How to Take Charge When Life’s Uncertainties Get to You

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“The stress of uncertainty can prompt individuals to cope in essentially one of two ways. In proactive coping, you try to envision every possible scenario and prepare potential ways to manage each and every outcome. Think you might forget your travel documents or, for some reason, they’re not working? Leave yourself plenty of extra time to deal with any resulting headaches this can cause. Worried that something might leak in your suitcase? Bring some spot remover should your summer whites develop some unwanted blotches. In reactive coping, you wait until the disaster unfolds and then try to figure out what to do about it. If you cannot produce your travel documents when needed, reactive coping would kick in when you frantically search online and on the spot for possible solutions.

In many ways, the Dutch study that was conducted reinforces the expression that one should “expect the worst but hope for the best.” If what matters to you is the quality of the experience itself rather than the planning that proceeds it, there is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by using, for example, “scenario thinking,” where you project out the possibilities for the situation that might develop. Even when you’re in the midst of it all, the U. Amsterdam study suggests that there can be benefits in continuing to engage in the same coping methods you used prior to the event. To sum up, getting outside the traditional stress and coping framework in which reactive methods take center stage can help you gain a greater sense of control over your future. Thinking about what can go wrong can help ensure that it, in fact, goes right.

Key Points:

• Life can often be unpredictable, leaving you full of uncertainty and anxiety about how to move forward.

• New research on proactive coping shows the value of getting ahead of the game in planning for life's vagaries.

• The old-fashioned advice to plan ahead can be your best way to prepare for whatever may come your way.”

Read the whole article at Psychology Today

#Uncertainties #Anxiety #Coping

💬 What strategy do you use for coping with uncertainty?