Something to constantly remind myself of

[kjpepper]

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, ever turns out to warrant the amount of stressing I do over things. Especially since the way I stress over things leads to a sort of terrified paralysis, which, since I'm not doing anything towards eliminating said cause of stress, makes the whole stress thing worse, and cue downward spiral. And I'm always so disgusted with myself for falling into that trap, especially since after breaking out of it enough to actually deal with the problem it ALWAYS ends up being an "oh.... that was it?" sort of thing.

Yeah.

I need to tattoo something on the back of my hand to the effect of "you are so making it out to be worse than it is" or something. Cause this shit right here is gonna give me a completely unnecessary stroke one day.

Comments

[morlock.livejournal.com]

there are necessary strokes?

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

There are strokes that just happen. I'm afraid I'm gonna I work myself up so badly that I give myself one over something that turns out to not be a very big deal.

[morlock.livejournal.com]

i see. well lets try to avoid that. i don't want to give you mouth to mouth and mistakenly slip you some tongue.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

No! Revive me! Revive me!

[morlock.livejournal.com]

thats a quote from somethnig i'm not seeing. also look at my tv list. i watch more TV than anyone ever.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

It's from that dumb Vitamin Water ad with the astronauts.

[morlock.livejournal.com]

...oh. >P

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

yes. curse you for reminding me of it.

[masteradept.livejournal.com]

no you don't

[morlock.livejournal.com]

you shut up stinky head.

[masteradept.livejournal.com]

Stiks and stones...sticks and stones to beat your dodo head in!

[morlock.livejournal.com]

i'm rubber and your glue, what bounces off me sticks to you

[sydneycat.livejournal.com]

We should start a support group.

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

I could use that tattoo myself. Putting a *fraction* of the energy into actually starting, or finishing, something that I do into freaking out would so get the job done.

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

I know right? And the freaking out, it is teh exhausting and unproductive.

[masteradept.livejournal.com]

as a friend of mine told me the other day when I was stressing out over something....



of course I have not taken their advice....yet.

[11th-letter.livejournal.com]

Stressing over things in the manner of trying to be prepared for every conceivable thing that can go wrong and planning how to compensate for them...good. (Though still exhausting.)
Being paralyzed by fear...not good.
Fear and the things we do in its name are the least useful things in human existence.

[birkwelch.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think being prepared for every conceivable problem probably earns a negative rate of return on your energy unless you're godlike in efficiency or the original decision is minor. Seems like it would be better to come up with the top three or five most likely outcomes, weight them by their probability of occurring, and make decisions based on that than to plan for outcomes like mutant killer death bunnies invading your hometown or stray asteroids.

I wish I took my own advice on this... if I get the tattoo, I should probably have it across my buttcheeks, the better to remind myself to think before I stick my head up my ass again.

[11th-letter.livejournal.com]

You are correct...I automatically consider low probability outcomes (mutant death bunnies and the like) as being 'not conceivable'. Or 'not reasonably conceivable', which to me is pretty much the same thing.
What you describe about weighting possible outcomes is part of what I consider being prepared.

[birkwelch.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want to be all reasonable and stuff... that's probably a good thing. For me, it's too late: I've already conceived of the mutant death bunnies, and now I have to plan for them every time I go to the grocery store.

True, my plan is generally to say "What, behind the rabbit?" in my best Pythonese before dying a horrible death, but the point is that when I'm afraid of something I have to do, reason has already calmly defenestrated itself and fear has skewed the weightings, which is I guess why I felt the need to clarify something that was obvious to you and others who are perhaps a bit saner -- I'm trying to remind myself that what I think I should do and what I actually do rarely come within the same zip code as each other. This is probably not the best forum for self-reminders. Shutting up now!

[11th-letter.livejournal.com]

*smile*
Well, I don't know how sane I am.
But you and I are in agreement...it is fear that is the enemy. I work very hard at narrowing the gap between what I think I should do and what I actually do...which doesn't mean that situations don't go pear-shaped on me, but I feel a lot better about myself at least when they do.

[harinezumi.livejournal.com]

If you say it in perl, rather than python, you would have better chances to get all of it out before getting intimately acquainted with the big nasty pointy teeth.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest "Don't Panic" in large, friendly letters?

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear you. And then I get pissed off with myself for getting so stressed, and it's a big sucky circle. :(