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Making Peace with Uncertainty
For anyone who finds not knowing harder than bad news. Each day is one small practice in acting without every answer, loosening the need for certainty, and noticing how often things work out in ways you could not have planned.
Worry · Worry · Resilience · one to-do a day · you choose how many days
The first seven days
- Day 1The next time you reach for your phone to look something up out of worry, set it face down and wait five minutes before deciding whether you still need to.
- Day 2Say the words "I don't know yet" out loud once today, about anything at all, and notice that nothing bad happens.
- Day 3Draw a line down a sheet of paper. On the left, list what you can control about one worry; on the right, what you can't.
- Day 4Pick one open question in your life and plan only the very next step, then put the rest of the path out of sight.
- Day 5Take a different route on one ordinary trip today and pay attention to what you see along the way.
- Day 6When a text arrives that is not urgent, let it sit for thirty minutes before you reply.
- Day 7Write down one time in the past when you did not know how something would turn out, and how it actually went.
Further into the year
The to-dos keep changing as the year goes on. A few from later in this theme:
- Day 30When you catch yourself imagining a worst case, imagine one ordinary middle case too, and write both down.
- Day 60Keep a small notebook nearby today and jot down each time you want to look something up out of worry, without acting on it right away.
- Day 120Pick one uncertain situation and write a single sentence on what you would do if it went badly. Then put the paper away.
- Day 240Notice how many decisions you made today without thinking, and give yourself credit for each one.
- Day 365End the day by saying out loud one thing you still don't know, and one thing you are grateful for anyway.
How a challenge works
A Theraglee challenge is a theme with one small to-do for every day of a year. You choose how long yours runs, anywhere from a week to the full year, and each day you get the next to-do: something that takes a few minutes and fits inside an ordinary day. Tick it off when it is done. Nothing is scored and nothing is lost if you miss a day; the next to-do is simply waiting when you come back.
Challenges come with a free Theraglee account, which never asks for a card. Your progress stays private to you.