Change is a single constant. Oftentimes, with change, there can be much uncertainty about potential outcomes. Uncertainty is uncomfortable and usually precipitated by incomplete information, unknown effects or consequences, and limited knowledge. And yet, the last few years have shown us how opportunity loves uncertainty. It is a simple statement with a tremendous amount of impact. Uncertainty signifies the ultimate starting place of progress and improvement. It is a moment for openness, curiosity, spontaneity, and the embracing of new ideas.
Uncertainty is a normal feeling, but how we frame it determines what comes from it. Framing uncertainty as something to avoid will keep one safe from the discomfort of dealing with it. But framing uncertainty as an opportunity can precipitate many emotions, including fear, curiosity, hope, excitement, determination, and anxiety. Some of these emotions may offer the dreaded discomfort one desires to avoid. In the end, it is not the emotions that determine the outcome of dealing with uncertainty and its reframing as an opportunity.
Once uncertainty is framed as an opportunity, the opportunity itself is further envisioned as something impossible or possible. For those who see the presented opportunities as something impossible, all outcomes are condemned to be a hard stop. However, if one sees possibilities within the opportunities of uncertainty, the sky’s the limit for what outcomes may be produced. When the framed opportunities generated from uncertainty are deemed possible, the emotions that they raise become irrelevant, because one sees past them and envisions what may result. The only limitation is how these opportunities are defined.
Uncertainty provides a moment for openness, curiosity, spontaneity, and the embracing of new ideas if one sees uncertainty as an opportunity. But one needs to adjust one’s mindset to see those uncertain moments as opportunities for possible growth, maturation, education, progress, and success that represent impactful outcomes of the changes that promote uncertainty. While opportunities for growth, maturation, education, progress, and success can stem from almost anything, it is the reframing of the greatest uncertainty that generates the utmost prospect for the greatest outcomes with the greatest impact. This is why opportunity loves uncertainty.
PWeekly