Why Being Comfortable With Uncertainty Is The Key To Success

“When you become comfortable with uncertainty, Infinite Possibilities open up in your life.” — Eckhart Tolle

“If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions,” states the Chinese proverb.

Life is filled with uncertainty.

You rarely have a precise picture of what lies ahead, so you take what arises with determined courage.

It’s natural to believe you are in control of your life, yet uncertainty is required because the seeds of opportunity lie in the unexpected.

At a deeper level, you fear uncertainty because you may lack the life skills to navigate through it. Known as a negativity bias, it is a mental predisposition to notice and ruminate on negative information while neglecting the positive.

The security you crave is an illusion that draws you into a false sense of safety.

Author David Rock writes in Your Brain at Work: “The brain craves certainty. A sense of uncertainty about the future and feeling out of control both generate strong limbic system responses.”

As a result, your mind looks to your external environment to reinforce a sense of balance.

Bruce Hood affirms in The Self Illusion: “…in situations where outcomes are important, we get stressed by uncertainty and feel the need to do something so that we can have the illusion that we can control events.”

To believe you are in command of your life can be both a blessing and curse.

In one way it affirms your sense of safety, while on the other it is misleading because you have limited control, if any.

It’s no surprise as the mind is notorious for exaggerating situations more than they appear. Known in psychology as catastrophizing, it refers to the inherent bias to perceive events within a negative context.

So, how can you embrace the unexpected without being overcome by the accompanying emotions?

“Faith means living with uncertainty – feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.” — Dan Millman

To embrace uncertainty requires a change in perspective. You must yield to the intrinsic forces of life, not oppose them. However uncomfortable, you lean in to your fears and insecurities but do not run away from them.

Therefore, inhabit your body when anxiety arises and then choose a time to examine the cause of the anxiety.

Have you experienced similar anxiety in the past?

If so, are you repeating these feelings instead of dealing with them?

Fear is a confronting emotion, yet we gain the self-assurance when we embrace it as a useful emotion.

You can turn down the volume on fear by being exposed to it a little each time.

Uncertainty is an inner knowing that everything will turn out exactly as it should. It strengthens your commitment to abide with the natural order of life.

You must be comfortable with uncertainty because it exists in our lives. Don’t retreat from it but expose yourself to it a little each time.

It was the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who once declared: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

Try finding the balance between uncertainty and maintaining control without manipulating outcomes. Let go of any tension, anxiety and fear by embracing the unknown.

Uncertainty helps you to re-evaluate the past and make new choices in light of what transpires. It presents opportunities to create a compelling future based on new information.

Often, the most ambitious plans emerge through the obscuring veil of uncertainty.

Welcome curiosity and excitement and you will slowly become comfortable with it.

Also, be aware of your present actions as you embrace uncertainty.

In doing so, you move toward the unfamiliar with a firm ambition to resolve the past.

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