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.
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.
Maturity comes not with age but with the acceptance of responsibility. You are only young once but immaturity can last a lifetime!
The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.
The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20 diseases.
Teach nothing new, but instill into all men's breasts those things which the Fathers of revered memory have with harmony of statement taught... Preach nothing else than what we received from our forefathers... Accordingly, both in the rule of faith and in the observance of discipline, let the standard of antiquity be maintained throughout.
If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.
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