Working Through Uncertainty: How to Stay Connected to Yourself When the Fog Hits
What happens when the plan you trusted falls through and you have to move fast to Plan B
The Plan That Didn’t Hold
I thought I had this one secured. The application I submitted looked strong. I was confident it would go through. I even planned my next steps around that “yes.”
But the answer was no.
That single email shifted everything. What I expected to be a straight path turned into a scramble. I had to pivot to Plan B and, just as quickly, explain it to clients who had trusted my original direction.
The Weight of the Pivot
The hardest part wasn’t rewriting the plan. It was the moment between the no and the explanation. The rush of anxiety that said, you should have known better, you should have seen this coming.
That voice gets loud. It makes every gap feel bigger than it is. It makes the unknown feel like failure instead of part of the process.
And layered on top was the responsibility to tell clients. To say the plan had changed. To own the outcome even though I couldn’t control it.
Living Inside the Unknown
This is where the fog shows up in its sharpest form. You can do everything right and still land somewhere you didn’t plan. You can trust your preparation and still face a no.
That doesn’t make the work pointless. It makes it real. The unknown is baked into every project, every decision, every risk. We just forget until it shows itself.
What Helped Me Reset
Here’s what kept me from spinning out:
Acknowledging the anxiety. Pretending it wasn’t there only made it louder. Naming it made it smaller.
Communicating quickly. Clients don’t need perfection, they need honesty. Sharing the pivot before it snowballed kept trust intact.
Taking a pause. Even ten minutes to breathe before rewriting the plan gave me back a sense of control.
Remembering Plan B existed. The backup wasn’t an afterthought. It was a real option waiting for its moment.
The Bigger Picture
The rejection wasn’t the end. It was a reminder. No matter how much you prepare, you don’t get to control every outcome. You only get to control the response.
Uncertainty isn’t a mistake in the system. It is the system. And sometimes it takes a hard no to make that truth unavoidable.
Takeaway
If you’ve hit a snag like this—confident in a yes, blindsided by a no—you’re not alone. The anxiety is real. The scramble is real. But it doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’re in the middle of what creative, ambitious work actually looks like.
Plans change. Outcomes flip. What matters is that you stay connected enough to yourself to keep moving in the fog.
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Jane Grismer is a professional coach, brand strategist, and creator of Booked + Branded. She helps quietly powerful experts turn clarity into positioned offers, visible authority, and scalable growth—through structure, simplicity, and intentional focus. www.janegrismer.com