Life | Personal Leadership

How Both Certainty and Uncertainty Can Improve Your Life

The importance of both certainty and uncertainty in life

Life is full of certainty and uncertainty. Without some of each, it would be boring! The certainties in life allow us to have something we can depend on. Something to place our confidence in. Imagine the angst too much uncertainty would cause in life.

Yet uncertainty is vital to life as well. It is in uncertainty that we find variety and the richness of life. To live without uncertainty would bring complacency and the threat of atrophy.

I like to think of certainty as heads and uncertainty as tails on two sides of the same coin. If you flip this coin, you can be sure it will come up heads, but you cannot be sure when. It sounds a bit like life, doesn’t it?

The fascinating thing about this subject is both certainty and uncertainty can affect our lives in a positive or negative way! Let’s look a little closer at how the two work in everyday life.

Certainty

“The sunrise never failed us yet. Celia Thaxter” (1835–1934)

Certainty brings the known and the expected to life while creating a certain amount of stability. Many of our assumptions also come from certainty.

For example, we know the sun will rise tomorrow, that another season is never more than a few months away, and that we can count on our next breath until we die.

So long as we are certain of something, we can have faith with little doubt, although fear may still be present. We can have a life filled with faith that we will live many years, but this same certainty can turn to fear when death draws near. While there is a negative side to certainty, we tend to view it as a positive force in life.

Certainty can instill assuredness, confidence, belief, faith, and trust in us. We can be sure of many things in life despite the many uncertainties that exist. Life would be difficult were it not for this assuredness.

Some of us spend a good amount of time shoring up the certainties in life. This can pay off at the end of the day, but if you have lived long enough, you know nothing is truly certain in life. Yet there is nothing wrong in striving for it is there?

“Every day a million miracles begin at sunrise!” Eric Jerome Dickey (1961–2021)

Uncertainty

Uncertainty brings the unknown and unexpected into life while also creating instability. As with certainty, uncertainty can create both negative and positive effects in our lives.

It is in the uncertainties of life that we grow and thrive as human beings. Uncertainty can keep us from becoming complacent, which would allow our lives to wither away. How would we keep on our toes and our wits about us without the ambiguities of life?

Uncertainty can help us experience excitement, delight, and happiness in surprising ways. Who doesn’t love meeting that special someone unexpectedly, falling in love, and getting married? Who doesn’t appreciate the sudden promotion or raise at work? Many relationships thrive in the unexpected and would become boring if learning about each other ceased to exist too soon. And what about that unexpected beautiful sunrise or sunset? Or when a sudden wave of happiness flows over us? Countless unexpected, sudden things happen every day in people’s lives.

We can never build a life that is void of all uncertainty, nor should we. The moment you become sure of something, it can unexpectedly change!

“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.” Erich Fromm (1900–1980)

Final thoughts

Would life even exist without both certainty and uncertainty? It would undoubtedly be different if either ceased to exist!

Be thankful for the things you can count on in life, and embrace those you cannot count on. You will live a far richer life by embracing both!

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” John Allen Paulos (1945-present)

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Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION

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