We place a high value on ‘security’. Take financial security for example. We invest in pensions, property, shares, and savings products , and take out insurance to protect us against a long list of potential ‘rainy day’ events. However, it won’t have escaped your attention that all of these assumed sources of security have taken a severe hit over the last few years.
What does this tell us about security? Lets explore how a different perspective on security might serve us better.
Firstly, undue reliance on material or other supports external to us can lead us into having quite literally a ‘false sense of security’. There is nothing wrong with making provision for the future, which is a rational thing to do, as long as we don’t delude ourselves into thinking that things will turn out as planned. We can so easily fall into the trap of thinking of ‘security’ as being the same thing as ‘certainty’. Arguably, the opposite is the case – true security is being able to accept and embrace uncertainty, as a fact of life.
Secondly, we need to be aware of the risk of believing that we know how things ‘should’ turn out, when in reality our perspective is very limited and we don’t really know what is in our best interests. This has given uncertainty a bad press it doesn’t deserve ! If we developed faith in our ability to deal whatever life throws at us this would be less of an issue.
Finally, we need to be aware that seeking out safe havens (illusion – no such thing ) has a downside. Always thinking in terms of the safe option whether in terms of our finances or our choice of career, relationships, how we spend our time etc can cause us to limit our vision and be less than we might otherwise be.
Summary. If you are struggling to feel secure when the future is uncertain (as it always is) ask yourself if you need to change the way you perceive security. Try to accept that there is no way of insulating yourself from uncertainty, so change your thinking about uncertainty i.e. become comfortable with it. Real security is an ‘inside job’ and comes from developing trust in your ability to cope successfully with whatever happens.
