WEBVTT
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Hey, it's Jay. I don't know what your day's been like,
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but I was just thinking about you for a minute.
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And I hope you're being a little patient with yourself
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because you deserve it. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.
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Have you ever noticed that your brain is a terrible
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fortune teller? Think about how many times it has confidently
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predicted the future, only to end up completely wrong. It
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convinced you the relationship was over because they didn't text
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you back for a few hours. It told you you
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were definitely going to embarrass yourself before the presentation, only
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for it to become one of the best meetings you've
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ever had. It kept you awake the night before your
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performance review, certain you were about to be fired when
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your boss was actually preparing to give you praise. If
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your weather app got tomorrow's forecast wrong, as often as
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your anxious mind does, you delete it immediately. And yet
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every single day, most of us continue treating our brain's
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predictions as if they're facts. The strange part is that
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our minds rarely predict average outcomes. Your brain almost never whispers,
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this conversation will probably be fine. Or there's a good
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chance everything works out. Instead, it jumps straight to catastrophe.
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One unexplained symptom becomes a serious illness. One awkward silence
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becomes evidence someone secretly dislikes you. One mistake at work
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becomes the beginning of the end of your career. It's
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as though your mind skips over every ordinary possibility and
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heads directly toward the worst one it could possibly imagine.
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It's extreme. If you've ever wondered, why does my brain
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always do this? Why can't I just think normally? Why
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do I always assume the worst? Then today's episode is
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for you. Because the answer isn't that you're broken, pessimistic,
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or weak. In fact, your brain is doing exactly what
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it was designed to do. The problem is that it's
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running on software made for a world that no longer exists.
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By the end of this episode, I want to completely
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change the way you think about anxiety, overthinking, and worst-case scenarios.
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We'll explore why your brain is constantly trying to predict disaster,
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why those predictions feel so believable, And most importantly, three
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practical shifts that can help you stop treating every fearful
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thought like a glimpse into the future. My hope is
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that the next time your mind starts telling a scary story,
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instead of immediately believing it, you'll pause and reconsider. Here's
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the thing. One of the biggest misconceptions we have about
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anxiety is that it's the enemy. We think anxiety is
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trying to sabotage us, ruin our confidence, or steal our peace.
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But what if I told you that anxiety is actually
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just trying to protect you? The problem isn't its intention.
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The problem is its strategy. Anxiety is like an overprotective
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friend who believes every stranger is dangerous, every bump in
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the road is a disaster, and every uncertainty is an emergency.
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It loves you enough to warn you constantly. It just
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has a terrible sense of scale. That's because your brain
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has one primary job. and it may not be the
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job you think it is. Your brain wasn't designed to
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make you happy. It wasn't designed to make you confident.
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It wasn't even designed to help you tell the truth.
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Long before humans cared about fulfillment or purpose or personal growth,
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the brain had a much simpler responsibility. Keep you alive.
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Every part of your nervous system evolved with survival in mind.
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That means your brain is constantly scanning your environment, asking
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one question over and over again. What could hurt me next?
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This idea becomes much easier to understand when you think
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about the world our ancestors actually lived in. Imagine walking
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through a forest thousands of years ago and hearing something
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rustling in the bushes. Your brain had two options. It
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could assume it was probably just the wind, or it
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could assume there might be a predator hiding nearby. If
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it guessed wrong in the first direction, the consequences could
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be fatal. If it guessed wrong in the second direction,
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the worst outcome was that you experienced a few unnecessary
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moments of stress before realizing there was nothing there. Evolution
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constantly rewarded the people who erred on the side of caution.
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This is what psychologists call the negativity bias. Our brains
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naturally give more attention, more emotional weight, and more mental
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energy to potential threats than to neutral or positive information.
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Thousands of years ago, this bias dramatically increased our chances
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of survival. The people who remembered where danger lived, who
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stayed alert to possible risks, and who assumed the worst
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often lived long enough to pass those instincts onto the
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future generations. Those future generations are us. The challenge is
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that while the world around us has changed almost beyond recognition,
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our brains have not evolved nearly as quickly. Most of
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us are no longer worried about predators hiding behind trees. Instead,
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our threats have become psychological rather than physical. This episode
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of On Purpose is presented to you by Mazda. Peace
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of mind doesn't happen by chance. It's created through the
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habits we build before we ever need them. That's the
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philosophy behind every Mazda, with proactive safety features that help
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keep you more aware More connected and more engaged, Mazda
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helps you feel ready for whatever the road brings. It's
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why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' Safest New Car brand.
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And as of July 2026, Mazda has won more 2026
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IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand.
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Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when
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an accident doesn't. Visit mazdausa.com to learn more. Consumer Reports
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does not endorse products or services. An unread email from
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your boss, a partner who seems quieter than usual, a
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medical test you haven't gotten back yet, a job interview,
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a first date, a text message that simply says, can
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we talk? Your brain responds to these moments of uncertainty
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using many of the exact same survival systems that once
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protected your ancestors from physical danger. One of the most
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fascinating developments in neuroscience over the last couple of decades
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is something called predictive processing. Scientists increasingly believe that your
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brain isn't simply reacting to reality as it unfolds. Instead,
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it's constantly trying to predict what will happen next. Before
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you've consciously interpreted what's happening around you, your brain is
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already generating expectations, filling in missing information, and making educated
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guesses about the future. And those predictions don't remain neutral
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ideas in your head. they influence what you notice. If
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you enter a meeting convinced that your colleagues don't respect you,
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you will be more likely to notice the person who
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checks their phone than the person nodding along. If you
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believe your partner is pulling away, one distracted response may
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feel more meaningful than 10 moments of affection. The prediction
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silently becomes a filter, highlighting anything that supports it and
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minimizing anything that doesn't. Once your brain has predicted danger,
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it begins collecting evidence for the danger it already expects
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to find. You may believe you're objectively reading the situation
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when you're actually reading it through a conclusion your mind
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reached before all the information arrived. The more frightened you feel,
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the more certain that conclusion can seem. What's interesting is
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that your brain doesn't actually care whether the story it
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writes is accurate. It cares whether the story keeps you alive.
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In other words, your brain would rather make you anxious
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than risk making you vulnerable. This is why I don't
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think the goal should be to eliminate anxiety. Anxiety is
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a normal human emotion. Every person you admire has experienced it.
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Every successful entrepreneur has wondered if the business would fail.
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Every athlete has worried. before a competition. Every parent has
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imagined something happening to their child. Every person who has
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ever fallen in love has feared losing it. The goal
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isn't to become someone whose mind never imagines the worst.
