What do you do with uncertainty? Embrace it? Shun it? Ignore it? Leave it behind? Shine the spotlight on it? Flip it? What if you took it well? What if it was natural just because it is? What if you look at uncertainty as an integral point of life? As something that is always going to be with us? As something we can come to not be petrified of? As something we walk into regularly. Because we do.
Uncertainty surrounds us.
Uncertainty surrounds us. If something surrounds us and we can thus anticipate it, then why ought we be so scared of it? Yep, there goes uncertainty alright. Question is, how will we choose to think about it?
What about those of us who embrace change and uncertainty it brings? What about our attitude and outlook? What does that look like? We got emotionally honest with ourselves and in our dealing with reality. Because the reality is there is always uncertainty. There is always change. We are uncertain. We are change. We’re always doing these things. We anticipate those things. We become those things.
Once we understand that we are these things, I don’t think we get to be scared about them any more. We fear what we don’t understand. What we understand, we no longer get to fear. No. If we understand that there is always uncertainty in our actions, in our world, then it ceases to have control over us. If we embrace it. If we hug it. If we capitalize on it.
What people really want. What people are really afraid of.
If you sell and market long enough, you come to see what people really want is certainty. They want to be certain that they won’t be take advantage of, made the fool in front of their friends & family, that it isn’t too good to be true. What people are Really afraid of is being socially shamed. This stems from our deep seated need to belong, to be validated, to fit in with the group.
Hundreds of years ago, banishment was a severe punishment. We needed the group for our survival. It isn’t as harsh now, but our need, our desire to belong is 100% still with us. We need to belong. And we need certainty, reassurance that everything is going to be OK.
Only it might not. That’s the tension.
And that’s what causes people to get stuck. As marketing pros, we’re in the tension management business. We create and we release tension because that’s what good storytellers do. We create situations, complications and resolutions for people. As professional sales and marketing people, we’re in the Entertainment business. If you’re a marketer today, you need to be a great storyteller in order to captivate attention. You are in the storytelling and tension creation business. You need the hook. You need the story. You need the offer. You need the hook. You need the story. You need the offer.
There was never a need to get stuck, We simply allow it to happen to us. We learn this helplessness through inaction and getting lost inside our own heads. We become adrift in a sea of worthless thoughts, the catalyst to our downward spiral. The great irony is we get out of this negative spiral through action — taking any action, including the wrong action — yet we’re too scared to do that, to see that that is exactly what has helped us out in the past. Yep: dumb action is better than no action. At least you’re trying something.
## The #1 secret to relaxing and to getting better. Perhaps the best personal development and leadership secret of 2020.
Worse, we’re WAY too concerned with being right all the time. I think this stems from our obsession with getting the straight A’s in school. If we get straight A’s, we’re considered right all the time. Only we’re not. Of course, we’re not. Yet that’s still most everyone’s learned obsession: being right. Just ask the lawyers.
If our highest desire is to be right all the time, we’ll take far fewer chances on action and experimentation unless we are damn certain of the outcome. You can thank our great nation’s standardized testing industry for your obsession of wanting to be right all the time. Yes, thank you ACT, SAT, and LSAT. And for your never wanting to take validated chances on anything without that 100% guarantee. And for your emotional dishonesty. And let’s throw in your perfectionism as well while we’re at it.
The promise of the Big Release
## The Big Release As one of the kindest, most wonderful complements to being curious and open-minded, try releasing your tight grip on needing to be right all the time. It is truly fabulous to be wrong on occasion. Delight in it because you’re wrong a lot! If we’re wrong a lot, it means we’re trying lots and lots of things. Good!
Stay hungry. Stay curious. Stay foolish. Just like Steve.
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In CreativeMentorship, CreativeLeadership, CreativeAmbition Tags creativestorytelling, CreativePower, creativeleadership, CreativeConfidence
