Starting a project, acting on an assertion, seeking to learn something, are all means to step into the future. These are the moment in which you actually could know that you don’t know what is going to happen. All of them include an unknown.

And yet, one of the encouragement to move ahead often shared is “I have no doubts that you’ll succeed”.

As if doubt needs to be denied.

Doubt is one of our most useful competences.

It’s not convenient.

It can show us when acting too fast, when moving in the wrong direction.

It can stop us from acting, from moving forward.

Doubt is an invitation to decide between fear and courage.

It is there to remind us of our ability to question ourselves. And it is there to develop the energy to use the tools at our disposal and make a decision we can commit to.

It’s what happens once you embrace doubt.

Without that embrace, doubt can transform itself into a fear of the unknown preventing us from deciding on the way forward hoping for a heaven-sent solution. Or it can find itself rejected leading us into reckless courage.