Tolerating uncertainty can break you or make you — Empowerment
“The Only Constant in Life Is Change.”- Heraclitus
We feel emotions such as fear, confusion frozen or stuck when we are faced with uncertainty. Society encourage us to be adept to measure data, be risk averse, control outcome, and to avoid uncertainty. The inability to change, progress and accept uncertainty can result in stagnation. Uncertainty is paradoxical; it can be the door to breakthrough or breakdowns. It all lies within being aware of your internal reaction to uncertainty and tolerating it.
As someone who chose to currently be self employed and left the familiar 9–5 job while raising a family, I face uncertainty, I question and doubt myself a lot and I sometimes feel anxious and indecisive. dealing with uncertainty is the most common cause of burn out amongst entrepreneurs.
We were taught in school and corporate work places to stay in line and follow the book. You have to unlearn the book and follow your instinct, what you know to be a calculated risk. Once you question what is common, familiar you can accept uncertainty. This freedom of thought and action it just feels right, it’s natural.
There’s no growth without change and dealing with uncertainty. The lack of change, progress can result in stagnation, which is the opposite of realizing one’s full potential. To realize one’s full potential, and to find new answers and new possibilities change and dealing with uncertainty is inevitable. Change is healthy like flowing river; it is the opposite of stagnation like an idle and stale pond.
It’s common to feel anxiety when we are faced with uncertainty, but the key is not to stop there.
Everyone has a threshold including me. It’s important to be aware of the baseline for our ability to handle uncertainty. I find that slowly raising my threshold helps me with making better decisions and reduce anxiety and be creative with my work.
Over the past 2 years, uncertainty has felt more present, even the best-laid plans can now be cancelled by a positive COVID-19. Hence most of us have learnt to build up more tolerance towards dealing with uncertainty. Over the past 2 years we were forced to raise our baseline to deal with uncertainty. It’s the norm to feel anxious or perhaps avoidant when we are faced with uncertainty. Making constant small steps towards increasing our threshold to tolerate uncertainty can help us to embrace the unknown and unlock possibilities of being one’s full potential.
In conclusion, it’s common to feel anxiety when we are faced with uncertainty, but it’s vital for growth to not follow an impulsive reaction. With growth the most valuable tool is to have an appetite for adventure and learning the skill of tolerating uncertainty.
