Questioning Worry and Uncertainty

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0019

THE QUESTION

What am I trying to know before I can know it?

Worry often meets uncertainty with Questions.

Sometimes those Questions can be answered.

Sometimes the answer does not exist yet.

Sometimes I continue searching because not knowing feels like something that should already have been resolved.

Questioning uncertainty does not require me to become comfortable with not knowing.

It allows me to notice what I am asking certainty to provide.

A QUESTION TO HOLD

What am I asking certainty to do for me?

BEGIN WHERE SOMETHING GETS YOUR ATTENTION.

You do not have to answer every Question.

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0019

BEGIN HERE

WHAT DO I NOT KNOW?

What am I uncertain about?
What answer am I looking for?
Does that answer exist yet?
Who, if anyone, could know it now?
What information is actually available?
What information is missing?

What am I assuming because information is missing?
What am I treating as unknown that could be found out?
What am I trying to know that cannot yet be known?
Have I distinguished those from one another?

WHAT WOULD KNOWING CHANGE?

What do I believe certainty would give me?
What would I do differently if I knew?
What would I stop doing if I knew?
What would I stop imagining?
What decision do I believe certainty would make easier?

What feeling do I believe certainty would change?
What am I waiting to know before I allow myself to act?
What am I waiting to know before I allow myself to stop acting?

WHAT CHANGES WHEN I DISTINGUISH INFORMATION I DO NOT HAVE FROM AN ANSWER THAT DOES NOT YET EXIST?

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0019

GO FURTHER

WHEN NOT KNOWING BECOMES SOMETHING MORE

What do I believe not knowing means?
Does uncertainty feel like danger?
Does uncertainty feel like lack of preparation?
Does uncertainty feel like loss of control?
Does uncertainty feel like I have missed something?
Have I confused not knowing with being unprepared?

Have I confused not knowing with something being wrong?
Have I confused uncertainty with evidence that the outcome will be bad?
What am I trying to resolve by reaching a conclusion now?
What conclusion have I reached because uncertainty remained?

THE SEARCH FOR CERTAINTY

How many times have I looked for the answer?
What am I checking again?
What new information am I actually seeking?
What answer would finally feel certain enough?
If I received that answer, what could still change?
Am I asking for certainty where only likelihood is available?

Am I asking another Human, a System, an expert, or AI to remove uncertainty for me?
What authority am I giving the answer because I want the uncertainty to end?
What happens when different answers are available?
Who closes the Question?

QUESTION TO GO FURTHER

What have I made uncertainty mean?

THE BOLDER WAY™

QUESTION ANYTHING

QUESTION RESOURCE 0019

LET THE QUESTION MOVE

WHAT CAN I KNOW NOW?

What is known?
What remains unknown?
What can be learned?
What cannot yet be known?
What am I still trying to force into an answer?
What decision, if any, can be made without certainty?

What action, if any, can be taken without certainty?
What can remain undecided?
What could change as more becomes known?
What am I willing to leave as a Question for now?

LOOK AGAIN THROUGH THE THREE LENSES

SELF

What happens in my relationship with myself when I do not know?

What do I expect myself to know?

What do I tell myself when I cannot produce an answer?

What authority do I give certainty in deciding whether I am okay?

SYSTEMS

How does a System shape what I believe can or should be known?

What does the System actually know?

What does it estimate, predict, classify, or assume?

What happens when a System presents uncertainty as certainty—or certainty as uncertainty?

SOCIETY

What have I learned about not knowing?

When is uncertainty treated as weakness, incompetence, danger, or failure?

What answers does Society encourage me to accept because an answer feels preferable to uncertainty?

RETURN TO THE QUESTION

What am I trying to know before I can know it?
What can actually be known now?
What am I asking certainty to do for me?

What have I made uncertainty mean?
What can remain unanswered for now?
What remains a Question?

What does this reveal about Being Human?

Answers can come from anywhere. Questioning remains yours.

Questioning Worry and Uncertainty — QR-0019