Many look up to leaders as people that have all the right answers and know what they are doing with certainty. The reality is that if you think you know it all, you stop learning and growing and will eventually fail.
Uncertainty. . . Being willing to doubt, can be a good thing for leaders. A few years back there was a book by by Gail Blanke called "Between Trapezes." The metaphor of the trapeze aptly applies in leadership, and in life. To be uncertain requires that we leave behind our personal and professional certainties.
Living in the gap, between two trapezes, is the chance to find out who we truly are and who we can be. It is the need to let go in order to grab something else. This could be very frightening. Nobody likes the idea of falling, of “humiliation,” of others looking on and discovering we are not sure if we can breach the gap.
That moment of uncertainty can also be a moment of exhilaration. A freeing space where you don't have to hang onto any certainties. It's a space where you can be creative, wildly alive, with your eyes in the next adventure, ready to grab what comes close to you.
Unless you are willing to embrace uncertainty, you'll never grow, or go higher, or learn anything. Oh we do love to hold unto our pet ideas. . . But is it not grand to be able to explore new ones? Is it not freeing to be able to say "I don't know," without shame?
There is power in letting go! Living in the unknown, being unafraid, trusting that what comes to you will be even better, frees you to embrace the new with gusto. I invite you to let go, to fly higher up to the next adventure, to open to new possibilities, to enjoy the moment, to experience the freedom of not knowing it all!
What do you think?
What will your life be like if you let go of your certainties and live in the gap of the unknown? What could be waiting for you on the next trapeze? What are you holding on to that is impeding your jump to the new? Share your comments with us.
Photo Credit: Mark Setchell