Embracing the Unknown | Ep. 52
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Order Within Navigating a world of endless chaos and crisis, many of us are experiencing inner turmoil, insecurity, anxiety, fears, and isolation. These feelings are only being amplified by news cycles. Social media and never ending political madness. How do we find our way out of the chaos?
[00:00:24] How do we find strength within ourselves? How do we find meaning in a world driven by materialism? These questions and many more I aim to answer on the show. My goal is to be a trusted guide on your journey to selfhood. May you find what you seek. Hello and welcome everyone. I'm your host, Brandon Ward. Back with another episode of order within. Episode number 52. Today, we're going to be talking about embracing the unknown. Talking about the importance of that. We're going to look at. Understanding the nature of uncertainty and the unknown. We're going to look at the importance of embracing the unknown.
[00:01:17] We're going to go over some strategies. To help us embrace the unknown. I want to look at real life. Examples of stories. We're going to look at overcoming the fear of the unknown, and then we're going to wrap the episode. All the lot of why I do. The show. Is because of the importance of mental fortitude.
[00:01:41] And the strength. And flexibility and openness. Because when we become mentally rigid, And.
[00:01:54] Closed off to the unknown. And we put ourselves in very limiting. Dangerous positions. It also makes us very susceptible. To manipulation. And fear. And there are absolutely people in power that leverage our fear and use fear to benefit them. And fulfill on their obligations or whatever that may be. Now, this is true in a lot of things.
[00:02:25] We can see it all around us. We can see. How fear is used and in the media. In the news. In marketing. In relationships, fear is often the thing that is used to manipulate people. And fear is empowered. And enhanced. By leveraging the unknown or creating these unknown monsters or entities and things of that nature. And so we're going to go into.
[00:02:59] It's the.
[00:03:01] In a very chaotic world that we live within. One that is driven by. The struggle for power. Now, there are many people that believe this is the way we operate.
[00:03:15] Is the struggle for power. It's a power struggle. It's a dynamic, it's the hierarchy of existence that everyone's fighting to move through. That's one way to view reality in life. You can absolutely look at it like that. You can look at life as if. Earth is the only thing that we know. It's the only life that we know. And it's the only thing that matters. And you can live that way.
[00:03:42] We can also pull out and go from a higher perspective and recognize that there could be a lot more to life that we don't know about. There could be a lot more to our existence that we know at all about. And to.
[00:03:56] Approach that. As if it's a known topic as if it's a known subject. To say that earth is the only life in existence or to operate out of that belief. In a certain way. Makes us susceptible to these types of manipulations to fear because we don't know. That's the reality. We don't know. We don't know.
[00:04:23] So many things. We don't know a whole lot more than what we actually do know. And I know that's hard for people to accept. Because. We want to feel in control in life. And so we.
[00:04:40] Clean to these ideas of the things that we know. And so the significance of this show, this episode is to talk about that, to uncover. The limitations of that and understand why it's so important to learn, to navigate into embrace the unknown. To engage with it in a meaningful and honest way.
[00:05:03] And I'm hoping that today's show will help with that. So we're going to, we're going to start with the understanding. Of the nature of uncertainty and the unknown. And it starts with the duality of the unknown. So there's a paradoxical nature of the unknown because it can be both a source of excitement and anxiety and.
[00:05:27] I've learned that's based on our perspective, the perspective that we carry towards the unknown and the perspective that we carry towards life. And when we so dependent upon our approach and the perspective that we have on the unknown, we could be excited or we could be very anxious. Most likely it's going to be a combination of both. I think something that we struggle with as humans is.
[00:05:54] Putting things in extremes or boxes. So recognizing. The duality of nature in and of itself. It can help us see that there's a scale that we all kind of slide within from known to unknown, excitement, to fear, love, to hate all these things exist on a scale. And we exist in the middle of that. We are. Life is the tension between the negative and positive polarities.
[00:06:23] The energy that's all around us. It's in the metaphysical realms. It's in the. The quantum physic realms we know within Adams and at the quantum level, that life is. Made up between these two polarities. So we get in that state as well from a mindset perspective. So recognizing first and foremost that the nature of the unknown can be both exciting and cause anxiety.
