On The Nature of "TRUE SECURITY"

When we talk about security, what do we mean? Usually we refer to job security, financial security, health issues and medical security etc. Security is usually defined as some kind of stability accompanied with the presence of that cherished value “Certainty”.

Generally, people do not like uncertainty. It creates anxiety, chaos and puts us in a position where we aren’t sure about what will happen. Our choices seem incomplete, our lives feel just a bit unsteady and our trust in our judgements take on a more iffy quality, because we tend to believe that if we have made sound choices then our world in general should be a more certain place to inhabit.

On the other hand, we also know that it's not possible to know all things, and it's not a credible goal to try to control everything that happens, simply because our very nature is finite. So to place the expectation that we should even attempt to eliminate uncertainty is a way of thinking that is more related to our emotional need to know that our lives have a definite purpose rather than accept that our existence is reason enough to exist.

Uncertainty is not always a threatening condition. There is also the uncertainty of the creative process. An artist, a writer or any kind of person who lays claim to some form of creativity, also knows that during the process of creating anything, there is often an interval of uncertainty as to how to begin or how to organize whatever they are attempting to create, whether it's an idea or a tangeable piece of art. They also understand that uncertainty has its own kind of energy and that it is part of the cycle that ultimately leads to the creation they are attempting to concretize. In other words, they trust it and know the importance that it has in the creative process. They also do not fear uncertainty.

When we think of goals, we usually think in terms of specifics: Goal A, Goal B, etc. But a goal is simply a direction we move towards that has boundaries we often can not anticipate because we can't see ahead all the factors that are involved. It's not that they are uncertain, as much as we recognize that we inhabit a world where so many things can affect us (events, other people, other ideas) that the very idea that we should even think of controlling the process of moving towards a goal seems so unrealistic.

A goal is really a direction; a movement towards a place or a range of things we think is where we want to go; a place we want to be, or an attribute we feel we should have. Goals should be open ended, with flexibility and the ability to be fluid and capable of being changed and rethought of. It shouldn’t be fixed and it shouldn’t be certain.

So uncertainty is a natural fact of life that should be embraced rather than feared. It should be seen as part of our finite existence and akin to knowledge that we are drawn to learn about and know as part of our personal and collective reality. Uncertainty can be our friend if we put it in its proper perspective and attribute to it a reasonable place in our lives and aspirations.

This brings us back to what security is. Since security, as part of its nature, has the need for certainty, how then should we view security? Can we also view uncertainty as our friend and part of the natural course of our finite existence?

The only real security isn’t about the things that surround us such as events, circumstances of our lives, money in the bank, or the ability to strategize and plan for all the possibilities that may or may not happen (so allowing us to be prepared for any eventuality). It lies in our ability to deal with uncertainty. It's about realizing that whatever may come our way while we are going from goal A to goal B, that we must have not only the confidence but the inner knowledge and trust in ourselves that we will be able to deal with those things we aren’t prepared for. Understanding and accepting that we don’t need to know all the details that may be thrown at us from left field because we believe inwardly that we will be able to deal with whatever happens and come out on top in a way that reflects our ability to positively control our lives without doing things at the expence of others or hurt people in the process. In short, true security is and always will be SELF CONFIDENCE.