FeelGooder Asks: What Makes You Nervous?

I’m always surprised by the number of articles—and writers—who focus on fear. It’s not that I’m not fearful; it’s just that I’m surprised that so many of us have fears we know about, yet struggle—really struggle—to overcome. To me, fear seems like part of the human condition. And the only answer to fear is to take the plunge—something which, for many of us, is untenable.

All this made me wonder how you feel about fear.

What makes you nervous? And how do you handle it?

Something that makes me nervous is meeting a new group that I have to work with. As a freelancer, I often have new clients—and that’s no problem. But when I have to go on site and fit in with a team, I get nervous. Even though I love doing it. Weird.

The ways I “handle” it are at once typical—nail-biting, the racing heart, etc.—and a little less likely.

I don’t really get past the nervousness until I feel like I fit in, and to do that, I need to have colleagues I can joke around with—people who appreciate my sense of humor. I’ll be honest: there are places where my sense of humor simply does not fly. And I’ve worked in them.

So I spend my first few days at a new location trying my humor on with people, until I work out who gets it (whence hilarity ensues) and who doesn’t. Once that’s settled, I can ditch the nervousness because I know that, at least in some quarters, I belong.

That’s me. So what makes you nervous? And how do you handle or manage that nervousness? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments.