We drove from Austin to Houston, passing deep, green farm land stretching as far as the eye can see. While we listened to Mumford&Sons, he asked me why we were driving three hours to a conference.
“I’m going to support a friend,” I told him while staring out the window, imagining myself riding a horse under the tall oaks trees we drove past.
I believed it, until I realized just how wrong I was.
I explained that I bought a ticket to the Forever Strong Summit hosted by my good friend, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, because she’s changed my life and health beyond my wildest imagination.
I simply wanted to go to her conference because I wanted to sit in the back of the room and hype her up.
I asked JD and Luna if they wanted to drive with me to Houston after I spoke at an event in Austin, instead of flying back home.
They agreed, so we had a Texan roadtrip, complete with JD stopping for a roadside BBQ pulled-pork sandwich.
On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast together, and I headed to the conference, while JD and Luna floated to the pool.
There I met up with my good friend, Amy Porterfield, and we sat in the back row, ready to hoot, holler, and cheer on Dr. Gabrielle.
Then a crazy thing happened….the guest speakers blew.our.dang.minds.
What I thought was going to be an event of graduate-level lectures about longevity, muscle building, and meat protein amino acids, turned into conversations about TRUE health.
- Choosing food that fuels you.
- Leadership decisions that fuel you.
- Communication styles that fuel you.
Because these weekly posts are about sharing what I’m learning with YOU, I wanted to share the BIGGEST lesson I learned from Rich Diviny, a former Navy Seal, author, and leadership expert.
HOW TO OVERCOME UNCERTAINTY
First, we need to define what FEAR is: The combination of Uncertainty + Anxiety = FEAR.
We crave predictability because it keeps fear at bay, but—truth is—we can only be certain of uncertainty.
So if uncertainty is an always-present, never ending fact of life, how might we take charge and control our uncertainty?
(I found this to be especially true for entrepreneurs, where we must make decisions amongst daily uncertainties!)
Here’s Diviny’s 4-Step Process to Control Uncertainty:
- Observe and Ask Questions – What do I know? What can I do? What can I control?
- Pick a Horizon – Set a duration of time you’ll focus on the controllables, set a pathway to pursue, define an outcome.
- Act – Start doing. You won’t give up until you’ve completed the duration, followed the pathway, and got an outcome (even if it’s not what you wanted).
- Register Reward – Even if it’s small, reward yourself for staying true to the duration, pathway, and outcome.
Rich Diviny stood on stage and I furiously scribbled his wise words in my notebook:
All growth happens outside of your comfort zone. You must choose things that make you uncomfortable. The past is history, and the future is fiction. Choose your fiction carefully. Let go of what you can’t control. Anxiety is simply holding onto what you can’t control. So, let go.
To letting go,
j*
