The Commitment To Uncertainty

We have all learned to live in chaos.  We are bombarded, literally, by a deluge of information — personal, political, business, entertainment, etc. — every minute of every day.  To stop the deluge, we have to consciously stop looking when we are being programmed to do anything but look away.

The issue has become so prevalent that people are focusing on how we can get back to the idea of deep thought and deep work in the midst of the chaos.  Deep Work is a great book on the subject.  It is a testament to the times that we have to be taught how to focus our attention to get great ideas born.

And yet.

In the midst of the search for the solution, the answer to your issue confronting you, your art or your creative business, there is less time devoted to being lost, to sitting with the discomfort (pain? torture? humiliation?) that you just do not know.  We have all been there.  The feeling of not knowing which end is up, the right way to go, the solution to the problem, or really the actual problem you are facing.

With answers at our fingertips to almost anything, uncertainty has become a badge of shame, to be avoided at all costs.  So much so that we pay and devote ourselves to the benefits of meditation to clear our minds only to race to our phones when we are finished.

Instead, how about we go the other way?  How about we go deeper into the uncertainty?  Break through the walls of what we believe to be possible? Of what could come to exist? And most importantly what we can manifest?  The power of improv is that it ironically applies structure to the moment to give the performers ultimate freedom within the structure.  What a beautiful thought for creative business.

The responsibility upon all of us then is to share what we know of course.  Give freely the knowledge you might have gleaned from your work, your study, your life and business experiences combined.  We all stand on the shoulders of giants big and small.  However, let us all go further.  Let’s push deeper into the abyss.  Actively encourage the discomfort of not knowing, of what is completely foreign to you, your colleagues, your world.  Let the uncertainty marinate for a little while longer.

Here is what I have come to know:

If you let the uncertainty linger, to accept the angst that comes with feeling lost, inevitably “Why Not?” bubbles to the surface.  In the “Why Not?”, for me at least, is a whole new way of being, behaving, thinking about creative business and what it “should” look like.  So much so that the very notion of “should” becomes absurd.  Instead, we all get closer to “can”.

Go ahead then and teach all that you know to whoever will listen.  Whether you get paid for the effort is beside the point.  But please let’s as a group go deeper.  Encourage not confusion, but disbelief.  Actively promote thinking as to what is profoundly personal — I do not know why I feel this way, but I do, with the specific bent that we are talking about creative businesses and how they run.  Not my place to comment on other areas of anyone’s life beyond their creative business nor is it yours unless you are specifically trained to do so.

There is always a better way, better than what I might offer, what you might offer.  Who cares?  There is no end to better, only the work to get to the very place you will never reach.  When the delusion of better resides at your fingertips, we give up the search and the meaning of the search itself.  My question then is how can you go beyond what you know and push those around you to linger a little while longer in uncertainty?  To be committed to formulating new solutions, or, even more, new problems that require innovation and risk heretofore either unheard of or considered.  This is how we change lives, transform creative businesses, make a difference.  No better day than yesterday to get to it.