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The goal is to become someone who no longer mistakes
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those imagined futures for inevitable ones. One of my favorite
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observations about the human mind is that it almost never
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predicts boring outcomes. It doesn't tell you, your flight will
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probably leave on time, you'll have an average trip, and
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nothing particularly memorable will happen. That's statistically the most likely scenario,
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but instead it asks, what if the plane crashes? Your
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brain doesn't say, your date will probably be pleasant, you'll
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learn a little about each other, and you'll decide whether
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you want to meet again. It says, what if they
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think you're awkward? What if there's no chemistry? What if
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you embarrass yourself? The brain is drawn to dramatic stories
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because dramatic stories are easier to remember and more memorable
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dangers helped our ancestors survive. Psychologists have a name for
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one of the reasons this happens. It's called the availability heuristic.
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and once you understand it, you'll start seeing it everywhere.
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The availability heuristic is our tendency to judge how likely
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something is based on how easily examples come to mind.
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If your brain can quickly think of an example, it
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assumes that event must be common. If it struggles to
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think of one, it assumes the event is rare. The
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fascinating part is that what comes to mind most easily
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isn't necessarily what's happening most often. It's simply what has
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captured your attention the most. Think about what social media
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has done to this process. You open your phone intending
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to check in with friends. And within a few minutes,
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you've seen someone talking about being laid off. Another person
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sharing a story about infidelity. Someone describing a frightening medical diagnosis.
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And a creator explaining why artificial intelligence is about to
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replace millions of jobs. None of those things are imaginary.
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They happen. But because your brain has been more exposed
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to them over and over again, they become mentally available. Suddenly,
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they don't just feel possible. They feel probable. Maybe you've
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noticed this after watching a documentary about a rare disease.
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For the next few days, every small ache or unusual
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sensation suddenly feels significant. Rationally, you know the odds haven't changed. Emotionally, however,
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your brain now has a vivid story to reference. The
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same thing happens after hearing about a relationship ending unexpectedly.
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If you're dating someone, your brain quietly starts scanning for
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evidence that your relationship might be next. Nothing in your
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reality has changed, but the stories available to your mind have.
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Algorithms have become incredibly good at exploiting this tendency. They
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don't necessarily show us what's most representative of reality, they
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show us what's most emotionally engaging. Fear keeps us watching.
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Outrage keeps us commenting. Uncertainty keeps us scrolling for one
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more answer. Over time, our brains begin mistaking emotionally charged
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information for statistically normal information. Your brain hates open loops.
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It craves completion. It wants answers. It wants certainty. That's
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why waiting is so emotionally exhausting. Waiting for test results.
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Waiting to hear back after an interview. Waiting for someone
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to define the relationship. Waiting for an apology. Waiting for closure.
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In each of these moments, your brain is faced with
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something it dislikes more than almost anything else, not knowing.
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And rather than tolerate that uncertainty, it begins inventing explanations
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to fill the silence. Notice how rarely those explanations are generous.
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Your brain doesn't usually say, they're probably busy. It says,
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they're ignoring me. It doesn't say, the hiring manager is
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interviewing several candidates. It says, they've already decided you weren't
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good enough. It doesn't say your friend has had a
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difficult week. It says you must have done something wrong.
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When information is missing, fear is often the first author
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your brain invites into the room. That's because uncertainty itself
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feels threatening. In fact, psychologists have found that one of
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the strongest predictors of chronic anxiety isn't simply fear. It's
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something called intolerance of uncertainty. Some people don't just dislike
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not knowing. They experience uncertainty itself as emotionally unsafe. Their
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nervous system would almost rather receive bad news than remain
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in suspense. That's why unanswered questions become breeding grounds for
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catastrophic thinking. The brain thinks, if I can just figure
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out what's going to happen, I'll finally be able to relax.
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The irony, of course, is that the search for certainty
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rarely creates peace. More often, it creates spirals. You search
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online about a frightening current event, which leads to an article,
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then another article, then another forum, then another video, until
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you've spent two hours investigating a future that doesn't exist.
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You replay one conversation in your head looking for clues,
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only to leave feeling even more confused than when you started.
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The brain mistakes this activity for progress. It feels like
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you're solving something, but you're not solving a problem. You're
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feeding a prediction. There's an important difference between thinking about
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a problem and solving one. Solving produces something, a decision,
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a conversation, a plan, or a next step. An anxious
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spiral can consume enormous amounts of energy without producing any
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new information at all. You finish in the same place
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you started, except now you're more exhausted and the imagined
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outcome feels even more familiar. Familiarity can then be mistaken
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for likelihood. Because you picture the disaster 50 times, it
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begins to feel as though it is approaching rather than
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merely repeating. I once heard someone describe anxiety as paying
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interest on a debt you may never owe. And I
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think that's exactly what many of us do every day.
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Your brain mistakes worrying for working. Every time you replay
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the same fear, your mind gives you a subtle feeling
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that you're accomplishing something. You're being responsible. You're getting ready.
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You're staying vigilant. But if worrying actually prevented bad things
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from happening, the most anxious people would also be the safest, healthiest,
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and happiest. We know that's not true. So here's the
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first shift I want you to practice. The next time
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you notice yourself spiraling, don't ask, could this happen? Your
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anxious brain has already answered that question. Instead ask, how
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likely is this based on the evidence I have right now?
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It's a deceptively simple question, but it forces a completely
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different part of your brain to engage. You're no longer
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reacting emotionally. You're reasoning. You're moving from fear into curiosity.
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The words, based on the evidence I have right now,
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are the most important part of that question. Anxiety often
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treats the intensity of a feeling as evidence. I feel afraid,
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so something bad must be happening. But a feeling can
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tell you that your alarm system has been activated without
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telling you whether the alarm is accurate. Try giving your
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prediction an actual percentage. Is this outcome 90% likely, or
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does it only feel 90% frightening? What other outcomes would
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fit the same facts? If a friend brought you this
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exact situation, would you reach the same conclusion? You may
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not arrive at perfect certainty, but that isn't the assignment.
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The assignment is to move from this is going to
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happen to this is one possibility and I don't yet
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know whether it will happen. This is one of the
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reasons cognitive behavioral therapy has been so effective for decades.
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It doesn't ask you to become blindly optimistic or pretend
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everything will be okay. It asks you to examine your
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thinking like a scientist instead of accepting it like a
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fortune teller. Imagine your anxious thought walking into a courtroom.
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Anxiety immediately acts like the prosecutor. It presents one dramatic argument,
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one emotional witness, one frightening conclusion. And because we're so
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identified with our own thoughts, we often hand down the
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verdict before the defense has even spoken. What would happen
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if you become your own defense attorney? Instead of immediately
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believing the accusation, you started asking for evidence. What facts
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actually support this prediction? What facts don't? Have I been
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wrong about something like this before? Those questions don't eliminate uncertainty,
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but they stop uncertainty from automatically turning into catastrophe. I've
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noticed something about people who seem emotionally resilient. They don't
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necessarily experience fewer frightening thoughts than everyone else. They simply
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don't give every thought equal authority. In the same way
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you wouldn't believe every headline you read or every rumor
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you hear, you don't have to believe every story your
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own mind tells you. The great thing is that this
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skill gets stronger with practice. Every time you interrupt an
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anxious prediction and ask for evidence instead of immediately accepting it,
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you're teaching your brain a new pattern. You're reminding it
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that uncertainty doesn't automatically equal danger. You're slowly retraining the
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prediction engine itself. And that matters because the goal isn't
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to stop your brain from making predictions. It's to stop
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fear from being the only writer in the room. The
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second shift is the one that changed my own relationship
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with anxiety more than anything else. It begins with a
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question that's so simple, you'll almost always underestimate it. What
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problem actually exists right now? I think one of the
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biggest reasons anxiety becomes so overwhelming is because it tricks
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us into living somewhere we don't actually exist. Your body
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is sitting in your living room. You're drinking coffee, walking
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your dog, driving to work or lying in bed. But
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your mind has traveled three weeks into the future. It's
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already living inside a conversation that hasn't happened yet, a
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diagnosis that hasn't arrived or a rejection that may never come.
