Never Retire: How I Turn Anxiety Into Action

Uncertainty and lack of familiarity as strange bedfellows

The last week or so has been stressful.

• First, there's the disaster in Spain.

• Second, the election, which, more than I'd like to admit, gave me great anxiety this week and continues to do so.

• Third, the loss of one of my freelance clients.

Naturally, the confluence of these events prompted my wife and I to not reconsider or even rethink our plans to move to Valencia, but to reassess the particulars that envelope these plans. I will detail that brief and ultimately minor reassessment in a minute.

But, in the shell of an often incomprehensible nut, the bullet points above represent the stark reality that sometimes we have to really put our words into action. I talk a lot about challenging myself as I enter the second act of my life. It's easy to talk about when you're dealing in relative abstractions (“I'll miss my daughter” or “Valencia is such a great city”). When shit really gets real, it can be much more difficult to talk the talk and walk the walk.

It’s so easy to crumble amid uncertainty. And the quickest fixes—externalizing, catastrophizing, losing perspective and clinging to familiarity—are often the worst remedies.