Why we must confront uncomfortable truths

Narrative is everywhere right now. Understanding our own narrative is an important coaching process to help us gain sufficient insight to make informed career decisions.

But there is a but. And it is a big but. Generally the problems we need help with are not simple. In other words, frequently there are many more sides to the story than is comfortably captured in a simple narrative. The trouble is, it turns out we are not good at holding multiple competing narratives in our minds.

There is burgeoning research evidence that points to our biases in decision-making. We frequently take shortcuts with and make assumptions about the available evidence, and often fall for the false promises of the keep-it-simple-stupid school of philosophy.

It is actually relatively rare for us to fully examine very much at all. Our lives would grind to a halt if we were to examine each grain of sand on the beach for traces of broken glass before taking the next step. A general perusal of the scene will be all that is required in most circumstances. Of course if we are walking through a minefield, a closer consideration of what is before us is the recommended best course of action.

The sheer impossibility of always seeing all sides of the story means that we need some sound strategies that direct our time and attention to the important things to prevent us from ruminating unproductively on problems we cannot solve. This is where sound value systems play a critical role. We learn both formally and informally, not only a sense of right or wrong, but also, wisdom provides clues as to what can be relied upon and what requires closer attention.

Paying proper attention requires effort beyond the poker machine psychology of social media clickbait. It requires engaging our critical faculties, or bullshit detector. It means standing in silence to hear the weak signals, or standing back to see a bigger picture. Adopting different perspectives takes effort and hard work. It is no surprise that we are suckers for the instant gratification of a story beautifully packaged and tied up in a bow. In essence this is why we love films and those weekend police procedurals where the baddie is always caught and we can go to bed safe in the knowledge that all is well with the world.

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The exploitation of our weakness for narrative matters in the highly judgmental social media world where we have actively to resist being seduced into accepting a mob narrative. Yet failing to jump on the latest cancellation cart risks our own cancellation.

There is no single story to tell about ourselves and our careers, and we should resist the temptation of being put into or wrapping ourselves up in a confining and possibly conforming box. For matters that matter, we must be prepared to go beyond the dominant narrative, and accept that sometimes some of the other stories we can tell may contain challenges, uncomfortable and inconvenient truths.