The Traveler walking the path of life decided to speed up his trip.
He started to run.
In his haste on the path,
He rounded a corner ...
And he slipped.
Partly because the path was slippery and he wasn't paying attention to his next best step ...
But also because he came to a fork in the road and he was not certain which way would be best.
This time, instead of moving forward in haste,
He decided to waste no more time falling in the mud,
And instead took a seat on a rock by the side of the road to give himself time to think through and find Certainty that one of those paths is going to be better for him to take.
...
We're here with Certainty after Collapsing Time1, because our end goal is to get what we want in life, and to get it sooner rather than later.
(If you haven't read Collapsing Time, go read that first)
What Certainty does for us becomes clear when we understanding that Collapsing Time hinges not around speed, but around direction and volatility. Direction and volatility combine into the path YOU take.
If you aren't certain that the path you are about to take is going to get you where you want, before Collapsing Time, you can spend years of your life heading fast the wrong way, wasting all of your resources and ultimately never getting what you want.
Certainty is, at it's core, knowing that the path you are taking is going to get you what you want in life.
Built into figuring out Certainty is an intentional practice of Slowing Down2, in order to figure out if the path you're taking (or about to take), is not only going to get you where you want to go, but that it's the path you really want to be taking.
This goes against much of the common advice you'll come across.
“Don't think just do.”
“Move fast and break things.”
You might even think that if you are waiting, if you are slowing down in order to figure out that you are certain of the path you are traveling, that you may be weak.
I say this because this was my experience. For many years. I bought into the idea that slowing down and figuring things out was hesitation, was weakness, was me not being bold enough and not entrepreneurial enough.
I should be willing to make mistakes and make a mess!
Well. Yes. BUT.
There are the natural mistakes that come from growth and the inevitable downswings of your oscillating path towards what you want (See Collapsing Time) ... and then there are needless mistakes that come from moving forward when you aren't certain that the path you are on is going to get you where you want to be.
THOSE mistakes do not benefit you. They merely waste precious resources, and in the context of getting you to what you want, wasting resources increases the risk that you do not get what you want.
Remember from Collapsing Time, you have limited resources. If you move forward without Certainty, you risk wasting resources, wasting time, getting yourself further way, and increasing the risk that you don't get what you want in life.
Therefore, the argument is simple.
Moving forward without Certainty that you are headed in the right direction increases the risk of wasting resources which increases the risk of not getting what you want (let alone getting it sooner). Any speed applied without Certainty only accelerates the likelihood and of not getting what you want in life.
Here's a noodle bender.
UNcertainty breeds a scenario where people are more likely to move forward carelessly. Instead of recognizing that we are uncertain, and working on finding Certainty, we move forward recklessly because Uncertainty is accepted as the normal state of being.
The sentiment is that you'll never be completely certain, and it's better to move forward uncertainly than it is to slow down and not move forward until you attain a level of Certainty.
This is made all the more complicated because total and complete Certainty is often elusive. When we think about "Certainty," it is easy to think in those absolute terms. But the reality is that your level of Certainty does not need to be COMPLETE.
And as we explore, we'll find out that similar to how Collapsing Time is not about speed but rather velocity, Certainty is not about absolute correctness, but about direction. Because levels of Certainty will always be relative to YOU, it is important to recognize the entirety of the dynamic and how certainty/uncertainty impacts you and your life before moving forward.
How does NOT attaining Certainty impact you?
Failing to attain Certainty of your path in business can mean spending years or decades struggling to be satisfied, struggling to get what you want in life, failing over and over. This behavior is so common it's actually become celebrated in forms like "hustle and grind."
Often times you won't have complete Certainty of the path, but you'll have partial Certainty. You might believe that a certain ad strategy is going to get you what you want in business, but you might not know exactly how.
You can find an excellent example of this in Laurel Portié's Ad Strategy3, where she will advise building 90 day plans, where the goal is not the specific outcome of sales, but rather to gather data (collecting the information you need in order to find Certainty).
The end point may very well be more sales of a coaching program (for example), but the path to get there is not Certain at the beginning - more data is needed.
You might postulate that you can sell spots on your coaching program through Messenger on Facebook ...
But you don't know how many conversations you'll need in order to make a sale, you don't know how many interactions on ads you need to have a conversation, and you don't know what messaging is going to best resonate to ultimately give you the conversations you want to have which will most likely give you those sales.
The end point is clear - you want more sales of your program. But the path to get there is not certain. And if you apply speed when the path is not certain then you may easily head in the wrong direction really fast.
However within this, you CAN be Certain that the path of discovery is going to reveal to you the true path forward. Paths within Paths. If we slow down to find a Certain path amidst uncertainty, that will get us closer to knowing the true path for us.
