things can be more complicated than they seem, understanding, therefore, that it is difficult to obtain definitive answers or certainties.
Very well stated, Aldo. Thank you for sharing your perspective on uncertainty. I agree with everything you’ve mentioned. Beautiful contribution.
Dear Kimberley, big changes in my life always scare me and give me anxiety, but they also provide me with immense excitement about the possibility of getting rid of old, opening up to new, creating opportunities, not before considered paths.
I hear you loud and clear when you say you were pushed into the dark. Most of us have. It rocked the boat in ways we would never be able to imagine. Therefore; we all reacted to it in our own way. Some of us still are. But some of us, with the help of a little bit of positivity, a little bit of activity, a little bit of courage could pull through and started to see the bigger picture.
These are uncertain times and we don’t know how long it will take to go some status we will feel more comfortable. Therefore; as much of it is things that we cannot control, we need to learn to focus on the things that we can control and create little pockets of happiness for ourselves.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article and for your wonderful comment my friend.
Ipek – I’m delighted to have run across your piece, I don’t think I’ve read your work before, but have enjoyed our conversations through comments. I absolutely agree that leaning into uncertainty can be re-framed as exciting. For me there is a vast difference in my experience when I’m choosing to leap into the dark, like moving someplace new or trying something new, vs. when I’m pushed into the dark (like with COVID). I’m successfully able to re-frame the uncertainty as excitement and possibility in the first instance, but have difficulty with anxiety in the second.