Resilience: Dealing With Uncertainty
Uncertainty is not knowing what will happen.
It refers to situations where you don’t even know what the outcomes might be.
Given that life is inherently uncertain, you need to learn to cope with uncertainty.
Learning to deal with uncertainty is a key skill in our resilience courses, helping you to look after your mental health.
5 Ways To Deal With Uncertainty
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is normal to feel you lack control over many aspects of your life.
Amidst this uncertainty, it is more important than ever to learn about how resilient people deal with uncertainty.
Resilient people use their skills to deal with ambiguity without letting it affect them.
Here are the 5 ways resilient people use to bounce back in uncertain times.
- Develop a sense of purpose
- Maintain a positive attitude
- Stay connected
- Focus on what you can control
- Embrace change
Let’s look at each of these in a little more detail.
1. Develop a sense of purpose:
Developing a sense of purpose will keep our thoughts in the present moment.
Without it, you will spin off worrying about what might be.
Having a purpose helps you even when things go wrong.
A sense of purpose allows you to put bad events in perspective, and move ahead and enjoy life.
2. Maintain a positive attitude:
Positive attitudes can not always change the outcomes of events, but they increase your resilience.
Having a positive attitude means being able to view adverse events as only temporary setbacks.
Optimism and hopeful thinking are characteristics of resilient people.
They see a chance for improvement in every stressful situation.
Resilient people find an opportunity in every difficulty.
That is how they thrive and bounce back.
3. Stay connected:
Human beings are social creatures. We rely on cooperation to survive in life.
Social distancing makes this desire for connection more challenging, but not impossible.
Virtual platforms are beneficial in the current circumstances to stay connected with our loved ones.
Asking for help and offering help to others can both boost your resilience.
4. Focus on what you can control:
Resilient people are aware of how they feel, think, and respond in different situations.
They realize what they can control and do not focus on what is out of their control.
Setting small daily goals, such as daily exercise, helps you stay grounded and more focused.
5. Embrace change:
We face change every day. There will always be change.
Accepting change and tolerating its disrupting effects is what resilient people do.
This is an important aspect of mental toughness, change is inevitable, so you need to learn to deal with it!
We resist change because we are addicted to our habits.
We fear changing our habits because of uncertainty, but life is all about embracing change and fighting uncertainty.
Risk Vs Uncertainty
Risk refers to future events that may or may not happen, some of which would lead to a negative outcome.
Risk is a potential loss that can often be predicted or estimated in advance.
Uncertainty, on the other hand, is when future events are completely unknown. It can not be measured or calculated.
Making decisions under conditions of high uncertainty is very difficult, and many people find it almost impossible.
Risk and uncertainty differ in the degree of control and predictability that you have.
Risk can be measured and controlled. Uncertainty, on the other hand, can not.
When the possible outcomes are not known in advance, it is impossible to estimate how likely they might be.
Tossing a fair coin and wanting to get heads is a good example of the difference between risk and uncertainty.
There is no uncertainty in this situation. You know that the odds of getting tails (bad) is 50:50.
That is just the way that tossing a coin works.
You can’t know in advance if it will come up heads or tails, so there is a known risk of getting tails.
| RISK | UNCERTAINTY |
|---|---|
| Known variables | Unknown variables |
| Can be measured | Can not be measured |
| Decision-making possible | Decision-making difficult |
| Can be controlled | Can’t be controlled |
Conclusion
Resilient people are aware of uncertainties in their lives, their emotional reactions to them, and their mental health effects.
They realize the importance of maintaining their mental health in the face of changes and challenges.
Resilience helps us control our responses to distressful situations resulting from uncertainty by being open, flexible, and willing to adapt to change.
Yes, dealing with uncertainty is difficult and scary but with the right approach, it can be done!
