I’m Changing My Mindset With Best Case Scenarios

I am from Denmark and we have a long history of negative thoughts. It has something to do with the light or lack thereof. Spending half of the year more or less in the dark makes your mind go wonky.

That is why we make such excellent murder mysteries.

I used to work in risk assessment. I spent my days quantifying worst case scenarios and it is difficult to say, if I chose that profession because I worry by nature, or if imagining all the bad stuff that can happen for a living made me worry. It suffices to say that I am really good at it.

The thing is I want to stop. It is not healthy for me to worry; I lose sleep, raise my cortisol level and therapy is expensive. And since it is impossible to prove a negative I cannot point to a single instance where my worrying has prevented something bad from happening.

Quite the opposite in fact, I believe that focusing solely on the worst of the worst frames how I view everything, and not in a good way.

I have decided to conduct an experiment. Danes also have a long tradition of advent calendars as TV shows, pictures, chocolates, beer and even port wine. One for every day from December 1st through Christmas Eve on the 24th.

So for the next 24 days I will write a daily best case scenario and post it.

Each best case scenario will be articulated in 100 words or less, pertain to my life or the world, come with a music pairing and most importantly be an actual scenario, that describes something positive that could happen, rather than just express the absence of something I do not want to happen.

In other words, it will be 24 days of wishes and dreams that are all within the realm of possibility. I hope this process will help shift my attention to all the great stuff that could happen with measurable side effects of increased gratitude, improved sleep and a bright outlook on 2018. Stay tuned.