4 Strategies For Living At Ease In Scary Times

Certainty is the one desire universally craved but always out of reach

Barry Davret
6 min readDec 30, 2022
Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash

In 2003, a sales mentor of mine taught me one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned about persuasion. Over the years, it has proven itself as a core principle for living in a world full of scary uncertainty.

How does a persuasion principle double as a strategy for living in the angst of our doom-and-gloom world? Here’s how my mentor explained it.

When trying to close a deal, he said, your prospect craves certainty, and they’ll hesitate to agree with your terms until you eliminate their doubts. Their uncertainty may refer to your ability to deliver, faith in your promises, mistrust, or lack of belief your solution will work for them, even if it has done the job for others.

“Certainty,” he said. “It’s the one desire universally common and perpetually elusive, and most of us don’t even know we crave it.”

In sales, it’s challenging but doable. As hard as we try, we cannot eliminate the uncertainty. Life is unpredictable, no matter how hard we plan or control for outcomes.

In today’s world of never-ending upheaval, we face each morning fearing another once-in-a-generation climate disaster, pandemic, war, political…

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Barry Davret
Barry Davret

Written by Barry Davret

Work in Forge | Elemental | BI | GMP | Others | Contact: barry@barry-davret dot com. Join Medium for full access: https://barry-davret.medium.com/membership