Tag: reality

Experiencing uncertainty

As I reflect upon the past six months, it feels like a period muddled and unfocused. I am actually unable to distinguish what I did. I can, however, reconnect with the feelings of it all. As I look to the next six months, I am already prepared for a period of fog, where moving through space and time without seeing much warrants slowing down, knowing that where I am going or where I have come from is unclear. I shall keep my eyes open for what emerges from the haze, and mostly feel my way forward.

We may be tempted to pull over and wait for the murkiness to clear. We may also look for the taillights of someone in front of us to follow and make our way along the road. Indeed, most of us prefer to see where we are going and keep steadfast in one direction. Yet there are gifts that come with the fog. Sometimes it takes something like fog to slow us down and think. Involuntary inactivity forces us to see beyond what we may look for, and it may even help us see that the fogginess is coming from within. In reality, we cannot see outside ourselves; the source of insight and light usually lies within.

You can continue to move forward cautiously in the months to come, but you cannot predict when the fog will lift. You can wait for guidance and hope for reliable taillights to follow. But you can also learn to listen for signs, harness your intuition and insights, and distinguish the noise around you from your own voice and clarity within. You will find clarity as you look for your next step, but certainty is becoming increasingly illusive. Let it not stop you. Being clear is all you need. Certainty never lived long anyway.

Relying on your own knowing as a leader

In the midst of a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, I have realized how I seem to rely on other people’s accounts to inform ourselves on the nature of a new reality. We cannot all be molecular physicians or scientists. I certainly depend on the knowledge of experts and benefit from their findings. At the same time, I am keenly aware of being the only one in charge of my own path. My sense of reality around me certainly takes account of expertise gathered, but it is only an important piece of the inner process that will guide my path.

We know how scientific, political, and other authoritative knowledge evolves over time and history reminds us that what was true centuries ago is no longer ruling the day. This is at the heart of evolution and it is the beauty of experiencing and learning as time goes on. Meanwhile, we are compelled to take decisions, make up our own minds about what to do facing our reality, and we are the authority when it comes to taking action. It is vital to check within ourselves with a critical mind whether what is handed to us as truth should guide our actions. This does not mean that we discount the information received from external authorities.

Ultimately you will have to decide whether you need to face adversity in order to save other people’s lives. You will decide whether to reach out to the elderly, transgressing external advice or listening to the voice within. You will discover that sitting with the situation presenting itself and the information gathered, measuring them alongside your inner sense of reality and your own experience and knowledge, you are exercising freedom and practicing an important integration process that helps you grow as a human being and a leader in your own life.