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That's one of anxiety's greatest tricks. It convinces you that
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your imagined future deserves more of your attention than your
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actual present. One of my favorite quotes from Seneca is
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we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. I
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think that's one of the most psychologically accurate observations ever written.
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Notice he doesn't say we never suffer in reality. Of
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course we do. Loss is real. Heartbreak is real. Grief, disappointment, illness, failure,
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these are all part of being human. But so much
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of our suffering isn't created by what happens. It's created
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by what we repeatedly imagine might happen. We become attached
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to stories about how things should unfold, or we become
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consumed by futures that haven't arrived. Instead of inhabiting this moment,
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we begin negotiating with moments that don't exist. The mind
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keeps trying to solve tomorrow's uncertainty while completely abandoning it.
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today's reality. So here's the question I come back to
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whenever I feel myself spiraling. Let's say you're waiting to
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hear whether you got the job. Your mind has already
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imagined not getting it, falling behind financially, disappointing your family,
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and never finding another opportunity. But what problem exists right now?
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Right now, you're waiting for an email. You may feel uncomfortable,
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but you've not been rejected. You do not need to
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rebuild your career tonight. You only need to live the
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evening that is actually in front of you. If a
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real problem does exist, bring it down to the size
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of the next available action. Maybe the bill is due,
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the conversation needs to happen, or the application has to
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be submitted. Anxiety wants you to solve the entire future
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at once. Reality usually asks you for one phone call,
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one honest sentence, one decision, or one hour of focused work.
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The present may still be difficult, but it is almost
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always smaller than the life-size catastrophe your mind has constructed
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around it. This episode is brought to you by Ultra.
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Stay out there. One of the reasons this practice is
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so powerful is because anxiety is always trying to solve
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a future problem using present energy. It asks you to
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spend emotional resources on situations that haven't needed them yet.
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This doesn't mean we ignore the future or avoid planning.
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Planning is necessary and preparation is wise. The difference is
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that planning works with reality while anxiety works with imagination.
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One leads to action, the other leads to exhaustion. On
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one side, write down what you know. On the other side,
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write down what you're assuming. It's amazing how often the
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second list is dramatically longer than the first. We confuse
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assumptions with facts because our brains present them in the
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same emotional tone. That's why writing them down can be
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so clarifying. Once they're on paper, you realize how much
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of your suffering has been fueled by sentences that begin
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with maybe or what if. Then look back at the
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first list and ask what it requires from you. If
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you know your friend hasn't replied, the fact may require patience.
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If you know you made a mistake at work, the
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fact may require an apology or a correction. If you
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know you have a medical appointment next week, the fact
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may require writing down your questions. This returns you to
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your actual responsibility. You stop trying to control the answer
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and start responding to the information you truly have. I
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also think there's something incredibly freeing about accepting that not
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every question deserves an immediate answer. We live in a
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culture that encourages instant certainty. We can track our food deliveries,
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watch flights move across a map in real time and
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get answers from our phones within seconds. We've become uncomfortable
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with not knowing But emotional life doesn't work that way.
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Relationships don't offer constant reassurance. Careers don't come with guaranteed outcomes.
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Health doesn't promise certainty. Part of being emotionally mature is
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developing the capacity to sit inside unanswered questions without allowing
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your imagination to answer them for you. That brings us
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to the third and perhaps most important shift. We need
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to learn to stay present in the inevitable uncertainty of
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our lives. We tell ourselves, I'll feel better once I know.
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Once I know whether I got the job. Once I
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know how they feel about me. Once I know the
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test results. Once I know whether this relationship is going
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to last. We spend our lives chasing certainty because we
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believe certainty is what creates peace. But if you really
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look at the happiest, strongest, most resilient people you know,
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you'll notice something surprising. Their lives aren't more certain than yours.
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They're just more present, living within the unknown. Think about
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every meaningful decision you've ever made. Falling in love wasn't certain.
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Starting a business wasn't certain. Moving to a new city
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wasn't certain. Becoming a parent isn't certain, pursuing a dream
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certainly isn't certain. The moments that shape our lives almost
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always begin with incomplete information. If certainty were a prerequisite
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for living well, none of us would ever do anything courageous.
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Psychologists have a term that I think deserves far more
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attention than it gets. Self-efficacy. It was developed by psychologist
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Albert Bandura, and it's one of the strongest predictors of resilience, motivation,
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and long-term success. Self-efficacy isn't the belief that bad things
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won't happen to you. It's the belief that if they do,
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you will be capable of handling them. That's a completely
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different source of confidence. Your piece isn't reliant on the
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future going the way you hope it will. It is
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reliant on the person you will become. regardless of what
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the future brings. You build that self-efficacy by remembering specific evidence.
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Think of a moment you once dreaded that eventually became
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part of your history. At the time, you may not
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have known what to say or how you would recover.
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You learned while living it. You found resources you couldn't
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see in advance, accepted support you didn't know you would
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have had access to, and made decisions as new information arrived.
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Your past does not prove that nothing difficult will happen.
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It proves that you do not need every solution before
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the difficulty begins. I think that's one of the most
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liberating shifts we can make. Instead of asking, how can
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I become more certain? We can start asking, how can
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I become more capable? Because here's the truth. Capability is
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something you can build every single day. You can't guarantee
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you'll never lose a job, but you can become someone
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who knows how to adapt. You can't guarantee your heart
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will never be broken, but you can become someone who
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trusts they'll heal. You can't guarantee life won't surprise you,
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but you can become someone who believes they can meet
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those surprises with wisdom, courage, and support. This is where
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I want to leave you with one final exercise that's
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had a profound impact, on the way I respond to anxiety.
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The next time your mind starts spiraling towards the worst
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case scenario, instead of trying to stop the thought, simply
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ask yourself, then what? Let's say your brain says I'm
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going to lose my job. Okay, then what? I'll have
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to start looking for another one. Then what? I'll update
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my resume and reach out to people I know. Then what?
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I might have to cut back on expenses for a while.
