April 24 - The Opportunity for Uncertainty

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security" ~John Allen Paulos
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This moment is an opportunity. The opportunity is deeper than time to take a class, or reassess your career.  This is a time for us to all to get more comfortable with uncertainty.

Even before this massive world shift brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the speed of change in our lives was stunning. Rapid shifts in technology, culture and work-life inevitably bring uncertainty. What if the greatest skill we can learn, and the greatest skill we can teach our children, is a tolerance for uncertainty?

On today's run I listened to  James Altucher's interview with Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, here's a one minute clip:

I don't love uncertainty, but as someone who has been self employed for almost all of my life I've learned to live with it.  In fact - there's a buzz of excitement that chaos brings.  

Comfort with uncertainty doesn't negate the need to plan. In fact it heightens it.  I think about it this way: when I go on a shoot I never know what it will bring.  Locations we've never scouted, opportunities we never anticipated, technical difficulties. I spend hours before each trip planning, packing, testing, trying to anticipate every possible scenario.  I never do.  And then I leave the monopod in the uber, or my client decides to interview 3 people instead of the one we have a mic and lights for, there are 100s of scenarios.

But even for me the current level of uncertainty is daunting.

You've heard the Mike Tyson quote "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth," Col. Nye says "It's not the plan, it's the planning." The process you go through in researching and creating the plan prepares you for the inevitable uncertainty.

All this time I've been trying to provide my kids with continuity & routine,  but now we all have the opportunity to deepen our  tolerance for uncertainty.

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