Hi 👋
Ever overheard a conversation you weren't meant to hear? Happened to me last week.
I was taking the elevator up to my place, and just as the doors were closing, two women in their early 50s stepped in, mid conversation. Inside an elevator, there's no way Not to hear it.
One of them said, "95% of the customer service team is gone because of an AI chatbot. Honestly, operations is next, and I'm having sleepless nights!!!"
Her friend had nothing to say but, "Be calm, it will be fine…"
I instantly knew they were both uncertain about the future. Not the next few years. The next few days and weeks kinda future! Have you noticed we don't really plan in 5 year cycles anymore?
That convo stuck with me. The same AI wave is hitting almost every industry and role at once. Just a matter of time.
The future of work could be promising, or not. Half of what we do in tech barely existed 15, 20 years ago. It's the in between that's hard. Friends, family, colleagues, everyone feels it. Everyone has a theory, but nobody is SURE. No one!
And that feeling doesn't stay in the elevator. It lingers. I noticed it quietly tagging along into everything else I did that day.
So why does the unknown hit so hard?
Researchers at UCL found that not knowing if something bad might happen stresses us out more than knowing for sure that it will. Our bestie brain is a prediction machine, so it keeps replaying the unknown, trying to solve something that can't be solved yet.
And our feeds know it. Alarming headlines grab the most attention, so that's what we get served more of.
Here's the thing though. Anxiety thrives on autopilot. It runs the same "what if" loop over and over until we consciously step in. You can't make the future certain, but you can cut the pattern.
This week's nudge 💡
Every time an uncertain thought triggers that anxious feeling, pause and come up with at least 3 ways it might not be true.
"What if this plan doesn't work out?"
It might work out better than I expect.
If it doesn't, I'll have learned what to change.
I've adjusted plans before and turned out fine.
Will it feel forced at first? Yes!! That's the point. Every time you do it, you're taking the wheel back from autopilot. One thought at a time.
If someone in your life has been riding that same elevator lately, forward this to them 💌
With Love & Care,
Narman