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Then what? I'll find another opportunity. Then what? I'll look
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back and realize I learned something I couldn't have learned
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any other way. Notice what happens as you keep asking,
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then what? Anxiety wants the story to stop at the
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pain point. It wants you to believe the worst moment
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is also the final chapter. But life almost never works
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that way. Human beings are remarkably adaptable. We've survived heartbreaks
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we thought would destroy us. We've recovered from failures we
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were convinced we'd never overcome. We found joy again after
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seasons that felt impossibly dark. The story almost always continues.
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Anxiety just forgets to tell you that part. Not trust
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that everything will go according to plan. Not trust that
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life will always be easy. But true trust in yourself
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that no matter what happens, you will figure it out
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when you need to. I've found that this exercise doesn't
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magically erase fear, but it does reveal something far more valuable.
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It reveals your resilience. When you follow the story all
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the way through instead of stopping at the disaster, you
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begin remembering how resourceful you actually are. You remember the
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people who would help you, the skills you've already developed,
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the challenges you've already overcome. The anxious mind is excellent
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at imagining future pain, but it's surprisingly poor at imagining
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future strength. Whatever happens, you won't experience it as the
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version of yourself sitting here today. You'll experience it as
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the version of yourself who has grown through every challenge
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between now and then. That's an important distinction because your
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anxious mind always imagines tomorrow's problems using today's strengths. but
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it forgets that you'll keep learning, adapting, healing, and becoming
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wiser along the way. Today's seven-day challenge is brought to
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00:28:58.269 --> 00:29:01.299
you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. One of the most meaningful
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things we can invest in is an experience that changes
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00:29:05.059 --> 00:29:08.180
how we see the world. The meals that become memories,
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the places that shift our perspective, the moments that stay
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00:29:11.500 --> 00:29:14.369
with us long after we return home. And with the
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Here's your challenge this week. For the next seven days,
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I want you to practice giving your mind something positive
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to anticipate. At the beginning of the week, choose one
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experience you want to have in the next 30 days.
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It could be booking a weekend away, trying a restaurant
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00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:39.829
you've always wanted to visit, planning a day trip with
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00:29:39.849 --> 00:29:43.299
your family, getting tickets to something you're excited about, or
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00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:46.289
exploring somewhere new in your own city. But don't just
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think about it. Book it, reserve it, invite someone, put
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it on the calendar. Then for the next seven days,
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spend just a few minutes each day thinking about something
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you're genuinely looking forward to about that experience. Maybe it's
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the meal you'll share, the person you'll be with, the
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place you'll discover, or simply how it might feel to
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step outside your normal routine. Because your brain is incredibly
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good at imagining everything that could go wrong, it can
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take one uncertainty and create an entire future around it.
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So this week, we're going to practice using that same
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imagination differently. Not to convince yourself that everything will be perfect,
473
00:30:23.619 --> 00:30:26.500
but to remind yourself that the future can hold things
474
00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:29.140
you're excited about as well. At the end of the
475
00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:32.900
seven days, ask yourself, what changed when I gave myself
476
00:30:32.940 --> 00:30:36.190
something to look forward to instead of something to worry about?
477
00:30:36.930 --> 00:30:41.609
One experience, one plan, seven days of anticipation. That's your
478
00:30:41.650 --> 00:30:46.410
challenge this week. With Chase Sapphire Reserve, every experience feels
479
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as rewarding as the destination itself. Earn four times the
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482
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transaction fees. Learn more at chase.com forward slash sapphirereserve. Cards
483
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issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA member FDIC, subject to
484
00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:31.730
credit approval, terms apply. Thank you for watching. In the
485
00:31:31.769 --> 00:31:35.190
other backpack, you place what actually happened. When you compare
486
00:31:35.210 --> 00:31:38.309
the weight of everything you feared with the reality of
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00:31:38.369 --> 00:31:43.690
what unfolded, the second backpack is always lighter. Most of
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00:31:43.750 --> 00:31:46.890
us spend our days carrying the first backpack, even though
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00:31:46.930 --> 00:31:50.589
the second contains the truth. What actually happens is rarely
490
00:31:50.650 --> 00:31:53.809
as impossible to handle as what anxiety asks us to
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00:31:53.869 --> 00:31:56.789
carry in advance. So the next time your brain starts
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00:31:56.829 --> 00:31:59.299
predicting the future, I don't want you to ask whether
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00:31:59.339 --> 00:32:01.930
the prediction is frightening. I want you to ask whether
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00:32:01.950 --> 00:32:06.309
your fortune teller has actually earned your trust. Remember its
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00:32:06.349 --> 00:32:09.950
track record. Remember how many conversations it got wrong. How
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00:32:09.990 --> 00:32:13.099
many sleepless nights it created over problems that never arrived.
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00:32:13.619 --> 00:32:17.519
How many stories it confidently narrated that reality never bothered
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00:32:17.539 --> 00:32:21.250
to follow. Your brain is going to keep making predictions.
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00:32:22.069 --> 00:32:25.559
That's what healthy human brains do. but it's now on
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00:32:25.619 --> 00:32:28.680
you to stop confusing its guesses with the truth. So
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00:32:28.700 --> 00:32:31.700
the next time your mind starts spiraling, come back to
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00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:34.970
the present. Remind yourself that your brain is wired to
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00:32:35.049 --> 00:32:39.710
find this worst-case scenario But that worst case scenario is
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00:32:39.750 --> 00:32:42.549
not always the most likely one or the last one.
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00:32:43.309 --> 00:32:46.869
Remind yourself of where you are right now. Remind yourself
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00:32:46.910 --> 00:32:50.069
that the present moment is the only one that truly exists.
507
00:32:50.539 --> 00:32:53.519
And remind yourself that no matter what happens, you are
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00:32:53.559 --> 00:32:56.900
stronger than you realize, more resilient than you know, and
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00:32:56.940 --> 00:33:00.660
completely capable of trusting yourself to get through whatever life
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00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:04.829
throws your way. Thank you for watching. Remember, I'm forever
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00:33:04.849 --> 00:33:06.789
in your corner and I'm always rooting for you.
1
00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:05.200
Hey, it's Jay. I don't know what your day's been like,
2
00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.060
but I was just thinking about you for a minute.
3
00:00:08.789 --> 00:00:10.890
And I hope you're being a little patient with yourself
4
00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:16.949
because you deserve it. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.
5
00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:27.559
Have you ever noticed that your brain is a terrible
6
00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:31.010
fortune teller? Think about how many times it has confidently
7
00:00:31.070 --> 00:00:34.869
predicted the future, only to end up completely wrong. It
8
00:00:34.909 --> 00:00:37.549
convinced you the relationship was over because they didn't text
9
00:00:37.570 --> 00:00:40.369
you back for a few hours. It told you you
10
00:00:40.409 --> 00:00:44.429
were definitely going to embarrass yourself before the presentation, only
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for it to become one of the best meetings you've
12
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ever had. It kept you awake the night before your
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performance review, certain you were about to be fired when
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your boss was actually preparing to give you praise. If
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your weather app got tomorrow's forecast wrong, as often as
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your anxious mind does, you delete it immediately. And yet
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every single day, most of us continue treating our brain's
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predictions as if they're facts. The strange part is that
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our minds rarely predict average outcomes. Your brain almost never whispers,
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this conversation will probably be fine. Or there's a good
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chance everything works out. Instead, it jumps straight to catastrophe.
