Confronting the worst-case scenario saps it of much of its anxiety-inducing power. Happiness reached via positive thinking can be fleeting and brittle, negative visualization generates a vastly more dependable calm.

Resisting a task is usually a sign that it's meaningful-which is why it's awakening your fears and stimulating procrastination. You could adopt Do whatever you're resisting the most as a philosophy of life.

Uncertainty is where things happen. It is where the opportunities - for success, for happiness, for really living - are waiting.

Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the future, the positive thinker ends up being less prepared, and more acutely distressed, when things eventually happen that he can't persuade himself to believe are good.

True security lies in the unrestrained embrace of insecurity - in the recognition that we never really stand on solid ground, and never can.