If you fixate on the worst-case scenario and it actually happens, you’ve lived it twice.
Interpretation
Worrying about negative outcomes can lead to unnecessary suffering.
This quote by Michael J. Fox emphasizes the idea that when you dwell on the worst possible outcomes of a situation, you not only experience the anxiety and fear of that outcome in your mind but also, if it comes true, you endure that reality again. Thus, the overthinking and fixation on negativity can cause you to suffer far more than the actual situation warrants.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming fear and anxiety.
I find as long as I acknowledge the truth of something, then that's it. I know what it is and then I can operate. But if I overestimate the downside of something or the challenge of something and I get too obsessed about the difficulty of it, then I don't leave enough room to be open to the upside, the possibility.
My whole life, meeting people is like a blind date, because I feel like they've already seen the video on me.
There are no moments you have frozen in amber. It's moving, it's changing, so appreciate what's good about right now and be ready for what's next.
There's always failure. And there's always disappointment. And there's always loss. But the secret is learning from the loss, and realizing that none of those holes are vacuums.
Certainly people have a lot tougher situations than I've had to deal with. But I will say we are all dying from the moment we are born. This is not just rehearsal.
I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm an activist, I'm a writer and I'm just a student of the world.
Has my heart gone to sleep? Have the beehives of my dreams stopped working, the waterwheel of the mind run dry, scoops turning empty, only shadow inside? No, my heart is not asleep. It is awake, wide awake. Not asleep, not dreaming— its eyes are opened wide watching distant signals, listening on the rim of vast silence
What wisdom, what warning can prevail against gladness? There is no law so strong that a little gladness may not transgress.
Perfectionism spells paralysis.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
The rule for every man is, not to depend on the education which other men have prepared for him-not even to consent to it; but to strive to see things as they are, and to be himself as he is. Defeat lies in self-surrender.
As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions”. Drop your theories; don't seek the truth.
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