How to Unplug the Crave Certianty App: Adventure!

The Crave Certainty App loops these messages: “You’d better do it right this time." "Study up about it." "Follow instructions." "Stay in the box." "Every little thing matters, you know." "Large failures begin with small mistakes." "Mistakes will get you into hell.”

Sometimes in systemic anxiety, the craving for certainty and its polarization into black-and-white either/or thinking can exclude friendships that could have helped. Determined search for security produces loneliness and suspicion of others. Step back and ask, If I were already secure, what then would I really want?

To unplug the Crave Certainty App, take on adventure! It’s amazing how little mistakes matter when the culture is one of adventure rather than a search for certainty and security. Take on something for the pure adventure of it, small adventures with minimal risk at first. Adventure!

I discover that mistakes are not so important in an adventure as in a search for security. In an adventure I discover how little I really know for certain, and I find that fact acceptable. I can make disasters and security breeches into yet another adventure

To disable the third app that powers systemic anxiety, take on adventure. Make a list of things you've ever even thought of wanting to do. Research one of them. Write a story of yourself doing it. Gather pictures. Tell someone else and show them the pictures. Adventure!

Even a little Adventure let into the landscape of the mind, can help a person begin to let go of the Crave Certainty App. The spirit of Adventure seeks to free people from the shackles of always having to be right or wrong. I can cultivate curiosity and let the task or the conversation be an adventure.

Some of the ideas in this article came from: Friedman, Edwin H. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. New York: Seabury Books, 1999, 2007.

Copyright 2015 Wilma Zalabak