INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt paralyzed not by what’s happening in your life right now, but by the endless worries of “what-ifs” that may never even happen? If so, you know consequence anxiety.

You don’t fear the wondrous feeling of skydiving; you worry the chute won’t ope. You don’t fear finding your person on that first date; you’re concerned they’ll reject you. You don’t fear having a more fulfilling job; you agonize over whether you’ll jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

In this book, we’ll try to find the beginning of a better way. One that can help you move past the “what-ifs” and focus on what’s happening right now.

Consequence anxiety gets in the way of us thinking clearly. It keeps us from living fully. It’s the nagging worry gets in our head before big decisions. “But what if things go wrong?” It’s the sinking feeling of imagining worst-case scenarios that most likely won’t occur. We worry about personal goals and relationships and our work and our health and our country.

Sometimes it feels as if consequence anxiety is everywhere.

The old saying about not solving a problem without acknowledging it is exists is an old saying for a reason: it’s true.

By thinking about these things, and exploring the ways we worry about what could happen—and how that affects our well-being— you’re acknowledging it may be a problem.

This book discusss practical, effective strategies to counter those worries. You’ll learn ways to understand what causes them for you, how to center yourself when they start, and how to focus on the now rather than outcomes that are often unlikely.

We can never fully conquer every worry, every fear that we’ll experience. But we can find ways to help quiet those what-ifs.