# How to handle complete uncertainty

When you don't know, look for what you *can* know:

- Very frequently, all uncertain things rest on certain facts:
  - No news about a [decision](people-decisions.md) means people are waiting or deliberating.
  - No news about physical things means the situation hasn't expressed itself explicitly.
  - If you aren't being informed of something that someone else may know, there's always a logical reason why.
- Ask "why" more than "what".
  - Frequently, digging deeper can give you wisdom on the situation that wasn't there before.

If you simply can't know, release everything about it:

- Find peace in the domain of the "known", and give up the "unknown".
- This becomes more difficult in proportion to how much we want to [plan](success-3_goals.md) the future.
- Generally, we suffer [the unknown](unknown.md) in proportion to our capacity for [imagination](imagination.md).

Since you can't do anything about the pending situation, focus on the present:

- [Give it to God](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md) drop the entire experience out of your mind.

Only focus on what you can do anything about.

- As much as you can, try to [plan](success-3_goals.md) for the worst-case situation and [hope](trust.md) for the best.

In many ways, live out the Serenity Prayer:

- O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.