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Certainty is a product of trust
While writing on “Trust God With Your Day-to-day“, I casually talked about the relevance of having certainty. Given you may have missed it, I’ll go over it just to refresh your memory. I mentioned that nobody likes uncertainty as certainty is an extension of trust. Thus, trust creates certainty. When you enter into an agreement and trust that parties involved will fulfill their end of the bargain, certainty is created.
Apart from that fact that the presence of certainty means trust is upheld, certainty brings other goodies to the table as well. One of them is hope. Another is faith. Good cooperation and peace are also possible when there’s certainty. Point is, when you know what to expect, you can plan and prepare adequately to take advantage of opportunities or avoid disaster. The opposite is also true. Uncertainty makes it very hard to plan for anything.
Welcome to the jungle
Unfortunately, just like trust, certainty can be a rare commodity to find in life. The world is an unpredictable place to live in and Ray Dalio alluded to it being a jungle. Unexpected situations pop up here or there and, without looking hard, you can find suspicious people all around. The levels of uncertainty can be overwhelming or even paralyzing. It is no surprise that despite having dreams, many individuals refuse to step into the jungle. We love our safe spaces and comfortable zones. So, in a world of such unpredictability, how can we find certainty to accomplish our dreams?
Here are some helpful tips I believe will make a difference for you and your dream in a jungle of suspicious activities and great uncertainty.
1. Increase self-awareness
“Know thyself” is what Sun Tzu said in his book the Art of War. In the jungle of unpredictability, the one way you can gain some stability is to spend time to know yourself. Many people like to be in the crowd. We like to have people around us all the time. We constantly engage in all kinds of activities with friends and family. All at the expense of spending time with ourselves.
Know what you want
We do not like to spend time with ourselves to get to know ourselves better. Just yesterday, I was having a discussion with an experienced network technical analyst and the conversation drifted a bit into why people are indecisive. By the way, indecisiveness adds to unpredictability and drains certainty from any situation. The last person you want to be in the jungle is an indecisive one. Anyway, back to the chat I had. From our discussion, the one conclusion we came to is that many people are dishonest. People are simply not honest. Finding someone who shows a high level of self-honesty can be difficult. The sad part is that you can’t even blame people for being dishonest because many of them don’t know what they actually want. You don’t want to be that person.
As an individual who wants to make clear in-roads in the jungle, you have to be clear about what you want or, at least, what you don’t want. The key to knowing yourself is the same key to knowing others—ask yourself questions. Relevant questions can help you uncover truths about who you are and figure out your hidden leanings. Self-discovery will lead to self-awareness and honesty. Without self-awareness, you expose yourself to indecisiveness which can cost you time. Even worse is self-deceit. The worst kind of person is the person who deceives himself. Indeed, figuring out what you truly want today, can save your life tomorrow.
2. Know your world
The 21st century is called the information age. What this means is that there is so much accessible information that anyone can get any sets of data they wanted, mostly on the internet. What you don’t immediately realize is that despite different centuries being called other names, information has always been important. I will argue that what has facilitated the rise and fall of several kingdoms over time is how relevant information was used. Truly, the 21st century is endowed with information of all kinds. Nonetheless, to rise up and take control of your destiny in this jungle, you need relevant information. Not every piece of intel will be helpful to you. Most times, to find the right information—the relevant information—you’ll need at a specific time, you have to search for it.
You need to be your own spy in the jungle. You have to see the things around you for what they are and know how to deploy them for your benefit. Seek out information about how the specific part of the jungle you are in operates. Find out how it connects to the rest of the jungle and find a way to leverage your new-found wisdom. With that said, you don’t have to get into everybody’s business because you have to know everything. That’s just too much work and silly because one person can never know “everything”. However, as far as you are concerned, you cannot be ignorant of any relevant information that will give you an edge in your world. So, please don’t be that person.
3. Develop self-discipline
Discipline is essentially creating a routine or system that works for you, and sets you on a path to successfully overcome the challenges of the jungle as you journey through it, towards reaching your destination. Discipline, by nature, eradicates uncertainty because it is designed to introduce routines into your life. Routines remove unpredictability. A lack of unpredictability takes you closer to certainty.
The knife approach
As far as routines go, in a “civilized” society, you are, or expected to be, disciplined. Generally, waking up in the morning and going to bed in the evening is by itself a discipline, one we learn as children. Also, we take a shower and brush our teeth regularly. These speak to the same point. In most societies today, getting an education to a certain level is required. Again, another form of discipline. So, if you are living in a “civilized” society, I will go ahead to assume you are disciplined. What, then, is the need to be “more” disciplined?