[00:06:53] Is the first step. The idea though, is that we can learn from our anxiety and lean more into the excitement and get into a more excited state about the unknown, because the unknown is where the adventure lies. That's where the magic happens. It's where all the. The F the hero journey, the call to adventure that we feel comes in that space.
[00:07:18] That's the thrill of discovery. Because we're out there exploring unknown territory. So that is thrilling. It's exciting. It's adventurous. It can be invigorating enlivening, but it's also. Can trigger those natural instincts around fear. Things that. Because fear has served us throughout our evolution throughout our existence.
[00:07:46] And fear indicates to us when the, when there are unknown factors in this space, there could be potential predators or dangers. So fear has a place. But we have to balance it. And we have to recognize that when our fear is acting up we have to acknowledge it. We have to honor it. We have to listen to it, but we have to also recognize, is this being irrational? Is this being.
[00:08:08] Out of control. Is this being domineering? Because what happens over time is if we allow fear to rule us, it ends up dominating every area of our life and just takes away all the joy. And the power that we can hold. If we allow fear to rule us completely. Because it's going to take us away from the thrill of discovery. It's going to take us away from the call to adventure. It's going to take us away from the ability to advance and.
[00:08:38] Expand our lives. So when we do that, we have to recognize that. It's a dual aspect. We will be both excited and fearful when we're engaging with the unknown. So just recognizing that allows us to be equipped with what we're walking into and understanding the situation at a deeper level.
[00:08:58] There's uncertainty in our own lives. And this ties into really in all areas. We can have uncertainty in career choices. We can have uncertainty in relationships. We can have uncertainty in personal growth. We can have uncertainty in our family life and our spiritual lives. So it's unavoidable. That we are going to experience uncertainty in areas of our lives, things where we simply don't know the answers.
[00:09:24] And one of the greatest things that's happened for me is recognizing the power of understanding of letting go and being okay with not knowing. Not knowing every little detail, not knowing how things will come to be. But having more trust and faith in my ability and confidence to take action. And that life will lead me.
[00:09:44] Through. The journey with its inherent wisdom. We don't need to have everything figured out life will guide us when we connect to the wisdom that is inherent all around us. But there are tons of uncertain areas in our life and all points and that's unavoidable.
[00:10:04] We will continue to go through uncertainty. And I think the times that we're moving through will only enhance that. And it's only going to force us to lean into uncertainty, embrace that and learn how to navigate it. So the evolutionary roots of our fear of the unknown. Our key. They are how we depended and how we survived in many ways early on in our existence.
[00:10:30] Our ancestors. Used. The ability to quickly assess and re react to potential threats in their environment through fear. Because of the unknown meant we may not survive in those days. The unknown was, I don't know. What's in that Bush. I don't know what's out there in the darkness. I don't know. What's in the next.
[00:10:53] Forrest over, I don't know what village is out there. There were tons of unknown factors at the time. When our ancestors were evolving, that they had to be mindful of. So that fear served us. It enabled us to survive. Those who were reactionary and keen and aware could survive longer because they could react in appropriate times to unknown situations and threats.
[00:11:21] So our brains evolve to be weary of the unknown. As a means to survive and self. Preserve. This is true. Even in our childhood, we do all types of things like this in our childhood that protects our existence and growth as children, but do not serve us as adults. So our brains have evolved. To be skeptical.
[00:11:45] Of the unknown to constantly seek to know what is the unknown. We're trying to quantify the world around us, understand it and classify it so we can protect ourselves so we can be confident. That we can go into spaces or do certain things and be safe. So our desire to constantly know the unknown is driven through our evolution. It's also the pull that keeps us growing.
[00:12:12] But this fear is absolutely rooted in our evolution. So it's something we have to be mindful of. It's not something that you can just quickly turn off. It's a process that you have to learn to adapt and roll with.
[00:12:25] Another aspect of uncertainty is in the modern society. Just how rapidly things are changing with technological advancements, the social norms, global events, it's all led to an increase in uncertainty and. Of late. You have the pandemic, you have the evolution of AI and you have all types of things happening around the world.
[00:12:51] Related to energy and technology and just massive changes happening all around us. And we have the internet to see all of it. Now that's another thing. That's new. Is, we can actually get visibility into all the things that are happening around the globe. That was never possible until the last 20 years with the internet, things are much more connected, much more visible. So we're seeing more of this uncertainty. We're seeing more.
