Freedom Requires Uncertainty

“Growth and comfort do not coexist.” — Ginny Rometty

If you want freedom, embrace uncertainty.

Fearing uncertainty creates a self-made prison. You agonize over every unexpected event. You are in a constant state of unrest. Worry and unease are your traveling companions. Moving forward is difficult when you fear the result.

Thinking you can control your own future is the height of hubris.

Certainty is elusive. Uncertainty is a reality. Life will test you with the unexpected. What happens next is up to you. If you choose to embrace uncertainty, to accept it, there is a moment of advantage where you act and others dwell on the unexpected.

Uncertainty is the sister of opportunity. Where one exists, so too does the other. If you embrace certainty, you are blind to opportunity. If you embrace uncertainty, your perception changes. Your state of acceptance lifts the fog of emotion and uncovers a wealth of opportunity.

The potential for growth is thick at the intersection of uncertainty and opportunity. Trauma provides a push for radical change you would otherwise never accept. The best things in life are often born from extreme discomfort. As Neale Donald Walsch instructs, “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

We are all involved in a game of probability much like playing poker. There is skill to be sure, but the outcome is never certain. The master poker player embraces this uncertainty and seizes the advantage.

The truth is this: Everything in life is ephemeral. You have no control over the universe, and you will never fully comprehend the consequences of every choice you make. Clarity comes only with hindsight.

Embrace uncertainty.

Don’t worry about things you have no control over. Don’t agonize over what could have been. Keep pressing forward with the knowledge and tools you currently have.

Only then can you experience freedom in its purest form.