The Carry On Life

Being an Accurate Critic of Oneself

Too often, I find myself stressing out over whether I’ve done things well enough. I find myself considering tiny details, and under the microscope of scrutiny, uncertainty rears its head. “Is this what my professor expects from this paper? Will I be able to support myself if I make this job decision? Can I wear this shirt with these shoes?”

I start to reason with the uncertainty, evaluating the potential outcomes of various decisions and finally make the best choice I can come up with. However, the fact that there were other choices available that I was aware of often leaves me insecure. It’s easy to get carried away following tangents involved in decisions, and before I know it, I realize that there’s just too many variables involved in any given decision to ever be 100% certain. Sometimes I begin to wish I would have just made a coin-toss decision without having pondered on the details so much, figuring that I’d probably have just as favorable an outcome.

If you’re like me, you understand how it feels to follow so many tunnels of possibility connected to one decision until you feel like there’s just too much involved to make an informed decision. However, fear not the uncertainty! My experience has show me time and again, despite the exponential uncertainty that I become aware of, I usually do make better decisions as a result of pondering the details that others might gloss over. Oddly enough they often feel more secure about their choices, but only as an effect of being less aware of the uncertainty at hand.

Think of your knowledge or informed-ness as a sphere of light surrounded by darkness. The larger the sphere grows, the more surface area contacts the darkness. Likewise, as you become more enlightened, you are more aware of the unknown. Next time you are stressing over how much you are uncertain of a subject, be comforted that you know enough to know that you don’t know so much.