Guide Chapter 5: Navigating Life in an Uncertain World
Guide Chapter 4 was about forming habits to hold ourselves accountable and make daily progress towards our goals.
If you missed it, click here to ready it.
Now that we have begun to form habits to help bring us closer to our goals, what’s next?
When will we see results? When will our goals be reached?
The truth is the future is incredibly uncertain.
Even with goals and daily habits, navigating an uncertain world is not easy and nothing is promised.
Imagine this, we set a goal. Every single day we do everything in our power to bring ourselves one step closer to that goal. We invest all our time and energy into this goal. But the result ends up being completely different than what we had hoped for.
Imagine this, we create a 10-year plan for ourselves. We decide exactly where we will go and how we will get there. Well, one year in, that plan shifts dramatically due to circumstances out of our control, now what?
This is the reality and truth for many of us.
Life is not black & white; it is shades of gray, full of many unknowns.
Life is uncertain, and all we can do is learn to navigate it with hope, ease and trust. We can always hope for the best. We can always approach situations with ease – see the good in every situation and a light at the end of the tunnel. We can always have trust, that all will work out in the end exactly how it is meant to.
Here are five tips we can implement into our daily life to help with navigating uncertainty:
1. Embrace the unknown, because when nothing is certain, anything is possible.
This aligns with loving the journey. Life is a journey, not a destination. But it is an uncertain journey. Instead of worrying about the future and what we cannot control, let’s instead get excited about the fact that anything is possible.
2. Be open minded to possibilities and opportunities.
Often, when we have a clear goal and map out a plan of action, we leave ourselves blind sided to anything that may be a distraction or steer us away from our path. When in fact, as we work towards our goals, we should always be on the look out for different paths and opportunities that we can take. While they may not align to the path or plan, we imagined for ourselves, they may lead to even greater destinations.
3. Apply past life experiences and lessons to the present.
One thing that is certain is that each year we are a year older, and that means a year wiser. We can learn from our past experiences and apply the lessons we’ve learned into the present and future. Remember that time when you thought an outcome of an experience would turn out one way, but it turned out completely different and way better? What did you learn from it? How can you apply that lesson into your current situation?
4. Love the little moments and celebrate every milestone.
Life is about the simple things, like watching the sunrise, smelling fresh air, hearing the bird chirp, enjoying a warm cup of coffee, taking a walk…The actions we take each day that may seem insignificant, are in fact the moments we should take a moment to love, appreciate and celebrate.
5. Live in the moment.
We don’t know what will happen an hour from this moment, a day, a week, a month, or even a year from this moment. Instead of worrying about the unknown, let’s embrace the current moment we are in and take it for what it is. Every moment we are in is a moment we may never get again, so let’s enjoy it and embrace it by living in the present.
Click here to download a journaling exercise on living in the moment to help get you started on navigating an uncertain world!
Chapter 6 in the Guide to Being Simply Unstoppable will be about appreciating the little things in life.