Creating and Uncertainty
We can all agree that uncertainty is a part of the human experience. As much as you may try to control variables, seek secure investments (whether in time, money, or relationships), there will always be some level of…
We can all agree that uncertainty is a part of the human experience. As much as you may try to control variables, seek secure investments (whether in time, money, or relationships), there will always be some level of uncertainty.
When living from the Victim role versus living as a Creator, you will experience a distinctly different relationship to uncertainly. The Victim mindset sees uncertainly as a problem to react to, or try to contain, and may sometimes see uncertainty as a Persecutor.
Creators, on the other hand, know uncertainty is part of the creating process. They focus on the outcome they want to create, tap their passion for that outcome, and take action to move forward, even in the face of uncertainty.
As a Creator, you often do not know – especially at the beginning of the creating process – if what you want to create is even, in fact, possible.
One of the best historic examples of two Creators moving forward in the face of uncertainty was the Wright brothers. Wilber and Orville had a passionately held vision of heavier-than-air powered and controlled flight.
I (David) I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where the Wright brothers conducted most of their experiments. I have been fascinated by them as examples of Creators not knowing if what they wanted to create was possible, while remaining committed to the vision’s possibility.
They held that heavier-than-air flight was possible, even when the best scientific and engineering minds of the day told them their vision was impossible. “It defies the laws of physics” the scientists told them.
Given the fact that they were neither trained engineers nor physicists, it would have been easy for them to give in to the naysayers and go back to their bicycle shop when faced with a setback or a failed experiment.
Long after their success a reporter asked Orville what he and his brother were really after in their experimentation. “Was it fame? Was it fortune?” he asked.
I’ve always loved Orville’s response. “Sir, if what my brother and I were after was either fame or fortune, we would have chosen a project with a much higher probability of success.”In other words, they would have placed more emphasis on the certainty of success. Instead, their passionately held dream gave them energy to move forward even in the face of uncertainty, which is a hallmark of living life as a Creator.
They succeeded by taking baby steps. Some of those steps were forward progress, many were setbacks from which they learned and adjusted. A few others were breakthroughs. There were times in which they sat in uncertainty to discern the next steps. And there were times they paused and started again.
Innovation can come from uncertainty, if your intuition and a little serendipity are present. One evening, Wilber was in the kitchen as his mother was preparing spaghetti. He picked up the empty spaghetti box and started fiddling with it. And in a “eureka” moment, as he twisted the ends of the box in different directions, the idea of warping the wings was revealed that made flight possible. It was a breakthrough moment.
As a Creator, embrace the “not knowing” of uncertainty and how success may unfold. You do not need to know all the steps to manifest your outcomes. You don’t even need to know if your passionately held dream is a possibility. Hold to its possibility and take the next baby step as it presents itself.
You never know when the next baby step will, indeed, give you wings!