“Your ability to deal well with “not knowing” is more important than whatever it is you do know.” - Ray Dalio
Risk tolerance, like many things, is different for everyone. Knowing yours is important.
When I think of this, I don’t think about the word “risk” as much as I think about the word “uncertainty”. It’s a universal law; doesn’t matter who you are, what country you live in, where you fall on the social or economic scale, we ALL deal with uncertainty. Some of us know how to deal with it better than others. Some of us struggle worse than others.
To live a full, peaceful life, we have to know how to deal with uncertainty. To succeed in our careers, with our families, with our relationships; we have to be able to deal with not knowing everything; yet still make decisions & take ownership of the outcomes that stemmed from our decisions. We may not know what outcomes are to come; but we must still act. The uncertainty can’t freeze you.
A major key to your solution, is your ability to deal with “not knowing”. This quote by Ray Dalio, is so profound to me. It reminds me of the law of uncertainty. This is something that we will be dealing with for our entire lives, no matter your circumstances; you cannot predict the future; certainly not all of it. There are plenty of things that we have in our control; yet there are even more that aren’t either. How you prime yourself, clarify your mind and deal with the unknown will influence your outcome.
Anxiety, stress, nervousness, all emotions that come from uncertainty & not knowing are based in fear. How do you deal with your fears? How do you deal with the fear of not knowing? The fear of not having? The fear of not doing? The fear of not being? Answering these questions for yourself will help you remove those fears and negative emotions, preparing and equipping you for your future and the unknown.
Focus on developing your ability to deal well with “not knowing”; what do you focus on when you don’t know or don’t have answers? Master your mind & thought patterns to center yourself & remove yourself from the fear of the unknown. Learn how to master “not knowing” by developing your faith. Faith in your thought patterns, faith in your prayers, faith in your actions, faith in your being, faith in God & his almightiness. Fear is the absence of faith. Face “not knowing” with faith. Use your faith to get you into action and demonstrate your mental & emotional agility. You need to be mentally & emotionally agile in order to deal with uncertainty.
Learning to “reference instead of retaining” is very important. You don’t need to memorize procedures, exit plans or strategies. How will you remember the procedure to take when you’re struck with something you never knew could possibly happen? There’s no way to plan for that. There’s no step-by-step guide to get you out of it. So, what now? What do you do? How do you respond in times of crises? How do you respond in emergencies?
Remain calm. Be still.
Look around.
What are my blind-spots?
Focus. What are the major keys here?
What outcome is necessary/desired?
What action do I need to take in order to create this outcome? Pray about it.
Where do I start? Ok, now execute.
Ask yourself, throughout all of the noise; uncertainty, confusion, how do I respond to not knowing. How well can you deal with not knowing? It’s easy to perform when you know everything that’s going to happen; or how it will all play out. What about when you don’t know? How do you instill confidence in yourself, your decisions, your actions and your team then? What do you fall back on? What are you depending on, your logic or your faith?
Focus on what you can control, focus on your desired outcome. Leave no stone unturned. Everything that YOU have the power to control, you control, and do to the best of your ability; then you have nothing else to worry about.
We can stress & worry about everything we don’t know. That does us no good, until it literally causes us to do nothing. Nothing but worry & fear. INSTEAD, choose to focus in on what you do know. Remind yourself of your faith. Research what you don’t know. Find your blind-spots. Get feedback from others. “Feedback is a gift”. Everything you have the power to control, control. Every resource you have available, reference them. Every reference you know will be useful; find and use it.
Take ownership & control of your actions, your thoughts, your effort and apply them to the best of your ability and let the unknown that care of itself. Do your part, let God do the rest.
It is not fulfilling or satisfying doing what we already know we can do. We all want to do something we didn’t know we could do. You’ll accomplish that with your faith. You’re faith will guide you to those accomplishments and the blessings that come from them. Those are the feelings that are most fulfilling. Achieving things, you didn’t believe were possible. Creating things you didn’t know could exist. All made possible with God, your faith and actions.
Remember that you don’t know & will never know everything. You don’t NEED to know everything. You simply need to know how to deal with not knowing. Find the major keys, apply them to the best of your ability; watch and learn what you didn’t know.
“He who knows not & knows not that he knows not, is a fool. He who knows not & knows that he knows not is wise.”
Knowing that you don’t know is one of the most powerful insights one can have.It will help you absorb, analyze, hear, see & maximize on a bigger picture. It keeps you open. It keeps you receptive; guiding you to wherever you’re destined to go. Don’t worry about knowing everything; just know how to navigate and find answers & solutions to your problems and other people’s problems. Be a problem solver. At the end of the day. That is what is of value. It’s not about knowing the answers to the problems, it’s about being able to find answers & solve whatever problem arises.
You can never be certain of what problems won’t or will arise; but you can be certain you will know how to overcome it and solve it.
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