Facing uncertainty?

When we step away from the established path, or usual ways of behaviour, (or European Unions) we open ourselves up for something new.

In choosing change we give ourselves opportunity for growth. And growth requires this funny kind of stretching. (Stretching in an upwards direction).

Change is what we really want, but boy, it can cause us all sorts of upset when it comes along. We might kick and scream a bit but it's really just because we're a little (or a lot) scared. 

Change requires the release of old stuff, then a bit of space, and then our conscious welcoming in of a new way of being. In that space, we experience uncertainty, and uncertainty can be damned uncomfortable. 

We often start the process of change well enough, thinking we can control what happens. Of course, we can minimise the 'risks' of change by creating lots of support around us. But many of us think we have to go it alone. 

And suddenly there's a hundred different changes coming at us all at once, several unanswered questions and we have to make all sorts of decisions. 

Many of us fear this aspect of change and not get started at all. We stay stuck.

It's easy to get caught up in the drama of what's going on around us and even dive right in to the middle of the storm. 

Yet all the messy, crazy-making turmoil of what we think of as a crisis is just the world (our world) righting itself.

As a child, I used to rearrange my room regularly. Moving the heavy wardrobe was a bit beyond me though so I would empty out all the contents around the room then enlist the help of one of my siblings to move it, then put everything back in.

I would usually take the opportunity to go through whatever was there and chuck stuff out or organise it differently.

The room would always look like a bombsite for a few hours and there would always come a moment when I would be overwhelmed. 

I would begin to doubt my big grand plan to get it all done in one day and dreaded the thought of going to bed that night surrounded by all my possessions and not being able to see the floor for stuff. 

Yet I would almost always get it straight before bedtime. 

Sometimes we have to turn the whole room (or house!) upside down before we get everything sorted, in place and straight again.

It's part of the process It's a necessary stage. It's exactly right. 

Change creates opportunity. Even if you did not 'choose' the change or it's unwelcome right now.

But how to see it as such when it feels so...crappy?

We can choose to see failure or wrongness in whatever circumstances we're in.

Or we can choose possibility and trust.

We can choose to see what the change allows us to now create. 

Yes, it requires acceptance of what appears to be chaos. Not throwing up our hands and giving up. A quiet acceptance of what is. 

And then a decision to choose to see possibility. 

In coaching, we sometimes see or feel a big old mess before a big moment of clarity comes. We have to breakdown before we breakthrough. 

So whatever uncertainty is coming up for you right now, come back to your centre, your being.

You know what's next, you can just decide to start looking at the opportunity to become more of what you want in the world. 

Remind yourself that uncertainty is just uncertainty. 

And choose to see what opportunities exist amidst that.

It's our choice.