Wouldn’t it be great to know up front whether or not a challenging, complex endeavor is going to be successful?
Every innovator, entrepreneur, business owner, freelancer, investor, scientist, artist, designer, creative, salesperson, marketer, and executive I know would surely love to have this superpower.
The fact of the matter is, none of us do, and facing this uncertainty can make starting and persisting through complex endeavors daunting, hard, and even scary.
While we can’t know the outcome of complex endeavors from the outset, we can do one simple thing to make it easier for ourselves to set out, show up, and put our best foot forward:
We can acknowledge and accept reality.
Reality is that when you’re committing to a complex endeavor, you’re enrolling in a difficult, uncertain, and risky adventure that might not work.
The practice is not in seeking to hack, evade, or eliminate these facts of reality: it’s in noticing and deliberately moving towards the opportunities to learn, experiment, stretch, and take informed risks that won’t sink you, but may lead to meaningful breakthroughs.
It’s also in trusting that regardless of wherever your challenging adventure may lead and the actual outcome, you’ll improve your skills and capabilities of acting on the world by committing to an endeavor and taking action.
