Rules of Thinking, The

RULE 59

Don’t panic

There are two problems with panicking. First, it feels horrid. Second, it interferes with your thinking process and makes it much harder to be creative or even rational. By its nature, panic takes over your mind and pushes everything else out, and that’s the last thing you need when you’re facing a big emotional or financial problem. Once you start panicking you’re lost, until you can get things back under control – whether that takes minutes or weeks.

Not that easy though, is it? And it doesn’t help that panicking can sometimes seem strangely tempting, in a Fine!-I-don’t-care-why-not-just-ruin-my-life-it’s-rubbish-anyway kind of a way. There’s almost a sense of relief at giving into panic and abdicating any attempt to ...