How to Avoid Future Tripping
PART ONE OF OUR "GREAT RE-ENTRY" SERIES
Future tripping, or “anticipatory anxiety” is a natural defense mechanism that happens when our minds try to over-engineer the future in an attempt to try and control its outcome. Now if you've worked with me you know that I'm big on artists taking back what control they can in an otherwise elusive and unpredictable industry. Controlling what is in your control is an important practice. But trying to overthink your anxiety about the future into submission? Futile at its best; harmful at its worst.
Our bodies NEED rest and recovery and non-doing time in order to fuel our best and yes, most productive selves. This isn't news - you've definitely heard it before. And if you're still skeptical, you can google one of the half a million articles about how Lin-Manuel Miranda conceptualized Hamilton on vacation. But forget writing a smash Broadway hit - you've spent the last 18 months surviving and your body deserves space and time to catch up before you go back to all the doing.
I had a teacher friend recently confess to me that she spent her entire family trip to Hawaii rewriting her syllabus in her head! We're conditioned to be constantly on the ball and on to the next thing. We wear it as a badge of honor. Aim higher, do more, move the goalposts. And in a more Covid-relevant way, we're not only planning for every next move, we're also planning several "what-if" contingencies for each.
My oldest daughter, Zoe, starts 4th Grade this week!
Whether you're still on vacation, transitioning back to work, uncertain of what you're even doing for work, or September hit you like a ton of bricks and you're knee-deep in moving boxes and your kid is starting at a new school tomorrow (hi, hello, it's me) - I want to encourage you to be where your feet are.
If you find yourself (like so many of us) trying to will yourself to get focused but instead spiraling into the “should be"-s of your life, try doing a physical task or activity without distraction. I mean it. I'm simplifying here, but there's an old Buddhist practice of doing the thing you're doing while you're doing it. We are so used to listening to a podcast while we walk or cooking while we're on a phone call. Try to do one thing a day that's mentally JUST the thing. Really do the dishes while you do the dishes. Sit in the park and scan the horizon while you sit in the park. There will be time enough for the multitasking and the hyper-planning, so take this week to get present.
Here I am, focused on one box at a time.
I just can't wait to share our next chapter of Capes Coaching with you!
See you in the coaching room, soon.
xo, Betsy.