Embracing the Unknown
Imagine your friends and family were getting together to throw you a surprise party but you happen to overhear some of their not-so-hushed planning. Now if you are anything like me, you might spend the whole time leading up to the party being an anxious mess about this surprise party you didn’t want in the first place. Or, you might worry about what you’re going to wear or how you now have to feign your excitement and so on and so forth.
On the other hand, if you had no clue about this party, you wouldn’t waste all that time obsessing over it and might just end up going with the flow and be pleasantly surprised.
In a lot of ways, our lives have been a constant charade of “knowing”. We are expected to know at a very young age which field of study we want to pursue and the career path that ensues. So we grow up thinking we need to have it all figured out, all the time.
Don’t get me wrong, not knowing is very different from the anxiety-inducing uncertainty. Uncertainty is just ONE of the many feelings that arise from not knowing. Instead, I chose to focus on the host of other feelings that stem from not knowing.
Not having answers is what creates a sense of urgency in us. In fact, the only thing we know to be certain is death. But the caveat is, we don’t know exactly when we are going to die. And the fact that we don’t know when this particular day is, means every day is a fresh start.
So no, I’m not trying to be morbid and say “live each day as if it were your last” -because that phrase (albeit commonplace) seems to inject a sense of dread into each day and signifies an end to things.
On the contrary, I want to promote the concept of “living each day like it’s your first”. Treat each day as a brand new beginning, brimming with opportunities, where each decision you make steers you in one of many ‘timelines’.
The difference between knowing and not knowing is more significant than you think. It’s what takes you from “what’s the point, we’re all gonna die someday” and using this as an excuse to remain lazy and uninspired -
to “hey you never know what might just come out of it” to stay motivated and explore the possibilities.
It’s in this unpredictability that we learn to filter the valuable things from the trivial ones. This is what springs us into action. To tell someone how you really feel, to take that leap of faith, to not postpone your dreams. This is the very thing that makes us love harder, forgive faster & discover our true potential.
Besides, in this day and age where so many variables exist, it’s impossible to even venture a guess as to what’s coming let alone know everything -you’re only gonna be steeping in worry every single day.
Allow me to break it down for you.
It’s like when you feel hungry -you look for food and you eat. This satisfies you for a while until the hunger strikes again and you repeat the cycle. Similarly, when you don’t know, you become curious and this curiosity will lead to opportunities that then facilitate growth. Essentially, while hunger results in you nourishing the body, not knowing is the first step that leads to nourishing the soul.
While hunger gives your body the fuel to keep going, not knowing and the curiosity that stems from it gives us the fuel to forge our way ahead. It’s what keeps the fire burning.
In contrast, knowing would be like never feeling hungry again. Your curiosity is essentially destroyed and your growth stagnates.
Think about a world where ‘life goes on forever’ -think about the implications.
We definitely wouldn’t be motivated to do anything at all, to achieve anything in life because hey -we have forever right? We’d undoubtedly be living in a constant state of procrastination.
The truth of the matter is that even ‘forever’ has an expiry date beyond which it just goes stale and doesn’t have the same effect it did before. This is why we need the unknown, to keep things fresh and exciting.
The irony that plagues us, however, is knowing our days are limited yet behaving as if they weren’t. Probably the very reason we wait for a new year to begin our ‘resolutions.’ What guarantee do we have? Why don’t we treat the present moment the same way? Think about how much we can actually accomplish by taking it a day at a time instead of overwhelming ourselves with seemingly impossible tasks every year? What’s stopping us from starting a 30-day challenge today?
Reframing this mindset is what might just help you find meaning even on the most lackluster days. In fact, not knowing is the whole idea behind magic, isn’t it? You’re able to hold an entire audience in awe because they don’t know what you know. Once you know how a trick is performed, it immediately becomes less impressive -like sucking the surprise out of a surprise party.
The true magic lies in not knowing.
So I think it’s time we start detaching the stigma associated with not knowing and not having it all figured out, because from falling apples to naked scientists -there are plenty of “eureka!” moments in the unknown- you just never know what might come your way.