The older I get, the more I realize how much energy I spend trying to control things that were never mine to control in the first place.

Sometimes it's big things. The economy. My parents' health. Whether someone has the budget to say yes to a project. Sometimes it's ridiculously small things, like whether there will be a parking spot downtown or whether I've packed the exact right outfit for a two-day business trip. (Spoiler alert: I never have.)

What fascinates me is how convincing our brains can be. They whisper that if we just gather a little more information, think a little harder, prepare a little better, then we'll finally be able to relax. But somehow the finish line keeps moving. There's always one more variable, one more possibility, one more thing we should have considered.

Lately I've been wondering if that's why so many of us are exhausted. Not because life is necessarily harder than it's ever been, but because we're carrying around the impossible job of trying to predict and control outcomes that simply can't be predicted or controlled. Because even when we have great information, we're still making our best guess. Even scientists, researchers, and financial experts know there's always a margin of error. Things happen. Circumstances change. Life gets a vote.

And maybe that's the point.

Confidence isn't the reward we get after we've eliminated uncertainty. Confidence is what allows us to move forward while uncertainty is still sitting right there beside us. Not because we're reckless or don’t care, but because we've learned to trust ourselves enough to handle whatever happens next.

That realization has changed the way I think about decisions. Not perfectly, of course. I still overpack, I still overthink and I still occasionally convince myself that catastrophe is lurking around the corner. But I'm getting better at remembering that confidence isn't about controlling the future. It's about trusting yourself in it.

If uncertainty has been stealing your confidence lately, listen in. This episode might just make your next decision feel a little lighter.