Why uncertainty provokes

I ran a workshop recently on preparing for retirement from equity partnership. One of the participants, a partner close to retirement from the partnership, became indignant when I suggested he might experience uncertainty in the transition.

As he explained, he had a plan. Clear, specific, thought through. Time with his children. Travel. Charity work. He knew exactly what he was going to do. His certainty was absolute. Retirement would begin the day he left the partnership, and it would look precisely as he'd mapped it out.

I found his certainty puzzling. Not because his plans weren't sensible. They were. But because having a plan for what you'll do is different from knowing how you'll experience the transition.

And the transition from a long-held professional identity rarely feels as straightforward as the plan suggests.

What struck me then, and what I have since been reflecting on, weren’t the plans themselves but the indignation. Why did the possibility of uncertainty provoke that reaction? If you are genuinely certain (and I have had clients who have been just that), the suggestion shouldn't threaten. You simply acknowledge it doesn't apply to you and move on. But indignation suggests something else - that the suggestion touched on something uncomfortable.

I wrote recently about holding contradictions - the ability to say "both things are true" without needing to resolve them into a single story. What this partner couldn't hold was "I have a clear plan AND I might still experience uncertainty." He needed certainty. The plan had to be enough.

Perhaps certainty feels safer than admitting doubt. Perhaps acknowledging uncertainty - even as a possibility - feels like weakness or lack of preparation. Or perhaps the plan itself was serving as armour, and questioning its sufficiency meant questioning the whole construction.

I don't know what the partner will actually experience when he leaves his partnership. His transition might be exactly as he imagined it. But that indignation stays with me. Because genuine confidence really doesn't need defending quite so vigorously.

And I wonder whether certainty, particularly when it's that absolute, might sometimes be less about knowing what comes next and more about refusing to consider alternatives.