As I continue to read Susan Jeffers’ Embracing Uncertainty, I’ve come across another interesting concept: Maybe.

Maybe it will snow.  Maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong.  This thing I’m expecting will happen . . . or maybe it won’t.

The idea is to not be so caught up in certainty.  Kick back, put your feet up and allow it to happen.  Maybe it will, unless it doesn’t.

I believe a big part of this for Susan was about being right.  How rigid it is to be certain about everything!  Not embracing at all.  How much easier it feels to say, “Maybe,” instead of “I’m sure!”

I’m not a person who thinks she’s always right.  But I’ve been noticing lately how certain I am that . . . a person is going to behave a certain way, for instance.  I’m positive and confident I’ll get what I’m after.  Even sure I’ll complete something.  But life has a way of not always coming out the way I’m certain it will.  Weather, especially, can stick its tongue out at my certainty and say, “Maybe I’ll come your way and maybe I won’t!”

This all-knowing attitude sets me up for disappointment. What if the maybe happens, instead? It’s a lot softer to say, “Maybe this person will do what he always does,” or ”I’ll get what I want, unless I don’t,” “I’ll finish that project, when and if I do.”  That’s being cool.  It takes the pressure off.  I don’t have to make sure everything plays out the way I think it should.  Not my job.

I can go about my business, doing what I think I need to be doing.  But whatever happens, happens. Maybe it will turn out the way I want it to, maybe it won’t.  Either way, I’m going to be fine.  I can just lay back and watch the show!