Seek clarity, not certainty or progress — or you’ll never feel content

Seek clarity, not certainty or progress — or you’ll never feel content

Uncertainty has many benefits.

What is undiscovered cannot yet be seen. Venturing to new territories is essential if we want to discover new opportunities.

Christopher Columbus never meant to discover America, but stumbled upon it by accident — how could he have found it any other way?

So instead of expecting the Room you’re in to change, try opening a new Door.

For the roads of man trace only familiar paths — those already trod by others.

And to re-trace those steps is to fight against your very nature. Traveling this way, you will never be content.

For some part of you is unique, and quite unlike anything that has come before. To lead yourself, you must, at some stage, deviate from the path — and there you will meet uncertainty.

But we’re wired by evolution to fear uncertainty.

We seek certainty as a proxy for safety. But my friends — what seems safe is merely what seems familiar.

And it seems familiar because it is those paths you’ve seen others walk before. The map that has already been drawn.

Certainty is knowing everything in advance — each and every step, as well as the final outcome. But this is not possible for big and wonderful things… because if it were so easy, others would do it.

Uber saves your agony by showing you the driver’s distance

Looking at the map on your phone does not change how long it takes your ride to arrive. It’s not the timing that’s important…

It’s the clarity that relieves our anguish. Uncertainty is not our pain — our pain is lacking clarity on the direction forward.

We hate being surrounded by Doors without knowing where to go next. But once you feel clear on which Door to open, have you noticed that, with nothing else changed and before you’ve even opened it, everything feels peaceful again?

It’s not certainty you need. It’s not even progress. It’s clarity.

Clarity is being able to see the North Star in the sky

Clarity is being able to see the North Star in the sky — there is a direction, even if every twist and turn to get there is not detailed. It’s the compass, not the map.

Faith in ourselves comes from being able to see the North Star. As long as it lights our path, we can always get back on track, no matter the circumstances that threaten us.

Now we are content to write the story as we go. We don’t need to know what the chapters ahead contain.

We are…

Content.