Facing uncertainty?

Here’s a mantra for you.

My capacity to catastrophize about financial instability is intense and was set into motion 31 years ago. At 18 years old I learned—during the spring semester of freshman year—that if I wanted to stay in college, I would need to figure out how to pay for it myself. After recovering from a colossal freak out in my dorm room and a subsequent pleading meltdown at the financial aid office, I dug my heels in that summer. I worked as a temp in Boston during 9 to 5 business hours then several nights a week took public transit directly to my evening job scooping ice cream until 11pm. It was exhausting but doable and that summer solidified a direct relationship in my mind between earning money and whether or not I was going to survive.

As difficult as that time was, it is 162% more stressful to catastrophize about financial instability and survival when you have kids and increased financial responsibilities. I know this because there are two significant junctures at which I have faced uncertainty and my scarcity fears in relation to a professional leap of faith, and the second experience left me feeling unraveled to new depths.