The Price of Certainty

In an unstable and volatile world, certainty comes at a premium. We buy warranties and insurance, pay extra for guarantees and avoid the unknown, all in seeking to reduce uncertainty. Certainty is expensive for sure. But is it valuable?

Investors often give up necessary long-term growth and sustainable retirement income for the temporary “certainty" of fixed income. They fail to consider that bringing fixed income into a rising cost retirement jeopardizes their future even though it feels comfortable in the moment.

People stay in dead-end jobs they hate because they have a “guaranteed” paycheck. They don’t pursue their true calling or at least more fulfilling work. They die a little more every day, all for the sake of certainty. And then a recession hits, layoffs begin and they lose that job anyway.

People remain in abusive relationships for many reasons, but for some, the uncertainty of being alone is more daunting than the misery of the current abuse. They could leave and move on, but to what? What if whatever is “out there” is scarier than what they’ve already come to know and expect?

Being trapped in certainty is so prevalent that we have cliches to describe exactly that. People who can’t “think outside the box” or are “stuck in a rut” or find themselves “down in the dumps” or trapped with “golden handcuffs” are all suffering from the same thing: they have overpaid for certainty.

Certainty has a very high price indeed. It is costly, but not usually valuable. In many cases, the need for certainty in someone’s life is inversely correlated with the amount of fulfillment and freedom they enjoy.

Certainty is not safe. It certainly isn’t freedom. Certainty can hold us captive. Yeah, you might get your three meals, have a predictable routine and know exactly what you will do every day while you are guarded by thick iron bars. Certainty promises protection but becomes a prison.

We often do not count the cost of certainty. We fail to realize that, if we are not careful, we may trade away everything precious in our life to attain it. And what we understand only too late is that uncertainty is inevitable.

Uncertainty cannot be avoided. It is woven into the fabric of our existence. Because it cannot be avoided, it must be embraced. After all, the opposite of certainty is not uncertainty.

No, the opposite of certainty is faith.

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