[00:13:18] Of the unknown, the fear, all of the things that can happen in life. So it can feel even more uncertain because we're seeing all the change that's taking place. Around us. So this can create a massive level of. Mental health and impact our mental health in a negative way. If we don't learn to manage these things and recognize that change is absolutely the only constant in life and that this will continue to happen.
[00:13:48] And that being mentally flexible as the way we can adapt and overcome the world that we're living in adapting is key. But if we don't get a grip on it, our mental health slides we be get, we become fearful, stressed out, frustrated, isolated, lonely. All the things that I've talked about on my show before many of us have experienced and are experiencing, this is part of that.
[00:14:16] It's scary thinking about the world that we live in now. And when you look at our society, it's rapidly changing. And then finally. As we're understanding the nature of the unknown here and looking at it. We're looking at the limitations of control. Understanding that we have a desire for control and predictability in our lives. As I was mentioning earlier, we want to control the things that we don't know. We want to know the world so that we can be in command of our existence.
[00:14:46] And protect our survival, protect our families have predictability in our lives so that we're not constantly in a state of fear on edge. So we're looking to lean into and press the limitations of our control as much as we can. But when we attempt to control everything around us, this leads to increased levels of stress.
[00:15:09] And a reduced ability to adapt because we're now clinging tighter and tighter. As opposed to letting go and opening up and learning to trust and realizing that there is wisdom and intelligence inherent in life, all around us. So we have to focus on the things that we can control. And recognize the limits of those control and where they go beyond things that we don't control.
[00:15:34] Because that's ultimately how we can. Let go of all this stress and this fear and this worry is recognizing the things that we do have control over and seeing the things that we don't. And there is so much in life that we don't have control over, but the things that we do are within ourselves. The way we view the world, the choices we make, the way we treat other people, the effort that we put into our lives every day, the vision that we generate and the consistency that we apply to bringing our vision to life. That's how we can engage in the aspects of our life that we control and learn to let go of the things that are outside of our personal sphere of influence.
[00:16:17] A former guy, a former boss that I worked for had a saying that he called the hula hoop effect. And if you put a hula hoop around you. And then look at what you control. That's it what's inside that hula hoop is what you control. We don't control other people. We don't control the world around us. We don't control anyone but ourselves. And then moment we can, the sooner we can recognize that the more freedom and peace we can find within ourselves and then the mastery game, the game of power becomes.
[00:16:46] Within ourselves. And that's when we completely changed the dynamic of our life and the direction that we're going as a species, and also allow us to really reach and hit our stride in ways that we've never had before. That's what we're aiming towards is getting to recognizing the things that we do control. All right. So now we're going to look at the importance. Of embracing the unknown. There's a lot of opportunities. That lie in leaning into the unknown. A lot of that revolves around our personal growth and learning opportunities. By stepping into the unknown, we can lead ourselves to great levels of personal growth.
[00:17:29] Because it pushes us beyond our comfort zone and it challenges us to adapt. And when you think about Darwin, Darwin actually said it wasn't the strongest that survived, but it was the most adaptable species that survived. And our strength, our physical strength is a part of that, but really it's our mental strength. The intellectual prowess that we've developed as a species has enabled us to survive and continue to evolve.
[00:17:57] As the apex predators on the planet. I'm hoping as we evolve more, we'll recognize that we're not just animals. We're not just predators. We're much more than that. We have spiritual roots in the universe. And by leaning into these unknown spaces, leaning into our uncomfort zones, we can learn to adapt challenge ourselves and create strength in our minds through that flexibility and developing that flexibility.
[00:18:28] So personal growth is a huge piece of this. If we want to continue to evolve and change. And if we, the thing is that the world we're living in now, everything is moving at such a rapid pace. If you don't learn to adapt, if you don't learn how to. Build a flexible mind, how to be open to ideas.
[00:18:46] That we're unsure of or unfamiliar with or unknown to us, we will struggle. And it's crucial for us to survive and thrive in the world that we live in now of ever. Change of ever fast, quickly moving change.
[00:19:02] So think about it when you're embracing uncertainty, when you're learning new skills. Now, when we're learning new skills, I used to have a problem of thinking that people just had the talent and they weren't working towards developing those skills. I was wrong. What I've come to learn is we can all learn.
