Quotes About Uncertainty

Conspiracy thinking is all about fear-based self-protection and our intolerance for uncertainty. When we depend on self-protecting narratives often enough, they become our default stories

it's our fear of the unknown and our fear of being wrong that create most of our conflict and anxiety.

Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness. Yes, we are totally exposed when we are vulnerable. Yes, we are in the torture chamber that we call uncertainty. And, yes, we're taking a huge emotional risk when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. But there's no equation where taking risks, braving uncertainty, and opening ourselves up to emotional exposure equals weakness.

We can't opt out of the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure that's woven through our daily experiences. Life is vulnerable.

Experiencing vulnerability isn't a choice—the only choice we have is how we're going to respond when we are confronted with uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

Social work is all about leaning into the discomfort of ambiguity and uncertainty, and holding open an empathic space so people can find their own way. In a word—messy.

definition of vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. But vulnerability is not weakness; it's our most accurate measure of courage. When the barrier is our belief about vulnerability, the question becomes: Are we willing to show up and be seen when we can't control the outcome? When the barrier to vulnerability is about safety, the question becomes: Are we willing to create courageous spaces so we can be fully seen?

When we spend our lives (knowingly or unknowingly) pushing away vulnerability, we can't hold space open for the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure of joy.

I'd rather not be joyful than have to wait for the other shoe to drop.

Worry is described as a chain of negative thoughts about bad things that might happen in the future.

You give up a lot when you venture into an environment that you can't control and where your senses don't serve you in dependable ways.

By definition, entrepreneurship is vulnerable. It's all about the ability to handle and manage uncertainty. People are constantly changing, budgets change, boards change, and competition means you have to stay nimble and innovative. You have to create a vision and live up to that vision. There is no vision without vulnerability.

to cope successfully. This includes elements of unpredictability, uncontrollability, and feeling overloaded.

vulnerability. Love is uncertain. It's incredibly risky. And loving someone leaves us emotionally exposed. Yes, it's scary and yes, we're open to being hurt, but can you imagine your life without loving or being loved?

That's what anxiety feels like to me. Escalating loss of control, worst-case-scenario thinking and imagery, and total uncertainty.

There is no courage without vulnerability. Courage requires the willingness to lean into uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

You are halfway across a tightrope, and moving forward and going back are both just as scary.

An intolerance for uncertainty is an important contributing factor to all types of anxiety. Those of us who are generally uncomfortable with uncertainty are more likely to experience anxiety in specific situations as well as to have trait anxiety and anxiety disorders. Our anxiety often leads to one of two coping mechanisms: worry or avoidance. Unfortunately, neither of these coping strategies is very effective.

The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it's about the courage to show up when you can't predict or control the outcome

social work wasn't about fixing. It was and is all about contextualizing and "leaning in." Social work is all about leaning into the discomfort of ambiguity and uncertainty, and holding open an empathic space so people can find their own way.

Love and belonging will always be uncertain.

there is nothing more uncertain than the creative process, and there is absolutely no innovation without failure.

Belonging to ourselves means being called to stand alone - to brave the wilderness of uncertainty, vulnerability, and criticism.

what silences our intuitive voice is our need for certainty. Most of us are not very good at not knowing. We like sure things and guarantees so much that we don't pay attention to the outcomes of our brain's matching process.