Fear of the unknown — everyone experiences it.

Afraid of the Unknown or Afraid of Yourself?

Fear of the unknown — everyone experiences it. This age old adage is only part of the story though. There’s a deeper level we can go to. The unknown is just a layer over this deeper fear.

The conventional wisdom that humans are afraid of the unknown isn’t necessarily wrong, and I certainly don’t disagree with it. It’s why change is hard. It’s why doing something new is hard. Not knowing the result of a particular situation can be terrifying. But it’s not terrifying just because it’s unknown.

When we don’t know the outcome of a situation, we don’t know how we’re going to respond to it. You might be thinking “duh”, but bear with me.

When we don’t know the outcome, we don’t know if we have the skill sets required to respond on the fly. We don’t know if we have the mental fortitude to cope and accept with whatever the unknown outcome is. We might know how to prepare for a couple known potential outcomes, but what about those unpredictable outcomes? If we can’t adequately prepare, how do you feel comfortable? We don’t know if we have the ability to successfully respond to or manage the situation after the unknown happens. Simply put, we don’t trust ourselves, our skill sets, or our decision making.

We project the fear of our inability to handle the situation onto this abstract object we call “the unknown.” We are placing blame on this abstract object, rather than where it truly belongs — on ourselves.

If we shift our focus down to this level, this fear becomes something we can actually address.