Graduate High School √
Graduate College √
Get “Grown-Up” Job √
Eliminate Unknown…
Known is Comfortable
There’s a reason we have an education system built on the signal of a college degree. It makes people feel good, it’s a great system for cultivating worker-bees, and it allows an escape from the unknown. If you follow the checkbox path of adulthood you will know your path throughout your life. You will be the average American with 2.4 kids, a nice suburban home, some family vacations, and a workaholic mentality until you can retire on your nest egg. It’s comfortable to follow the conveyor-belt mindset.
Building a check-the-box career is comfortable. Even if you hate your job, you don’t hate your paycheck, and you can create the fantasy your future will hold to get you through the hard times. Knowing your steps, knowing that collecting a paycheck will lead you somewhere, is comfortable.
The Unknown is Scary
The opposite of the checkbox path is the entrepreneurial path. It’s the unknown path. Questions are abundant, and not knowing is always a part of the path.
“How do I know people will want what I’m doing?”
“How do I signal my value to people, and make them believe in me?”
“By doing this today, what fruit will it bear in the future?”
These are all questions I struggle with in dealing with the unknown. They are questions I never worried about when I was on the check-the-box career path. It didn’t matter. I provided a quality product to my employer, they paid for my services every other week, and we both got what we wanted. Beyond interviewing, and doing solid work, I didn’t have to prove myself on a daily basis to attract new clients or expand my business. The incentives weren’t there to deal with the unknown.
That has changed.
Eliminating the Fear of the Unknown
There are definite steps you can take in order to eliminate your fear of the unknown.
1. Become a student of the process.
There is a process to success. It’s not a simple “hack,” but a deliberate path to success. It’s about habit development, self-discovery, intentional living, and strong confidence. Becoming a student to the process means living the habits that’ll make you successful, even if you don’t know what success looks like. Doing things today that make you better will help you discover the unknown.
2. Develop a proof-of-concept and minimum viable product
We all have ideas. Some seem really cool in our minds, others come in one ear and out the other. In order to act upon our ideas we must actively develop them. Having an idea in our heads, or in our notepads, is not enough. We must develop a product to show our thought. The product doesn’t have to be some innovative new device, or a sophisticated app. It can be something as simple as a “How-To” guide or a blog post. Showing the ability to create something is a signal of your capabilities.
3. Have faith in yourself
This is the hardest to do when eliminating the unknown. You have to be strong, you have to be confident, and you have to believe in yourself. To fully eliminate fear of the unknown, you have to develop a strong level of self-worth. There isn’t time for negative thoughts when you are going through the process. Instead you need to focus on what makes you strong, and use that to your advantage.
Living Your Way
Living life on the check-the-box path isn’t bad. There are plenty of successful, happy, well-financed people in the world who have lived the known path. There will continue to be successful people living that lifestyle. However, if you have dreams of living different than the prescribed career path, you need to take advice on living in the unknown. It’s not easy, we haven’t been prepared for it through our education system, and you have to have trust in yourself.
Living your way is about making the most of the world you live in. It’s about developing into the person you see yourself becoming and grappling, then conquering, the unknown. In order to live your way, you must give it your all on a daily basis, and trust that eventually things will fall into place.