I often take into consideration unpleasant things that might happen when planning things. Sometimes I dismiss options because of realistic things that might crop up.

I recently realized that although my brain is quite good at predicting which unpleasant experiences from my past might repeat, it has zero feel for how serious they actually are, and tends to overblow them. As a consequence I have cancelled things in the past due to fears of things that would have actually been quite trivial had they happened.

So recently, whenever I think of something unpleasant that might happen, I’ve started comparing it to other potential fears which has helped me put such thoughts into perspective.

Eg:

Me organising an event and only 1 person turning up (this would have stopped me in the past)

vs

Me failing a class and having to repeat it next year

The first fear suddenly starts to seem quite trivial.