John Keats, in 1817, described what he believed made someone truly remarkable:
“Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
And honestly? That quote stopped me in my tracks.
I know you all are used to me seeing the bright side of everything in life, but stay with me. Miss Positivity has now met Negative Capability…and I kinda like him. (wink)
The Need to Know
Let’s consider this for a moment…
We live in a world obsessed with certainty.
We want immediate answers…and we get them in just one click. Instant clarity. Quick fixes. Perfect plans. We Google symptoms before we feel them fully. We rush students to the “right answer.” We pressure leaders to appear confident at all times. We treat uncertainty like a weakness rather than as part of being human.
But what if one of the greatest strengths we can develop is the ability to stay present inside the unknown? I feel this on a real level right now.
Dr. Richard Gunderman explains Keats’ quote this way:
“Negative here is not pejorative. Instead, it implies the ability to resist explaining away what we do not understand.”
Resist the urge to explain away what we do not understand. Ouch. And also…wowzers!
The Uncomfortable Middle
When I consider my own life, I think so much of my growth has happened precisely there. Not in certainty. Not in control. Not in polished perfection. But in the uncomfortable middle.
The middle, where I didn’t yet know who I was becoming, as I was headed off to college as a first-generation graduate of anything.
The middle, where a common surgery, gone way wrong, left me fighting a nasty infection for six months that tried to take my life. THAT middle…where healing wasn’t linear, and it wasn't certain.
The middle, where losing my full-time job later in life left me with no real promises for my future.
The middle where leadership meant admitting I didn’t have all the answers.
The middle where students, educators, and even my own child didn’t need me to be perfect…they needed me to be present.
Remaining Open
As someone who spent years battling perfectionism, I used to believe achievement came from mastering every variable.
Now I think wisdom may look more like staying open-minded.
Listening longer. Judging slower. Holding tension without forcing resolution. Being curious instead of reactive.
In education, especially, we often rush to measurable outcomes while forgetting that transformation is messy. Humans are messy. Learning is messy. Life is messy.
Some of the best teachers I’ve known weren’t the ones with all the answers.
They were the ones who could sit compassionately with uncertainty long enough for growth to emerge.
The same is true in life.
Living without Guarantees
Sometimes courage looks like moving forward without guarantees.
Sometimes healing looks like unanswered questions.
Sometimes leadership looks like saying, “I don’t know yet.”
And sometimes strength looks like resisting the urge to explain away experiences we haven’t fully understood.
Sounds very REAL, doesn’t it?
The older I get, the more I believe achievement is less about having all the answers and more about having the capacity to remain open when there are none. When it comes to this concept, I'm still a work in progress.
But perhaps being REAL means resisting the urge to force certainty where growth is still unfolding.
