The 3C’s – Part 1. Certainty

The 3C’s – Certainty

Human are creatures of habit. We have heard that for years, but I’m hear to tell you that additionally, humans are creatures of comfort. And this leads us to my teaching of the 3C’s.

Firstly, we CRAVE CERTAINTY. We love knowing what will/is happening. Generally, we love routine. We get into habits, good and bad. We fall into the same routes on the way to work, our work routine rarely changes…our home life becomes a big pile of sameness.

Certainty is what we crave. When we fall outside of our certainty, our reactions are almost immediate. We fell anxious, we fell stressed, we feel UNCOMFORTABLE. So we stick with what is certain.We feel safe.

There is a small group of people that live outside the world of certainty. Some of these operate outside of the law, where the threat of multiple tangibles, not the least getting caught, exist. However even they operate within a level of certainty as planning amongst thieves and criminals usually would be of the calibre that exist in senior business executive. They attempt to minimize the risk or uncertainty. The other group are the adrenalin junkies, who operate in a world in which most of us don’t. Their life is about risk, but even they take precautionary stances to minimise the risk.

So generally we CRAVE CERTAINTY. A favourite question comes from Robert H Schuller. “What would you attempt, if you could not fail” Everyone of us, would be more; we would attempt more if the world existed under these conditions. However, it doesn’t. Failure is always one of the big possibilities. So we retreat. And we don’t attempt. UNCERTAINTY stops us in our tracks.

In our worlds, we love being spectators. We love peering into the world of uncertainty. We get immersed in movies, we love our sports live, and once we know the scores to a game, we struggle then to watch it. We watch reality TV. Once done, however, we slip right back into our own lives of certainty.

So, I’m not suggesting that we become thieves, or adrenalin junkies. And some habits are good. Just ensure that the certainty in your life, or your routine is enabling you to grow and flourish. That your habits are enlarging you as a person and making you better than yesterday. John Maxwell’s Law of Process is all about good daily habits that allow you to grow a little each day, which leads to a massive improvement over the course of a period of time.

But in most cases, our certainty, dulls us and doesn’t stoke the embers of that fire that used to burn within…We are heading down the wrong track. You see when we CRAVE CERTAINTY, WE CREATE COMFORT.  We will explore this further in next week’s blog post. Hope to see you then.

Author – Tony Curl