Stress
or self inflicted anxiety
![](/static/images/stress.png)
You are responsible for leading your team in a workshop, the team has done this without you, and this is your first time. You have a feeling that you've forgotten something, or maybe even don't know about everything. But noone says anything, you start to hear a little voice in your head "They're just waiting for you to get to it". You ignore it, and it goes away. For now. The feeling start to build back up, your heart rate increases. "They're still waiting for the thing you've obviously missed". Breathe.
You focus back up, you know what you have to do and are sure that you haven't missed anything. Drop it, you have to focus on the things you are doing at the moment. There is no point in worrying about what you may or may not have forgotten. "You don't know enough to not know what you're missing" the voice whispers in your brain, and again your heart rate increases.
Okay, now you have to focus, noone has said anything about that thing you may or may not have forgotten or that you don't even know about. "They're just being nice for now, they will give you hell later". You try to calm yourself by saying that noone is that cruel, and besides what do they stand to gain by hanging you out to dry? "Noone wants to make you uncomfortable", the voice says, and you start to believe it.
To stop the worrying, you accept that you have forgotten that thing you didn't even know about, you will just have to deal with the consequences later. And finally you can focus, the voice keeps telling you you forgot, but now you don't care. You complete the workshop feeling like you checked everything off of your ToDo list. You let the team go and wait for the email complaining about the thing you forgot to remember to know about.
Nothing comes, and you realize that the source of your stress in this case was yourself.
Relief.