Tag: fear

The worst outcome

Posted on by philipdodson

We have trained ourselves, helped by parents, school, the media and so on, to think about the worst outcome first.

This is a safety net that we have all adopted to play safe, a bit like perfection.

“If I think about the worst that can happen, then everything else is a bonus’ we say in our heads.

This is setting ourselves up for accepting ordinary, for getting just OK, for being average. We are hiding, perhaps for fear of success or fear of failure.

What if we turned it on its head and imagined the best possible outcome by default? Imagined the most outrageously good outcome. Why not?

What have we got to lose?

Anticipation

Posted on by philipdodson

The anticipation of anything is either better or worse than the actual thing when it happens.

Most often we anticipate the worst, it’s a default setting. And I mean the very worst that our minds can conjure up. The anticipation will last until we do the thing, and that can mean a lifetime of anticipation and pain.

Perhaps, it’s better to enjoy what we have now and stop anticipating more or simply to do the things we fear now. This way we cut out all the pain of anticipating something painful that most often is not.

A lifetime filled with anticipation is often a lifetime filled with fear and pain.

The final thing to consider, if we have to anticipate, then anticipate only good things. It’s a choice we can make.