Summary: “The more you’re able to tolerate ambiguity and lean into the unknown, the more likely you’ll be able to dance with it long enough to come up with better solutions, ideas, and creations.” Uncertainty, page 19 If there is one thing for certain, it’s uncertainty. And, in many cases, how we handle that uncertainty means the difference between success and failure. Success, as it turns out, is about more than just “handling” uncertainty. The book – Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance – serves as a guide on how to use inexact times to gain greater knowledge, capability, and movement in moving ideas and initiatives forward. As author Jonathan Fields explains, thriving in times of uncertainty involved finding, and leveraging “crux moves". The term "Crux move" comes from rock climbing; they are the critical times when you need to make the most challenging and complex moves to propel yourself up the mountain. In rock climbing, as in life, getting the most from these crux times requires many smaller moves ahead of time. The point is this: successfully navigating uncertainty relies on our ability to (a) complete seemingly mundane daily tasks in times of calm, and (b) think strategically and leverage our prep work during times of uncertainty. This combination of effort is enabling, enlightening, and empowering. Although "Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance" may sound like a lofty and idealistic subtitle, Uncertainty offers a set of concrete practices to move your ideas forward in a meaningful way. It is about embracing uncertainty by providing context and meaning to your daily efforts and engaging others in your pursuits. Golden Egg: Step In, Step Back, Step Forward “When you are called to create, the psychology of the endeavor also changes. Experiencing a calling creates a sense of deeper conviction, of purpose that often you, even as the creator or vision leader, don’t fully understand. It’s not religious, though it can be, but there is a sense that ‘in this moment, this is what I must do.’” Uncertainty, page 154 There is good news and bad news. The good news is when we engage in work that is our soulful calling, we are highly motivated and dig in with a fervor and passion rarely experienced elsewhere. The bad news is that we can get sucked in too deep and lose sight of where we are on the path to achieving our calling. This is a two-part challenge: finding that moment of alignment and knowing when you need to pull back and refresh your view. Challenge 1. When that moment hits you, you feel inspired about what you need to do. Staying on track with the work required is equally vital to understanding when you are most productive. As Jonathan Fields points out, you need to find your “rhythm” of work – this will allow you to prioritize based on the task’s level of importance and urgency compared to your energy and inspiration levels at the time. It is easy to bury yourself in the work to be done, so it is essential to find the right times to do the work and then use the remaining time in your "other" practices (e.g. interacting with your hive, training your brain - two activities we'll discuss momentarily). Challenge 2. You also need to know when to pull back; to set checks and balances to ensure you are not overwhelming yourself with the work or simply doing the work for work’s sake. Equilibrium is necessary to prevent yourself from being over-absorbed and losing sight of doing what you were called to create. In other words, sometimes you need to step back to ensure you are working on the right things and gaining the right perspective on where you are in the creation process. GEM #1: Find Your Energized Hive The quicker you can get honest feedback, the more quickly you can adapt. As Jonathan Fields points out in a lesson learned from Pixar – “The core skill of innovators is not failure avoidance, it’s error recovery.” (p. 79)
