Uncertainty Sucks!
Uncertainty sucks! I hate uncertainty too! You never know whether the world is going to end tomorrow. You never know whether you are going to be alive tomorrow. You don’t even know what is going to happen in the next one hour. Damn! This is a wretched life with no bits of certainty at all! How is one supposed to live?
Well, hold on… I am not cribbing, I am trying to assume the role of a cribber and I am not sure how well I have dramatized it.
However coming to the question about uncertainty in LIFE, what are the things you are certain about? Your life? Your health? Your love and relationships? Your dreams? What all are you uncertain about? And I am going to say ME TOO here :). I guess it is not fair to say that by the end of this post you will overcome uncertainty in life, however it is fair to say that you might have a slight change in outlook about that :)
It is true that we are uncertain about a lot of things, but what matters is not how we can be completely certain about it all, but as to how we deal with it. Someone once said that a beautiful life lies in a fair mix of certainty and uncertainty. Let us try and explore how we beautify this uncertainty!
1) Make a list!
Well this is something which most traditional resources would ask you to do. Although we do suggest the same, let us see if we can add a twist to that.
– Make a list of all the things you are very certain about this one thing you are very uncertain about
– Make a list of the things that you are uncertain about
– For a moment, imagine, visualize that these uncertain things are not there. How badly do you think you want this to happen if there is no fear of uncertainty. The answer to this holds key to the question whether you should pursue it or not!
2) Forget the uncertainty!
Well both certainty and uncertainty are assumptions in life. You think that something is going to work and it has happened in the past either to you or to someone else and you take a calculated guess saying that it will happen with you as well. And that is the seed of your certainty.
How about uncertainty? Well, something has not worked either to a close one or to you in the past and you think it is going to happen again, and that is the seed of your uncertainty!
3) What to believe then?
Well, good question! What do you want to believe? If both certainty and uncertainty are assumptions, how do you choose what to believe in? Both of them are lies, lies which you have chosen to believe. Assuming that both are lies, what do you think you can believe in? Do you think believing in a lie which makes you do something, which makes you go out of your comfort zone, which puts you into action might be an interesting choice?
4) But there are so many risks? I don’t even know if it is going to work!
Well, did Gandhi know that his idea of Non Violence would give India freedom? Esp when it started? Did Bill Gates know that he would be the richest man when he dropped out of college? Did Steve Jobs know that there would be movies on him when he was studying? What made them go out of the way, what made them take those BIG risks in life? Don’t you think it was uncertain for them as well?
The strength perhaps was in identifying the strands of certainty in uncertainty as well!
5) And what if it is not going to work?
Well that is probably the one question which kills your dream even before you start working on it! So what? Alright things won’t work the same perfect way you imagined when you start something. They will turn out better, they will turn out beautiful. Don’t brood over vicious images of the ways things are going to blow up. The more you think, the greater is a possibility that it will blow up and sometimes the same way you imagined it as well!
Keep telling yourself that you will find a way to make it work and you will. You are smart enough, you just need to use those smarts well!
6) And what if it is going to work?
Well most times when we are thinking of uncertainty, we calmly neglect the possibility of it working. We imagine all the negative aspects because we want to be safe, we don’t want to be hurt. So in the process of avoiding ourselves from hurting small, we hurt ourselves really BIG. We screw up something which really can mean a lot to us, something which can even define us. Meanwhile we end up giving strongly justified reasons as to why we didn’t do something. And guess who takes the biggest blame- UNCERTAINTY!
7) I know you are uncertain, so am I!
I am uncertain whether you are going to like this post or not. I am uncertain whether you are going to find it useful or not. However if I hold myself back because of that, I am never going to post this, you are never going to read this. You got to take that plunge, you got to take that risk. And if you don’t like it, please tell me – that is feedback, tell me how I can improve and I would love to, that is growth. And it is never going to come to you unless you take that plunge!
8) Start enjoying it!
What is the fun in life if you have all the answers to all the questions you can ever ask! Where is the joy in finding our something? Where is the joy in discovery, adventure, introspection. Where is the joy of losing yourself in a completely passionate manner. Where is the joy of being a little foolish and making those small mistakes? Where is the pleasure of screwing up and being that someone who you had never imagined to be? Why do you want to lead a boring life?
9) Does it mean I should take an uncalculated risk?
