Focus To Move Forward When You Feel Paralyzed by Uncertainty By Calvin
Jimmy Flint-Smith's photo shoot by Juan Coronado
“When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” ~Eckhart Tolle
A young man in a job, in a career that he is not enjoying finds that it is breaking his spirit, but he remains there for fear of what leaving will bring.
He doesn’t know if he will find another position that is better for him, yet he does know having his menial job will provide an income even if it is just a cut above having none at all.
Another young man’s dilemma is not moving at all towards options to acquire a job. So many kinds of job available and yet he worries that he has no experience in any of them.
Uncertainty is created in both these scenarios, they ponder whether or not their weighting the chances of if their decisions are right, and this keeps them rooted in questions and their doing nothing, keeps them suspended in limbo, with a side into moderate depression. They are caught in a claw of paralysis.
I think we have all known the harsh clutches of uncertainty at one time or another. That feeling , to waver about every decision we faced, feeling afraid to make a move one way or another for fear that some mistakes cannot be undone.
Thus, we resisted making a move to change. We resisted going to a new job or starting our own business. because one could fail.
Often times than not you will find people in this situation unhappy and silently praying for something to happen to help them out. But they will continually stay their in a thought loop unable to move.
The philosopher, Emily Maroutian, who is also an award-winning writer, and poet is quoted as saying “You’re not stuck. You’re just committed to certain patterns of behavior because they helped you in the past. Now those behaviors have become more harmful than helpful. The reason why you can’t move forward is because you keep applying an old formula to a new level in your life. Change the formula to get a different result.”
For some it has to get so bad that they wake up gasping for air, feeling that if they don’t move, they will die.
So, before it gets to all of that, how do you move forward in uncertainty?
1. Accept that the root cause of uncertainty is fear of failure.
It is recognizing the fear, rather than what uncertainty may bring in the future. Fear, that a decision today will bring a more stressful or painful tomorrow. Not knowing that they are enduring now, a worst-case scenario in their minds than the likelihood of that scenario becoming reality that is what really keeps them bound, and not the ‘uncertainty itself.
An examination of what is their habitual thinking about their situation that loops through their mind. That stirs the emotions anytime they think about doing something that would create change.
1. Understand that many times the initial efforts one would use for change can fail. Yet conscious attention on how something failed holds the best opportunities for growth and moving forward. Thus, go with it, and embracing uncertainty knowing it is the key to overcoming failure.
2. Feel okay about not being in control. Embrace the idea that nothing is completely within your control. Nothing in life is guaranteed. It is just as likely that you’d find a job leading to a successful career or have a business succeed, as it is that it would fail. Life is a risk, and without uncertainty, surprises would not exist.
3. Be willing to be open ended to the universe. Releasing expectations of what should happen and instead be willing to make the best use of what is in your power to do and make do with the rest as it happens.”
To sum up, understand that the power of your habits in thinking, and your patterns of thought, are strong, strong enough to overpower common sense and practical wisdom. Understand the need to observe your habits, to check out what you say about yourself in your daily routines is what creates the constructs that dictate your life.
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So, if you are facing paralyzing fear of the unknown, your best solution is to move a step forward. Experience the negative effects, of uncertainty in your thoughts, as many have done before you, own up to the fear in your thoughts and take small steps to move pass them, make moves to change, and when you do, you too will survive and have a good chance to even thrived.