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One unexplained symptom becomes a serious illness. One awkward silence
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becomes evidence someone secretly dislikes you. One mistake at work
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becomes the beginning of the end of your career. It's
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as though your mind skips over every ordinary possibility and
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heads directly toward the worst one it could possibly imagine.
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It's extreme. If you've ever wondered, why does my brain
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always do this? Why can't I just think normally? Why
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do I always assume the worst? Then today's episode is
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for you. Because the answer isn't that you're broken, pessimistic,
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or weak. In fact, your brain is doing exactly what
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it was designed to do. The problem is that it's
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running on software made for a world that no longer exists.
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By the end of this episode, I want to completely
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change the way you think about anxiety, overthinking, and worst-case scenarios.
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We'll explore why your brain is constantly trying to predict disaster,
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why those predictions feel so believable, And most importantly, three
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practical shifts that can help you stop treating every fearful
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thought like a glimpse into the future. My hope is
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that the next time your mind starts telling a scary story,
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instead of immediately believing it, you'll pause and reconsider. Here's
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the thing. One of the biggest misconceptions we have about
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anxiety is that it's the enemy. We think anxiety is
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trying to sabotage us, ruin our confidence, or steal our peace.
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But what if I told you that anxiety is actually
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just trying to protect you? The problem isn't its intention.
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The problem is its strategy. Anxiety is like an overprotective
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friend who believes every stranger is dangerous, every bump in
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the road is a disaster, and every uncertainty is an emergency.
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It loves you enough to warn you constantly. It just
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has a terrible sense of scale. That's because your brain
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has one primary job. and it may not be the
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job you think it is. Your brain wasn't designed to
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make you happy. It wasn't designed to make you confident.
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It wasn't even designed to help you tell the truth.
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Long before humans cared about fulfillment or purpose or personal growth,
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the brain had a much simpler responsibility. Keep you alive.
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Every part of your nervous system evolved with survival in mind.
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That means your brain is constantly scanning your environment, asking
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one question over and over again. What could hurt me next?
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This idea becomes much easier to understand when you think
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about the world our ancestors actually lived in. Imagine walking
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through a forest thousands of years ago and hearing something
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rustling in the bushes. Your brain had two options. It
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could assume it was probably just the wind, or it
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could assume there might be a predator hiding nearby. If
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it guessed wrong in the first direction, the consequences could
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be fatal. If it guessed wrong in the second direction,
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the worst outcome was that you experienced a few unnecessary
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moments of stress before realizing there was nothing there. Evolution
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constantly rewarded the people who erred on the side of caution.
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This is what psychologists call the negativity bias. Our brains
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naturally give more attention, more emotional weight, and more mental
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energy to potential threats than to neutral or positive information.
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Thousands of years ago, this bias dramatically increased our chances
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of survival. The people who remembered where danger lived, who
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stayed alert to possible risks, and who assumed the worst
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often lived long enough to pass those instincts onto the
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future generations. Those future generations are us. The challenge is
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00:05:08.410 --> 00:05:12.470
that while the world around us has changed almost beyond recognition,
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00:05:13.129 --> 00:05:16.399
our brains have not evolved nearly as quickly. Most of
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00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:20.860
us are no longer worried about predators hiding behind trees. Instead,
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00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:25.180
our threats have become psychological rather than physical. This episode
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00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:28.420
of On Purpose is presented to you by Mazda. Peace
85
00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:31.500
of mind doesn't happen by chance. It's created through the
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00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:34.879
habits we build before we ever need them. That's the
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00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:39.129
philosophy behind every Mazda, with proactive safety features that help
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00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:42.750
keep you more aware More connected and more engaged, Mazda
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00:05:42.790 --> 00:05:45.990
helps you feel ready for whatever the road brings. It's
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00:05:46.009 --> 00:05:49.870
why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' Safest New Car brand.
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00:05:50.370 --> 00:05:54.500
And as of July 2026, Mazda has won more 2026
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00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:59.579
IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand.
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00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:05.819
Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when
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00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:11.129
an accident doesn't. Visit mazdausa.com to learn more. Consumer Reports
95
00:06:11.170 --> 00:06:14.990
does not endorse products or services. An unread email from
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your boss, a partner who seems quieter than usual, a
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00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:21.709
medical test you haven't gotten back yet, a job interview,
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a first date, a text message that simply says, can
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00:06:25.029 --> 00:06:28.610
we talk? Your brain responds to these moments of uncertainty
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using many of the exact same survival systems that once
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protected your ancestors from physical danger. One of the most
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fascinating developments in neuroscience over the last couple of decades
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is something called predictive processing. Scientists increasingly believe that your
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brain isn't simply reacting to reality as it unfolds. Instead,
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it's constantly trying to predict what will happen next. Before
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you've consciously interpreted what's happening around you, your brain is
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00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:03.579
already generating expectations, filling in missing information, and making educated
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00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:07.689
guesses about the future. And those predictions don't remain neutral
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ideas in your head. they influence what you notice. If
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you enter a meeting convinced that your colleagues don't respect you,
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you will be more likely to notice the person who
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checks their phone than the person nodding along. If you
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believe your partner is pulling away, one distracted response may
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feel more meaningful than 10 moments of affection. The prediction
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silently becomes a filter, highlighting anything that supports it and
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minimizing anything that doesn't. Once your brain has predicted danger,
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it begins collecting evidence for the danger it already expects
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to find. You may believe you're objectively reading the situation
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when you're actually reading it through a conclusion your mind
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reached before all the information arrived. The more frightened you feel,
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the more certain that conclusion can seem. What's interesting is
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that your brain doesn't actually care whether the story it
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writes is accurate. It cares whether the story keeps you alive.
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In other words, your brain would rather make you anxious
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than risk making you vulnerable. This is why I don't
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think the goal should be to eliminate anxiety. Anxiety is
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a normal human emotion. Every person you admire has experienced it.
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Every successful entrepreneur has wondered if the business would fail.
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Every athlete has worried. before a competition. Every parent has
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imagined something happening to their child. Every person who has
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ever fallen in love has feared losing it. The goal
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isn't to become someone whose mind never imagines the worst.
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The goal is to become someone who no longer mistakes
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those imagined futures for inevitable ones. One of my favorite
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observations about the human mind is that it almost never
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predicts boring outcomes. It doesn't tell you, your flight will
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probably leave on time, you'll have an average trip, and
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nothing particularly memorable will happen. That's statistically the most likely scenario,
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00:09:07.129 --> 00:09:10.049
but instead it asks, what if the plane crashes? Your
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brain doesn't say, your date will probably be pleasant, you'll
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learn a little about each other, and you'll decide whether
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you want to meet again. It says, what if they
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think you're awkward? What if there's no chemistry? What if
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you embarrass yourself? The brain is drawn to dramatic stories
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because dramatic stories are easier to remember and more memorable
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dangers helped our ancestors survive. Psychologists have a name for
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one of the reasons this happens. It's called the availability heuristic.
