Full disclosure, I just made up that term. But the future is scary, mainly in the sense that it is uncertain. We cannot control all the variables; some chance and fortune is left to the stars. This isn’t just for entrepreneurs, either. This is for everyone; we must take risks to grow, and sometimes that means taking a chance that may not turn out the way we want.
You can do a few things, however, to dim the nagging feeling in your gut that you are making a mistake or are uncertain how things may turn out. They include:
1) Worst Case Scenario Plan
2) Adopt the “Best Day Ever” Mindset
3) “Move Your Feet”
A little bit about each below.
1) Worst Case Scenario Planning
One of my favorite quotes reads from Seneca. “Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?” Practice the worst case scenario. If you fail, how will you bounce back? It’s worth the exercise to doomsday prep just to know you could come out the other side. It’s never as bad (or as good) as it seems; you get to control the comeback.
2) Adopt the “Best Day Ever” Mindset
The “Best Day Ever” Mindset isn’t blind optimism. You control your response to the outcome; if you fail, get up and go again. If you win, great; celebrate and go again. Challenge is good for us, and taking control of our response, whether “pass or fail”, is the ultimate form of controlling anxiety about The Scary Future. Fail? Good, another chance to succeed. Succeed? Good, we get to push momentum onward and upward. This part is mental.
3) “Move Your Feet”
When all else fails, “move your feet.” The worst thing we can do is be stuck in our shoes when fear hits. “Fight or Flight” becomes “freeze”, and that’s when we stop growing. Have the confidence to simply act; it will prevent you from negative anxiety loops that shake your fervor in completing your mission, or hold you back after you’ve been knocked down.
The future is not so scary when you reframe it; it’s fun. It wouldn’t be fun, or fulfilling, if you knew the outcome of all the risks you take. They wouldn’t be risks then, after all, and the triumph of success wouldn’t taste so sweet (you’d inherently accept the “reward” before you did the task taking the “summit” feeling away from you).
Ask yourself, “What’s the worst case scenario? How would I come back from that?” Then, “What can I control regardless of the outcome?” Finally, “Just move my feet. Problem solve on the fly.”
The best day ever is under your control. Go get it.
