Defining Your Path During Uncertain Times

 

We live in very different times, and former ways of dealing with our life path may no longer work so well.

Let’s say you have been walking through life, moving according to your capacity, neither daring too much nor stopping. And then, an earthquake… It would be difficult to remain standing and your steps would become erratic.

Uncertainty is the invisible earthquake we are living through nowadays, constantly moving our steps away from what once seemed like a certain destination.

What can we do?

Using the metaphor of walking, there are three interesting possibilities:

• Be a traveler. Enjoy life with detachment. Be a guest in a world of hosts and contribute as much as possible wherever you go. Learn, grow as a human being and go beyond being affected by the reality around you.
• Sometimes, just wander. Different from a traveler, a wanderer has no clear aim other than exploring. Life has so many different faces and sometimes the only way to experience them is to let go of expectations and simply flow.
• Become a pilgrim. I dreamed of being a traveler and ended up becoming a wanderer… until I found my own path. I became a pilgrim. Life as a pilgrimage means that there is only an objective in mind and the walking itself becomes sacred. It brings satisfaction from within, not necessarily from the outside environment.

Perhaps uncertain times are not asking us to walk faster or to find a safer road. Perhaps they are inviting us to redefine what walking means.

A traveler explores.

A wanderer discovers.

A pilgrim walks with meaning.

And when the earth shakes beneath our feet, perhaps the most important thing is not knowing exactly where we will arrive, but knowing why we keep walking.

If things don’t go as planned…

 

Almost two hundred people I know had their flights cancelled or postponed, due to the war. I saw in their faces that mixture of powerlessness and silent anxiety.

I was in India recently, and those scenes stayed with me. They left me with a question that feels more relevant than ever: How do you plan your life in a world that refuses to be predictable?

Because let’s be honest… we love plans (at least, I love them). They give us a sense of control, direction, even identity. But life, every now and then, reminds us - gently or abruptly - that control is often an illusion.

My reflection is about what to do when things become unclear.

Our first instinct is usually to do more things: think more, calculate more, try to fix things faster. We check our resources - time, money, skills – and we try to increase them, save them.

Of course, all of this is important, but what I saw there was that it is simply not enough. There were people who were glued to an app, trying to find a way out, or those who could buy a new ticket just like that; still, there was no response, no ticket…

Situation sometimes are bigger than our tools and resources, our capacity. It results into an inner pressure, so we try and force solutions, pushing our way through.

There is however, one thing that was useful. In many faces, I saw plenty of smiles and calm, a fresh sensation that said things will be OK. That is the one possibility I saw that was the most successful: resilience.

It is an inner strength and quietly steps in, not as a dramatic force, but as a deeper power. It helps us adapt and, instead of denying the horrible reality, we learn from it and move on.

So, how do we plan when certainty is not available? I don’t think the answer is to stop planning… but let’s plan differently:

• Avoid rigid expectations. Plans are useful, but expectations can turn into traps. Hold things with openness.
• Plan for the best, prepare for the worst. Not from fear, but from maturity. It creates inner stability.
• Think beyond “Plan B”. Sometimes even alternatives fail. Go further - visualize yourself after the situation. How do you want to feel when this is over?
• Stay calm, wherever you are. Calmness is not a luxury; it is a tool to be used in these cases.
• Look for help… in the right place. Not all advice is helpful and not all voices bring clarity. Choose wisely.
• Accept what you cannot control. Not as resignation, but from resilience. Save energy and use that strength in dealing with this reality.
• Stay focused. When the outside is shaking, the inside must be steady. That’s where a real direction comes from, a possible solution.

How to make decisions during uncertain times

 

Uncertainty makes your road foggy. When the world seems unstable, every option comes with a question mark, a doubt, a… something is wrong… It is as if you are driving, you look ahead, but the road keeps shifting.

No choice feels completely right. I know, it’s easy to freeze and to overthink, imagining every worst-case scenario as the only possibility. But here’s the thing - not deciding is also a decision and often, it’s the one that costs the most…

• So, start by setting clear criteria: What matters most right now? What can you compromise? What is non-negotiable?
• A few solid guidelines will keep you anchored when emotions try to take over and use logic. Your logic… Check the facts, weigh the risks, compare options… But don’t let analysis become a cage; analyze and move forward with the decision.
• And be careful with another potential prison… Your past experiences are useful - they’ve shaped your instincts, after all, and you have been able to survive and reach to this point. But remember, the past is a reference; don’t reject a new path just because it doesn’t look like the old one.
• Be a visionary: imagine where you want to be, beyond where you are. At the same time, be practical if things are not going well - a flexible balanced plan is better than a perfect one that will never be brought to reality.
• And here’s a crucial piece for a decision, many people forget: a journey to your inner world. When you connect to yourself, decisions stop feeling like a gamble. Your intuition turns into a compass and meditation becomes a personal recharger. To make a better decision, trust yourself and just sit quietly, meditate...
• Related to the former point, remember: a clean mind sees more paths than a crowded one and sometimes, the next step reveals itself only in its stillness.

