The pandemic hit, the Great Resignation is happening, nobody knows if the current market hiccups are just hiccups or is it an early sign of the bear market. There’s a lot that’s been going on that would make anyone nervous and uncertain about the future and what’s to come.
But there have been challenges, problems and struggles in the past as well that people have dealt with. So, in this article, we will learn about the ins and outs, tips and tricks, advice, and wisdom from the past that can teach people how to overcome the fear of uncertainty.
Here are the nine ways to overcome the fear of uncertainty.
1. Find the Inner Locus of Control
There are two perspectives you can have on life: the inner or the outer locus of control.
With the outer locus of control, you give up control over the events in your life to externalities, such as the other people, the economy, or even the government.
But with the inner locus of control, you’re the person who is in control of the things that happen within your life. You take responsibility for the actions in your life, and then decide to start to take control over your life.
The people who look at life through the lens of the inner locus of control suppress fear far easier than those who don’t.
2. Learn How to Let Go of Things You Can’t Control
There’s an saying from the AA that goes, “God, give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
If you would like to deal with the fear of uncertainty, you will need to know the difference between the things that you can and can’t control and let go of those things you can’t control.
The things you’re not responsible for and should let go of are:
· Other people’s opinions about yourself
· Other people’s actions and responsibilities
· The economy
· The weather
· Traffic
· The future
3. Learn How to Let Go of Things You Can Control
Just because you can control something, doesn’t mean that you should control something.
With the four levels of consciousness, you start from the person who doesn’t have any control of your life’s environment. Then, you slowly start to take control and you realize that you have agency—that you can change things if you apply yourself. Then it will start to take over you.
You start taking control of more and more things in your life because you start believing that nothing will be done unless you don’t have your finger in it. And you feel the impact of taking control, and it feels ridiculous to give someone else part of that control.
But that’s exactly what you should do. Just because you can change something doesn’t mean you should.
This is where you have to learn how to let go of the things where you could make an impact and focus on a single issue. Because a person who chases multiple hares doesn’t catch a single one.
4. The Stockdale Paradox
Stockdale paradox is named after Jim Stockdale, a U.S. vice admiral who got imprisoned in Vietnam during the war. There, he witnessed his fellow P.O.W lost all motivation to be saved during their imprisonment.
He saw two types of people:
Those who believed they would be saved by a certain time and were oblivious to the current state of the camps
Those who believed that they will never be saved and who looked at the horrible tasks in the camp as their future
5. Realize That Plans Are Worthless, But Planning Is Everything
When you hear the sentence “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything” just know that the quote has merit to it.
What this means is that you need to start preparing for the future, but that when that future comes, all those plans will be changed. You won’t be able to predict the future, but the preparation that you will make for that future will make all the difference.
It’s like you starting a business and planning how it will become profitable. The plan will give you a direction, but you will pivot your strategy and your products depending on the circumstances that will occur within the years.
But the merit is in the planning part where you will maybe learn new skills that will be useful in the future, no matter what it is. When you learn how to think critically or how to adhere to data-driven decision-making, you will be able to use to skills no matter what the future holds.
If you want to overcome the fear of uncertainty, you should plan for the future. But make sure that when the future happens, you adapt to it.
6. Use the Worm’s and the Eagle’s Perspectives
The worm can only see a few inches in front of themselves while the eagle can see miles ahead. The worm can see all the little details like the puddles, trees, and leaves while the eagle can see the seas, fountains, and forests.
In life, you need to learn that you should view the world from both perspectives.
With the eagle perspective, you look at bigger picture—where the path is going to take you in your life, what you’re going to do ten years from now, will you still have a career, and will the current relationship you have still be good in years from now.
With the worm perspective, you focus on the first steps ahead of you. And plan out your daily routines and habits.
Fear of uncertainty can happen because you lost sense of one or the other perspective. If you’re fearful for overall trends that are happening around you, that means that you need to get back to your eagle perspective and see the big picture. What changed and how will you adapt to it?
If you’re fearful that you’re not reaching your goals effectively, that means that you need to get back to the worm perspective and change your daily habits and routines. The habits will need to lead you to achieve your goals and dreams, not the other way around.
7. Go Across the Threshold to Prevent “What Ifs”
One more way to overcome the fear of uncertainty is to go all-in on something. Did you think that Frodo went halfway to Mordor to drop the ring and suddenly had a “what if I go back?” No, because he crossed the threshold.
That’s a term coined by Joseph Campbell, described in his book, A Hero With A Thousand Faces, where he mentions the hero’s journey. The hero, early on his journey, crosses a threshold from which he can’t come back, and he has to keep moving forward.
So, when you’re uncertain about things in the future, it can mean that you’re still leaving yourself time to back down. If you want to run a half-marathon, book the time, date, and place, and pay the fee. That will be the threshold that will make you start preparing for it because you went all in.
To prevent thinking in “what if” terms, go all-in on a single task, and your mind will stop asking you “what if?”.
If you limit yourself, your mind will convince you that you made the right decision. And don’t think that it means to have less freedom or even less variety doesn’t mean less freedom.
8. Understand That the Media Isn’t Your Friend
Hans Rosling once said, “If you want to understand the world, don’t use media.” We think that the world is worse than what it is that’s because all we see in the media are images of catastrophes instead of the positive things.
An example is suicide. There was so much news about the growing rate of suicides across the world, but the truth is that suicide rates have dropped by 25% within the last twenty years. Furthermore, according to Gapminder, less than 6% of plastic waste ends up in the ocean.[2]
Media has a great influence with the fear for the future and can make you uncertain about a lot of things, but you need to realize that most of them are simply noise.
9. Be Kind to Yourself Because You Will Fail
All the ways to overcome the fear of uncertainty may not work, but that doesn’t mean that all of them won’t work for you 100% of the time. Sometimes, there might be times when you will fail and worry about it.
The important thing is to remember you should be kind to yourself because there is going to be times when you will stumble, but that only means that you need to keep pushing forward.
So, remember to be kind to yourself because you will stumble, but that only means that you will rise again even stronger.
