Catastrophization | Seth’s Blog

Life’s a tragedy. It constantly surprises us, and sooner or later, we all die.

But tragedies never have to guide to catastrophes. A disaster is a shared unexpected emergency that overwhelms our interactions and narratives.

These days, they’ve grow to be a company design and a under no circumstances-ending component of our times. If we dwell in a environment pushed by notice, catastrophization is a absolutely sure way to grab some. It is a shiny crimson button that results in forward motion to freeze up.

If it assisted, it wouldn’t be a dilemma. If it assisted, we could use our resources to make a difference. But it’s not built to help, it’s created to change our concentration and activate our thoughts.

It may be the catastrophe of world functions, or the political scrum or even an not happy consumer on Yelp.

For much too long, folks with electric power and privilege merely disregarded items that mattered, and catastrophization is a reasonable response–until it begins to undermine the function we need to do. It immediately gets a variation of Pressfield’s resistance, a way to keep away from leaning into important assignments that may possibly not work–because it’s safer to aim on a matter above there than it is to perform on some thing ideal here.

And it is exhausting. Catastrophe exhaustion sets in, and we conclusion up losing fascination and drifting away, until eventually the up coming unexpected emergency comes.

Catastrophization finishes up distracting us from the prolonged-time period systemic do the job we signed up to do. It is a signal that we treatment about what is occurring appropriate now, but it also keeps us from focusing on what is heading to occur soon.

The ideal way to care is to persist in bending the lifestyle and our devices to enhance matters over time.