Whatever you worry about will happen

When you worry that something bad will happen, it will happen with a high probability. This is the famous Murphy's Law.

This law often happens to me, so I nicknamed myself Murphy.

I have always felt strange about the origin of Murphy's Law and what is the principle behind it. Until this morning, I saw it mentioned in the last section of the second chapter of "The Amazing Me" , close-range thinking and long-range thinking, I understand the reason for this Murphy's Law. Of course, this is just my personal understanding.

Case

Most of the things we worry about will happen at some point in the future. We will guess the worst outcome. At this time, our brains activate long-term thinking. , you can understand it as focusing only on the distant (future) scene.

However, when we are at this moment, the only thing we can control is the present moment, and we only focus on the things in front of us. At this time, our brain activates close-range thinking.

When we are in the present and worry about the future that we cannot control, we will automatically ignore the things in front of us, and we will miss the best time to make amends. Therefore, the future that we are worried about will be Logically becomes reality.

This description may be a bit abstract, but let’s talk about what happened to me.

Every time, really every time, when I want to go to bed early and get up early, I am always disturbed by unexpected situations, which prevents me from going to bed early (really not playing with my mobile phone).

Even if there was no emergency, I lay in bed early and couldn't fall asleep, because all I kept thinking was "go to bed early, fall asleep early", and at the same time I was worried about insomnia, otherwise I would lose sleep. I couldn't get up early the next day, and as a result, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't sleep.

Whenever this happens, what I think of is Murphy’s Law, “Whatever you worry about will happen.”

Until last night, I seemed to have broken Murphy’s Law. This spell on me.

Similarly, on the way to get off work yesterday, I planned to go home, learn English first, update my official account, and then lie in bed at 11 o'clock at the latest.

As a result, before I even entered the house, I saw in the WeChat group that the customer asked me to help translate the list. It was a help, but it was a must. At this time, I thought to myself, it’s over, I can’t go to bed early today. .

When I entered the house, I didn’t even bother to drink water, so I turned on the computer and started working. At this moment, another customer sent me a WeChat message saying that the contract needed to be revised. Alas, my heart collapsed at that time.

Do you know that feeling? It's just that your plans have been disrupted, and I am particularly concerned about my personal time being taken up.

At this time, my mood has been replaced by the anxiety of going to bed late.

After drinking two glasses of water, the turning point came. I no longer thought about going to bed late today, but only focused on the list to be translated and the contract that needed to be modified.

When I calm down and focus only on the current matter, my brain switches to close-range thinking, and my men are faster and work more efficiently.

After 40 minutes, I finished the work, then spent 30 minutes learning to speak English fluently, and then spent another 40 minutes updating the official account for the day. When everything was completed, it was 10:45 .

If I don’t switch my brain mode in time, I will keep thinking about not being able to go to bed early tonight, causing anxiety. This will only make me more anxious and even unable to complete my daily update.

After this experience, I am more confident in overcoming anxiety. I just need to shift my attention from the future to the present and do the things at hand well. The future results will not be the same. Too bad, and it may even reverse less optimistic results in the future.

When we worry about bad things that may happen in the future, the attention we allocate to the present is very limited. Since we are unable to solve the current problems wholeheartedly, the probability of bad things happening in the future is very small. bigger.

Instead of worrying about failing the exam in the future, it is better to review well now.

Instead of worrying about being eliminated from the workplace in the future, it is better to work hard to develop hard skills now.

Therefore, don’t focus too much on things that you cannot control, such as things that have not happened yet, but focus on the present, because only the present is what we can control.

Finally, please stretch out your hand and take a look. It contains not only the palm prints, but also your future.