When I was growing up I had a lot of anxiety. I have written about my experience with it before.
Outside of social settings, the area where my anxiety cropped up the most was driving. During the first couple of years having my license I was perpetually worried about making a wrong turn and getting lost. This was especially anxiety inducing whenever I was driving in a new place or had to make an adjustment with minimal notice.
I distinctly remember driving with my dad during one of these times and him telling me something along the lines of “If you make a wrong turn, just keep driving. Eventually we will get where we need to be.”
Learning to adopt this mindset really helped me manage my anxiety levels while driving. If I missed a turn, I would know it wasn’t the end of the world and that I would eventually find my way back to where I needed to be. After successfully finding my way when I had thought I was lost a couple of times, I no longer feared that happening. I had faced my fear and it turned out it wasn’t so bad.
Life is a lot like that.
We spend so much time worrying about missing a turn when the downside scenario of actually doing so really isn’t all that bad. If we just keep driving we will find our way back on track. Ironically, the act of worrying about missing a turn likely increases the chances of it happening significantly.
I am going through a period of transition (more to come on this soon) and I have found myself getting stressed about all the different balls that I feel like I am juggling. I’ve been getting anxious looking at everything I need to do instead of just coming up with a plan and starting to knock things out one by one. This has been especially true when I am in uncharted territory or if I need to make a split second adjustment. Just like driving.
And just like driving, the fear of something is much greater than the act of doing it itself.
Problems seem big and scary when they are nebulously swirling around our head. The second I get all my To-Do’s on paper (Notion) and start knocking things out I immediately feel much better. Despite knowing this, it is easy to fall into bad habits and let things build up.
It’s easy to worry about what could go wrong instead of acknowledging that the worst-case scenario probably isn’t that bad.
It’s easy to be so focused on the destination that we forget about the joys of the journey along the way.
What isn’t easy is to turn off fear and worry. Only action really can do that.
When you do make a wrong turn, don’t sweat it. Come up with a plan.
And just keep driving.
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