Certainty is comforting. The ring of your morning alarm, the aroma of freshly-brewed coffee, the smear of cream cheese on your warm bagel, and the ever-smiling lobby receptionist. Certainty puts you in charge. You are familiar with the drill. You are the master of your destiny. If everything goes according to plan, the glory of a great productive day awaits.
String a number of productive days together and you get yourself a promotion. A few promotions later and you have yourself a career. The trajectory seems certain and the rules easy to understand. If everything goes according to plan, you would probably strike a semblance to your current boss in some years.
Wait. Being like your boss? She doesn't seem to smile a lot and has a lot of grey hair for her age. Probably not a good idea. Certainty seems a little less comforting now.
According to Scott Dinsmore's TED Talk titled "How to find work you love", more than 80% of people don't enjoy their work. That's an awfully high percentage. Perhaps while certainty is comforting, it's not all that enjoyable.
But what's the alternative? Uncertainty? Isn't that a lot more scary? Choosing to pursue something you really enjoy doing but not knowing where you will end up in a few years? Without any benchmark or standards to adhere to?
You can fail. You can go broke. You would probably need to rely on the generosity of friends and family to get by. Life would probably be tougher but a heck lot more fun.
Because uncertainty brings you back in time. Like a child, you get the chance to learn again. You get the chance to test your limits and to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Uncertainty is exciting. Uncertainty is fun. Uncertainty is living.
So pick a day and get out of bed early. Assemble your best friends. Lock them in a room with you. Draft a master plan for world domination. Do something, anything.
What's the worse that can happen? The same brick wall awaits everyone at the end of the tunnel anyway. Perhaps the guys at Google have got it wrong and cheating death is not about medicine. Rather, the game of life is about living multiple lifetimes in the span of one.
So let go and live! After all, Bruce Wayne didn't escape The Pit tethered to a rope.
Eugene is the co-founder of the mobile app Tripple, a global students travel community. Since its launch on 19 July 2015, Tripple has been presented to several universities across Scandinavia, Switzerland and Singapore.