Basic human needs must be met to remain alive. We only last weeks without food, days without water, and minutes without air. Because of that, we all get enough air, stay hydrated, and don’t skip meals. These survival-related needs are fairly easy to meet and understood by just about everyone, and we all would agree that they are needed and important.
Our other needs as humans are obviously much more complex and can be broken into different categories. Abraham Maslow created a Hierarchy of Needs, which has at its foundation the physiological needs (food, water, air, etc.), but also includes safety, love and belonging, esteem, and at the top of his pyramid was self-actualization. Manfred Max-Neef’s nine fundamental needs include subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom. And Tony Robbins’ model of Six Human Needs includes certainty, uncertainty/variety, significance, love/connection, growth, and contribution.
When thinking about the needs we have as humans, the food, water, and air are the most obvious and easiest to understand. Even safety, love, and significance make sense to most people. And the need for certainty can be appreciated by just about everyone. It’s uncertainty that most people don’t like and find hard to accept as a human need.
We work relentlessly to create certainty in our personal worlds. Our brains are wired that way to help ensure survival. To know something, i.e., that we have a plan for dinner, that we have a job that provides us a paycheck, or that our spouse will be there when we get home, allows our nervous system to calm down. Our parasympathetic nervous system, the one that allows for rest, recovery, and digestion, kicks on, and the sympathetic nervous system, our fight or flight system, turns off.
But there are downfalls that come with too much certainty. Author Robert Greene has said, “The need for certainty is the greatest disease the mind faces.” To think we truly know something stifles creativity and prevents us from growth and discovery. By entertaining two ideas at the same time that are contradictory, it allows us to compare and contrast, to work our way to new ways of thinking, living, and seeing the world.
I once heard someone say that they never close a door completely on a thought, idea, or belief, leaving it open just a bit, allowing for the possibility that there is more to the story, new information that could change their mind. When certainty is paramount in your life, you seek sources that support what you believe, you block out conflicting facts, you essentially put blinders on.
If there is one thing in life that we can be certain about, it is that it comes with uncertainty. The most powerful and meaningful things in this world are loaded with uncertainty. I love figuring things out and getting answers to my questions, but I love the awe and amazement in seeing unexplainable scenes in nature, serendipitous moments, and witnessing what seem like miracles.
The truth is, we need uncertainty. How boring would life be if we knew everything about everything and knew how everything was going to turn out? We watch sports because, in reality, anyone can win. The movies we love the most are the ones with the most surprising endings. And we feel most alive when we push the limits, take chances, and are a bit daring.
Our hearts beat faster, our blood runs quicker, and our minds expand when our world views get turned upside down. And when that happens, it isn’t always for the better or the way we planned, and sometimes causes great pain. But to think that we can control all aspects of life and lock everything into certainty will only make those unplanned hits that much more painful. We will continue to strive for certainty…that’s how we are wired, but we need to not only acknowledge the existence of uncertainty, but embrace it and appreciate it. It makes life more exciting, exhilarating, and wondrous.
So don’t let that door shut all the way. Leave it cracked open just a bit. And don’t just know that there will always be uncertainty, get excited about its possibilities.