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and once you understand it, you'll start seeing it everywhere.
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The availability heuristic is our tendency to judge how likely
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something is based on how easily examples come to mind.
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If your brain can quickly think of an example, it
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assumes that event must be common. If it struggles to
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think of one, it assumes the event is rare. The
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fascinating part is that what comes to mind most easily
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isn't necessarily what's happening most often. It's simply what has
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captured your attention the most. Think about what social media
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has done to this process. You open your phone intending
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to check in with friends. And within a few minutes,
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you've seen someone talking about being laid off. Another person
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sharing a story about infidelity. Someone describing a frightening medical diagnosis.
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And a creator explaining why artificial intelligence is about to
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replace millions of jobs. None of those things are imaginary.
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They happen. But because your brain has been more exposed
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to them over and over again, they become mentally available. Suddenly,
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they don't just feel possible. They feel probable. Maybe you've
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noticed this after watching a documentary about a rare disease.
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For the next few days, every small ache or unusual
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sensation suddenly feels significant. Rationally, you know the odds haven't changed. Emotionally, however,
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your brain now has a vivid story to reference. The
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same thing happens after hearing about a relationship ending unexpectedly.
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If you're dating someone, your brain quietly starts scanning for
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evidence that your relationship might be next. Nothing in your
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reality has changed, but the stories available to your mind have.
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Algorithms have become incredibly good at exploiting this tendency. They
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don't necessarily show us what's most representative of reality, they
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show us what's most emotionally engaging. Fear keeps us watching.
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Outrage keeps us commenting. Uncertainty keeps us scrolling for one
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more answer. Over time, our brains begin mistaking emotionally charged
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information for statistically normal information. Your brain hates open loops.
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It craves completion. It wants answers. It wants certainty. That's
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why waiting is so emotionally exhausting. Waiting for test results.
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Waiting to hear back after an interview. Waiting for someone
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to define the relationship. Waiting for an apology. Waiting for closure.
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In each of these moments, your brain is faced with
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something it dislikes more than almost anything else, not knowing.
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And rather than tolerate that uncertainty, it begins inventing explanations
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to fill the silence. Notice how rarely those explanations are generous.
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Your brain doesn't usually say, they're probably busy. It says,
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they're ignoring me. It doesn't say, the hiring manager is
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00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:27.289
interviewing several candidates. It says, they've already decided you weren't
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00:12:27.309 --> 00:12:30.320
good enough. It doesn't say your friend has had a
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00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:33.539
difficult week. It says you must have done something wrong.
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When information is missing, fear is often the first author
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your brain invites into the room. That's because uncertainty itself
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feels threatening. In fact, psychologists have found that one of
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the strongest predictors of chronic anxiety isn't simply fear. It's
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something called intolerance of uncertainty. Some people don't just dislike
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not knowing. They experience uncertainty itself as emotionally unsafe. Their
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nervous system would almost rather receive bad news than remain
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in suspense. That's why unanswered questions become breeding grounds for
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catastrophic thinking. The brain thinks, if I can just figure
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out what's going to happen, I'll finally be able to relax.
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The irony, of course, is that the search for certainty
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rarely creates peace. More often, it creates spirals. You search
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online about a frightening current event, which leads to an article,
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then another article, then another forum, then another video, until
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you've spent two hours investigating a future that doesn't exist.
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You replay one conversation in your head looking for clues,
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only to leave feeling even more confused than when you started.
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The brain mistakes this activity for progress. It feels like
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you're solving something, but you're not solving a problem. You're
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feeding a prediction. There's an important difference between thinking about
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a problem and solving one. Solving produces something, a decision,
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a conversation, a plan, or a next step. An anxious
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spiral can consume enormous amounts of energy without producing any
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new information at all. You finish in the same place
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you started, except now you're more exhausted and the imagined
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outcome feels even more familiar. Familiarity can then be mistaken
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for likelihood. Because you picture the disaster 50 times, it
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begins to feel as though it is approaching rather than
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merely repeating. I once heard someone describe anxiety as paying
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interest on a debt you may never owe. And I
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think that's exactly what many of us do every day.
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Your brain mistakes worrying for working. Every time you replay
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the same fear, your mind gives you a subtle feeling
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that you're accomplishing something. You're being responsible. You're getting ready.
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You're staying vigilant. But if worrying actually prevented bad things
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from happening, the most anxious people would also be the safest, healthiest,
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and happiest. We know that's not true. So here's the
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first shift I want you to practice. The next time
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you notice yourself spiraling, don't ask, could this happen? Your
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anxious brain has already answered that question. Instead ask, how
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likely is this based on the evidence I have right now?
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It's a deceptively simple question, but it forces a completely
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different part of your brain to engage. You're no longer
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reacting emotionally. You're reasoning. You're moving from fear into curiosity.
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The words, based on the evidence I have right now,
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are the most important part of that question. Anxiety often
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treats the intensity of a feeling as evidence. I feel afraid,
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so something bad must be happening. But a feeling can
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tell you that your alarm system has been activated without
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telling you whether the alarm is accurate. Try giving your
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prediction an actual percentage. Is this outcome 90% likely, or
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does it only feel 90% frightening? What other outcomes would
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fit the same facts? If a friend brought you this
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exact situation, would you reach the same conclusion? You may
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not arrive at perfect certainty, but that isn't the assignment.
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The assignment is to move from this is going to
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happen to this is one possibility and I don't yet
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know whether it will happen. This is one of the
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reasons cognitive behavioral therapy has been so effective for decades.
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It doesn't ask you to become blindly optimistic or pretend
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everything will be okay. It asks you to examine your
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thinking like a scientist instead of accepting it like a
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fortune teller. Imagine your anxious thought walking into a courtroom.
