Uncertainty in whether their surgery will allow them to walk normally again, uncertainty in where their next pay cheque is coming from, uncertainty on whether their role will be eliminated in the corporate reorganisation.

How much uncertainty you can handle has a dramatic impact on the quality of your days, weeks, and life. There are a few powerful distinctions that you need to make to survive times when you don’t know the outcome or how things will get resolved.

Myth: Uncertainty causes anxiety

Fact: Uncertainty is part of life, how you respond (think, feel) is a choice

When we think safety, security and stability are necessary for our happiness, and get anxious and fearful when they aren’t guaranteed in our current situation, we must realise that we can ALWAYS choose how we respond.

Some things we can’t control. But what we always control are our attitudes, thoughts and which resources and people we draw on to keep us moving forward and our heads held high.

For example, two people get made redundant from the same jobs in the same company. One person freaks out, convinced they will never find anything else in this ‘bad economy’. The other person quickly updates their CV (resume) and starts making contacts in their network, confident in their abilities and looking to gain an even better job. Same ‘job uncertainty’, very different choice of response.

Myth: Uncertainty is a bad thing

Fact: Good and bad depends on your perspective and what you choose to focus on

If you’re going through a tough time, and are worried about the outcome, remember there are always two sides to any situation.

If you feed your fears with all the negative possibilities, it definitely will seem like a very bad situation. But when you seek out the positive, you will always find it – the good is always there when you look for it.

This could be new opportunities that you hadn’t considered before, new skills you’re going to learn as you solve the problem, new lessons you’ll learn that will dramatically, and positively, impact your decisions going forward.

A case in point – someone very close to me recently found out they were a victim of an investment fraud and lost a considerable amount of their life savings. Their immediate response was “I’ll guess I’ll have to create more value in my business to earn that all back as soon as I can”. No panic, no depression, no anger, no ‘why me…’

They chose a powerful path to not only to focus on earning back that loss, but it challenged them to think bigger and wider on how this will spur them on to growing their business in whole new ways.  Sure they were in shock and saddened by this very ruthless crime but they chose not to dwell in that negative state and quickly shifted their energy to build empowering momentum for a profitable future.

Myth: Uncertainty must be tamed

Fact: The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can handle

When you accept that life is one big bundle of uncertainties, and quit trying endlessly to prevent events outside your control, you open up to the wonders of learning, growing and an abundance of happiness that is always there for you.

The next time you are hit with a situation leaving you uncertain about the outcome, make sure you stop and review how you are responding. And more importantly, decide how you would really like to respond…then choose wisely on what happens next.

How do you handle uncertain times? What strategies or experiences have you had that worked really well for you? Leave a comment to let us and the other readers know. We’d love to hear from you and you might just change someone’s life in the process.