Certainty in Times of Uncertainty

Let's talk about one of the most stressful things that human beings experience. In the midst of everything happening, it's not the virus, it's not whether you have a job or you've just gotten laid off. It isn't when your kids are learning at home on your computer (while you're trying to conduct your business on it) - even though all of those things may be stressful. 

But what all of those things have in common is their level of unpredictability and uncertainty.  Right now, our day to day is unpredictable and uncertain. For many of us, major life disruptions are happening daily - what was true yesterday isn't true today. We have no idea of what will change tomorrow. On top of that, we may be receiving conflicting information -- our news alerts tell us one thing, our friend sends a FaceBook messenger from a reliable source that tells us something else, our family texts us with a whole other set of information, our county tells us we should limit going out of our homes and our local mayor shuts down all non-essential businesses. We don't necessarily know what is true - and even if we do, what we know is true can change by the time we go to bed tonight. You may have guessed this -- uncertainty itself is the most stressful thing human beings can experience. 

Uncertainty, not knowing. 

In 2016 a study was performed by a team of researchers that measured the effects of uncertainty on a group of participants.  Not just the objective, but also the subjective, effects of uncertainty on human beings. In the study participants picked up rocks and turned them over.  If a rock had a snake underneath, the participants got a very painful electric shock. To avoid being shocked, participants began trying to figure out the patterns and behavior of the snakes.

They were trying to create predictability. Predictability meant that they could minimize the number of shocks. But the researchers deliberately kept changing the snakes behavior so that there wasn't any predictability. By observing physical responses such as pupil dilation and sweat on the skin, as well as the subjective responses of the participants' own experience, the researchers were able to determine that the maximum moment of stress is when predictability drops to 50%. Every single time.

Right now with things changing every single day, we have the highest rate of unpredictability many of us may have ever experienced. Although there have been times over the last 50-60 years that horrible and uncertain things have happened, most of them only lasted a few days. What we're experiencing right now is a very high level of uncertainty with no clear ending. The lack of when this will end ratchets down the predictability percentage - so the uncertainty goes up. 

 What can you do about this level of uncertainty? Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do that takes away the actual uncertainty right now. 

Our questions become:

• What can you do to mitigate your experience of uncertainty? 
• How can you notice the stresses that you might be under depending on how much uncertainty you are personally living with? 
• Most important of all is -what can you do about it? 

The #1 thing to do is to keep your routines! There may be a number of reasons you can’t keep your normal routine. You aren't going to your office every day. Your home is too small or not set up right for your exercise routine. You're sharing your electronic equipment. The weather isn't warm enough to send the kids outside all day. Whatever those reasons might be, try, to the extent that you are able, to keep your routines.  If you can't keep your regular routine, create a new one!

Use the following questions to get started.

• What time will you get up every day? 
• What time will you go to bed? 
• What time will you eat lunch? 
• What are your activities first thing in the morning? 
• When and how might you work out?
• When will you go shopping? Will you shop online? 
• How will you keep in regular communication with your team? With family members not in your household?

Make sure that you create a routine(s) that helps create some certainty in the midst of uncertainty. 

Practices
You can also create practices.  What are the practices you need right now for your well being? By well being, I mean, the whole gamut of well being: your experience of health, wealth and happiness. How will you create structures and practices for that? 

When we talk about structure, structure is the overall container that you're using. And by 'container', I mean that your day could be a container. A week could be a container -although I wouldn't go any further than a week right now. Within that container, you put your routines and your practices. 

 Remember, we can't change the uncertainty right now. But we can change our experience of it. And that's what this is about.

Please feel free to connect with me if you have questions or comments or if you just want to do some work on this. I would love to hear from you about what you have created.

Join in our Practice of Practicing: 30-Day Challenges at any time to support your structures.