[00:19:20] Just about anything. If we're willing to put the effort and time into it. Because when we start something new, We don't know things. There's all sorts of uncertainty, but we can learn and grow through practice through study and through application. And this allows us to develop those new skills, to build our knowledge base and to discover more of who we are. And you can apply that to really any new skill, whether you're learning web development, whether you're learning to write, whether you're learning a sport.
[00:19:49] Learning how to date, how to parent. This applies to all of life. So it's important for us to understand. The ability. This gives us by embracing the unknown. It gives us the ability to advance and evolve our skillset. As people and as creators.
[00:20:08] It also helps us develop adaptability and resilience. When we are leaning into the unknown and we're facing the unknown. It becomes essential that we adapt. And adjust to that world, to the things that we don't know, it forces us to be out of our comfort zone. And because of that, we don't have a choice, but to adapt and by adapting and adjusting and learning and growing, we develop resilience over time. We start to realize change.
[00:20:41] Growth discomfort. Is part of life, and this is how we become better, more fulfilled humans. So resilience is a by-product of that process. Uh, learning to be adaptable. And over time we develop that resilience that allows us to navigate an ever-changing world. In a fun open way.
[00:21:02] It gives us the ability to become anti-fragile. And fragility is something that is very prominent in our world today, where we can't handle things. That are outside of our frame of reference or outside of our current belief system. So we become very fragile. The idea is we want to develop anti-fragility strength.
[00:21:25] That allows us to thrive and grow in the face of adversity and uncertainty. So instead of being terrified and anxious about this, we actually get stronger. We become. More powerful. In that openness and the ability to face that adversity and lean into uncertainty. It creates great strength in us, which allows us to become antifragile. And that's something we need desperately because as a society and as a people, we've become extremely fragile.
[00:21:54] I was once like this too. I could not hear things. I took everything personally. I couldn't see things outside of my own. Uh, insecure worldview. So I know what this is like, and I know what it's like to transform that. To find strength in yourself. Now that doesn't mean I'm done. I'll never be done. Learning growth changes a lifelong pursuit.
[00:22:16] But there's absolutely the shift from fragile to antifragile and strength as we do this work.
[00:22:24] It's also critical in terms of fostering creativity and innovation. Because when we lean into the unknown, when we embrace the unknown, it often requires us to think outside the box and explore uncharted territory, therefore ideas. New ways of doing things can come to be. But when we resist the unknown, when we resist that space,
[00:22:49] Innovation is hard to come by because we're never playing in the unknown. We're not pushing the boundaries of what's possible. So creativity and innovation are born when we're pushing the limits. Outside of our comfort zone.
[00:23:02] And. There are. The groundbreaking ideas, inventions. Have all come from things like this, right? The ideas of time throughout science. When you think about just some basic ideas, gravity. The center of gravity though, where earth falls in terms of the universe. How gravity functions, time, understanding energy, all of these things, or pushing the boundaries of what was known at the time. And we're going counter to what was known.
[00:23:33] A lot of people who had incredible discoveries and found these new ideas or persecuted because of that. And then over time, people accepted that they were correct, even though in that time they were persecuted because they were going against. The norms of the time. This is critical. Again, this happens throughout human history and so leaning into the unknown allows us to expand and innovate our world and our culture as a species.
[00:24:02] This also expands our worldview and crucially connected to that is developing empathy. When we engage with the unknown, it can help us broaden our perspectives. As we encounter new ideas, people and cultures. We can learn about the world. We can learn about things that are different from what we have experienced.
[00:24:22] There's so much beauty and nuance in life and by exploring and being open to different cultures and people we can enjoy and experience all this incredible richness that the world has to offer. And by doing this, we can develop empathy. And understanding by challenging the own assumptions, our own assumptions and preconceptions about people or cultures. And we can expand our worldview and relate to our fellow humans in a deeper way, empathy, understanding, and connection.
[00:24:52] Are the bedrock of living an enlightened life. And that's the way we. Can do it and we're striving towards, but it takes effort to get there and empathy. And in connection with our fellow citizens and humans outside of our cultures can help us develop that. Important skill. And then last year, before we move on to the next section is building trust in ourselves and the process.
[00:25:19] When we embrace the unknown, it allows us to develop trust in ourselves, in our abilities to navigate uncertainty and face challenges. Head on. It builds confidence. And self-esteem when we realize that we can learn, we can handle uncertainty, we can handle adversity and we can make things happen and overcome it regardless.
