What’s Your Relationship With Uncertainty—and How Is It Shaping Your Choices?
Weekly Dose of Work Recovery Vol. 6.25.25
What's Your Relationship to Uncertainty?
Lately, in powerful sessions with clients, I've picked up on a theme. And it makes so much sense. When the world feels unstable and what once felt like a sure thing is like shifting sand, our mind and bodies seek to establish control in our own ways.
With a few clients (and in my own life), I've traced a familiar thread running underneath the stress, urgency, and frenetic pace. It isn't a lack of capability that's driving it. Nor is it a fear of failure. It's something quieter, more foundational: A difficult relationship with uncertainty.
Having a challenging relationship with uncertainty often has the effect of driving habits and decisions your don't even want to keep repeating. For me, it also leads to overreacting to external events all to avoid the real discomfort of not knowing what happens next.
Why We Crave Control
When the nervous system perceives uncertainty, it can register it as a threat. From an evolutionary standpoint, predictability meant safety. Uncertainty usually meant grave danger in our early days. And so we evolved to dislike it and built habits to avoid it.
So what do we do when uncertainty shows up now?
We over-prepare.
We try to “figure it all out” before we take a single step.
We micromanage.
We cling to the familiar.
We work harder to try to “earn” a sense of stability.
Here’s the kicker: We don’t usually know we’re doing this. Control rarely shows up like a neon sign. It’s more like background music, like a low hum of a stress and anxiety cocktail masked as extra productivity. Sound familiar?
Your Big Leap Requires a Nervous System Shift
From a science-backed perspective, this is about nervous system regulation.
If you’ve ever felt paralyzed when making a leap…
Or burned out from trying to "do it all right"…
Or you chase the wrong tasks or projects just to be busy…
It’s likely your system is in a state of sympathetic activation. Your fight-or-flight activated as your response to the uncertainty that surrounds you.
Your opportunity exists in uncertain outcomes. No one can promise you it'll all work out as you planned. Whatever change is on your heart is going to change you and often the outcome will be different, maybe even better, than you planned.
What is certain, however, is that you have everything you need to adapt, get curious, and pivot in spite of uncertain outcomes. Frankly, you've no doubt done it before and can do it again.
You don’t need to get rid of uncertainty. You need a new relationship with it.
Prompts Rewire Your Relationship to Uncertainty
What part of me is trying to protect me right now?
What would it take to trust the next step, not the whole staircase?
Your system just needs to feel safe enough to move. That doesn’t mean that you need more certainty or a roadmap that outlines every. single. step.
It means support. Self-trust. Breath. Regulation. Connection.
If you're in a season where the unknown feels too big to hold alone…It's not that you're not ready. You're in your big leap season. And this is where Work Recovery begins. Not by controlling the outcome, but by recovering your capacity to meet the moment as it is.
You’re not alone in this work.
And the next version of you?
She's waiting on the other side of what you don’t yet know.
P.S. If this hit home, reply to this email and let me know where uncertainty is showing up in your life. I read every message—and I’d love to hear from you.
This Week's Did You Know? There's a growing intolerance to toxic workplaces…
In today's “about time” news, studies show that as mental health awareness grows, younger generations of workers (millenials & Gen Z) are unwilling to endure toxic workplaces in the same way as their older counterparts. While it sounds obvious that employees don't want to work in a toxic environment, the sad reality is they are often bullied, harassed, and tormented as they look to leave. And financial realities often prevent someone from leaving without another job lined up. While bad behavior and bullying say more about the other person, therapy and regulation practices help immensely if you're in it. Woosaw…
Source: AP News, What to Do If You're in a Toxic Workplace
Links & Resources We Love Right Now
A listen: For more on how to expand your nervous system to hold more abundance (and uncertainty!), tune in to Annamarie Green on Powerhouse Women podcast.
A learn: As I lean into summer rhythms, I'm learning what really matters most in my business and in the structure of my days. If you haven't mapped out your ideal day, hour-by-hour, give it a try. My ideal day has changed a lot from a school day and it's been fun to see my shifting priorities to best support my family in summer.
A shoutout: To everyone who participated in the Work Recovery™ Challenge! The feedback was incredible. Here's what one person said “I wanted to reply and say how much I appreciate this work challenge week…this daily challenge resonated with me particularly because of my need to people please...” It takes courage to level up! Bravo.
Something I love: This guided meditation on your future self. Press play if you feel uncertain or stuck with what you really want in all areas of your life. It's only 12 minutes and maybe you'll get a vision for something beyond what you see now.
