How you handle uncertainty in life – like every other moment in life – a choice.

One of the toughest things for some of us to get used to is not knowing what is going to happen next. It seems the older we get the more clear it is that our best efforts to plan don’t always work out. You know – you plan for a great night out with your spouse, making a reservation at your favorite restaurant and you get the new waiter – the one that spills the soup, brings the food out cold and asks you if you want desert before you’re half through your steak.

Or you have a brilliant idea to fix something to avoid the repair costs. It looks simple enough – but after several hours researching how-to-sites on the internet and 7 trips to Home Depot you surrender to calling the repair guy anyway… and end up paying three times what you would have to start.

But there are bigger things that don’t work out as planned in life too. Mom dies before the new baby arrives. Your husband gets laid off after 10 years on the job. Your marriage blows up after 20. Or you find dope in your kid’s bedroom. So what do you do? Get mad? Won’t help. Blame someone? Short term relief maybe but fleeting. How about conclude that “nothing ever works out”. I guess that’s an option… if you want to spend your life in misery.

So here’s a suggestion: decide right now that life is going to be uncertain… and that uncertainty is what makes life rich.

I know – the old “silver lining cliche” – right? No – more than that. Within the uncertainties in life we are tested, made strong, forced to grow, earn perspective, and make life changing decisions that often change us in a very positive way – and sometimes decisions that can change the world. How you handle uncertainty in life – like every other moment in life – a choice.