As I continue my exploration of uncertainty, I discovered a new book—hot off the press—entitled The Upside of Uncertainty. I am intrigued with this idea, as we have recently experienced a great deal of uncertainty and continue to do so. The authors, Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr offer up uncertainty as a space for creating possibility.

The Furrs assert that we are all wired to fear the downsides of uncertainty, but we forget that change, creation, transformation, and innovation rarely show up without some measure of it. According to the World Uncertainty index, uncertainty has been rising steadily over recent decades. “There is ambiguity and paradox everywhere. For people who like the linear route forward, life is getting harder and harder, in any field!” (Jostein Solheim, former CEO at Ben and Jerry’s)

It’s getting harder because there is no linear route forward in a world where up to 65 percent of elementary-school-age children may work in jobs that don’t even exist yet. Strategy consulting firm McKinsey & Company argue that “what leaders need during a crisis is not predefined response plans but behaviors and mindsets that will prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them to look ahead.”

The good news is that the authors have based their work on interviews with pathbreakers in numerous fields. They find that even though these pathbreakers felt the anxiety that comes with uncertainty just like the rest of us, they learned to meet uncertainty with greater courage, resilience, and skill. They concluded that a significant part of this uncertainty ability appears to be learned, which offers hope for all of us.

The authors offer four tools for working through uncertainty: Prime, reframe, do, and sustain. Prime and Do are doing tools, whereas Reframe and Sustain are thinking tools.

Four critical things to remember:

1. Reframe uncertainty as an essential portal to opportunity and consider all the possibilities you can imagine. Acknowledge self-doubt as a normal part of every hero’s journey.
2. Prime yourself and the uncertainty you face with self-knowledge, research, balancers and supporters, and a collection of real options and potential exit strategies.
3. Face every uncertainty based on values, cognitive flexibility, and curiosity to reveal the essence waiting to be activated and unlocked.
4. Sustain yourself and your projects with emotional hygiene and reality checks.

For a full explanation of these tools, pick up The Upside of Uncertainty, by Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr, Harvard Business Review Press.