These are uncertain times. Your best decision maybe won’t be the smartest or the safest, so make a decision by aligning mind, heart and soul.

In this way, you will move forward, even when the road is not yet clear.

Define your direction, and move… Your destination is just ahead!

If you are lost, you look at a compass… Our modern times replaced it with asking around for directions, checking a map in the cell phone, or a GPS system, but the idea behind is the same.

Inside the individual, the same thing takes place, as everyone gets lost many times in their lives… For that, we also need a (spiritual) GPS to help us to find our own selves, but there is no such a machine yet!

Many of the modern problems come from being lost in relation to what the person should really be. By find themselves, the individual is able to live a full life and contribute completely to others.

There are three ways this can be done, and they are quite easy to implement:

• Live a life of aims and goals. Yes, go, fix a goal, and fulfill it, at least in relation to relevant aspects such as tasks at your work, your self-progress, family relationships, health, etc.
• Look at that imaginary place you would like to reach and compare it with the present you are living. Do the calculations of which changes you need to implement in your life so that you can really be what you are. This will motivate and generate a powerful dynamic for your life.
• The last possibility is to create your full personal compass by fixing a North (your final destination), understanding your South (your values), balancing your East (a spiritual source) and West (a pragmatical view). Finally, let’s not forget the point in the middle, a life purpose, which will balance everything.

In this way, you will experience focus and a life full of certainty, even during periods of deep uncertainty.

What is wrong with today’s leadership?

I don’t want to justify the failure in the world’s leadership – and yes, it is a failure, there is no other world that may explain what is happening. However, there is a simple reason that explains it: lack of adaptation.

You see, leaders are masters in dealing with uncertainty, particular the one created by a crisis.

Most of them are also good in overcoming the obstacles that are fruit of a disruption.

So with both paradigms, the leaders can adapt and conquer.

However, very few leaders are ready to deal with uncertainty and disruption at the same time. It is kind of someone who is an expert in surviving an earthquake being affected by it plus a 10-meters wave…

This is why many leaders have chosen to attack the threat that was more visible, but have ignored others…

How to adapt to the convergence of these two paradigms? The best way would be to invest time and energy strengthening the leadership over the self.

At the extent our leaders become self-leaders, it will be easier for them to find certainty within and on the basis of that, they will be able to meet the problems that emerge with the disruption. Adaptation would happen from inside the self, from their thinking and decision-making process, instead of coming as a reaction.

In this way, we can create a better leadership for our civilization.

Disruption + Uncertainty = Fear

If you have watched terror movies, you probably have noticed there are several types of fear. The fear of gruesome scenes or wild animals, maybe the fear of masked people or a contagious illness is terrible enough to get you paralyzed.

But what about the fear that does not come from a movie: the fear of losing a job, getting sick, being alone and lonely… It is the modern urban fear that keeps people awoken at night and does not allow them to have a healthy normal life.

That fear comes from a not so sweet formula:

Disruption + Uncertainty = Fear

It means we are afraid when our normal life is interrupted in its core, when the paradigm we are living is broken. Disruption is being experienced right now worldwide and it is not fun; it is requiring lots of resilience by most people, some Netflix and Zoom by others… An image you can use to understand disruption is to think of a ladder you are climbing normally until you reach a point where the steps vanished and you are unable to reach the other side, your destination.

Disruption paralyses the person because of its absurdity or unexpected (and unwanted) emergence. In the case of a human stairs it is however different than the former example, as there is no way to go back in time and escape from it; you can stay stuck or you would have to build the steps yourself, probably with the help of others.

Now imagine that not only the steps went missing; when you look further to the place where you were heading to, it also went missing! Uncertainty is prevailing, forcing people to live the day-by-day and not planning too far ahead.

It is not something new of course as any company, football team or professional is used to live on uncertainty, but the modern uncertainty – Will I still work there? Will my children be able to have their own house? Will we be married with the same person in five years? – joined by disruption generates a very deep ingrained fear.

