Sitting with uncertainty --Tess style

I got home

a few days ago from World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. About 3,000 people and I gathered there to ponder the question: 

How do you live a remarkable life in an ordinary world? 

Great question, right?

I got see/hear speakers, such as Nancy Duarte, Darren Rouse and Gretchen Rubin talking about creating resonance, following your dreams and finding happiness. I also saw the premier of a remarkable film that very much spoke to my craving for creative cohorts, called Indie Kindred (which I'll talk more about in an upcoming newsletter).

Photo by Chris Guillebeau

I loved Tess Vigeland's talk. Tess walked away from a very successful career in radio journalism, mostly as the host of NPR's Marketplace Money. She walked away without having a shred of a plan about what she was going to do next. 

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

No idea whatsoever.

She talked about sitting right in the middle of uncertainty ... without trying to change it, avoid it or make it go away.

In this age of instant gratification, there are a gazillion ways to distract ourselves from uncertainty and the unknown.

Tess's talk reminded me how valuable it is to not know and to become comfortable with uncertainty.

Why? Because life is full of it. It's there every day. And distraction is a temporary fix for how uncomfortable most of us are with it.

I left Tess's talk inspired to find ways of sitting with uncertainty.

How about you? How comfortable are you with uncertainty? What ways have you distracted yourself from feeling it?