When you’re freaking out or about to take a terrifying leap; when failure looms and you feel like freezing up; when you’re afraid your best might not be enough; free yourself up from the clutches of worry by leveling with failure.

What’s the worst thing that could happen?

Sometimes just asking this question is enough to dismiss the worry. You may realize your worst fear is minor or extremely unlikely to happen. However if the fear still seems plausible try the following:

Mitigate.

What can you do to reduce the risk of the worst outcome occurring? Can you build your skills? Get help? Make a plan? If you can’t do anything but do your best with what you’ve got then…

Plan for Contingency.

If the worst case scenario occurs then what? Can you make a plan for recovery? Can you take steps to minimize the impact? If its ego damage, can you plan for support?

If you catch yourself actively worrying, write down your fear and then make both a mitigating and contingency plan. Once they’re in place and active you can remind yourself when the worry comes up that you’ve done everything you can. Now perhaps what you need is to develop your emotional skills for dealing with challenge.