The Power of Uncertainty

We've all experienced times of great uncertainty. A health crisis. A rocky marriage. A stressful job. And these crises can tap into our deepest fears of the uncertain, the unknowable, the unforeseen. How do we respond? Because uncertainty is so painful, we too often seek the quickest resolution of that pain. We flee from the unhappy marriage. Quit the job. Try to escape through denial or addiction. Or, hungering for simple solutions, we bury our heads in the sands of fixed and rigid certainty. We cling to dogma, science, prejudice. Put our trust in gurus, unyielding political beliefs or divisive ideologies. But there is another way. In the Oscar-winning movie Steel Magnolias, Julia Roberts' character faces wrenching uncertainty as she must decide whether to have a baby and put her own life at risk. As she takes a dangerous leap into the unknown, she says, "I'd rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special." Embracing uncertainty--rather than seeking to banish or ignore it---is in fact the only way to utilize its power. To mine its vast potential as a source of creativity, authenticity, and personal and professional growth. Which is what this book is all about. In The Power of Uncertainty, authors Hoyt Hilsman (author, political commentator and former Congressional candidate) and Dennis Palumbo (noted psychotherapist, author, and former screenwriter) argue that fear and uncertainty are, in fact, the wellsprings of positive change. Rather than trying to banish fear and doubt, or struggle against the reality of uncertainty, we should view uncertainty -- and our own fears---as a part of the normal state of nature, and of human life and society. As this ground-breaking book shows, it's only by embracing the power of uncertainty that we can open doors to a world of greater creativity, accomplishment and fulfillment, both as individuals and as a society.