The Certainty Trap | Why You Can't Stop Overthinking the Future
Send us Fan Mail Why can't you stop overthinking the future even after you've researched the decision, asked people you trust, weighed the risks, and thought through every possible outcome? I am a day late but as I heard in one of my all time favorite quotes "The universe is always on time" In this episode of Walk With Me: The Architectural Stress Test, Dr. Giovanni Dejesus DC, MSPP explores The Certainty Trap: the point where responsible problem-solving can become certainty-seeking, and thinking stops producing useful information but continues because you still don't feel safe enough to move. Gio I am an Identity and Internal Architecture Coach, chiropractor, speaker, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and creator of the Walk With Me Method, an eight-pillar framework for understanding the internal system shaping how we interpret and respond to life. You researched it. Replayed it. Made the list. Changed the list. Imagined what could go wrong. Imagined what could go right. Then imagined what could go wrong again. And somehow, you still don't feel ready. What if sometimes overthinking isn't simply an attempt to solve the problem? What if it's an attempt to eliminate uncertainty? Psychological research offers a useful concept for understanding part of this experience: intolerance of uncertainty. Research has found a strong relationship between difficulty tolerating uncertainty and worry, while also showing that people can respond to uncertainty in different ways, including repeatedly seeking predictability or becoming mentally and behaviorally stuck when certainty isn't available. But this isn't an episode about telling you to stop thinking. Planning is important. Due diligence takes effort. Some decisions genuinely require more information. The more useful question is: How do you know when thought is still serving the decision and when thought has become a strategy for avoiding the discomfort of making one? Through the eight pillars of the Walk With Me Method, Gio examines why uncertainty can become so difficult to hold. Awareness — The Observer Are you still discovering something new, or have you begun thinking in circles? There is a difference between “I need more information” and “I need the discomfort of not knowing to go away.” Identity — The Blueprint Sometimes the fear isn't only making the wrong decision. It's what being wrong might mean about you. If the relationship fails, can you still trust yourself? If the business doesn't work, were you foolish for trying? If you leave and regret it, does that make you irresponsible? When the outcome becomes evidence about your worth, intelligence, judgment, or identity, uncertainty becomes much harder to tolerate. The Mind — The Interpreter The Mind can generate Scenario A, Scenario B, Scenario C, and then ask what happens if B creates D. There will always be another variable available to think about because reality hasn't happened yet. Your Mind can simulate the future. It cannot certify it. The Nervous System — The Hallway Monitor Uncertainty is not universally experienced the same way. The unknown can feel threatening. It can also feel exciting. This episode explores how context, interpretation, previous experience, and physiological activation can influence what uncertainty comes to mean. Emotions — The Dashboard “I feel anxious” is not automatically the same statement as “this decision is wrong.” Fear, dread, anxiety, and excitement contain information. But information is not the same thing as a verdict. What are you making the feeling mean? Capacity — The Container The goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty. It's to increase your ability to remain responsible and present while some part of the outcome remains unknown. Can you hold an unanswered question without requiring yourself to resolve it tonight? Can you say: “I have enough information to move, and I still don't know exactly what happens next”? Behavior — The Evidence Certainty-seeking can look surprisingly productive: Another Google search. Another podcast. Another book. Another conversation. Another AI prompt. Another spreadsheet. Another pros-and-cons list. Another bank-account refresh. Another review of the text message. Another “What would you do?” The question isn't whether those behaviors are inherently bad. It's: What happens after the useful information runs out? Sometimes certainty-seeking can disguise itself as preparation. Meaning — The Compass The deeper cost isn't only worry. Sometimes it's a life placed on hold. I'll start when… I'll leave when… I'll apply when… I'll publish when… I'll commit when… I'll trust myself when… I know. Except some answers only arrive after you live the decision. Gio closes the episode with The Certainty Examination, a six-step process for one decision you've been circling: Separate what is known, knowable, and unknowable. Determine what additional information would actually change your decision. Set an information stop-rule. Identify what being wrong would mean about your identity. Read the emotional data without automatically treating discomfort as danger. Then choose the next responsible move rather than waiting for the perfect or guaranteed one. confidence is not about: “I know this will work.” I understand confidence as: “I don't know exactly what happens next, and I trust myself, my values, and my capacity to meet myself there.” The Certainty Trap isn't that you want answers. It's believing you need an answer life cannot give you before you give yourself permission to move. Take a walk with me. Follow Walk With Me for Season Two: The Architectural Stress Test, where Awareness, Identity, The Mind, The Nervous System, Emotions, Capacity, Behavior, and Meaning are tested against the real pressures of everyday life. Want to see the face behind the voice and additional content not shared on the podcast? click the links below, ike and subscribe and most importantly engage with me. I read every comment and reply. https://www.youtube.com/@RisetoReclaim-gio https://www.facebook.com/giovanni.f.dejesus/ https://www.instagram.com/giovanni.f.dejesus/
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