[00:25:38] And when we lean into the process of growth, when we understand that this is how we transform when we transform ourselves, by living in the discomfort, by pushing the comfort zones that we have and exploring the unknown. We allow for possibilities that are also unknown. That's the beautiful thing about this. So when we go through this process, it allows us to deepen our connection to ourselves.
[00:26:02] And build greater trust within our abilities, our skills, and the, our ability to learn and grow and allows us to trust the process of growth and embrace it and have fun with it because ultimately. It can be a ton of fun.
[00:26:19] All right. So now we're going to look at strategies. For embracing the unknown. Now a lot of this stuff, again it's very common in, and I may sound repetitive, but these are the tools that we have in our tool set that can allow us to develop these skills. And this is how we do it. So I repeat it a lot and I re I bring up a lot of these same recurring themes so that they stick their angered home because they matter. And this is how we do it.
[00:26:45] So cultivating curiosity and open-mindedness. Is crucial. Based on the fact that it's going to give us the flexibility that we need to engage with the world. It's going to give us mental agility to quickly be able to move and think and adjust and adapt. And it also gives us mental strength.
[00:27:03] When we have curiosity and open-mindedness, so these are possibilities that come out of having an open and curious mind. And so we want to lean into that. Lean into curiosity, lean into open-mindedness lead with questions. So you, and that's how you do that. You foster curiosity by asking questions, exploring new topics, staying open to new experiences.
[00:27:28] Considering things, even absurd ideas, but considering them fairly and openly, we have a hard time doing that. When we first initially hear something that we may not agree with or think is correct, we amiss instantly often dismiss it instead of considering the possibility, instead of considering how that could be.
[00:27:48] And when we do that, we shut off the opportunity to learn and grow and expand our minds and our perspective on the world.
[00:27:55] But we can do that when we lead with questions with curiosity, when we stay open and when we notice ourselves getting closed off, reminding ourselves to stay open and being flexible with it. Awareness can really help transform this whole process. Because we can see where we're shutting down and closing ourselves off related to new information and expanding our mind.
[00:28:21] Another aspect is going to be, so we're going to cultivate curiosity and open-mindedness you want to adopt a growth mindset? The growth mindset changed my life. I discovered this back in 2017 and so many things have happened in my life since then. And it's only because. I have this happening. I know.
[00:28:40] That the growth mindset is what enabled me to change, evolve and expand my life because of what happens and what I've learned from the growth mindset. So the concept of the growth mindset is that. And I've done episodes on this in the past. But it focuses on learning and personal development rather than fixed abilities. It basically says everything is possible to learn.
[00:29:06] We look at obstacles and challenges as opportunities for growth to overcome mistakes are signals to adjust and adapt and continue to grow. And we recognize that growth is a constant, continuous process. Everything can be learned when we're willing to put the effort in, and we may have a baseline of talent or some initial and skill, but it's all about developing that skill, that talent and taking it further is what distinguishes greatness from not.
[00:29:34] And the growth mindset enables us to do that because it realizes that we can learn. That anything we can learn anything if we're willing to put the effort into it. And just because we don't know how to do something, or we're not performing at a high level now does not mean we're not capable of it. That's often the fixed mindset saying we can't do that. We can't do this because I'm not this, or I'm not good enough. Or I don't have whatever.
[00:29:56] Those are signals of the fixed mindset. And we counter that by realizing we can grow. And we have to challenge those ideas by saying, I can learn, I can grow. I can do this by attacking day by day. Bit by bit and building on those skills and practicing.
[00:30:13] Another way is to practice mindfulness and staying present. Mindfulness is really critical by being aware, it can help us be present to our mental blocks, where we get tight. So meditation, deep breathing. Can help us stay present and grounded in the moment in the face of uncertainty. So when we're feeling a lot of anxiety, when we're filling a lot of fear, recognizing it being mindful of it,
[00:30:37] And working to still ourselves doing some breathing exercises, maybe some movement, there's little things that we can do. Tapping can be helpful too. There's little things that we can leverage that can help us stay grounded. In the face of uncertainty. And doing this reduces anxiety. And it actually helps us to become more comfortable with the unknown, because as we're doing it, we realize we have steps and processes in place that can help us navigate this situation instead of flailing and feeling lost or out of control, we can recognize we have control in situations and in these moments, even uncertain moments, we can still, our minds we can connect from within.
