I was recently asked by a business owner whether they would get a job they were bidding. The owner said to me, “Let’s test something! Are we getting that job?” I said promptly, “I don’t know!” The owner told me that if we talked from a space other than certainty, we are not likely to get the job.

I pondered that. Where do certainty and the infamous “I don’t knows” come from?

First, let me define what certainty is. Etymologically, Certainty means to be sure or fixed. It is the high probability that a certain event will occur exactly as it has previously. Certainty is something you can count on.

So, how does this all begin?

Somehow, somewhere and in some way, a light kicks on in our minds. We have a thought, insight, inspiration or idea, we receive information, learn something new or are challenged to do a certain thing and this certain something drives us to take an action. We have the opportunity to act or not to act.

For example purposes, let’s say we have no experience with this thing. There is no history that would tell us whether what we are anticipating works or not. We are in the space of “I Don’t Know”. We speculate that what we are thinking could or could not work, but we have not tested it to certainty.

In order to find out whether our idea will work, we must test it.

When we step into the unknown, it is generally with a step of faith. We reach out in anticipation that what we are doing will work. In the opposite of this, doubt causes us to not step into the unknown because we allow the speculation and the great “I Don’t Know” to overpower us.

It is through faith, courage, trust or whatever you might call it, that we move forward into things we have never experienced.

Imagine as we test out concept that we have our first experience and it goes poorly. We have now gained what I call a sense of certainty. We feel based on one experience that a thing will continue to go as it did in our first encounter. A person says ‘No’, we get in an accident; we lose some money or any other possibility. However, we don’t yet know the actuality of the situation. There is not yet enough repetition or history to show with certainty, that the item is what we are experiencing.

Imagine flipping a coin and it lands on heads. A sense of certainty would tell us that the item will land on heads every time with future attempts. Certainty on the other hand tells us that the probability of a coin landing on heads or tails is nearly equal.

What tends to happen is people feel and live as though this one-time event, this sense of certainty, is actual certainty.  It is not, because there is not enough evidence, history or repetition, to give us an accurate reflection of its nature.

Certainty comes about through the repetition of a certain thing, close to or exactly as it was previously. For example, the sun coming up in the morning, our heart beating day by day, the four seasons and anything else we experience with very little or no change on a consistent basis.

It is at this point that we step out of faith, sense of certainty, speculation and the “I Don’t Know”. It is here that we gain knowledge. This is the point at which we can say, with certainty, “I Know!”

Knowledge can be interpreted as learning and not just learning, but the truth of things. Truth is at the center of it all. It is by this truth that we know right from wrong, good from bad, and all of the other infinite opposites that exist in our universe.

However, just because we know something, does not automatically mean that we know how to use it. As we learn to use the knowledge we have gained, we earn wisdom. When we can determine what is true and use it appropriately, we become wise. We can determine the truth of things and use it in a way that benefits others.

One of the great ways to share wisdom is to teach others about your experiences with the knowledge you have gained. As you teach others, they gain a thought, insight, inspiration or idea; receive information, learn something new or are challenged to do a certain thing; and the certainty cycle repeats, allowing them to find the truth of things for themselves.

The Certainty Cycle gives us all the opportunity to push through faith and speculation into knowledge and wisdom. As each of us shares our experience, others have the opportunity to see the world as we see it.

Choose Up!