Embrace Uncertainty to Unlock Your True Potential

Nomad Vlog 5 - Settling Further into my Digital Nomad Routine, I Find that Uncertainty is is Piquing my Abilities

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‘Be bold and powerful forces will come to your aid.’

That’s a quote in one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous, that has always resonated with me whenever I heard it.

It’s delivered in a slightly overbearing tone by the mother figure in the film, played by Frances McDormand, incorrectly citing Goethe (it’s Basil King), but it carries a powerful underlying concept.

Its general intent implies that to the bold comes fortune, ordained by the grace of some higher power of deity or nature that comes to lift up those who have the courage to step out of the normal and expected to dare to aspire to something greater.

That notion in itself is powerful and motivating enough to inspire.

But the more I think about that quote, and the more I struggle to achieve, the more I believe that a large portion of that uplifting energy exists within us, waiting to be unlocked.

My Journey: From Seeking Safety to Burnout

I’m now in the fourth week of my digital nomad journey, which has started here in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

Next week I’ll be heading to a new city here, La Fortuna, to spend a week in the rainforest living under a volcano and continuing my balance of productivity and new experiences.

Before embarking on this new chapter, my routine was much more predictable.

It was living alone in the suburbs, working 14-hour days, nights, and weekends, working hard to keep up with client income work while desperately trying to fit in my entrepreneurial and creative aspirations in the edge hours in between.

I was lucky to live in a nice place where I had room to work and create, and I justified it since progress was my main goal, but the extra cost of comfort made me so desperate to maintain income work that it locked me in a cycle of giving up all my energy and time to others for sustainability that it left little of me for progress on the things that I cared most about.

And in my daily and weekly routines, I saw the same four walls and the same houses lining the block I would walk a couple of times a day to keep my sanity.

Tapping my strength of discipline and toughness, I would sacrifice social outings and replenishing new experiences to fill what little time I had with productivity, in hopes of somehow breaking through.

I’m no stranger to workaholism, but the net product wasn’t adding up.

I didn’t see it at the time, but I was giving everything I had to maintain security in fear of failure, that I was stuck, furiously spinning in one place.

Slowly then quickly, the grind and feeling of giving so much to move so little, started to wear on me.

All the while I was in my downward spiral of seeking security, I knew deep down that a change was coming and needed to happen.

I knew that I had to get out of the weight of my overly expensive living situation.

I knew that I had to stop devoting the vast majority of my waking hours to working for other people just to sustain.

Against my nature, as I could hear a mighty force calling me toward uncertainty, and having spent every ounce of life energy that I had, I knew that a leap into the unknown was the only way out.

The Fortunate Era of Uncertainty

When I finally hit the tipping point and started moving toward the action of change, I started to feel faint tinges of relief and hope that I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

A renewed excitement of the future and its possibilities was re-aligning my resources of mind and soul toward the promise of something new.

I didn’t know what my next step would be and what the future would bring, but I knew that I would figure it out. That I would adapt.

Any doubt that I had was almost immediately washed away.

Taking action and uncertainty had activated another side of me, engaging the fuller spectrum of my ability to move forward with excitement and vigor.

Even in the face of uncertainty of income and not having a permanent place to live, it felt like it was the naturally right direction.

Since moving and embarking on this transition, there has been a mighty force of momentum at my back, affirming decisions and engaging to ensure movement toward the path ahead.

Deep down I knew that this was the path that I had to take. I probably knew it for years.

But the fear of uncertainty kept me locked in an exhausting cycle of seeking security and exhausting all my life energy to spin in one place, somehow thinking that I was actually progressing.

As I slowly become more accustomed to the more present companion of uncertainty, I realize that there is no better time to become familiar with its presence.

We live in an age of disruption, change, and opportunity, and the breadth of it is just beginning.

The era of predictable routine and easily foreseeable futures is coming to an end.

Technology is changing the world around us, creating a rare moment of immense opportunity while shaking the foundation of safety in a path of seeking security.

For those willing to accept uncertainty and tap into the mighty forces of their instinct and adaptability, there is arguably no better time in history to be taking a chance and shooting your shot.

Following curiosity, embracing creativity, and taking the risk to create and invest in the future that you want to embrace is more possible now than ever before.

Online business, working from anywhere in the world, AI enabling small teams to do big things, the opportunities in uncertainty are as big now as they ever have been.

It’s much better to face that discomfort with the unknown now than to continue to seek security in the structures and routines that could no longer even exist in a few years.

With the disruption of technology and AI, change will come, that much we know, but we don’t know exactly how it will play out.

Much better to be investing in adaptability, embracing risk, and moving dynamically into the future than to wait for the uncertainty to find you anyway.

Uncertainty: The Essence of Creativity & Innovation

Taking a broader look at the importance of getting comfortable with uncertainty, we can see its presence clearly in the process of creativity.

The blank page, the first musical note, the first brush stroke – we never quite know where they will lead, but without the courage to move forward and find out, nothing new and beautiful would ever be created.

This principle resonates within us and echoes in the actions of visionaries. If Steve Jobs had clung to the certainty of past successes, the revolutionary iPhone might never have been born.

Similarly, consider Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. In a move that shocked audiences, he boldly went electric—a controversial risk that, despite initial resistance, redefined the boundaries of popular music and expanded its creative horizon.

The daring nature of innovators and artists has brought about some of the biggest leaps in society’s progress throughout all of history.

Yet, we are resistant to uncertainty and seek the stability of the predictable.

The vast majority of us struggle with it, I know that I do greatly, but I believe that it is something that can be worked on and improved. We just need to commit and have the courage to step a little further out of our comfort zone and step by step, the unknown will become a bit less scary.

Embracing Uncertainty for Growth, New Experiences & Agency

Some people seem more naturally at peace with living with uncertainty. In many ways I envy them. So much of what I’ve often aspired to in creativity, adventure, relationships, entrepreneurship and so much more all lies waiting on the other side of uncertainty.

Becoming comfortable with the unknown unlocks so much possibility in life, creativity and business.

There are many people who are fine with seeking security and finding the comfort of predictable routine, but for the creators, the visionaries and all the other crazy ones like us who are always seeking to explore and expand, the relationship with uncertainty is essential.

In such a short time, I am already reaping the rewards of embracing uncertainty in my path as a digital nomad. The amount of new experiences and lifelong memories that I’ve had in the last few weeks is way beyond worth the initial discomfort of the unknown.

It’s easier to see that on the other side. And a part of me always knew it would be that way, but I wrestled with my secure side and it took me longer than it should have, but I did it, and I’ve learned from it and next time it will be easier.

I still have a lot of uncertainty. I’m focusing more on building a business around Niche Creator and as such don’t have as much money coming in. But I feel invigorated by the opportunity to build something new with AI and in the process help multipotentialite creators in their path. That feels a lot more inspiring than devoting all my energy to affording a decent place to live in Los Angeles for a month.

I still don’t know where I’m going to live by the end of the year, whether it will be in an affordable studio an hour or two outside of LA to keep connection to that changing energy of that city, or if it’s somewhere else in the US that is less predatory and more affordable, or if it’s on another side of the globe in another new country.

I know where I’m going next though and that what I’m working on excites me.

I know that I feel mighty forces within me activated and aligning on this path and that feels right.

In that, uncertainty feels certain.

Michael