[00:31:16] We can. Anchor ourselves from within and create stability, even in uncertain times. Another way to go about. Embracing the unknown is to leverage support systems and build connection. This is very underrated in a socially technologically driven world. We've lost sight of this, the importance of support networks to navigate the unknown.
[00:31:37] Uh, example is parenting. Parenting is a great unknown for many parents. New parents obviously. It's very difficult to have and raise kids without a village and having help around you. So we need support systems. And connections around us to help navigate uncertain times to get through tough points. So having friends, families, and mentors.
[00:31:59] Can help us navigate tough times. And you can do that. Now, the wonderful thing is because of social media, we can connect with like-minded people. We can build communities. We can find people in our area that we resonate with. It just takes some time and effort, and we have to put ourselves out there to build those relationships. But ultimately that guidance, those connections can help us navigate very tough, unknown terrains.
[00:32:24] All right. So we got a few more here relative to embracing the unknown and some of these are going to be some somewhat straight forward here, but set realistic goals. And I think. This is important because we can have big goals. It can ha I have a big vision for my life, and it's great to have a big vision, but we have to start practically.
[00:32:42] Achieving goals on the way up to the top of the mountain. So if we're wanting to climb a massive mountain, That's a big goal. But what are other markers along the way? That signal to us, our progress that starts with setting realistic goals. So if an example, and this is always an easy one, because most people want to make money. They have an interest to make money, but if you have a certain income goal,
[00:33:02] Maybe it's a large income goal that you have. We'll step your way up. If you're making $5,000 a month now, or you're making a thousand dollars a month now, whatever it may be, but you want to be making 10,000 a month. Then step it up. So if you're at 1000 now, how can you get to 1500? How can you get to 2,500?
[00:33:18] Start setting up those achievable goals. Breaking them down into smaller chunks. So you can show so you can see and experience the progress along the way. This is a great way to counter the fear of the unknown and all the work that we have in front of us and what we're afraid of.
[00:33:36] And then the last one here is going to be embracing risk, taking and learn from failure. So taking calculated risks and being willing to fail in order to grow is key. Failure is absolutely a part of success. There is no separation of the two. We fail our way to success. That's how we succeed. We fail along the way.
[00:33:57] Edison. Is a prime example of that. It took him 10,000 attempts to build the light bulb. He didn't see that as failures. He found 10,000 ways for it to not work until the one that he did worked. So you have to go through those failures. Quote unquote, to get to the successes and the wins. And there's there are stepping stones.
[00:34:19] Two. Our success. When we fail, we learn, we adjust, we modify and adapt and move forward. That's the process. We keep adjusting, adapting and moving forward.
[00:34:30] All right. So there's. Think there's a lot of, there's a lot of famous examples of individuals who've thrived in uncertain situations. It's going to depend on you and your perspective, the inspiring figures that you may find. Some which is that come to mind, thinking about explorers. Christopher Columbus.
[00:34:50] Amelia Earhart, you have innovators like Steve jobs or Elon Musk. Nelson Mandela's incredible leader. Who had to shatter a lot of illusions and deal with a lot of hardship in his time. So there's a lot of leaders that we can look to. That have overcome great obstacles to fulfill their mission. Martin Luther king is another incredible leader that went through incredible adversity and helped bring the country together at a very divisive time.
[00:35:17] These are the ways that we overcome and we can look to these people for inspiration. But there's also cultural wisdom and traditions that I wanted to bring up. And there's a few here that I found very interesting. So the one would be the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. And it is the. It finds wabi-sabi finds beauty in imperfection, transients, and incompleteness.
[00:35:41] It can inspire us to embrace the unknown and appreciate the impermanent and uncertain nature of life. So in Japanese culture, they lean into that incompleteness. They understand the transience of nature, the imperfection of nature. And by embracing that. We can. Go much further into our journey and actually enjoy the process.
[00:36:02] Of exploring the unknown and expanding our world.
[00:36:06] And native American wisdom. You have the story of two wolves. And which teaches about the inner struggle between fear and love, courage, and hope. And so it's like one, you have the light Wolf and the other, you have the dark Wolf and inside they're battling for. Your mind and affect. And so this story emphasizes the importance of nurturing our positive emotions and attitudes when facing the unknown, but also recognizing that there are the dark emotions within us. We don't dismiss them outright. We lean into them. We embrace them openly.
