That's So JoMaureen

I know very little about the future. I don’t know who will be there. I don’t know what I will be doing or where I will end up. I don’t know if my goals will have changed or if I will have any at all. This gives me no anxiety.

I know very little about the future. However, everything I do know is based off a thesis that’s supporting information is compiled from my past. I do know that not everyone will be there. I do know that where ever I go will only lead me to new chapters. I do know that life is still a challenge with or without goals but having goals makes the challenge worth living. I would like to say that knowing this gives me no anxiety, but I can’t help but to feel a little anxious at times.

Anxiety isn’t always rational but I do think it derives from rational thoughts. I think there’s moments and hardships of our past that we’re (whether fully aware of or subconsciously) afraid to repeat and we project those moments into the future... All this time I’ve claimed that ignorance is the root of fear (still relevant) but what if we’re not as ignorant as we claim to be about what scares us.

What if you lost a parent or a sibling while traveling the world? How far from home would you embark on your next journey?

What if you believed that you found the love of your life only to be lied to, deserted, or abused? How much of yourself would you be willing to give away to the next person?

What if you invested every last drop of your energy, savings, and time into your dream business and it still failed? How soon would you be willing to try again (If you would try again at all)?

Anxiety doesn’t just appear one day out of thin air. The way you feel about tomorrow will always have some relation to what you went through yesterday. Pain, loss, rejection, grief, regret, etc. of the past fuel your negative misconceptions of the future. Although, using the past as a tool to navigate our future can be extremely helpful, we need to be cautious about how and when exactly we use those tools. A dark past can shed light if you allow it to but if you give it the chance to repeat, it will do that instead. After all, your expectations do have the power to produce like-minded results.