There seems to be an ever-growing presence of uncertainty. It probably doesn’t matter if there is more uncertainty today than half a century ago. What matters to individuals is their own sense of uncertainty and their ability to deal with it.

And yet, that might be the root of the problem.

Denying uncertainty isn’t a solution as it means disconnecting ourselves from a felt risk and pushing our reactions to it out of our visibility. Without a sense of uncertainty, there are no warning signs left helping to learn or allowing to change our minds when something is wrong.

Deciding to focus on uncertainty instead makes sure that uncertainty cannot disappear. There is always a possibility that things will turn out differently, that a detail has been missed, or that some element of our assessment is wrong. Uncertainty is basically not knowing what will happen, and that is the result of not being able to predict the future.

People actually know that there will always be uncertainty. But having never learned to deal with uncertainty, the named strategies are the most chosen ones. Both are based on the idea of rejecting uncertainty and the hope that uncertainty will not be in the way. In reality, it is giving uncertainty the ability to overwhelm us without any warning. Often enough it will work.

By looking away, it becomes difficult to know what kind of uncertainty is overwhelming, if uncertainty can be reduced towards something easing our ability to act, what it is that allows us to overcome uncertainty, and how to deal with the frustration of uncertainty.

The result of looking away is that uncertainty finds itself reinforced.