[00:36:39] Which allows us to become whole complete beings. And Daoism, you have the concept of Wu Wei, which translates to non-action or effortless action. We weigh, encourage us to go with the flow of life, embracing the unknown by allowing things to unfold naturally and not forcing outcomes. So it's very much flowing with life being open.
[00:37:02] To the current of life and taking action relative to what feels right and moving in an effortless way now that's a very beautiful concept, but that's a tough one to master, it's a very tough one to master. And then finally here. We have an African proverb. Which has crossed the river by feeling the stones.
[00:37:21] And this proverb advises us to approach the unknown with caution and wisdom learning as we go. The concept that we learn as we go is something that we've forgotten and all of us are on a journey and we are learning as we go. And so feeling the stones as you cross the river is a way to represent this journey.
[00:37:41] You want to put your foot on the stone to make sure that it's stable, it's not going to sink or fall over, or it's big enough to hold you. So you're doing it with caution and wisdom and you're learning along the way. Maybe you identify a specific type of stone. That's much more stable than the other ones. And you can recognize that. So you start to see patterns.
[00:38:00] In your journey as you're taking one step at a time. And adapting to new situations when you're facing uncertainty. When we face these uncertain times. And then the role of art and literature. So that was some traditions in different cultures. And then we finally have the. The role of art and literature and film and exploring the unknown and.
[00:38:20] I've talked to quite a bit about these, but there are the concepts in of exploring the unknown and the Alchemist by Paulo. Coelho Charlo. I'm messing up his name right now. I read the Alchemist a really long time ago. It's a great book. About exploring the unknown and ultimately coming back full circle with the journey there.
[00:38:38] On a journey of self discovery and our purpose in life into the wild. By John Krukow is as a, is a really great story about a real guy that goes out into the wild. Seeking adventure and freedom and truth and all these things. He. Unfortunately tragically died in that scenario because he ate a toxic mushroom, but again, out there exploring the unknown living life at the edge of existence. And then finally the matrix. This is all about the unknown taking the red pill or the blue pill. That's a pretty common.
[00:39:09] Concept that we know in our culture now. And taking the red pill is effectively going down into the unknown unplugging from the safe known world that we believe to be true. And so the last bit here, before I wrap the episode is going to be focusing on. Overcoming the fear of the unknown. And we do that by first identifying and challenging our own limiting beliefs.
[00:39:32] So we have to recognize how our fears of the unknown often stem from limiting beliefs and assumptions. We hold about ourselves or the world around us. So we have to. Challenge those assumptions and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. And we can do that. By journaling, by reflecting on ourselves and nature, by working with a therapist or a coach to really get a sense of what's living in our mind, what's living in our subconscious mind so that we can be aware of that and start to slowly transform our mind into.
[00:40:02] Alignment with what we actually want with life.
[00:40:05] Part of this is going to be learning how to cope. With uncertainty. And having coping mechanisms. I've talked a little bit about it already, but this is key for us to when we're having challenging situations, we need things that we can go to, that we can do. Whether that's a breathing exercise, maybe that's a prayer that we do. That's like the concept of prayer beads.
[00:40:24] It's very physical and tangible to have that. So if you're feeling or experiencing something, you can hold your prayer bees and you can go through your process of doing the prayer. My wife and I actually watched a movie called alive. Over the Easter break. And it's about. A rugby team. They get stranded in the Andes and they ended up surviving. It was, I think, almost three months that they ended up surviving and they had to do a lot of terrible things to survive, like eating some of the people that had passed away.
[00:40:52] Some people didn't make it because they could not. Adapt to that concept that they had, the ability to deal with that. But one of the things that they did do as a group that helped cope with the situation is they did daily prayer using prayer beads and saying. The hail Mary, that was a way to help them cope. So meditation breathing, exercises, engaging in hobbies, exercise, all of these things can help us cope.
[00:41:20] And deal with uncertainty. Reframing the unknown as an opportunity is a very powerful way to go about doing this too. That's something that I've learned is to be, it is an extremely powerful way to adjust and adapt the world that we live in. Is reframing the unknown. Because there's opportunity out there for growth, for learning, for exploration, for expansion.
