Assuming catastrophes are coming holds you back. Here’s how to move ahead.
Published on October 16, 2013 by Meg Selig in Changepower
“I feel a little queasy. What if it’s stomach cancer? What will my children do if I die?”
“The boss didn’t seem to like my proposal. I wonder if she and my colleagues are ganging up on me. What if I get fired?”
“I haven’t heard from my friend in a long time. Why do I always have to be the one to call? What if he doesn’t care about me anymore?”
Bad things—even horrible things—do happen to good people and cause real pain. But catastrophic fantasies like those imagined above cause useless suffering in our minds, whether there is a grain of truth in them or not. As Mark Twain famously said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."