Recovery Notes from the Uncontrollable

Recently, I suffered from Menhera (mental issue), caused by uncontrollable situation. For a reminder, I would like to record personal thoughts while suffering from them.

01. Cure mental with physical distance first

Escape (physically) and cure with fresh air.

If uncontrollable issue is attacking your mental heath, feel free to refresh for better performance. Even though it can pause your career, curing mental is always better, because you might work with poor performance without recover.

It can be done with 1-2 hours exercise like running/cycling — but if mental issue is critical, feel free to travel during a couple of days.

02. Accept the Uncontrollable

After recovering it, draw a clear line: what is within your control, and what is not. Then, even though it’s painful, consciously stop spending effort beyond that line.

You can control your response, your craft, and your next small move. But you cannot control the situation, others’ decisions, or timing.

03. Escape from Sunk Cost

If you finished drawing a clear line, we can rewind our decision making. Our life consists of constant/continuous decision making. Each ones can be good or worse, and sometimes, we might realize it based on consequential outcome (bias).

For sure, when outcome is good then everything is fine — but if it’s not, you might caught to faulty like “I should have moved to other choice..”. It can be really frustrated if it’s unable to revert.

Instead of regret, try to find uncovered paths you might have missed at the moment of decision. If your decision was made carefully, each candidate choice likely opens its own mid-term trajectory — treat those as trajectories worth revisiting with fresh eyes.

Also, please trust your skills/mindset with humble stance.