Over the past few years my life has been as on the autobahn - comfortable, straight, fast. I was living in Switzerland, enjoying my life, earning good money, and having a decent start in my professional career.
This spring I went for a hike back home in Kazakhstan. At the fork I turned to the steep road. Now the rocky trail winds and climbs up. I have no idea what awaits me after the next turn. The road is narrow, steep, broken. But the views are absolutely stunning!
I decided to become an entrepreneur.
And as in any entrepreneurial journey my life has been a true roller coaster with its ups and downs. In fact, there is a huge difference between knowing, expecting to face challenges and actually facing them (although expecting them helps to decrease its slap). And to be frankly, sometimes it can be really stressful. Having no results, putting all the efforts for invisible effect causes low motivation to pursue it further. On top of that being aware of myself as a perfectionist, puts me to a really hard situation to deal with uncertainty.
After some time I certainly realized a perfectionist in me really wants to move to the next stage, pass this period as soon as possible in order to avoid uncertainty and to seek for predictability, mental comfort and stability. However it was not the first time I catch myself with these thoughts. Moreover, as I can observe, it also happens with others all the time - we want to finish school fast to get to the university, we want to graduate asap in order to get a job, we want to finish our day to get home, we want finish our breakfast to get to the job, we can't wait until the weekdays would pass by so we can enjoy our weekend - it happens all the time with everyone. But in other words, since all of that is part of our life, does it mean we want to finish our life as soon as possible? That's insane, isn't it?!
James Allen in his book "As A Man Thinketh" talks about the power of thoughts:
A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.
In other words, as a gardener being in charge of his garden, you are the only one fully responsible for your way of thinking and all the results it may (will) cause. Instead of stressing about uncertainty, shift your mind towards playing with this challenge. Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.
Yes, there is so much pain due to uncertainty (lots of efforts for no results, etc.), however pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Instead of complaining being demotivated tweak it to being genuinely curious about upcoming life's gifts. Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the law of his being.
It is all about SHIFTING YOUR MINDSET and CHANGING YOUR ATTITUDE:
I don't have results so I can't do it -> No one did it before me, so what can I do different to get the results?
Worrying about Uncertainty -> Being Curios about Your Future
Count what you are Missing -> Count what you are Blessing
Looking outside, you dream -> Looking inside, you awaken
Eyes provide sight -> Heart provides insight
Success is a measure as decided by others -> Satisfaction is a measure as decided by you
Some people work with the clock -> Some with the compass
Looking how far you have to go -> Looking at how far you have come
Life is not a problem to resolve -> Life is a mystery to solve
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment. Who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
As Carl Gustav Jung has brilliantly said:
I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.
So all in all, slow down, pause for a while, and accept the uncertainty. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Change your mindset and enjoy the ride!