[00:41:44] When we recognize that everything that's magical happens in the unknown. That's where this great. Opportunity lies. And so when we shift our mindset, From this perspective, to see the unknown as opportunity and recognizing where we're pulling in expanding our worldview more so than just fear-based animals. We're much more than that. So when we tap into.
[00:42:09] That external. Eternal perspective, that spiritual perspective, it can allow us to develop a larger view of life. Which enables us to build and shift our mindset around. To leading to a more increased confidence and resilience and adaptability when dealing with the uncertainty, because we see that it's opportunity. It's actually an awesome thing to have this opportunity to grow and expand and explore.
[00:42:34] In the ways that we do.
[00:42:37] Another thing to do is visualize positive outcomes and success being very specific about what you want, envisioning those things, experiencing them, living in those moments can help us. Push through the unknown and the fear that we have, whatever it may be. If we're starting a business, if we're starting a new career.
[00:42:54] If we're learning a new skill envisioning ourselves, and that ideal outcome can help us push through the fears that we're experiencing in the moment.
[00:43:03] And by doing all this, we're going to build up our self confidence and trust in our abilities. Now I did a whole five part series on self-confidence. Based around the framework that Nathaniel Branden had developed in his career as a psychotherapist, it's extremely powerful. Self-confidence is something that we can learn. There are lever levers that we pull that contribute.
[00:43:25] To our confidence. And a lot of that comes around setting and achieving. Small goals, celebrating their successes and surrounding ourselves with supportive people and slowly building up our skills and leveraging them and learning them and putting them into practice. When we do that, we can build up our confidence over time and start to trust in our abilities.
[00:43:47] And this allows us to overcome the fear of the unknown, at least manage it. That's the key. The fear never goes away fully, but we learn to manage it and operate with it and act in spite of it.
[00:44:00] And then the last thing here is we practice this by exposing ourselves to uncertainty and the unknown. We can do this by gradually exposing ourselves to concepts that we're unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with to slowly reduce our fear. Like when you have a phobia, You can reduce that fear by directly engaging with the thing you're fearful of. And you can do that.
[00:44:24] In. Progressional steps. You can gradually grow your ability to lean into that by exposing ourselves to uncertainty into our fears, to the unknown. So by taking on new challenges, you can try new experiences. You can engage in activities outside of your comfort zone. You can go into new cultures, you can travel. There's so many things that we can do. You can engage with people that you don't agree with, or you don't feel the same way.
[00:44:51] Doing it respectfully though. 'cause that's the key here. Is, we got to get back to being respectful and caring and open to one another and listening again because it's very tough. Otherwise. All right, Joel. So that was a. These. These episodes are deep. I hope you are. And joining them. There's a lot that we covered in this show, but there's a lot that goes into embracing the unknown and it takes, it can take a lot, but there are a lot of tools and strategies that we have available to us, which is why I do this show and cover the things that I do on the show, because there's a lot of things that we can do, like practicing mindfulness and meditation to stay present.
[00:45:31] We can challenge our limiting beliefs and assumptions through self reflection and journaling setting, realistic goals and breaking them down into manageable steps, seeking support and guidance. From our friends, family, or mentors, and engaging in new experiences and activities outside of our comfort zone, all of these things.
[00:45:49] Can help us expand our worldview and learn to lean into the unknown. And, I would encourage you to share your stories, to share your challenges that you've struggled with, or you've overcome. I'd love to hear about it. If you want to drop me a message. If you want to drop some comments, honestly, I'd love to hear from you.
[00:46:07] Relative to the things that you're struggling with and the things that you've overcome, because ultimately that's what it's about. Sharing our wins, overcoming those challenges and kicking butt. At the end of the day. So with that being said, you all got this, you can overcome challenges that you're facing. Uncertainty is possible. We can lean into that. Uncertainty is actually a wonderful thing.
[00:46:28] You have the courage, the curiosity, and the open mind within you. It is there. It's waiting to be discovered and unlocked. It, the key is we just have to cultivate it, activate it and unleash it in our lives each day. So with that being said, y'all. I hope you're enjoying the show and until next time.
[00:46:46] Thank you for listening to Order Within. If you found the episode helpful, please consider sharing, rating and subscribing. New episodes will be released every Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard time. Until next time y'all.