Dustie’s blog: 15th April 2026
Over the coming weeks, I will explore why people do what they do, to help you become more conscious about your own decisions and those made by others. Why? Because, the more conscious we become the more control we have over our environment. This can be as helpful in business, as it is at home.
We’ve all heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
He proposed that humans are driven by layered needs:
- Self-actualisation
- Physiological survival
- Safety
- Love/belonging
- Esteem
Robbins’ then created a model which reorganises and reframes this information into six more fluid, overlapping needs (certainty, variety, significance, love/connection, growth, contribution). Today, I’m exploring certainty.
Let me start by saying, certainty is one of those forces we rarely name, yet it shapes far more of our lives than we realise.
At its simplest, certainty is about feeling safe enough to settle. Safe enough to make decisions. Safe enough to exhale. When things feel predictable, our nervous system relaxes. We think more clearly, act with intention, and feel grounded in ourselves.
When certainty feels threatened, the opposite happens.
You may notice your mind running ahead; anticipating problems, replaying conversations, scanning for what might go wrong. You might feel a subtle tension in your body, a sense of urgency, or a need to regain control. None of this is a personal failing. It’s a natural human response to uncertainty.
Where certainty becomes unhelpful is when we start organising our lives around avoiding discomfort rather than living in alignment with what actually matters to us.
For some people, certainty shows up as rigid routines or over-planning. For others, it looks like staying in familiar situations long past their usefulness—roles, relationships, identities—because the known feels safer than the unknown. Sometimes it appears as perfectionism or over-responsibility: If I do everything right, nothing bad will happen.
But life doesn’t work like that.
Change is inevitable. Growth requires movement. And too much attachment to certainty can quietly limit our choices, creativity, and capacity for calm.
The work isn’t about removing uncertainty from your life—that’s neither possible nor desirable. It’s about developing a steadier relationship with it.
When you begin to notice where your need for certainty is driving your decisions, something changes. You gain perspective. Instead of asking, “How do I make this feel safe immediately?” You can ask, “What’s actually within my control here?” or “What would a grounded next step look like?“
Certainty doesn’t have to come from external guarantees. It can come from trust in your ability to respond, adapt, and course-correct. From knowing that you don’t need the full picture to take the next sensible step.
Inner calm isn’t built on certainty about outcomes. It’s built on clarity about yourself—your values, your limits, and your capacity to meet whatever comes next. And that kind of certainty is far more resilient.
Understanding the way you react to certainty is a really powerful tool, so take a moment to reflect on this topic. How often do you make a decision based on certainty? Is it necessarily the right decision, or just the safest one? And if it’s the latter, it’s worth asking yourself, how does that decision play out in the long-run?
If you’re navigating something complex and want a space to think clearly, you’re welcome to reach out.
Dustie is trained in RMT Exectuive Strategic Intervention Coaching which is a practical, results-focused approach to creating meaningful change. It draws from several fields, including behavioural psychology and systems thinking, but its roots sit in Ericksonian psychology, developed by Milton H. Erickson. Erickson’s work was based on a simple but powerful idea—that people already have the resources they need to change, but sometimes those resources are blocked by patterns they can’t yet see.
Featured image from Openverse. Article was written by Dustie Houchin. Abridged by AI.
DUSTIE HOUCHIN 