Can we overcome this type of fear? We can’t fight disruption as it is often out of our control, but we can control the effect of uncertainty. And the solution is very simple: certainty.

Just have a few things clear in your life and you will feel you are a surfer in the waves of life. These are a few powerful questions that may help you to have a sense of what is happening in your life, a sense of who you really are and your beautiful purpose:

• Who am I?
• Why am I doing what I am doing?
• What is the best of me and how to share it with others?
• Where am I heading to and how I am building it day by day?

Whenever you feel uncertainty taking over you, just stop for a moment and ask yourself those questions. Let the answer comes into your mind like a light during a dark night.

Remember: even a small candle can break the darkness.

Being brave and fearlessness in a world of uncertainty

Uncertainty has one particular consequence: it creates fear. And fear blocks the creative capacity and the ability to make decisions; bad decisions happen, corrections do not happen and mistakes perpetuate.

And this is a world of uncertainty, a world of fear… How to live within that?

Everyday news shows bad things taking place in the world and even though the chances that happened to you are minuscule, the fear is planted in the mind. It seems that will be part of the stream of our society for a long time.

We have two possibilities here: we either resign to this reality and we just move on, or we stand up and deal with the fear.

For me it is the second option and the key is to develop myself in such a way that I have the qualifications to face the challenges come in my way.

• Every morning, I dedicate myself for… my own self: meditation, exercise and planning the day with a positive view.
• Then, I read something positive. Not anything, but some powerful ideas that change my perspective.
• Whenever I eat, I do it in a calm state, being conscious and allowing my body to assimilate the sustenance, with my mind taking the positive energy that comes from that simple act.
• When I meet other people or just walk around, I check on my awareness, working with my personality and giving me a chance to enjoy, to rest or to learn.

This all reinforces my own capacity for facing uncertainty. This all strengthens my own courage.

There is clarity during uncertain times - Reason 56

Uncertainty generates doubts and questioning.  As a coping mechanism, people often complain and regret, which don’t contribute much to change anything that is happening.

But there are people who are reflecting on it: an interesting article welcomes people to the age of uncertainty[1] and it tries to explain the reasons for what the author calls the current mood of uncertainty and it explores the theories behind them.

By drawing on some current situations as a base and how those same situations are now passed, it observes how they are still a source of uncertainty.  A conclusion is that uncertainty does not end for a normal person, not even after reflection… it just develops and turns into something else.

For a leader, there is clarity no matter how uncertain the world may be, or the microcosms in which the leader lives.  That clarity comes from his or her clarity in relation to their capacity of leadership, particularly leading the self and a leader turns uncertainty into an adventure and an opportunity to change things around.

(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)

 

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[1] Welcome to the new age of uncertainty was written by Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian, on July 26^th 2016.   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/new-age-of-uncertainty-brexit-trump-future-world-flux

Leaders bring certainty and, along with it, comfort - Reason 16

We can see how much people feel lost as things change faster than they expect.  For example an article on climate change published on Scientific American has shown that change is much faster than was first projected.  In this article, scientists say we know the direction, but not the rate.[1]

Same is happening with all other types of change: politics, social structure, economic, ideas, dreams and much more.  We know more or less the direction, we know change is taking us into a general direction, but by not knowing its pace, it is possible we reach there with no preparation.

Leaders will allow their vision to guide them and will help give guidance to others too – it is a certainty among the increasing uncertainty that is welcome.  As a leader you can comfort others and encourage them to keep moving on, because you understand change and you are aware of its benefits and how to be ready for them.

In this way, as a leader you are beyond the usual social exchange of just sharing pieces of gossip or discussing match results.  It becomes a chance to support in a holistic way those people who find themselves as victims of fast change.

(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)

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[1] Scientific American, November 2012 - https://www2.bc.edu/jeremy-shakun/scientificamerican1112-50.pdf

Putting values aside...

Is it me thinking and probably imagining here, or Mr. Obama just guaranteed another term?

Let's see... intervention in another country (Lybia)... Osama bin Laden... and boom! The old recipe for a president to be renewed in the White House. Looking back, we can see with Mr. Bush a similar fact - perhaps this is why Obama's caricature is quite similar to the Bush's ones.

What about the reason he was named for the White House? That big change, a new USA?

It seems quite human nowadays to have values, pursue them, but put them aside when the time of decision comes. We could call it compromising your values, or negotiating with them.

But then, if you sell your values, what really remains there? Is it enough for others to trust you?

Deep thought is: did I compromise my values, perhaps sometimes?

Take care and think before electing anyone in these times of uncertainty.