When Everything Feels Uncertain: What’s Really Going On and How to Move Through It

We all have heard it a zillion times already...AI is accelerating.

Teams are shrinking.

Expectations are rising.

Blah blah blah aka...things are moving very fast and you've got to keep up.

Meanwhile, you’re still expected to deliver like nothing’s changed.

Many of the most capable leaders I work with are asking themselves: "If things keep shifting ... where do I fit in?"

That question, left unexamined, will chip away at your confidence.

Instead, we can remind ourselves the following:

👉 I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not falling behind. I'm in the middle of a shift that no amount of hustle can outrun. And there are three not-so-comfortable truths (aka reality checks) that can help navigate it.

Reality Check No. 1: There's nothing to "fix"

When uncertainty shows up, we high achievers are wired to "diagnose." We're problem solvers to the core. How else did we get to be the amazing achievers if this was not an engrained set of skills?

When I burned out at Google and took a three-month unpaid pause, the elephant in the room staring me in the face was saying: "If you're not doing well now, and leave this job, what if you were wrong this whole time? And you're not who you think you are?"

(insert awkward silence).

My identity was shaking to its core. I was swimming in uncertainty. I was challenging the scaffolding I had build my entire existence on: a smart, capable tech-savvy woman who could "figure anything out."

As I discovered, nothing was broken. Something new was being created.

This moment isn't asking you to go back to your old ways, and "make it work." It's asking you to align with what's now here.

• Your job is something you do. It is not who you are.

• The discomfort is not a malfunction. It's a sign that you're out of alignment.

• This is totally doable, where we can get back into alignment through a little self-inquiry and understanding. And what is new is even more valuable, because it's who you are, and where you're going, now.

  
  

Pause-a-tive question to ponder: What qualities do I have regardless of title, company, or experience?

Reality Check No. 2: It does not work to think your way out of it

Because we're so great at problem solving, we think we can learn anything, and then solve for it.

This type of challenge does not respond to more thinking.

In fact, more thinking is exactly what keeps us stuck in the hampster wheel 🐿️. Instead of analyzing and over-thinking, we need to feel safe enough to do something that feels a little stretchy, but not enough that it paralyzes us.

This can be letting someone in to know what's happening, pausing the norm or schedule to notice how we're feeling, or what we're NOT doing or saying.

Pause-a-tive question to ponder: What is one small, uncomfortable step or truth you've been avoiding that might actually move you forward? If it feels radically uncomfortable, that's a good sign that you're on to something.

Reality Check No. 3: The in-between is where the magic happens

There is a phase in every meaningful change where you between two places - think liminal space. It's what I'd call the pause space.

👉 Maybe you are no longer who you knew you were, but you haven't fully become who you're growing into yet, and it's where the rubber meets the road.

It can feel self-doubt creeping in (aka the voice that isn't super supportive), leading to second-guessing or feeling a lack of confidence in any thing. Like, something you should be able to solve if you Just. Worked. Harder. 💪🏽

But this in-between space is not the actual issue. It just feels ridiculously uncomfortable, because, we are (wait for it) with oursleves, maybe for the first time, in a whole new way.

It's the precipice of a breakthrough.

What is really happening in this weird in-between-ness...

• If you experience self-doubt, it's not a sign of failure, or what you're thinking is accurate. It's a mile marker, one you can acknowledge, observe, and then get curious about by asking, "what is happening here?" This is actually an incredibly high state of self-awareness to invoke - it takes staying objective and keeping ourselves out of the negative-thought doldrums.

• Retreating to any of your old stories (narratives you have on repeat such as, "I used to crush [task/role/skill], I used to love [fill in whatever skill you were known for], so why can't I do it now/why do I not want to do it?

  • 👉 This is simply a self-protection mechanism that is on repeat to keep you in your comfort zone (because we feel safer in what we know!). See how clever the mind can be?

• The key is to recognize that the discomfort is where the magic happens - and the more you resist the discomfort, the louder it gets unless you address it.

  
  

Pause-a-tive question to ponder: Where in your life are you rushing back to the familiar instead of letting something new take shape? What can you get curious about?

So What's Next?

If you're related to any of these 3 new realities, I invite you to try a new strategy: tend to your energy before any action. Before your next big decision take 3-5 long, slow breaths, and name an emotion along that will help you remain present in your body (vs your head). This can lead to a more regulated nervous system that is more creative, more confident, and more able to better align from there.

I invite you to give yourself permission to be in the inquiry of it all, and not have it all figured out yet.

You are not behind.

You are not failing.

You are evolving.

That is the power of the pause, and how you can navigate uncertainty and any shaky ground, without losing yourself in it.