Uncertainty is Unproblematic

When life takes an unexpected turn, staying positive is the only way to turn uncertainty from eating away at you.  Most of the time, it is in our nature to try to control our environment as much as possible.  But controlling our jobs, our emotions and our daily routine is impossible to maintain.  There have been days lately where I have regretted not reading my horoscope that morning, as if knowing ahead of time that things were about to change would make it any easier to manage. 

An easy comparison I can draw is running in a race.  Let's say I had known the new route of the BMO Half-Marathon ahead of time, I would have been able to practice the hills that I felt significantly slowed me down, and I may have shaved a few minutes off my finish time.  Yet on the other hand, going into the race not knowing exactly where I was going or what kind of terrain lay ahead, I didn't have to dread the hills coming around the corner and know exactly how grueling they were going to be.

Planning is not my strong suit, but learning is.  Unfortunately, without proper planning skills, I tend to learn things the hard way.  It may not be the most efficient way to learn, but I certainly have not needed to be taught the same lesson twice. 

Surrounding myself with the people and things I love, such as running my beloved seawall, spending time with my amazing friends and my always-supportive family, I can recapture that same blissful and positive attitude that came so naturally when everything was going according to plan.  What I have learned in the past few weeks is that worrying and dreading uncertainty is far more painful than embracing it.