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Anxiety immediately acts like the prosecutor. It presents one dramatic argument,
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one emotional witness, one frightening conclusion. And because we're so
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identified with our own thoughts, we often hand down the
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verdict before the defense has even spoken. What would happen
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if you become your own defense attorney? Instead of immediately
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believing the accusation, you started asking for evidence. What facts
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actually support this prediction? What facts don't? Have I been
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wrong about something like this before? Those questions don't eliminate uncertainty,
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but they stop uncertainty from automatically turning into catastrophe. I've
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noticed something about people who seem emotionally resilient. They don't
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necessarily experience fewer frightening thoughts than everyone else. They simply
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don't give every thought equal authority. In the same way
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you wouldn't believe every headline you read or every rumor
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you hear, you don't have to believe every story your
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own mind tells you. The great thing is that this
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skill gets stronger with practice. Every time you interrupt an
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anxious prediction and ask for evidence instead of immediately accepting it,
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you're teaching your brain a new pattern. You're reminding it
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that uncertainty doesn't automatically equal danger. You're slowly retraining the
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prediction engine itself. And that matters because the goal isn't
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to stop your brain from making predictions. It's to stop
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fear from being the only writer in the room. The
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second shift is the one that changed my own relationship
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with anxiety more than anything else. It begins with a
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question that's so simple, you'll almost always underestimate it. What
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problem actually exists right now? I think one of the
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biggest reasons anxiety becomes so overwhelming is because it tricks
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us into living somewhere we don't actually exist. Your body
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is sitting in your living room. You're drinking coffee, walking
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your dog, driving to work or lying in bed. But
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your mind has traveled three weeks into the future. It's
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already living inside a conversation that hasn't happened yet, a
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diagnosis that hasn't arrived or a rejection that may never come.
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That's one of anxiety's greatest tricks. It convinces you that
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your imagined future deserves more of your attention than your
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actual present. One of my favorite quotes from Seneca is
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we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. I
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think that's one of the most psychologically accurate observations ever written.
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Notice he doesn't say we never suffer in reality. Of
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course we do. Loss is real. Heartbreak is real. Grief, disappointment, illness, failure,
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these are all part of being human. But so much
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of our suffering isn't created by what happens. It's created
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by what we repeatedly imagine might happen. We become attached
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to stories about how things should unfold, or we become
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consumed by futures that haven't arrived. Instead of inhabiting this moment,
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we begin negotiating with moments that don't exist. The mind
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keeps trying to solve tomorrow's uncertainty while completely abandoning it.
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today's reality. So here's the question I come back to
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whenever I feel myself spiraling. Let's say you're waiting to
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hear whether you got the job. Your mind has already
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imagined not getting it, falling behind financially, disappointing your family,
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and never finding another opportunity. But what problem exists right now?
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Right now, you're waiting for an email. You may feel uncomfortable,
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but you've not been rejected. You do not need to
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rebuild your career tonight. You only need to live the
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evening that is actually in front of you. If a
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real problem does exist, bring it down to the size
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of the next available action. Maybe the bill is due,
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the conversation needs to happen, or the application has to
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be submitted. Anxiety wants you to solve the entire future
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at once. Reality usually asks you for one phone call,
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one honest sentence, one decision, or one hour of focused work.
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The present may still be difficult, but it is almost
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always smaller than the life-size catastrophe your mind has constructed
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around it. This episode is brought to you by Ultra.
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Stay out there. One of the reasons this practice is
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so powerful is because anxiety is always trying to solve
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a future problem using present energy. It asks you to
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spend emotional resources on situations that haven't needed them yet.
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This doesn't mean we ignore the future or avoid planning.
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Planning is necessary and preparation is wise. The difference is
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that planning works with reality while anxiety works with imagination.
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One leads to action, the other leads to exhaustion. On
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one side, write down what you know. On the other side,
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write down what you're assuming. It's amazing how often the
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second list is dramatically longer than the first. We confuse
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assumptions with facts because our brains present them in the
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same emotional tone. That's why writing them down can be
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so clarifying. Once they're on paper, you realize how much
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of your suffering has been fueled by sentences that begin
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with maybe or what if. Then look back at the
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first list and ask what it requires from you. If
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you know your friend hasn't replied, the fact may require patience.
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If you know you made a mistake at work, the
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fact may require an apology or a correction. If you
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know you have a medical appointment next week, the fact
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may require writing down your questions. This returns you to
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your actual responsibility. You stop trying to control the answer
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and start responding to the information you truly have. I
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also think there's something incredibly freeing about accepting that not
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every question deserves an immediate answer. We live in a
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culture that encourages instant certainty. We can track our food deliveries,
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watch flights move across a map in real time and
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get answers from our phones within seconds. We've become uncomfortable
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with not knowing But emotional life doesn't work that way.
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Relationships don't offer constant reassurance. Careers don't come with guaranteed outcomes.
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Health doesn't promise certainty. Part of being emotionally mature is
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developing the capacity to sit inside unanswered questions without allowing
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your imagination to answer them for you. That brings us
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to the third and perhaps most important shift. We need
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to learn to stay present in the inevitable uncertainty of
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our lives. We tell ourselves, I'll feel better once I know.
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Once I know whether I got the job. Once I
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know how they feel about me. Once I know the
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test results. Once I know whether this relationship is going
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to last. We spend our lives chasing certainty because we
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believe certainty is what creates peace. But if you really
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look at the happiest, strongest, most resilient people you know,
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you'll notice something surprising. Their lives aren't more certain than yours.
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They're just more present, living within the unknown. Think about
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every meaningful decision you've ever made. Falling in love wasn't certain.
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Starting a business wasn't certain. Moving to a new city
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wasn't certain. Becoming a parent isn't certain, pursuing a dream
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certainly isn't certain. The moments that shape our lives almost
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always begin with incomplete information. If certainty were a prerequisite
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for living well, none of us would ever do anything courageous.
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Psychologists have a term that I think deserves far more
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attention than it gets. Self-efficacy. It was developed by psychologist
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Albert Bandura, and it's one of the strongest predictors of resilience, motivation,
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and long-term success. Self-efficacy isn't the belief that bad things
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won't happen to you. It's the belief that if they do,
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you will be capable of handling them. That's a completely
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different source of confidence. Your piece isn't reliant on the
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future going the way you hope it will. It is
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reliant on the person you will become. regardless of what
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the future brings. You build that self-efficacy by remembering specific evidence.
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Think of a moment you once dreaded that eventually became
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part of your history. At the time, you may not
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have known what to say or how you would recover.
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You learned while living it. You found resources you couldn't
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see in advance, accepted support you didn't know you would
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have had access to, and made decisions as new information arrived.
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Your past does not prove that nothing difficult will happen.
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It proves that you do not need every solution before
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the difficulty begins. I think that's one of the most
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liberating shifts we can make. Instead of asking, how can
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I become more certain? We can start asking, how can
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I become more capable? Because here's the truth. Capability is
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something you can build every single day. You can't guarantee
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you'll never lose a job, but you can become someone
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who knows how to adapt. You can't guarantee your heart
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will never be broken, but you can become someone who
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trusts they'll heal. You can't guarantee life won't surprise you,
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but you can become someone who believes they can meet
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those surprises with wisdom, courage, and support. This is where
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I want to leave you with one final exercise that's
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had a profound impact, on the way I respond to anxiety.
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The next time your mind starts spiraling towards the worst
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case scenario, instead of trying to stop the thought, simply
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ask yourself, then what? Let's say your brain says I'm
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going to lose my job. Okay, then what? I'll have
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to start looking for another one. Then what? I'll update
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my resume and reach out to people I know. Then what?
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I might have to cut back on expenses for a while.
