Thinking back to even before our move out to Colorado from the East Coast without a job, I can’t remember a time when “uncertainty” created any undue concern; getting into car sales to support our family without previous sales experience, the Project Management with HP, moving from Colorado to California (and back again)… Well, you get the idea.
So I sometimes get bewildered when I see someone who’s obviously not suited for the particular line of work they’re in, doing something they either don’t like or something that scares them.
The truth of the matter is that their fear of life is bigger than their fear of what they’re doing to themself. To be more precise, it is generally their fear of themself – or fear that someone might find out they’re not what they pretend to be - that keeps them from true, personal success and therefore makes them want to keep others down too.
Some of these people you don’t even want to ask “Why?”, but when you do, you’ll usually get an answer that relates to “paying the bills” or “security” or some other insignificance. Not that I’m saying that being responsible enough to pay your bills is not worth doing, but I am saying that giving up a major portion of your life doing something that isn’t personally fulfilling in an effort to spend some meager portion of time (i.e. weekends, two weeks a year vacation, etc) enjoying yourself is a waste of the gift of life and just plain stupid.
The same goes for retirement – that pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow. Why someone would spend so many years in misery just to enjoy a part of life before they die is beyond me. Why not enjoy the whole thing? The kicker is that it has seemed to have become the norm and many people just think ”That’s the way lfe is”.
If you want security then go to prison. Maybe you don’t realize that you’re already in one of your own making, living a life that’s simply a tormented version of yourself left over from the past, thinking that you don’t have a choice when you do. It’s simply choice to either “Earn a living” or “Get a life”.
If it weren’t for someone’s uncertainty, there wouldn’t be a United States… or a space program… or many of the other everyday practices (like ”flying” perhaps) that we don’t even think about.
Not to be confused with a diligent gathering of information, but I know there are individuals out there that want to have every fact in place before they’ll make any kind of move. That’ll almost never happen so they’ll always have an excuse for not making a move. Rarely, if ever, will you get all the facts. What you’ll usually get is enough information in order to make a comfortable decision. You can make excuses or you can make progress, but you can’t make both.
If you’re secure with your self, then it’s good to step into unfamiliar territory. It makes one stretch and grow. Just factor in “uncertainty” as an essential ingredient of the experience. If you’re willing to accept the uncertainty from a “growth” perspective, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the situation since every problem carries within it the seed of an equivalent or greater opportunity.
“Uncertainty” is a path to freedom - a path to the field of all possibilities and an infinity of choices. It’s not until you’re is willing to step into that field of all possibilities that you’ll begin to experience all the fun, mystery and adventure that life has to offer.
From ~500B.C.
“When it is obvious that goals cannot be reached, do not adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”
- Confucius