Many will balk at the 90-180 day chunks in order to gather data and figure out the best path.
So they'll forgo this, listen to people who promise the moon immediately, slam their foot on the gas, and then still find themselves in the exact same position a year from now.
All because slowing down to find Certainty feels like you are wasting time. Feels like everyone else is going faster than you.
The irony of course is, The Process is The Shortcut4. By Slowing Down to find Certainty, Laurel finds the fastest path to what you want, sooner than you ever thought possible. (If only you slow down, take the next best step, gather data, and find that Certainty)
What does failing to find Certainty in your path of Health look like?
It's not about what everyone else says is the right way to do things. It's about what works best for YOU.
Ultimately health is about movement and consumption. How much do you move, and how much do you consume?
The healthiest people move often and consistently, and consistently consume the right foods in the right quantities for themselves.
That means finding Certainty on your path of health is about discovering the kind of movement that works well for you, the kinds of foods that work well for you, and the amounts of foods that work well for you ...
In order to attain the physical result you desire.
Someone who wants to be absolutely ripped, regularly deadlifting 800 lbs, is going to require a vastly different physical movement routine and eating plan than someone who wants to be a lithe long distance endurance runner.
You may just wish to look good naked, or in a swimsuit at the beach.
Whatever your ultimate desire, within these interests, you must also consider what works best for your biological makeup. Just because you want to be an absolutely ripped monster deadlifting 800 lbs, doesn't mean you are biologically inclined towards that state.
You may need to work much harder at it and in different ways than someone else. Along the way you may find that form of physical activity and that sort of eating does not feel good to you.
In addition to the types of exercise, the frequency and intensity of that exercise is important.
Certainty is about knowing the path you are on is going to get you what you want. Often times when people decide they need to exercise and eat better to get fit and healthier, jump into high frequency and intensity of that exercise.
(Or jump into an extreme weight loss focused diet)
If you don't work out at all, and you start going to the gym 5 days a week, you are applying a lot more frequency and intensity than is appropriate for your current state. Someone who does this has a very high likelihood of "falling off the wagon" and never achieving their desired goal.
(Discerning the appropriate intensity and frequency for you comes from Clarity, which we’ll address next)
So even if you set yourself down on the seemingly "best path" towards that end goal, you may find that path is not good for you.
Now, what do you think happens when you fail to achieve Certainty in relationships?
How many reading this have experienced, or at least know someone who has experienced entering a long relationship that was not good for them?
How many years of lives have been wasted in the haste of feeling like we need to be not alone, forgoing a deeper understanding of what we truly want out of the relationships of our lives?
This doesn't just pertain to romantic relationships.
This holds true for all kinds of relationships. Friendship and Business relationships included.
Moving a relationship forward aggressively without having the Certainty that this is the relationship you want, or that this is the person you want this kind of relationship with is possibly one of the most common mistakes of humanity.
In other words, most people don't think "is this relationship done in this way going to get me what I really want in life?"
Ultimately, when you examine what comes out of the failure to ascertain Certainty, it starts to look like a good idea to slow down, take a little more time, and do what you need to do in order to be Certain the path and direction you are headed are right FOR YOU - that there is Certainty the path you're on will get you what you want in life.
So, let's explore what Certainty really means and how you can find it:
What is Certainty?
In an ideal world, Certainty is the certain knowledge that the path you are taking is the best path for YOU in order to get what you want in life.
The simple analogy we pull on frequently is Google Maps while you are driving. You want to get to a particular location - a gas station, a Starbucks, an office building, an event - so you put the address for that place in your Google Maps and hit "directions" to receive the best path toward where you are going.
Of course, the analogy also indicates we need to know where we're starting from (as well as our driving preferences) - but more on that in a minute.
Certainty that we're heading in the direction we want to go is less about the absolute certainty that the specific place we're headed is indeed exactly where we want to be (knowing where we want to be comes with Clarity), and more about the Certainty that the direction you're headed towards what you want is the best for you.
That might sound confusing. Because indeed you do want to be as certain as possible about the end point you're headed toward, because that is necessary for determining a direction.
But remember this ...
Collapsing Time is about velocity, which is a vector, meaning it's a combination of speed AND direction. The directions for the path TO the end point are in some ways more important than the end point itself, while the end point is still nearly just as important because it dictates the direction.
Why all this semantic dancing?
Because life is not a straight line. You might travel along your chosen path, certain that the path you're on will get you where you want to go, and then learn something new along the way that changes the specificity of your end point.
There are also many different paths you can take in order to get to your end point. In the event you are absolutely certain of your end point, there may be 1000 different paths you can take to get there ...
