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Certainty and
Resistance
Chapter 3.3 (Overcoming
Obstacles)
4/17/09 Draft
“Doubt is not a
pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd” –Voltaire
Voltaire was a philosopher and a
rebel. Perhaps he could manage
without certainty, but what about the rest of us? Is certainty absurd for us, too? Should we show the same disdain for certainty that Voltaire
did?
Certainty can be very useful. As we grow and get more experience, we
assemble a network of knowledge and assumptions, facts, and beliefs. Over time, we accept them as true. They become our certainties. They constitute the foundation upon
which we build more knowledge and understanding. This is the bootstrap operation that babies perform as
described in Chapter (3.1).
If you questioned everything, it
would be difficult to make progress.
If every idea required starting over from the beginning, you would not
benefit from your experiences. But
just as you cannot benefit from experience if you doubt everything, neither can
you expect to learn if you are too certain of your current knowledge and
assumptions, facts, and beliefs.
Picture an executive with his arms
folded tightly across his chest, his eyebrows furrowed, and his lips set in a
straight line. What do you
sense? A person open to experience
or one who has made up his mind about something and is set in his ways? When you see that picture, you can
almost feel the rigidity.
Certainty is one of the obstacles
to overcome if you are to make the most of your experience. Learning does not occur if you believe
you already have the answers. Certainty
shuts you off from accepting new information and ideas. When you are sure you know something to
be true, you often don’t even recognize contradictory data or facts. You unconsciously screen them out
before they even reach your awareness.
In this way, being “certain” is the same as being “stuck.”
Certainty can also be a sign of
resistance. One senior executive I
coached felt threatened by uncertainty.
He adopted an attitude of certainty to prevent his doubts from rising to
the surface. This happened subconsciously, so he was unaware that his apparent
certainty actually masked uncertainty and insecurity.
It is normal to protect yourself
from anxiety, but it can be carried too far, as it was in the case of this
executive. You may create a
negative situation where to avoid danger to your belief system, you stop
learning and growing. In some
cases, when the threat or expected discomfort of doubt is strong enough, your
unconscious response may be to hold more firmly than ever to the conscious
belief or certainty.
Certainty and resistance can be
obstacles to your growth. How can
you overcome them?
In chapter (3.2) I suggested that
you practice asking “Why?” In the
case of certainty, you might ask yourself questions like: Why do I feel so strongly about
this? Why do I react so strongly
whenever someone raises a contrary point of view on this topic? Why am I so certain that this is the
way it must be? You may be satisfied with your answers. If, however, you identify some
certainties that now seem habitual, shallow, or outdated, you have prepared
yourself for more learning from experience.
Certainties are neither good nor
bad in and of themselves. It is
how you identify and manage them that is important for your ability to learn
from experience. Through this process, you are likely to discover that some of
your certainties are well founded and are core to your sense of self and who
you want to be. You can
build on those even more deliberately and productively. Others, however, are
likely to be revealed as either inconsequential and non-essential or as harmful
and counterproductive. You will want to clear them out to make room for new
learning and for the certainties that are important and life affirming for you.
It is vital for you to be able manage your degrees of certainty and
uncertainty.
Application: Test yourself. Are you ready to look a bit more deeply into areas that
normally go unquestioned by you?
If so, it is time to open up and engage in real dialogue with a coach or
some trusted friends and colleagues.
You can also gain additional insights from reading, particularly when
you seek out new perspectives.
Biographies (see chapter 6.4) can be especially helpful.
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