We continue our Dadly Daily Declaration series with readings from Unfu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop. Today’s reading focuses on the personal assertion “I Embrace the Uncertainty.”
So, let’s dive into today’s reading from chapter 5, “I Embrace The Uncertainty”. We’re going to divide this chapter into two parts due to the sheer volume of gems and notes. Here are a few gems from today’s reading:
-
- You’re an addict.
- You’re out of control and so dependent on your drug of choice, you don’t even realize how it’s affecting your life. You have a gnawing craving and that craving is for prediction.
- We seek the certain and avoid the uncertain. We want to know what to expect, where to go, and what to wear. We want to be prepared. We want to be safe.
- We have an aversion to risk, which was once necessary. That aversion is no longer necessary. Those survival instincts that once kept our ancestors alive is now the very thing that keeps us from actually living.
- Our obsession with certainty can be tragic and counterproductive for two reasons:
- First, uncertainty is where things happen. Uncertainty is your personal pathway to opportunity. It’s the environment in which you grow, experience new things, and produce new, unprecedented results. Uncertainty is where new happens.
- Secondly, when you stick to what you’re comfortable with, doing the same things you’ve always done, you are living in the past and not moving forward. You are repeating things and behaviors that at one time in your life were risky since you didn’t know what they would lead to, but have since turned into routine.
- How can you do anything new by doing what you’ve always done? How can you make friends and start romances without meeting new people?
- How will you ever get a raise if you don’t take the risk of asking? How will you get head in your career if you’re always holding on to certainty and comfort? You can’t and you won’t.
- Uncertainty has infinite power in our lives. When we’re no longer uncertain about money, the desire and need to pursue it recedes. When we’re no longer uncertain about success, our ambition can blunt or mellow. We get to wallow in our bloated illusion of certainty. Eventually, we get to do that thing called “settle.” We settle for certainty.
- That’s the kind of power uncertainty has in our lives. It can make us or break us. It can make us rich or make us poor. It can be the key to our success or drive us in the other direction.
Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
Success is never certain. It never comes without risk. Even if you’re the smartest or the hardest working, there’s no guarantee of anything. The people who go on to do great things in their lives know this. They also embrace it.
Successful people didn’t succeed because they were certain they were going to succeed; they succeeded because they didn’t let uncertainty stop them. They did it anyway. They ignored their doubts and kept pushing forward. They were relentless when the only thing they had to fuel them was relentlessness.