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Then what? I'll find another opportunity. Then what? I'll look
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back and realize I learned something I couldn't have learned
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any other way. Notice what happens as you keep asking,
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then what? Anxiety wants the story to stop at the
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pain point. It wants you to believe the worst moment
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is also the final chapter. But life almost never works
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that way. Human beings are remarkably adaptable. We've survived heartbreaks
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we thought would destroy us. We've recovered from failures we
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were convinced we'd never overcome. We found joy again after
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seasons that felt impossibly dark. The story almost always continues.
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Anxiety just forgets to tell you that part. Not trust
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that everything will go according to plan. Not trust that
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life will always be easy. But true trust in yourself
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that no matter what happens, you will figure it out
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when you need to. I've found that this exercise doesn't
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magically erase fear, but it does reveal something far more valuable.
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It reveals your resilience. When you follow the story all
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the way through instead of stopping at the disaster, you
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begin remembering how resourceful you actually are. You remember the
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people who would help you, the skills you've already developed,
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00:28:21.910 --> 00:28:26.049
the challenges you've already overcome. The anxious mind is excellent
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00:28:26.190 --> 00:28:30.789
at imagining future pain, but it's surprisingly poor at imagining
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future strength. Whatever happens, you won't experience it as the
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00:28:34.539 --> 00:28:37.720
version of yourself sitting here today. You'll experience it as
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the version of yourself who has grown through every challenge
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between now and then. That's an important distinction because your
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anxious mind always imagines tomorrow's problems using today's strengths. but
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00:28:50.910 --> 00:28:54.829
it forgets that you'll keep learning, adapting, healing, and becoming
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wiser along the way. Today's seven-day challenge is brought to
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00:28:58.269 --> 00:29:01.299
you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. One of the most meaningful
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00:29:01.339 --> 00:29:04.980
things we can invest in is an experience that changes
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00:29:05.059 --> 00:29:08.180
how we see the world. The meals that become memories,
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00:29:08.299 --> 00:29:11.460
the places that shift our perspective, the moments that stay
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00:29:11.500 --> 00:29:14.369
with us long after we return home. And with the
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00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:18.529
Chase Sapphire Reserve card, every trip becomes even more rewarding.
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helping you earn more on the experiences you'll never forget.
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00:29:22.809 --> 00:29:25.430
Here's your challenge this week. For the next seven days,
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00:29:25.450 --> 00:29:28.750
I want you to practice giving your mind something positive
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00:29:28.789 --> 00:29:31.750
to anticipate. At the beginning of the week, choose one
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00:29:31.789 --> 00:29:34.069
experience you want to have in the next 30 days.
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00:29:34.569 --> 00:29:37.329
It could be booking a weekend away, trying a restaurant
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00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:39.829
you've always wanted to visit, planning a day trip with
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00:29:39.849 --> 00:29:43.299
your family, getting tickets to something you're excited about, or
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00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:46.289
exploring somewhere new in your own city. But don't just
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00:29:46.309 --> 00:29:49.990
think about it. Book it, reserve it, invite someone, put
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00:29:50.009 --> 00:29:52.609
it on the calendar. Then for the next seven days,
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00:29:53.089 --> 00:29:55.640
spend just a few minutes each day thinking about something
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00:29:55.660 --> 00:29:59.839
you're genuinely looking forward to about that experience. Maybe it's
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00:29:59.859 --> 00:30:02.539
the meal you'll share, the person you'll be with, the
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00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:05.380
place you'll discover, or simply how it might feel to
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00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:08.869
step outside your normal routine. Because your brain is incredibly
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00:30:08.910 --> 00:30:11.809
good at imagining everything that could go wrong, it can
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take one uncertainty and create an entire future around it.
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00:30:15.809 --> 00:30:18.730
So this week, we're going to practice using that same
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00:30:18.809 --> 00:30:23.220
imagination differently. Not to convince yourself that everything will be perfect,
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but to remind yourself that the future can hold things
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you're excited about as well. At the end of the
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seven days, ask yourself, what changed when I gave myself
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something to look forward to instead of something to worry about?
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00:30:36.930 --> 00:30:41.609
One experience, one plan, seven days of anticipation. That's your
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challenge this week. With Chase Sapphire Reserve, every experience feels
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as rewarding as the destination itself. Earn four times the
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points on flights and hotels, three times the points on dining,
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enjoy award-winning airport lounges, reserve exclusive tables, and no foreign
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transaction fees. Learn more at chase.com forward slash sapphirereserve. Cards
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issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA member FDIC, subject to
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credit approval, terms apply. Thank you for watching. In the
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00:31:31.769 --> 00:31:35.190
other backpack, you place what actually happened. When you compare
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00:31:35.210 --> 00:31:38.309
the weight of everything you feared with the reality of
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00:31:38.369 --> 00:31:43.690
what unfolded, the second backpack is always lighter. Most of
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00:31:43.750 --> 00:31:46.890
us spend our days carrying the first backpack, even though
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00:31:46.930 --> 00:31:50.589
the second contains the truth. What actually happens is rarely
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00:31:50.650 --> 00:31:53.809
as impossible to handle as what anxiety asks us to
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00:31:53.869 --> 00:31:56.789
carry in advance. So the next time your brain starts
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00:31:56.829 --> 00:31:59.299
predicting the future, I don't want you to ask whether
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00:31:59.339 --> 00:32:01.930
the prediction is frightening. I want you to ask whether
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00:32:01.950 --> 00:32:06.309
your fortune teller has actually earned your trust. Remember its
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00:32:06.349 --> 00:32:09.950
track record. Remember how many conversations it got wrong. How
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00:32:09.990 --> 00:32:13.099
many sleepless nights it created over problems that never arrived.
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00:32:13.619 --> 00:32:17.519
How many stories it confidently narrated that reality never bothered
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00:32:17.539 --> 00:32:21.250
to follow. Your brain is going to keep making predictions.
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00:32:22.069 --> 00:32:25.559
That's what healthy human brains do. but it's now on
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00:32:25.619 --> 00:32:28.680
you to stop confusing its guesses with the truth. So
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00:32:28.700 --> 00:32:31.700
the next time your mind starts spiraling, come back to
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00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:34.970
the present. Remind yourself that your brain is wired to
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00:32:35.049 --> 00:32:39.710
find this worst-case scenario But that worst case scenario is
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00:32:39.750 --> 00:32:42.549
not always the most likely one or the last one.
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00:32:43.309 --> 00:32:46.869
Remind yourself of where you are right now. Remind yourself
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00:32:46.910 --> 00:32:50.069
that the present moment is the only one that truly exists.
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00:32:50.539 --> 00:32:53.519
And remind yourself that no matter what happens, you are
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00:32:53.559 --> 00:32:56.900
stronger than you realize, more resilient than you know, and
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00:32:56.940 --> 00:33:00.660
completely capable of trusting yourself to get through whatever life
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00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:04.829
throws your way. Thank you for watching. Remember, I'm forever
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in your corner and I'm always rooting for you.
