The Worst-Case Scenario

For many people, nothing brings about feelings of imminent death like the idea of performing in public.

Or starting a business.

Or writing a book.

Or producing a documentary.

Or publishing a controversial blog post.

This is where writing comes in handy. Not just any writing, but introspective writing. The kind that you write only for yourself.

When we think about going outside our comfort zones, our brains scream, "Danger! This is dangerous! Don't do it, or we might DIE!"

Funny the way our minds work...

But when that happens, try writing about the worst-case scenario for five minutes. If everything went wrong that could go wrong, what would happen in reality?

Most of the time, what we write will be very different from what our feelings told us.

If the performance fails, the audience will still clap at the end and probably forget the next day. If they even noticed the failure in the first place.

If the business fails, you'll probably just right back where you started (so long as you don't do anything silly like go into debt). And you'll have gained some experience to try again.

If the book fails, you'll still have built some writing skills. And even if people don't like it, you'll gain valuable feedback for the next project. Same thing goes for documentary and video skills.

And if people hate your controversial blog post, you can always take it down. But most of the time, people will be glad you spoke up. No one has died from criticism that we know of.

Notice the lack of death and destruction.

When we write about the real worst-case scenario, we clear the emotional clutter, get to see the boogie man under the bed for what it is, and take meaningful action.

Five minutes of writing is all it takes.