MARCH 7, 2021

Image by ambermb from Pixabay

“Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.”

—Idowu Koyenikan

Do you think that you are creative? You may or you may not. But the truth is that all of us are incredibly creative. To be precise, pessimistically creative. All we need is a little trigger, and a loop of negative and unrealistic scenarios starts running through our minds. All that it begins with is, “What if…”

We all have doubts, we all have negative feelings, and we all have demotivating thoughts, and it’s okay. Doubts and questions allow us to be innovative and find new answers. But instead of focusing on the solution, most of us allow our pessimistic creativity to run wild and imagine unrealistic things that have a near-zero probability of happening.

Yes, dangers exist, and there is a high chance that you can get involved in an unfortunate situation. But it isn’t as worse as you may imagine.

According to the Economist, the odds of being murdered are 1 in every 16000 in a year. Crime rates vary throughout the world, and the probability also changes depending on the region.  But, from the global perspective, the chance that you will get murdered in the next year is 0.00625 percent.

On the other hand, according to the US Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, the average person drives about 13500 miles (The precise count is 13476 miles as of March 30, 2018). And the chances of getting into a car accident are 1 in 366 every thousand miles. Therefore on average, the chance of you being involved in a car crash in any given year is 3.55 percent.

Do you see the difference?

This proves that most of your imagination really is unrealistic.

Why is this imagination bad?

You may wonder, “Yes, all of these situations may not even be possible, but what harm are they doing to us?”

There can be devastating consequences.

The first is that they waste our mental energy and our time. When we think about something unrealistic and negative continuously, it affects our mental clarity, peace, and energy. It depletes our power and also uses up our time. All of which makes us unproductive, tired, and exhausted.

The second and the most deadly consequence of pessimistic creativity is that it hampers our success. Whenever we think of doing something new, this ‘creative’ mind pops up and thinks of the most unrealistically bad result. That makes us doubt our actions, and we end up not trying. All we have going in our mind is, “What if…”

How to deal with failure?

Do you know the root cause of the thought – “What if…”? It is the fear of failure.

Today on March 7, 2021, when I searched the term “What if I fail?” on Google, I got 492,000,000 results. That is 492 million search results in 0.49 seconds. And the graph below shows us why. Worldwide, the volume of searches for “What if I fail?” has been on a constant rise since Google started collecting search volume and data in 2004. And, the dotted line predicts that the volume is about to increase even more!

Shocking, isn’t it? Did you ever think that millions of people worldwide are constantly using their pessimistic creativity and worrying about failing? Who knows, maybe the person you sat next to on the street was looking up for the answer to this question! This problem is big.

Ironically, the solution to this big problem is very simple. So simple that it can be summarized in one word: ACCEPTANCE.

Well, there you have it. The answer is very simple. I thank you for reading this post, and I hope that now you can overcome this doubt and achieve success!

You can safely close this browser tab now.

Wait! Don’t go away just now!

I got you, didn’t I? Did you really think I was going to leave you halfway through? If yes, then you were mistaken! Let’s go a little deeper into acceptance.

You need to embrace acceptance, which means that you need to accept everything that comes with any decision you make, except for pessimistic creativity. You need to drop your unrealistic scenarios aside and think of the consequences of your decisions along with the benefits, and completely accept the responsibility for the outcome that you get. Whether it is a failure or success, all you need to do is accept what you get.

But again, what if I fail?

You may think, “Accepting the outcome is fine, but again, what if I fail?” The truth is that there is no answer because you don’t even know if you will fail or not. If you plan properly and give your dedication to anything you wish to do, you will most probably succeed! Life is nothing but a game of determination, conscious action, and the probabilities you choose to act upon.

All you need to do is remember this line by Ankur Warikoo – “We will never be able to answer “what if?” We will only regret it!”

And that is the whole point of life. We miss a hundred percent of the opportunities we don’t take. If we let our pessimistic creativity and the plaguing doubts of “What if…” run our lives, then most of the opportunities will be the ones we miss. Only if we dare to rise above this cloud of pessimistic creativity and accept both failure and success, will we have no regrets in life.

Through the chances we take, we may miss ninety percent of them, ten percent of them, or fifty percent of them, but if we are bold and accepting, this number will rarely reach a hundred percent.

All you need to do is detach yourself from the result and seek fulfillment. You will find it when you rise above doubts and “What if…”s.

Just think about this – “What if I have no regrets?” – and life will become beautiful!

Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope that now you will overcome pessimistic creativity and truly achieve the best in life! Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I will surely reply! Thank you so much!

This time I assure you that you can actually close this tab safely, but only after commenting below!

Partnering in your success, regret-free life, and growth,
Prabhsimrat