Uncertainty is that tingling feeling which spreads through the human anatomy when man is pushed outside his comfort zone and is wholly unaware of outcomes and the road which lies ahead. Human beings by nature are conditioned by society and their families to follow a path which corresponds to certainty since childhood. You go to school; you are encouraged to get good grades and go to a University of high rank and then in a herd like fashion you are pigeonholed into labelled boxes whose outcomes you are well aware of.
Early on, the major metric which rules our life and gives us a sense of certainty is financial independence. Going on an unfamiliar path is not in anyway my way of denouncing financial freedom as I greatly value the practical benefits of being self sufficient in every which way but that being said it should not be the guiding factor in all our life choices as that makes us deny ourselves the opportunities which may appear impractical but are the ones we connect with most from within.
Most of us are living a life where we are(without realizing)chopping off the UN to the KNOWN. But, we fail to realize that the most significant breakthroughs, discoveries, revelations and magic mankind has been exposed to occurred when man operated from uncertainty and invented a path which has never been there before as when you do not know where you are going you can go ANYWHERE and there lies the power of uncertainty.
I believe that in today’s times of constant technological disruption (akin to the industrial revolution), uncertainty is the currency to discovering your individuality and being true to the inherent gifts you have received at birth. The start up culture, converting your hobby into your full-time passion, travelling to lands unknown without a plan, being spontaneous, not following social constructs and making your own formulas and going by your intuition and gut are a small sample set of what I mean when I say create your own path and embrace uncertainty.
I hope going forward you make choices not from a place of comfort, but from a place of curiosity, wonder and discover. I hope you go down a path without knowing pre-determined results which come in your journey. I hope you quit that toxic job which you are only continuing because it looks good on paper. I hope you take up a major in college which may not be an instant gateway to a fantasy job but excites all the cells in your body. As even if you may not gain instant recognition or fail (also on a side note in my humble opinion, failure is just a social construct and as Oprah Winfrey has rightly stated it is just life’s way of pushing us into another direction) on a path less traveled, I guarantee you (from my own personal experience) that you will learn your potential and hidden parts about yourself which you can leverage and plug into your future choices which will consequently make you the most real and happy version of yourself which counts more than being perceived as a success by society and your faraway second cousin sitting in Dublin. And most of all, you would have enjoyed the process regardless of whatever the outcome is and there lies the key to a truly fulfilled life.