A few weeks ago, I decided to begin educating myself about cryptocurrency by listening to an interview with Brian Armstrong, the inventor of Coinbase.

After listening to it, I’m clearer on how much I don’t know.

One thing that did make sense to me—and which I thought was super smart—was what Mr. Armstrong told his employees during the first “crypto winter”: (I may not have understood much, but I picked up some lingo…)

“It’s never as good as it seems. It’s never as bad as it seems.”

While his intent was to keep his employees from being overly swayed by the violent fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market, for me it landed as an excellent reminder not to take my responses to people and events too seriously:

Yes, my thoughts and feelings can—and probably will—fluctuate wildly depending on the circumstances, but I don’t need to become attached to those thoughts and feelings.

Easier said than done.

Given that I’ve been finding it super useful to repeat Mr. Armstrong’s advice, out loud, anytime I find myself feeling blindly optimism or—as is my wont—weighed down by pessimism and victimhood.

Because while it may never be as good as it seems, it is rarely as bad as it seems.

For more ideas regarding how to (possibly) free yourself from extreme thought patterns take a look at “A (Possibly) New Take on ‘Let it Go’”.