Nooo! That is foolish. All risks we take are calculated. We are not going to ask you to jump off the cliff, not unless you have a bungee chord tied to you or a parachute on your back. Life is a fair mix of certainty and uncertainty. Nothing ever alone defines the beauty of life. It is in those small moments where you dabble between the two that you find true understanding of the situation
10) Curse it!
Curse it! Curse everyone around you, curse the person who introduced the uncertainty. Curse your fate and curse all the options you have. No matter what you do, there is only one way to win over uncertainty. It is going through it. So do it! What are you waiting for?
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Really really very well written post!!!
Btw great collection of must read articles!!!
All your topics are the need of the hour for many like me!!
Keep it up Vinay!👌😇
Thank you Arun. Nice to see this response from you mate..
Nothing is certain in this world, nothing is safe, nothing is secure.Everything we do is a risk including the breath we take. Coming to think of it, we have to take these risks to be alive and maintain that adventurous spirit in us. Or else life becomes so dull and drab that nothing really starts making any sense at all…
There sure is a way :)
One more thought provoking post Vinay. People are unable to work on even certainties let alone uncertainties. Once they have a firm hold about what their certainties are, uncertainties become more easy to tackle.
Thank you Fayaz :).. Uncertainties sure are very taxing and most times the response to an uncertain situation is also very unknown which really scares us and makes us wonder what we should do next.
But then, I think there is a certain beauty in enjoying that little bit of uncertainty as well – maybe identify a way such that it becomes a friend instead of a foe and work with it instead of against it..
I like the way you describe it.. you are doing realy a great job.. I heartly thank you for your endevour, for the peoples like us..
I think it is all about a temperament of taking thing’s in a way, that is, how much you can love something from the bottom of your heart, and how much you really want something in life.. if you are certain about this, the half work is done until now only.
And the remaining half, that we call achieving something in a real sense is determined by the previous half, rest the things are technical.
And the effort begins here, where we make a perfect and a beautifull combination of our inner, eternal interest and the technicality of the decided goal.
And I am going to do the same in my journey.
Thank you Meera. This is the best comment the post has seen :).
You are right, it is the temperament in which we take things, how much we feel about it and finally what we do about it.
I like the way you talk about the inner eternal interest and that reflecting in the external world :).
Thanks so much Meera, it is wonderful to hear from you :)
Thank you for appreciating me sir..
:) The pleasure is all mine Meera, would love to see more of your thoughts..
Cheers,
V
Very nice post there ! To add my two cents, instead of fighting uncertainty, what about embracing it. There are uncertainties in my life right now.But I have decided to take the plunge. What’s working for me till now – Its a long road but I refuse to keep looking at the horizon, instead am concentrating on the next step. Hopefully one day I will reach where I have to. It might not be necessarily where I wanted to.
Thank you Ash :). Thanks for the thoughts, I agree there is more sense in embracing it and appreciating it over fighting it.
And like you rightly said, the leap matters a lot, you have to do it anyway and we have to take that leap of faith. That is really a good way of looking at life and its challenges Ash, there will be lots of things which will stop us on the track. But the one thing that trumps it all is the gait that keeps us going, it is the attitude to keep pushing ourselves and making it happen :)
very nice post… you have given perfect steps sir to handle uncertainty which will be helpful to many including me…
very inspiring write up…
Thank you Ashish :). Glad that you liked the post :).
We’ll come up with further more and would love your feedback on them :)
Honestly, if, but, how, these are the things which make our life uncertain. We need to overcome those words in our life. It is true that nothing is certain in our life, but then we will have to try to make them certain as much as possible.
True Alok.. Ifs and buts have killed more dreams than impossibilities or uncertainties have. It feels like a maze so many times and to overcome them is quite a remarkable feat indeed :)..
Very true Vinay :)
Oh! I needed this Dose, as I am so uncertain, so many blogs to catch up daily & I have to do so much with my blog too. I am sure going to make list which I am fond of & forgetting it too :-D :-D
“Manzil mil hi jayegi bhatakte huye hi sahi, Gumraah tho woh hai jo ghar se nikle hi nahi”
Thank you Ruchi :). I guess we all are, just in different intensities.. Some of them push us into action, some of them push us away from action. I believe it is probably in being in control of what we let to affect us.
Wah wah :). I am liking the inclusion of shayaris in your thoughts, they add a whole new color to it :) ..