Day 9 — Thijs Launspach | 100 Days 100 Thoughts |

100 Days 100 Thoughts | Day 9 — Thijs Launspach

Howdy Folks!!

I usually try to post the blog earlier but today the blog got delayed due to a situation which got me stressed. Stress is something inevitable and a lot of thought leaders give us advice that we shouldn’t get stressed. That’s probably the easiest thing to say, before that we need to understand where it is coming from and why it is coming. Watch this wonderful talk for Thijs Launspach on the topic How is stress killing us and how can you stop it.

Welcome Back !!

For the benefit of the users, I am attaching a screenshot of the talk in which the speaker says as the reason for causing stress. Among all these, I would like to talk about two things which I feel are often ignored by all of us. They are option paralysis and FOMO.

Option Paralysis is something many of us face on a regular basis. Every Netflix user goes through it, the stress of what to watch? This leads to satisfice or maximize. Satisfice is something where we choose the first option without giving any thought and very few of us do that. The second process of maximize is what all of us are doing. We browse through the list endlessly for hours and watch nothing at the end of the day. This stress of choosing an option is making our lives worst.

The second cause is FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out. This is something which makes a bad situation worse. The problem with stress is that it not only ruins you but also ensures the stress is transferred to your near and dear ones. Many of us might have experienced it. This makes us feel bad in the hindsight but we can’t help it. So what can be done with these two situations is the big question.

First of all, for Option Paralysis, set some basic rules for any decision making process. We easily get overwhelmed and anxious about seeing a lot of choices. So let me give you an example of how I choose a movie on Netflix. Choose the genre according to your mood, browse through the list and if you see a title which you heard or had an actor you know then choose the movie. If you are indecisive for more than 10 minutes then go for the first pick. This might look stupid to some, but the point here is that I want to give a fair chance to avoid satisfice and not really interested in ending up in the maximize phase. Similar to this, set some basic rules and then go ahead with it.

In terms of FOMO, give some thought about the situation. Usually, when FOMO occurs we get anxious and flutter. This also leads to making the worst decisions of our life. So what can we do is take a moment to breathe and think by doing so what are the worst things that can happen to us. This is the situation where we yell at whoever comes in the way. If no one comes we yell at ourselves, we hate ourselves and feel pathetic about ourselves and stress ourselves to the core. So take a deep breathe and think of all the worst things that can happen and see what can stop this from happening. This gives a moment of clarity to you. Then you will get time to think. Don’t blurt out anything that comes out in your mind. I happen to be in a moment like this where due to fear of missing to convey a point I yelled at a colleague. This went down pretty badly and it took more than a month to make him understand the genuineness behind my feedback. This made me think and rethink about my issues. I understood that my FOMO met his FOMO and it made a mess out of it. Rather I should be careful and not get affected by this stress and move ahead. I have not excelled in it yet and it is my learning phase.