Everywhere I teach in the world, many people tell me they want to experience the unknown, yet when push comes to shove they want it on their own terms. Here’s the catch—if something comes to you on your own terms, then it’s not an unknown. It’s a predictable known. So, what does it mean to step into the unknown?

Everything we create begins with an internal idea, thought, concept, or image, whether it’s health, wealth, a relationship, buying a home, writing a book, composing a song, and so on. For some people, however, when external circumstances (such as serendipity, coincidences, and synchronicities) appear in their lives that are in alignment with that internal vision, they become paralyzed—paralyzed by the fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what other people will think, and a host of other reasons. Rather than continuing to follow the signposts and clues towards the next step, they stop just short of bringing their creation to fruition, when in fact, if they just continued to move deeper and trust in the unknown, they may have found themselves with a whole host of new possibilities opening up before them.

Instead, they desperately look for more external validations rather than making the necessary choices that are in alignment with that future vision. Here’s the truth about these decisive moments of our lives: If you can’t trust the circumstances, things, or events that show up in your life, then you don’t trust the unknown; and if you don’t trust the unknown, then you don’t trust in your creation; and if you don’t trust in your creation, then you don’t trust in yourself; and if you don’t trust in yourself, then you don’t trust in possibility.

Facing Off with the Unknown

From the time we’re children, we’re conditioned into believing the unknown is a scary place, so the moment we step out of our comfort zone into the unknown, even if we feel insecure, at least insecurity feels safe because it feels familiar. Insecurity then is a daily baseline emotion, and because it’s so familiar we have no problem keeping it under control. Most of us operate in low levels of insecurity every day, but when we decide to put something on the line—when we take a risk, step out of the known and predictable, and declare that we want to be defined by a vision of the future instead of a memory of the past—it makes sense that this unknown future is going to feel uncomfortable. The fact that you’re no longer in familiar territory only serves to magnify that insecurity. Now, even though the voice of insecurity has always been there, it’s clinging to the known, and in its desperation, it becomes the loudest voice in our head. The truth is we’ll never grow unless we face the challenges the unknown presents.

Brushing up against the unknown is a big deal for a lot of people and it’s something I witness all the time. Seeing people recoil in the face of it inspires me to do the opposite—to throw myself further headlong into the unknown. Why? The fact that so many people are afraid of it shows me I need to dive deeper into it. That’s the kind of effort that makes us feel more alive, and that’s the kind of effort that brings us into contact with an immaterial essence or resource within us—that part to us which is greater than the individual self.

If all possibilities exist in the quantum or the unified field—that invisible field of intelligence that is organizing and unifying all the laws of nature (which we could call the mind of God or the very fabric of everything material)—when you stop trusting in possibility, then you not only stop trusting in yourself, but you’re no longer trusting in the divine. Then what? Then you’re back to your animal nature—trying, wishing, wanting, hoping, begging, fighting. You’re back to the same person trying to create something new on your own terms again—the same old personality trying to create a new personal reality.

The bottom line is, if external circumstances are showing up that are in alignment with your internal vision, don’t overthink the decisions that lead you further into the unknown. Those synchronicities are simply the universe calling you to step into your new future. Instead, those events should be seen as signs pointing you towards that direction. So why not see it as proof that your outer reality is beginning to unfold equal to your inner vision? And why not take the energy of the elevated emotions these ‘coincidences’ create—like excitement and inspiration—and use that new energy to create the next opportunity? If you keep doing this repeatedly, you’ll discover you’re moving further away from familiar territory into even more possibilities. Then you will believe more in yourself, possibility, the unknown, and the divine that lives within you even more…and most importantly—that you are the creator of your life instead of the victim of it.

In part II of The Unknown Will Never Let You Down, I’ll discuss how you can turn your fear into passion and courage, and how you can trust the future that has been calling you and waiting for you to answer.