I am an overthinker and a worrier. I have read Nassim Taleb’s books (Incerto Series) so many times that I always wait for a Black Swan. Everything is all good and dandy, and then boom, a Black Swan shows up and catches you off guard.
Robert Sapolsky in his book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcer, humorously depicts a zebra just chilling and living life, and only gets stressed when it is chased by a lion. And after being chased by a lion, the Zebra doesn’t lie awake at night wondering:
- “Why does this always happen to me?”
- “Do I attract lions because I’m too nice?”
- “Maybe it was my fault… I was standing apart from the herd.”
The Zebra just goes back to eating grass!
Humans, on the other hand, could be very comfortable in their couch, and have a thousand things that are causing them anxiety.
I am exactly that human that Sapolsky is talking about. My mind can run hundreds of simulations on things that could go wrong in a given situation. And this is giving me anxiety. Last night, I was worried about something that I decided to actually do something about it. So I listed all the things that could go wrong in that situation and found out that it’s actually not too bad after all.
A lot of the anxiety I was dealing with was just imagined problems. They are all in my mind. And when I wrote all the things that could go wrong, I realized that I can actually bear those things. And that’s already the worst case scenario!
A few years back, I remember watching a documentary about Navy Seal training (BUD/S). It is so hard that they have a thing called Hell Week. And I remember a lot of guys just quitting, but there’s this one guy despite all the pain and suffering said something like “Hey, at the end of the day, we are fed and we have roof on our heads. What more could I ask for?”
