Managing Certainty and Uncertainty in Your Life…
When you think about it, we crave certainty and uncertainty. Goofy thing is, we’d all like to have total control over how each of them impacts our day-to-day life. That can be challenging. Still, it’s worth taking the time to examine the rolls certainty and uncertainty play in our life and come up with a simple strategy that can serve us well for the rest of our life. Let’s dive in headfirst and form some conclusive trust around these two powerful emotions.
Okay, truth be told, certainty and uncertainty are not classified as emotions. Instead, they are considered a cognitive state or a mental condition. Emotions are usually feelings like happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and love, which are often accompanied by physiological changes and behavioral responses. Having noted that, I’m here to tell you both certainty and uncertainty can stir up forceful emotions that can either help us or harm us (and sometimes both at the same time). If given the choice, nearly everyone would pick certainty if they were forced to pick between the two. Why? Fear of the unknown and unpredictability are at the top of the list. But consider this, if you were absolutely certain about every single thing in life, you’d eliminate having anything to hope for. More than one person has shared with me that hopelessness is the worst state of mind a person can have. When you think about the history of the world, it is hope that has conquered the impossible. Hopelessness never conquered anything. So, let’s go deeper.
Certainty involves situations where outcomes can be predicted with a near unwavering degree of accuracy. For example, the sun rising in the east every morning or the law of gravity. It’s predictable without question. Certainty is also something we can rely on due to its consistency and dependability. It’s like our belief that 2+2 always equals 4. Certainty most often relies on strong, empirical evidence. This is where Scientific Laws like The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions (better known as “The Butterfly Effect”) come into play after having been repeatedly tested and confirmed.
Confidence plays a huge role regarding certainty. When people feel extremely certain, they have a very high level of confidence in their knowledge and decisions. This might be based on well-established facts or subconscious intuition based on previous experiences. Certainty also is associated with Stability where conditions exist in a controlled environment and outcomes are known. An example of this might be a well-established business process that has been optimized over time. Think Amazon. In a recent speech on ethics, I utilized the statement that humans prefer simplicity over complexity. I’ve come to believe that when we pull certainty out of our life tool kit, it plays a huge role in our attempt to simplify every area of our life, especially in our personal relationships. That’s why we crave it so deeply and cling to it so tightly.
Uncertainty can be all over the emotional spectrum in our life. It can invoke love like the feelings one might experience bringing a new puppy home, and fear like stumbling upon a mama grizzly bear with two cubs nearby. Uncertainty gets a bad rap because it tends to be unpredictable or ambiguous and is most likely associated with risk. When there is insufficient evidence to support a logical conclusion, we most often end up on the fear side of uncertainty. Think marriage. Nobody wants uncertainty to be part of their relationship with their spouse. But that would eliminate spontaneous moments of wonderful surprise that uncertainty offers. Hmmm....
It’s funny how we crave uncertainty in certain situations. What a waste of time it would be if we knew the outcome of a sporting event before it even began. Same applies for any sort of race, computer gaming, or a meeting at work. Would there be a need to prepare for an interview, a date, an election, or an athletic event if we already knew the outcome? It’s uncertainty that gets our inner juices going, that makes us prepare for success, that helps us share and receive love in all its forms. It’s uncertainty that encourages exploration, innovation, and adaptability. Uncertainty can bring out the very best in all of us at just the right time. It’s uncertainty that fuels entrepreneurs to pursue figuring out how to do something better than it’s currently being done. We all crave some form of uncertainty in our life.
So, if we all would like to have total control over how certainty and uncertainty impacts our day-to-day life, is there a simple strategy for both that can serve us all well? Sure. The first step is knowing which one a situation calls for. We can divide up the areas of our life where certainty is best utilized and where uncertainty is the proper choice. Think of it like the same reason someone would utilize the saying: Let me control the things I can, accept the things I can’t, and have the wisdom to know the difference. Next step, base your certainty on predictability, consistency, dependability, evidence, confidence in knowledge and prior decisions, and stability. Final step is to be willing to embrace the gift of uncertainty and what it can offer your life. Embrace ambiguity and unpredictability. They can lead to spontaneous surprise. Remember, it’s uncertainty that encourages exploration, innovation, and adaptability. It’s uncertainty that makes you a better you.
In providing you with a new thought process regarding the role certainty and uncertainty can have on your life, nothing changes if you don’t take some form of action based on this new clarity you’ve just been presented. So, do it. Take some form of action that weaves the benefits associated with both into your life. It is yours; you know! Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!