Discover the Hidden Strengths in Ambiguous Challenges
Reframing the meaning of challenges
Hey friend,
How are you? I hope you had a nice week.
Today, I want to share an important truth we often forget, especially when we face an ambiguous challenge.
I’m talking about those challenges that have unclear or uncertain outcomes, which could be either good or bad depending on how things unfold.
Pretty much life, you rightly may say.
Yet, once you realize the importance of ambiguous challenges, you learn to savor them instead of stressing over them.
Let me paint a picture for you, imagine anything you want to achieve in your business and personal lives - you can actually have.
Close your eyes and visualize your ideal life.
What do you see?
Oh wow! Yeah! Exactly those things!
How would all this make you feel?
For the first few weeks or months, you’ll be on cloud 9; there is no denying it.
But here is the thing: because of the rule of Diminishing Value, your enjoyment will decrease over time, and you’ll be looking for more challenges to keep you excited.
I touched on this theme in:
That happens to many founders who exit their startups with hefty returns.
With all their financial gains, they still miss the challenge of building something new. And sure enough, they’re off working on their next venture.
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Another vivid example
As I said, I’m not talking about challenges you’re already acing. The lure of Ambiguous Challenges is because of their unpredictable outcomes.
Twilight Zone’s episode 28, “A Nice Place to Visit,” nicely sums up our natural craving for ambiguous challenges.
Story highlights of Twilight Zone’s episode 28 “A Nice Place to Visit” aired on CBS on April 15, 1960. Pay specific attention to 1:29 onwards, where the importance of ambiguous challenges reveals
The gist: In this story, a thief gets shot by police while running away. He then wakes up to meet his guardian angel. The angel fulfills any wish the thief asks for, to the point he thinks he’s in heaven. Soon he gets tired of winning and feels completely bored. When the angel promises to arrange he’ll occasionally lose - he replied it’s no good because he would know. In other words, he’s looking for challenges where there are uncertain outcomes no one controls.
Fast forward to today, instead of the angel that fulfills any wish, we have a genie called AI.
According to OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman’s rosy forecast, AI is destined to relieve us from the hard work and leave us to indulge in our creative pursuits.
Sounds familiar, right?
If you recall, I addressed this in:
What it all means?
The importance of Ambiguous Challenges has three implications:
First, every time you feel like you’re facing a big challenge at work or life with high-stakes and uncertain outcome - relish it.
If you’d know it won’t work or it will be a huge success like that Twilight episode - you’d very quickly be bored out of your mind.
Challenges and feeling uncertain about doing stuff also means you’ve just stepped out of your comfort zone into what is known as Learning Country.
This is where you grow, sharpen your problem-solving skills and learn something new.
Second, how you choose to think and feel when facing ambiguous challenges could also influence the outcome.
It’s the classic case of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Staying in the middle - not too high nor too low - was a great advice a mentor once gave me. This would keep you focused and aware.
Third, the magic of Ambiguous Challenges also work beautifully in storytelling.
There is no story if you don’t have a core challenge/conflict paved with obstacles for your protagonist to overcome.
Just think of your most favorite movie of all times.
Chances are, part of the reason you liked it so much was because the plot had moments where you had no idea how the hero will overcome a challenge.
It could go either way.
The “not knowing” makes the story more believable and relatable as it more closely reflects real-life. As such, this logic is also relevant to your brand stories.
What do you think? How do you handle challenges with foggy outcomes? Feel free to drop your thoughts below.
See you next time!
Best,
- Shlomi
Shlomi Ron
Chief Storytelling Officer
shlomi@visualstorytell.com
Visual Storytelling Institute
story > visual > emotion > experience
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