As you know, uncertainty and risk are not the same. Not even close. You can calculate risk. Measure risk. Manage risk. Reduce risk. And avoid risk. But not uncertainty!
It’s the mind killer because it causes your brain and your emotions to pile up on top of each other and then freeze. Uncertainty grinds you down. It makes you feel dull and useless because you can’t get your head around what’s “out there”. You ask questions that you, and no one else, can answer for now. You have to wait! And waiting for things to appear, “to develop”, is not cool.
Some of our experiences go back to at least the time of the Arab Oil Embargo. Ah ha. That one.
Your parents, or you, had to wait for hours in line just to get some gas for your vehicle. And that paralyzed every other aspect of life. It made some people angry. It made some people crazy. The CEOs I worked with at the time could not put their heads on their pillows and drift off into a peaceful sleep because they could not program their thinking to adapt. The did not have the tools for that 30 years ago. We did adapt and adjust and start over.
Then there was the uncertainty that came with the unprecedented, in our lives anyway, Great Recession of 2008-09! Everything collapsed in on itself. Homes. Financial markets. Jobs. The mysteries around the great bank bailouts. Why them? Why not us? No one knew for more than a year. The we had to get off our butts, get someone to kiss the scars on our knees and get going. But it was along pretty much the same paths. Just a lot slower. And with closer looks at risk.
And now we are in the middle of the first curve??? Of the COVID 19 pandemic. A virus that is infecting a hell of a lot of people. Some we know and love. Not our computers or our smart devices, but our lungs and our brains. We get sick. We get stupid. Angry. Bored. Restless for resumption of our great need for immediate gratification. But what we get is monumental UNCERTAINTY!
So, what can you do to get your head and your life around and to see beyond this uncertainty?
Here are some discreet, concrete actions you can take every day. They become good habits and good habits are the foundation of a higher quality of life – physical, emotional and relational.
After your short morning payer of gratitude, get up and walk around to the foot of your bed. Set the timer on your smart device for 2 minutes. Stand still and raise both arms in the “victory V”. Hold them there. And then relax. This one action, repeated daily, will change your life.
Then, step over to your bedroom or kitchen window. Put your hand on the wall or cabinet to brace yourself. Then rise up on the balls of your feet and look as far as you can. Over the fence. Over the trees. All the way to your horizon. Now visualize what you think and feel is out there.
Go ahead and be creative. What’s possible. What do you want coming in your direction? What do you see that can help you, your tribe and your community? Then write it down with today’s date. In a journal. In a Word or Google doc.
Now you have given yourself some power over that massive amorphous uncertainty that was killing your mind and your heart.
If you started your day with an attitude of gratitude, you’re now moving your brain into a positive state. And this is crucial to how you will get to be your better you. And to let go of the anxiety that you were carrying that we call your uncertainty, brain killing, baggage.
If you want to do more good things for how you prepare for life after COVID 19, look here.
#uncertainty #qualityoflife #postapocolypse #doitright #crazysmart