Embracing Uncertainty: A New Year’s Resolution for the Brave
As 2025 approaches, the tradition of resolutions resurfaces. People want to transform. But how? We pledge to shed a few pounds, adopt healthier habits, or embark on self-improvement. These goals are helpful, of course, but let me ask you this: how often do these resolutions come from a place of certainty? A belief that we can plan, predict, and control the future to achieve some desired outcome?
What if, instead of chasing certainty this year, we resolve to embrace its opposite? What if we invite the power of uncertainty into our lives?
Osho, one of my favourite spiritual teachers, discusses the comfort—and trap—of certainty in his wonderful book “Courage- the Joy of Living Dangerously”
One of my favourite things he often rants about is avoiding “isms.” When people want certainty, they turn to an ism, seeking refuge in an organized religion.
Instead of living in uncertainty, they put on a cloak and live inside it, thinking, “OK, this organized religion is the truth,” they can feel confident based not so much on personal practice but on the fact that so many people are following it.
Every Road Leads Home
I feel like talking like this is dangerous and could be offputting. I don’t mean in any way to put down any organized religion.
I feel ok saying these things only because I’ve studied Buddhism extensively. I took a deep dive into it fully and completely. It worked well for me, and I still teach it.
But there was a time when I believed Buddhism was “the truth” or the most significant ideology. I have learned that any opinion like that about anything at all is a grave and prideful mistake; it was an assumption born of confusion and a lack of depth in my practice.
When you reach a certain point, you realize that if approached sincerely, with the courage to face yourself and use the practice to overcome your obstacles, any “ism” can lead you home, and any organized path can be a way to discover your awakened self. Here is a link to a great article by Rick Rice on the power of waiting. I like to think of waiting as an open anticipation with awareness.
The road to an open heart is always open to anyone brave enough to travel it
So, I am offering a little insight for anyone who has been practicing a particular spiritual path for a long time and does not feel like they are getting happier, wiser, or more compassionate.
If your path is not transforming you into a kinder, more mindful, empathetic, and loving person for more hours of the day as the years go by, something is not working.
It could be time to use what you have learned and be in the world differently.
It’s like the metaphor of the boat. It helps you cross the water, but leave the vessel behind once you get to the other side and keep walking.
So I offer this resolution to anyone ready to use something unknown as a method!
The Power of the Open Question
Years ago, during meditation, I stumbled upon something simple but transformative: the power of the open question. What if I didn’t need an answer? What if I could stay in the inquiry? There is a spacious, freeing energy in being open to receiving an answer before it arrives. I wondered, “What if I didn’t need an answer?” What if I could remain in the question?
Here is a link to my article on praying to stay in prayer, which speaks of this anticipation and a link to my podcast
This practice of openness became a lens for understanding daily life. Instead of clinging to assumptions or fixed plans, I began to see every moment as an opportunity to learn. What if I allowed myself to approach each day with curiosity instead of control? Each interaction, each experience, a discovery?
Think about it: have you ever indeed planned the shape of your life? Maybe you set a goal or followed a path, but if you look back honestly, hasn’t life surprised you at every turn? The relationships, the opportunities, the challenges—weren’t they always different from what you expected? And wasn’t that the beauty of it?
A New Kind of Resolution
So this year, I invite you to try something different. Resolve to be open instead of resolving to change or achieve something specific. Be willing to live with uncertainty. Trust that life will deliver precisely what you need—even if you don’t know what that is right now.
I want to express this clearly. I don’t mean having an intellectual intention to be open, simmering on the back burner.
I mean a specific energetic feeling of trust and enthusiasm in your conscious awareness. It should feel exciting, blissful, perhaps even like stagefright.. like the nervousness that makes you alive before a job interview, a live performance, or showing up for the first time to an improv acting class…SCARY!
The “one- plus- one- equals- two” logical intellect will resist this.
The resolution becomes simply this: we allow a space to open in the mind and drop in a wish that defies the intellect!
Let’s call this the Resolution of the Open Question. You might begin with a single, simple aspiration:
I wish to awaken fully for the benefit of all beings.
Or:
What would it be like to live each moment with fresh perception, free of backstory or assumptions?
Take this wish, this little droplet, and let it fall into the pool of your awareness.
Then, trust that life will guide you to the experiences and lessons you need. You don’t need to know how it will happen. In fact, you can’t. But that’s the beauty of it.
You will know if it’s working if you feel some nervous excitement for no apparent reason…
Keep that feeling in your centre as much as possible every day, and be aware when it gets veiled in dullness. You will find that you can easily open it again and continue. You will (if you are new to this) probably find that long periods go by where you forget it, and the dullness has prevailed. No Worries! Keep returning to it. That’s the practice!
Why Uncertainty Matters
Osho says freedom creates fear—a healthy fear! When we embrace uncertainty, we’re forced to stay awake. Awareness thrives in uncertainty. Certainty lulls us to sleep; it says, “Oh, I know what this is. ” Suddenly, we’re multitasking through life, barely present. But we’re alive, curious, and paying attention when uncertain.
And let’s be honest: life is already uncertain. All the planning in the world won’t change that. So why not embrace it? Why not let go of the illusion of control and step fully into the flow of discovery? Here is a link to the first in a series of posts on my meditative journey. The next one is in the works!
Living the Open Question
Here’s how you might live this resolution:
- When you meet someone, especially if it is someone you have known for years and feel certain in your assumptions about them, let go of them!. Instead, ask, Who is this person now, today? What might they teach me?
- When something unexpected happens, resist the urge to judge it. Instead, observe: Oh, it’s like this now. Be aware. Experience!
- When you feel the subtle discomfort of not knowing, lean into it. Notice how it awakens your awareness.
Life constantly evolves us—that is what it is for! Every joy, sorrow, success, and perceived mistake shapes us, opens us, and cracks us wide enough to hold more love, wisdom, and light. None of it is random, and none of it can be planned.
Your Journey Ahead
So, as you step into this new year, consider this: you don’t need certainty. You don’t need a plan that maps out the next 365 days. What you need is an open heart, an open question, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. Trust that life knows what it’s doing, even when you don’t.
After all, the actual resolution isn’t to achieve something external. It’s to wake up to who you indeed are. And that, my friends, is a journey that no plan can capture. here is a link to my website Meditation with John
Here’s to a year of uncertainty, discovery, and growth. Let’s step into it together, wide-eyed and ready for whatever comes.
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