tom@tommccallum.com

book online meeting

+44 7583 584325

When you can’t control the outcome

by | Sep 8, 2022 | Open Leadership, Response-ability, Self-Knowledge

Don't try to control the uncontrollable

I’m in the process of selling my house and buying another, so at the mercy of the archaic English property sales system. I imagine it does sometimes all go smoothly, but right now my process has hit a bump in the road in the form of the mortgage approval process for my buyers. This has the potential to jeopardise not only that sale but also the purchase of the next house, which is dependent upon selling my current one.

I got this news two days ago. The buyers are being proactive and looking to solve the issue, all of which may take a week or more. There is absolutely nothing I can do other than wait. Once I hear back from the buyers there may be discussions around the solution, but for now, I can do nothing.

I’m generally pretty zen in situations where I can’t control the outcome, as I witnessed in myself around cancer diagnosis, surgery and chemo, as well as the ongoing checkups, blood tests and scans that I will undergo for the next few years, any of which has the (small, but real) potential to show a recurrence.

It is odd, then, that I feel more “jumpy” about this house sale situation. What to do? Well, nothing at all, but I feel that the first thing I will do today is go for a walk with a good audiobook to take my mind off this uncertain outcome.

How do you react when you face an uncertain outcome? What do you do about and around that?