The spirit is willing, the flesh is tweaked

We don’t fear change, we fear loss.

That’s why we say that the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t.

Because it’s far easier to continue with the status quo than face something new. It’s far easier to convince ourselves that the unknown is far worse than our current situation.

Consider the overworked and underpaid employee whose job makes him miserable day after day.

At least they guy knows the extent of the pain. Why surrender the familiar misery for the frightening uncertainty? Why risk leaving significant infrastructure and support behind to move towards a dubious future?

And yet, despite our control freak tendencies, despite our fear responses to help preserve the self, humans are actually designed to flourish in the harsh soil of extreme uncertainty.

Why else would there be thirty million working age people who are starting or running new businesses? Apparently, uncertainty isn’t a barrier to entry. These courageous people willingly picked a profession where uncertainty is the norm. The thrill of not knowing what is going to happen next drives them.

Besides, what do we know anyway? Humans are shitty predictors of pretty much everything.

Sometimes leaping into the unknown reveals painful secrets about the world and ourselves that have been hidden from us, and sometimes it reveals profound joys we simply haven’t met yet.

Sometimes taking the plunge causes us to become unemployed, depressed and lonely, or sometimes it opens our mind up to a new field of potential and we will quickly find our energy returning.

Whatever we decide, it’s going to require some work either way, it’s going to contain uncertainty either way, and it’s going to require some loss either way.

We are about as free from opportunity cost as we are free from gravity.

Confront your internal panic of not knowing. Allow a little uncertainty and see how it’s unfolding.

Reach into the darkness, unsure of what will be received, take a breath, and tell yourself that you’re okay. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What if you had to be comfortable not knowing exactly where life was going?