Dancing with uncertainty – a critical skill in cross cultural relocation

Jonathan Fields, is releasing a book tomorrow.  

Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance.  He has challenged people to share their stories of the times they have “danced with uncertainty …and won…where you felt the butterflies, the anxiety and fear, where you thought about turning back, maybe you even did, but then turned back around and ended up creating, or becoming or doing something amazing.”

 My first thought wasn’t of my own dances but of the people I work with who are often stepping out into new lives in very different locations, -lives they may not have personally considered but may be going to because of a job or a partner or a parent.  They are often feeling butterflies, anxiety and sometimes fear.  And then I remembered it was my own dance to China with a young family in the early 90s that got me into this work. 

Yes, I thought of turning back; when facilities didn’t work, when it felt like weeks since I had seen the sun shine brightly, when I craved familiar comfort foods, when I couldn’t make myself understood, when my baby was sick, and most of all when I felt my knowledge and understanding of people slipping through my fingertips.  But I didn’t.  That time turned into three years of successfully contributing to a growing business entity in China, of building real friendships and understanding of a very different culture and way of life to my own. 

 It began the drive to build cultural understanding for myself and now for my clients who are also living and working in different cultures and dancing daily with uncertainty.  Facing the gremlins to gain the glory of new experiences and new success.