I’m not the first one to say it but 2020 has been one wild year. It was as if the Coronavirus was the icing on top of a cake of world wide disasters. The prolonged nature of the pandemic, as well as the restrictions put in place by many countries, has a lot of people uncertain about the future. Personally, my wife and I were about to embark on an amazing ex-pat journey to another country. Those plans were swiftly shut down when the pandemic closed borders for both international departures and arrivals.

We were living month to month, monitoring the situation, and changing things when necessary. Obviously living with so many unknowns can make you uptight, it’s hard to always be reacting to things. We all need our own ways of dealing with the uncertain nature of things, otherwise, our stress can consume us. Here are some ways to deal with uncertainty for now and for whenever it comes again.

Get Mad

When things don’t go our way, or when your travel plans get completely upended by a global pandemic, we get upset. If these feelings are not addressed they are bottled up and carried around with us wherever we go. Sometimes we may even un-bottle these feelings on unsuspecting colleagues or family members. To avoid this it is important to address how the change in situations has made us feel early on.

Some people cope better by resolving these feelings of anguish alone. Others prefer to get them off their chest straight away, voicing their problems to an empathetic spouse or trusted friend. It is perfectly normal to get upset that things didn’t go to plan. It is the severity of how upset we get, and how long we dwell on it, that can be problematic. To become proactive again we need to understand that things didn’t turn out how we wanted and start focussing in on the situation around us.

Get Used to Floating

In the case of a personal issue, you may be in a period of uncertainty for hours or weeks. In the case of COVID-19 we have been experiencing uncertainty with travel, work, and even accommodation, for the past three months. At this point, things aren’t travelling in a linear direction anymore and you sort of feel like you’re floating. Take this time to experience things as they happen, but also work on your methods of management. Despite what’s going on in the world some things still need to get done. You still need to eat, sleep, and wash yourself; and you may need to look after the environment or others around you. Make sure the normal aspects of life around you are being maintained. It can help provide a feeling of completing something in these not so normal times.

The pandemic situation has given many people a good opportunity to slow the clock down a lot. Before our focus may have been on all the emails, lists, and pickups that needed to be done. Many people are now finding they have a lot more time to focus on what is happening in the moment. Call it mindfulness, call it being present; what’s important is understanding that this time of isolation and movement restriction provides you with a window to look at things differently. Take the time to notice all that’s going on around you at the moment and appreciate it.

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”

John Allen Paulos

Reflect On The Past

As we spend time floating and being present, we may begin to look back at what has happened in our lives. One important thing to focus on is when things went right because it’s quite likely that things have gone well for us at least once before. The Coronavirus pandemic is definitely a new occurrence. However one of the first things people started doing was comparing it to previous medical outbreaks like Bird Flu, Swine Flu, and SARS. Similarly, many experts have turned to previous instances where the financial markets were in trouble. From examples of the past, people can learn what went right, what went wrong, and what could have been done.

Similarly, reflect back on your life. Ask yourself when was the last time you got yourself out of a motivation slump? When was the last time you did something positive with your time? It can help inspire you and it shows you that you can accomplish great things given the right situation. If you are too young to remember any of the other past scenarios, be conscious of how you’re feeling and what you’re doing right now. If you’re ever feeling low again, or uncertain about something, remember the things that helped get you through this current time.

Get A Plan

So things aren’t going your way, and things are progressing in a different way than before. What are you going to do? If you eventually want to move out of your temporary state of uncertainty you need a plan to do so; even if, say for COVID-19, your plan is to wait things out until they get better.

• Who are the players involved in your plan right now?
• What event(s) need to happen to make your situation better or worse?
• How will you react in each situation?
• How long can you wait before making a decision?

These are all questions that can cripple you if you choose to sit and dwell on them. Write them out and discuss them with a trusted someone. It can help remove issues from your brain or heart and out into the open. With a plan you are less likely to spend your time focussing on what could happen and you can use your time to prepare for the next step in your life. It’s both a way to plan ahead and destress. The point is not so much to solve all your problems through planning, but rather to distance yourself from these thoughts and view everything from another angle.

Get Better

Are you not sure what skills will help if you lose your job? Are you not sure how to find validation during COVID-19? Take this time to focus on yourself and improve yourself. Self-improvement happens slowly and with consistency. Keep working on small habits that will lead you to become who you’ve always wanted to be. If you’ve always wanted to learn a new skill or complete a project you’ve been putting off, it might be a good time to start working in that direction. This also ties in with the concept of floating in periods of uncertainty. When things are happening around us that we can’t control, taking control of ourselves or our habits can give a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment. 

While working on yourself and your skills, this is also a good time to work on caring for yourself too. I still feel bad about waking up late these days, but with the pandemic, both my wife and I are finding our days don’t need start at the crack of dawn and we are catching up on hours of lost sleep. Take this time to work out a meal schedule, read a book, and connect with your family. As much as we need to work on the skills that can make us a better person, we also need to work on enriching the qualities that will help us become better too.

Times are uncertain right now, and the slow nature of things right now might actually be contributing to your stress rather than reducing it. Understand that the state of the Coronavirus is largely out of hands, but then again so many things were out of our control even before this. Try to realise and be comfortable with the fact there are just some things out of our control. Experience life as it is right now and live in the moment, keep working on yourself, and don’t just leave your thoughts inside your head. If you would like to read my personal reflections from the earliest part of the COVID-19 lockdown, I have a post about that here. Hopefully, we can all learn to live through this uncertainty and come out on the other side as better.