Surviving Uncertainty: The E-Book

Today marks the official release of my e-book, Surviving Uncertainty: Taking a Hero’s Journey … which we’re offering as a FREE PDF download.
Why free? I’ll get to that in a minute. First, a word or two about the book.
Writing a book is, in and of itself, an uncharted adventure. Regardless of whether it’s a commissioned work or a completely original idea, or whether it’s long or short, the writer still has to figure out how to navigate through the subject material in a way that others can, and will wish to, follow. And, like most adventures, it’s also something that often sounds far better as an idea, or after it’s completed, than it sometimes feels in the middle of the process. And believe me. I know from whence I speak on that one.
But I remember reading something the author Richard Bach (of Jonathan Livingston Seagull fame) said about this arduous book-writing process. He said he only wrote a new book when an idea took hold of him with such power and ferocity that it drove him, almost against his will, across the room to the typewriter to get it down on paper. I mention that here because that’s kind of what happened with Surviving Uncertainty.

The ideas the book contains are ones I’ve had in my mind, and lived in my life, for at least the past 20 years. I’ve even written about some of them in my FLYING magazine column, over the past decade. My belief that adventure in general—and a hero’s journey adventure in particular—offers unique and powerful lessons and rewards was instrumental in my decision to found No Map. No Guide. No Limits.
But the idea to put a collection of those ideas into an e-book called “Surviving Uncertainty” came after the seemingly non-stop flood of panicked voices about the economic crisis reached a fever pitch last fall. There’s no question that the problems are serious, and the challenges are many. But one of the things that makes our current times so frightening is that they seem so uncertain. We don’t know whether things will get better or worse, or when, and it feels as if there’s not much we can do about it.
And trust me. My retirement account doesn’t look so good right now, either. But it occurred to me that if there was one thing all my adventures had taught me over the past 20 years, it was how to survive uncertainty. Because adventure is, by definition, uncertain. If you know how something’s going to turn out, it’s not an adventure. It’s a vacation.
It was about that point that the idea of Surviving Uncertainty: Taking a Hero’s Journey began tugging at me, and pointing to the typewriter. Even a number of my own friends seemed to be in need of a little reminding that uncertainty wasn’t the end of the world, and that they could even come out of this with stronger confidence and more fulfilling lives; more self-reliant, more creatively satisfied, and more connected to friends and community. And, perhaps most importantly, less afraid.
The idea of putting the book on the site, and giving it away, came from a sense of urgency I felt about getting these thoughts out to as many people, as quickly as possible. For one of the other key things my adventures have taught me is how dangerous an opponent the demon of fear can be; how fast it can grow, and how much damage it can do. None of us make good choices when we’re afraid. The late sci-fi author Douglas Adams had his priorities absolutely straight when he made the most important (and most prominently displayed) advice in his famous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “DON’T PANIC.”
Surviving Uncertainty: Taking a Hero’s Journey isn’t a how-to book, although it does contain some hopefully-helpful bits of advice. But its message is a bit like the Hitchhiker’s Guide: Don’t panic, and you can probably figure the rest out. And while an uncertain adventure or hero’s journey may be challenging and arduous at times, and may land you in some interesting and unplanned locations (the Volgan ship comes to mind), the journey can also be exhilarating, educational, and rewarding beyond measure.
Sample a few pages of the book on the site, if you want. And if you DO download and read it, we’d love to get your reactions, thoughts, or feedback via the Comments feature below this post. After all, one of our goals here at No Map. No Guide. No Limits. is to start and nurture interesting conversations—here and elsewhere!