And because your entire life is an infinite game of a path you travel, the path you travel becomes more important than the end point.
The path you travel influences your happiness in the infinite game of life far more than the end point you may one day reach.
Along that path we travel, we are nearly always operating with incomplete information.
We live life with "the best information we have" in any give moment in order to make choices better. This is also why we talk about "making choices better" vs "making better choices: - because "making better choices" is about the outcome being correct, and "making choices better" is about making sure you're headed in the best direction as possible toward the outcome given what you know in the present.
Then you make your next best step, and continue the process of discerning ... am I headed in the right direction? Is the place I'm headed to where I want to be? Is the path I'm on the best path for ME to get there?
Certainty becomes more about the Certainty that your next best step is the next best step for YOU to get you closer to what you want, and less about making sure your endpoint is absolute.
Figuring out Certainty that you are headed in the direction you want is challenging. It requires knowledge of Clarity - which we will get to next - in order to have as much clear and concise information as possible to be Certain that the direction we're headed is the right one for you.
However even when you have as much Clarity as possible, gaining Certainty can be challenging.
Here is a tool which may be useful in working through this process:
Know that it is much more difficult for us to know what we DO want, than it is for us to know what we DON'T want.
This means as you're figuring out which direction you want to head in, you can use this "Compass of Dislike" to make sure you avoid paths which are not right for you.
As you sort through which direction to go, when you run across something you don't want, understand this is a powerful indicator toward Certainty. Identifying those paths which are WRONG FOR YOU, is just as, if not more important than figuring out the paths that are right.
Remember, we have limited resources.
Traveling down the path that is wrong for you, even if it is headed in what some may say is "the right direction" is the kind of situation which will rapidly drain those resources and prevent you from getting where you want to go.
Here's a personal example as a marketing strategist/copywriter/freelancer. It is a common bit of advice for someone in my position to establish a strong presence on social media. That's where the people gather, that's where the attention is, and if I have a strong social media following, I'll be able to leverage that to get everything I want in life.
What I personally know, however, is that having to post multiple times a day and be active on social media makes me physically ill. I cannot stand it.
Therefore I can be certain that the path of social media is WRONG for ME. That doesn't make that choice strategically incorrect in the vacuum of personal branding and marketing strategy. But it does mean that particular path is wrong for me (and therefore becomes strategically incorrect for me).
It might objectively take my business towards where I want, but it would so negatively impact me that I'd never get there. That choice for me would actually NOT take me closer to what I want in life - more likely it would take me further away and drain my resources completely.
Certainty is a messy iterative process.
You may find yourself stepping forward with the best Clarity and understanding that you have right now, only to find that you aren't actually going in the right direction, or perhaps that the path you are on is not the right path for you.
Certainty is the vector of velocity in Collapsing Time.
And that vector is not just the direction you are headed, but the specific path you walk in that direction.
When you apply more speed, when you do those things which are likely to Collapse Time, you will head in whatever direction on whatever path you've established Certainty - or more likely for most, not established.
So in order to make sure you get what you really want in life5, it only makes sense to establish Certainty first, to know that the path you are on is going to give you the life you desire - otherwise, what's the point really?
This perspective is made all the easier if part of what you want in life is joy in the path you are walking right now. Presence and happiness with life as it is in the moment is about embracing the joy of walking that path.
In order to figure this all out, you need one more piece of the puzzle.
What do you need to do before Certainty?
Certainty is the certain knowledge that the path you are headed on is going to get you what you want in life. In order to establish this Certainty, these "directions," you must know where you are starting from, and where you want to go.
You need all the information necessary to understand the path you're walking on is the right one for YOU.
How can you know the path to getting there, if you don't really know where you are starting from? And how can you know if the path that could get you there is the right path for you?
To figure out this final piece of the puzzle, we move to find Clarity.
Clarity of where you are,
Clarity of WHO you are,
And Clarity of where you want to be.
Your Own Certainty Check
If you feel rushed to do things faster and get where you want to go faster, it is advisable to slow down and find Certainty.
Certainty that not only is the direction you're headed likely to get you towards where you want to go, but also that the path that you are about to head on is the right path for you.
If you are looking to yourself and your situation and you cannot find Certainty, then it is advisable to first turn to Clarity.
It is within Clarity that you'll see where you are now, and who you are now, and where you wish to go, in order to uncover the most likely paths that will both take you in the right direction and be best for YOU.
Remember, founding members, you can access the free 3C Framework (Clarity - Certainty - Collapsing Time) bonus training (event recording) here:
https://knowledge.guardianacademy.io/p/the-three-cs-founding-member-bonus