The Covid-19 crisis and its fallout — including recession, layoffs, and uneven economic pain, have presented many of us with challenges that we’ve not encountered before. The high-stakes and unfamiliar nature of these situations have left many people feeling fearful of missteps.
Although no one can reduce mistakes to zero, the below is for your reflection to become a more effective worrier😊 by learning to harness your drive to prevent them and to channel it into better decision making. Don’t be afraid or ashamed of your fear.
Our culture glorifies fearlessness and the traditional image of us to be smart, tough, and unafraid. But fear, like any emotion, has an evolutionary purpose and upside. Your concern about making mistakes is there to remind you that we’re in a challenging situation. And caution has value, so don’t get caught up in ruminating: “I shouldn’t be so fearful.” Don’t be ashamed or afraid of your fear of making mistakes and don’t interpret it as evidence that you’re indecisive.
Use emotional agility skills
Fear of mistakes can paralyze people. Emotional agility skills are an antidote to this paralysis. This process starts with labeling your thoughts and feelings, such as
“I feel anxious I’m not going to be able to control my … .
Stating your fears out loud helps diffuse them. It’s like turning the light on in a dark room. Next comes accepting reality.
List off every truth you need to accept.
Then comes acting your values => Identify your five most important values related to decision-making in a crisis.
How relevant are each of those to the important choices you face?
It will help you tolerate the fact that we sometimes need to act when the best course of action isn’t clear and avoid the common anxiety trap whereby people try to reduce uncertainty to zero.
Focus on your processes
Worrying can help you make better decisions if you do it effectively. Most people don’t. When you worry, it should be solutions-focused, not just perseverating on the presence of a threat. Direct your worry towards behaviors that will realistically reduce the chances of failure.
Broaden your thinking
When we’re scared of making a mistake, our thinking can narrow around that particular scenario.
Imagine you’re out walking at night. You’re worried about tripping, so you keep looking down at your feet. Next thing you know you’ve walked into a lamp post. When you open the aperture, it can help you see your greatest fears in the broader context of all the other threats out there. This can help you get a better perspective on what you fear the most.
Recognize the value of leisure
Fear grabs us. It makes it difficult to direct our attention away. This is how it is designed to work, so that we don’t ignore threats. Some people react to fear with extreme hypervigilance. They want to be on guard, at their command post, at all times. This might manifest as behavior like staying up all night to work.
We need leisure (and sleep!) to step back, integrate the threads of our thinking, see blind spots, and think creatively. Get some silent time.
Detach from judgment-clouding noise
As mentioned, when people are fearful they can go into always-on monitoring mode. You may have the urge to constantly look at what everyone else is doing, to always be on social media, or check data too frequently. This can result in information overload. Your mind can become so overwhelmed that you start to feel cloudy or shut down. Recognize if you’re doing this and limit over-monitoring or over checking. Avoid panicked, frenzied behavior.
On its own, being afraid of making mistakes doesn’t make you more or less likely to make good decisions.
If you understand how anxiety works at a cognitive level, you can use it to motivate careful but bold and well-reasoned choices.