Today I want to talk about how Decisions in Uncertainty.

As we all know, life is a constant lesson in uncertainty. And we kind of get used to it, right?

We’re all aware that we never know what’s around the corner. What tomorrow will bring. Or even if we WILL be here tomorrow.

But as we grow up or grow into situations, we get used to what I call “the uncertainty we know.” We’re all pretty resilient when you think about it. We get used to kind of not being in control of what might happen to us. 

I mean, if we didn’t, we literally wouldn’t be able to leave the house. 

Because what might happen if we step off the sidewalk? That speeding car might run the red light. 

Or merge our car onto the highway at 70 miles per hour. 

Or take the new job that we’re a little scared we might not be able to excel at. 

Or move to the new city where we don’t know anyone.

We don’t REALLY know how the NEW things we try are going to work out. 

We HOPE for a specific outcome, but inside, we KNOW it might not turn out the way we want. 

And yet, we get used to facing these ‘familiar’ unknowns. I call them the KNOWN unknowns. 

And this helps us to get on with the business of our life. 

It helps us make decisions about our future, both big and small, while not being sure if it’s all going to turn out okay.

We get comfortable playing the hand we’re dealt. And even when we didn’t know what card we might be dealt next, we’ve learned to place bets and make decisions so we could keep moving forward.

But what happens when we face NEW Unknowns?

Like Covid. 

That just might be the biggest UNKNOWN of the last several decades.

I mean, it’s been surreal.

Think back just two years ago, to September of 2019. 

Who could’ve predicted that just six months later, the entire WORLD would shut down in like…two weeks?

Restaurants closed. 

Grocery shelves emptied. 

Sports seasons cancelled. 

Kids in virtual school. 

No proms, graduation ceremonies or any of the other rites of passage we could always count on. 

We were all living in a dystopian Hollywood pandemic movie. Except it was real.

The entire world entered a period of an EXTREME NEW UNKNOWN.

And it kind of sucked.

Covid snatched all our BAU playing cards and flung them up in the air. We could no longer count on ANYTHING we’d previously taken for granted.

But what’s interesting is the different ways people handled it.

A huge segment of the population kind of hit the PAUSE button on their life. They stopped making decisions about the future – no vacation planning, no weekend activity planning, new job searches, no nothing. Instead, and I’ll include myself in this for a good part of that time, we kind of hunkered down and WAITED.

Waited for a vaccine.

Waited for mask mandates to be lifted.

Waited for companies to start hiring again.

Waited for it to be safe to travel to see friends and family.

Basically, this part of the population DECIDED to WAIT instead of using the time as a way to reflect on new possibilities. 

And that’s what’s at the heart of it right? We DECIDED to WAIT.

But not everyone handled it that way.

There’s a good percentage of people who DECIDED to Make Plans. Even amid the closed businesses, the loss of jobs, the illness, the children studying at home. They kept making decisions about their future.

They saw the shutting down of t

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