Primarily, the way I deal with this sort of fear is by attempting to be as aware as possible of what , specifically, I am scared of right now.
I often find that the vague fears—civilization might collapse, I might not accomplish much, etc—are built on top of more specific and personal ones, and that identifying the latter makes the resulting emotion much less paralyzing. (I also find that my specific and personal fears are often embarrassing as all heck, which is part of why I find it tempting to engage with the larger and vaguer ones instead.)
I don’t mean to make this sound easy… it really isn’t. But it is simple.
No, that’s definitely a good point; I do that too sometimes. Talk therapy or even just a good friend who will call bullshit on you repeatedly can make it a lot easier to identify the specific and personal fears.
Things are going relatively well in my personal life right now, and as far as I can tell I am scared of my own success, I think. I’m not sure what action steps to take on that fear.
Primarily, the way I deal with this sort of fear is by attempting to be as aware as possible of what , specifically, I am scared of right now.
I often find that the vague fears—civilization might collapse, I might not accomplish much, etc—are built on top of more specific and personal ones, and that identifying the latter makes the resulting emotion much less paralyzing. (I also find that my specific and personal fears are often embarrassing as all heck, which is part of why I find it tempting to engage with the larger and vaguer ones instead.)
I don’t mean to make this sound easy… it really isn’t. But it is simple.
No, that’s definitely a good point; I do that too sometimes. Talk therapy or even just a good friend who will call bullshit on you repeatedly can make it a lot easier to identify the specific and personal fears.
Things are going relatively well in my personal life right now, and as far as I can tell I am scared of my own success, I think. I’m not sure what action steps to take on that fear.
(nods) That’s pretty common.
It might help to ask yourself what, specifically, you fear about your own success.