​Uncertainty Is Essential

Uncertainty can be really painful for us. We like knowing what’s going to happen and how a situation will play out. It helps us prepare and strategize.

But what happens when we can’t know a thing? What happens when we can’t predict someone’s behaviour, or how something we’ve done will be received? What do we do?

It’s simple, yet hard. Do nothing. 

Rather than assigning false meaning to things and wasting our mental energy on scenarios and fears that might never come to pass… we can put our energy to taking care of the fear behind our habit playing out scenarios.

Uncertainty isn’t easy to sit with but if we can practice it, even for 30 seconds before we give in again to playing out the possibilities, it will slowly build our self confidence and cultivate more calm. 

What’s the point of practicing sitting with uncertainty?

Here’s the truth… Everything in life is uncertain and always will be. We can never truly know a thing until it has come to pass. 

But in pursuing certainty in our lives we limit ourselves to making the choices in our lives we are most able to predict. We play it safe. That might sound like a good thing, but in sticking to the parts of our life we can predict… we rob ourselves of being so much more than we are and having so much more than we already have.

Practicing being with uncertainty can hurt, yes. But so does a tattoo. So does spending $1000+ dollars on a new iPhone (don’t tell me that bill doesn’t hurt a bit, we all know it does). 

Sometimes the most valuable and meaningful things in our lives hurt a little bit, just like sitting with uncertainty. But what we get from doing this is more priceless than any iPhone or tattoo… Sitting with uncertainty and getting comfortable with it… gives us our life back.