Focused preparation and anxiety aren’t the same.
I had to prepare for a drive in potentially difficult (freezing rain) conditions today. In the end, it was milder than expected and the drive was fine. But it made me think about the two ways to anticipate a challenge.
You can engage in focused preparation – in this case, readying the vehicle, reading weather maps, and adjusting plans as new information came in. Or you can engage in anxiety – worrying about the risks and imagining worst-case scenarios.
In my opinion, only one really helps to get you ready while maintaining your equanimity. And your equanimity is essential to your ability to react peacefully when you get to the moment you’re preparing for.
This is true when you’re getting ready for a weather-y drive, but it’s also true as you prepare for a concert, the first day of school, a new job. Focused preparation is essential and sufficient. Anxiety won’t help you.
Unfortunately, all too many people have mistaken ideas about those two options. I’ve seen at least three wrong ideas:
- They are sequential: “Focused preparation isn’t possible without anxiety to instigate it.”
- They are mutually exclusive: “When I see people who aren’t anxious, I know they aren’t prepared.”
- They are permanently entwined: “I only feel prepared when I feel anxiety, and I only feel anxiety when I am preparing.”
I’m here to tell you that you can have effective, focused preparation without anxiety. It’s better that way.