Ambiguity is sometimes made out to be a nice thing but I think that approach deserves some scrutiny. Let’s start with the straight up definition: “the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness. synonyms: vagueness, obscurity, abstruseness, doubtfulness, uncertainty.”
I hope it’s not lost that even this definition is a bit ambiguous. It starts with “the quality of being open” which sounds really amiable and good but then ends with “inexactness” and synonyms like “vagueness, obscurity, etc.” We’ll call them, the less than amiable words. It’s the illusion of the former and the implications of the latter which spell death for dreams.
Ambiguity creates a void. And that void can be distracting at best and, at worst, destructive in its illusory implications that there is time to waste. The issue is we are compelled to fill it. It’s in our DNA. You might fill it with tv, books or even in solving the problems of others because they know what it is they need to focus on and that clarity is attractive. Wrong answers can seem just as good as true answers, filling a void for a season but wasting valuable time and effort in the end. The risk is a compelling stagnation where you think you are moving but really its just everything moving around you. The void is perpetuated if we get lost in the trap of “everything.”
It’s hard to rally around everything. Hard to build everything. Impossible to be everything. Ineffective to care about everything. Experiencing everything can look an awful lot like irresponsibility. Believing everything can look a lot like cowardice. We can get lost worrying about our everything, exacerbating the challenge of defining your something. Your specific something. For the moment, for the season or for your life. That is the point where the rubber hits the road. The point where “vagueness,” “obscurity,” “inexactness,” or “abstruseness” paralyze a dream–sometimes even a life. The road to accomplishment of any kind is paved with specifics, with deliverables, with your something clearly in view.
Are we to eliminate all ambiguity? I think not. I think there are times when a hunch is all we’ve got. Where your gut is your best bet. Where interpretation and the skills behind it are key parts of the game. Even in ambiguity, you still have to move (a post for another time). But I’m talking about those times when you can choose. When you can give your children a baseline by defining what you believe for them–so they don’t wander the plethora of opinions screaming all around them. When you choose to believe in something enough to sacrifice other things to go for it. And when you look in the mirror, you can define what you do like about your life as well as what you don’t and what choices you can make to tip the balance to the former rather than the latter. So that even when you are with dissatisfaction you are at least not without direction for the next step. Finally, in a project or a specific task, when you can accurately measure the effort you have made and secure the means for a better effort subsequently.
It’s hard work, though. No way around it. Clarity takes courage yet it is the bedrock of action. Ambiguity may be unavoidable at times, or necessary for a season, but one thing is clear, it is never an ideal. When serving the people or ideas you care about: Ambiguity is not a gift.
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