Well, it’s like this. The discipline provided by the society is wholesale and they’re aimed to help you in the way that society can benefit too. I call this the knife approach. It is not designed specifically for you but for the society and everybody else is doing the same thing. Hence, no advantage for you. Curating routines that will focus on you needs the scalpel approach. That is where you take control of your destiny from the society or government.
The scalpel approach
You have to decide when you wake or sleep in a way that gives you an advantage. Next, figure out the sequence of things to do while awake and the things to automate. You don’t need to do everything by yourself every time; but, you have to know the things that require your attention and give it at the times required. Over time, you need to refine these systems and optimize them to enjoy the best results.
Don’t see discipline as the enemy. Yes, starting a new habit or creating a personal system of routines to make you efficient is not easy in the beginning. It requires effort and you may fail to follow through on some days. But, never give up until your routines become second nature. That way, you will know the flow of sequences in your discipline and be free of personal unpredictability.
4. Know the people around you
In the jungle, self-awareness, knowing your world and self-discipline will help you keep yourself in check. You will be able to reduce unpredictability as far as you are concerned. In effect, you will put yourself in a place where you cannot surprise yourself. While that is a feat by itself, there is more unpredictability that remains as far as others are involved. You can definitely control yourself and ensure that you make the right decisions at all times, and that will help others to trust you because of the certainty you offer. However, the reverse is not always the same. It is difficult to control the actions of others. Hence, you have to always play the guessing game and become very good at it as other people and their actions can create chaos in the jungle. You have to be a good bookie.
The jungle bookie
Bookies manage chance. They don’t control it. Good bookies know exactly what to watch out for when organizing bets. You have to be good at predicting how people around you will respond in different situations. It’s called risk assessment. Ensuring that you are not left exposed to any threats when dealing with other people is crucial in any part of this big jungle. It sounds like a lot of work, I know that.
Fortunately, I know you have been conducting risk assessments your whole life. Whether you are crossing a street and looking to make sure you are not run over even after a permissive signal, or you are checking out a girl or boy to decide if they will be a good life partner, or figuring out the person across the table before getting into a business agreement, you are always risk assessing. All I am asking is that you know exactly what you are doing and be aware of why you are doing it so you don’t take a passive approach to it.
Active risk assessments or behaviour prediction will help you to greatly reduce uncertainty. Like a betting man, you can make mistakes and be wrong sometimes; but, never stop trying to know or understand the people around you. After a while, you will master the craft and increase your odds. Your results will become more consistent and your losses fewer. At that time, you will remember reading this and be glad you took it to heart.
5. Synchronize with change
There are three sources of uncertainty in the jungle. The first is you, the person travelling through the jungle. The second is the other players in the jungle. In life, this can be friends, family, partners, acquaintances, managers, supervisors, bosses, mates, colleagues, companies, corporations or government. In fact, these other players can be a great source of dynamism or chaos in the jungle. You have to do all you can to understand them and the rules of engagement so you know how far you can push the boundaries. The third source of uncertainty is change. While this is less frequent compared to the other two, not watching out for relevant changes can hurt your chances of success.
Synchronizing with change will keep you innovative and alert. Change is what randomly shakes up the jungle. If you are watching out for it, you can predict it. Otherwise, you will be swept away by it. I wrote some pieces on “change” you should totally check out. It will be worth your time (see Changing With Seasons And Times The Right Way and Change Is Inevitable: Plan For It). The best chance for you to survive despite the inevitability of change is to be attentive to it and stay in sync to remain relevant.
Change always comes
Change is inevitable. No matter how stable a system is, it will face change at some point. It is the way of life. Nothing remains the same and you should not expect it to be. You will change to become successful and those who don’t will fail in the face of change. In the jungle, creative and innovative individuals are rewarded when change arrives. Those who stay ready for change are also rewarded. Those who remain rigid are broken down by change and left behind.
My prayer for you
It is my earnest desire and prayer that God helps you to discover what hidden talents lie dormant in you, so you can have the self-awareness and belief to overcome the jungle difficulties and reach your destiny. May you develop the routines that will help you manifest your full potential and may the Spirit of discernment help you avoid unnecessary risks and threats. Your eyes will see through the lies and change will not take you by surprise because you will be ready. I ask these things for you in Jesus’ name. Amen.