Always facing the unknown

You're always facing the unknown

Fear of doing something new

Often you hear people talking about “fear of the unknown.”  It holds them back from trying something new, from stepping beyond their comfort zone, from fully committing to pursuing and realizing their dreams.

No matter how dissatisfied they may be with their current situation, the “unknown” seems worse—or at lest, it might be worse. As the saying goes, “Better the devil you know than the one you don’t know.”

You’re always facing the unknown

But when you think about it, you’re always facing the unknown.  You never know for sure what will happen next. You never know for sure where your current decision will lead. Even the decision to not do anything new will lead somewhere. For all you know, perhaps not leaving your comfort zone is the worst choice you could make.

But the point is, you’re always facing the unknown. And choosing to do nothing is actually just one form of choosing to do something. So the whole argument about “not wanting to try something new because you’re afraid of the unknown” is rather meaningless. You always live at the edge of the unknown, and everything you do or don’t do moves you into it.

It’s not just the future that’s unknown

For that matter, it could be argued that you don’t really know what’s going on now—at least if we’re talking about your current worldly situation, which always has layers and layers of hidden meanings.  You have your opinions about your current situation, but there’s no way to know for sure. So it’s not so much that you might have to “move” into the unknown—it’s where you live all the time.

But that doesn’t mean that you always have to be afraid—or for that matter, that you ever have to be afraid.  To be continued ….

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