How Do You Like Limbo?

Image credit: avecalvar.com

Let’s talk about limbo. The fun kind is that party game where you rig a bar above people's heads and instruct them to walk under it without touching it. If you dislodge the bar, you’re out. The goal of the game is to be the last one standing. At first, it is easy because it is high above everyone. But, the bar doesn’t stay still. Every round, the bar is lowered until eventually people look like human pretzels as they try to contort their bodies to get under the bar. People cheer the participants on until a victor is crowned. 

Unfortunately, we are talking about the feeling of limbo when you are stuck between two points in your life and questioning your next step. You know that something is coming, but you don’t know exactly what it is or how it will impact you. This can happen in any realm of life.

On the personal level, think about a time you were waiting for a medical test result.

On a business level, think about a time when you were waiting to hear back after a job interview.  

Our brains do not like limbo. In fact, our brains were not designed for it. It causes a sense of unease at best and pretty high anxiety at worst. 

So, what was our brain designed for? 

The brain was designed for a more simple life when things were more predictable. It was designed to recognize patterns and solve problems. When decisions are simple the brain has time to process information and come up with a solution. These solutions can help build habits that will then allow us to adapt better to the future. 

So our brains are pretty happy when we have ample time to take in information, form a plan and action it. In our lives today, life isn’t so sequential. We often have to deal with uncertainty for some time. Many of the decisions we make are more complex and require us to pause before making a final determination. This results in an uneasy feeling and that uneasy feeling gets translated as danger.

The brain has a highly charged response to danger. It signals the very reactive part of our brain to fight, flee or freeze. That in turn, dumps all sorts of adrenaline into our systems and can make us pretty uncomfortable.

In addition to this physical response, uncertainty taxes memory. As we referenced, our brains are designed to function in a binary way: Choose A or B. With uncertainty we have to hold onto a variety of options at the same time. And just like a muscle will give way if continually stressed, our memory will falter if it is holding on to a lot of weighty information. 

And if that isn’t bad enough, when our brain is trying to keep track of all of the “what ifs”, not only is our memory taxed, but we struggle to process incoming information. This can make our brain come to a stand still leading to decreases in motivation, focus, cooperative behavior, self-control, sense of purpose, and overall well-being. 

Whew!  You can get exhausted just thinking about it.

As our world becomes more complex, uncertainty is a natural result. This means that we have to develop new approaches to handle the grey areas of life. Over the next couple of weeks we will explore how to create systems to handle uncertainty with ease.