Confronting the worst-case scenario saps it of much of its anxiety-inducing power. Happiness reached via positive thinking can be fleeting and brittl… - Oliver Burkeman

3. In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?

It's weird how when I don't respond to someone's email, it's because I'm busy,' observes the novelist Leila Sales, poking fun at this tendency in herself, 'but when other people don't respond to my emails, it's because they hate me.

This need not be taken as an argument for abandoning all future planning whatsoever, but it serves as a warning not to strive too ardently for any single vision of the future. As Chris Kayes pointed out, the mountaineers who died climbing Everest in 1996 did successfully reach their goal; they ascended to the summit. the tragic unintended consequence was that they didn't make it back down alive.