Alfred Hitchcock once said that it’s not the bang that gets you, it’s the anticipation of it.

When we experience something in the workplace, the process is usually fine and we adapt ourselves in the situation to deal with any challenges.

But if we are preempting the challenges themselves in advance, that can create a lot of anxiety, purely in anticipation of the thing itself.

This can manifest itself physically. For me, it’s a sensation in my chest as if my heart is starting to race. Sometimes this is so influential that it defies any logic your brain is trying to present back to you.

So the solution is to either duck from the challenge, and quite or face it. And normally when I face it, it’s okay.

And with that, we gain more experience and a chance to adapt to challenging situations and deal better with them.

And if that doesn’t change or even gets worse, best to walk away from it.