A question I often ask in life coaching sessions is, “What’s the worst-case scenario for you?” And, “Why?”

We often go through life trying to make sure our worries don’t come to pass. We’re often playing defense, rather than offense. We just don’t focus on what we want more than what we don’t want a lot of the time.

Have you considered what your worst fear is? Do you know why it’s your worst fear? We sometimes are afraid without even really realizing the main motivation behind the fear. Do you know why that is your worst-case scenario?

A good exercise is to mentally place yourself in that situation and notice the feelings and thoughts you have.

Comment with your answers if you like, but this is more of a mental exercise to be a little bit more mindful so you know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

One benefit of doing this is sometimes you can see that your motivation isn’t really worth the amount of worry you’ve built up around it.

Sometimes you’ll even see that the thing you’re worried about has sort of already been happening (or has happened in the past) and you have been handling it or did get through it before. If you can handle it at this point, why don’t you think you’ll be able to handle it in the future? If you can handle it, is it worth being worried about it and playing defense concerning it?