By: Nimra Gul
Every decision merely is based on the situation. Like when a Lion is stalking you, you run away. Most of the choices like a giraffe, what to eat and where to sleep, the giraffe decides immediately what to do, it also can be avoiding a predator or saving his life.
One is continuously focusing on his present situation that is what scientists call it immediate return environment, because your reaction immediately depends on the outcomes of the situation.
The mismatch between our brain and new environment has a very significant impact on the amount of stress one experience and the anxieties one experiences.
Thousands of years ago, when humans lived in an immediate return environment, stress and anxiety were very useful emotion because they had helped us in immediate problems.
Take an example, a lion appears across the plains, you see it and run away, to release the stress you faced.
Anxiety is an emotion that helps one to release its stress in order to protect his life. Anxiety was produced for sorting short term and acute problems.
Consider the example of wild animals, a deer may be startled by a loud noise and will take off through the forest but as soon as the threat is gone, its stress releases, it calms down and start grazing.
Today we are facing a number of problems like will I be able to pass the exams, will i be able to pay the bills next month, will i get a promotion or not etc
What to do about it?
Constant uncertainty is one of the biggest sources of anxiety in a delayed return environment. There is no guarantee for anything then why to stress about it at first place. There is no guarantee that working hard in school will get you a good job. No guarantee that investments will go up in the near future. Living during a delayed return environment means you’re surrounded by uncertainty.
The important thing you can do about it is to measure things.
Take an example, you definitely do not know how much money will you get after retirement but you definitely can measure the money you save every month.
You cannot be sure about getting a job but applying to different companies internships can get you this.
This act of measurement takes an unknown quantity and makes it unknown. Measurement would not solve your problem immediately or magically but when you measure the situation you become more certain about the situation. That helps you release the stress and finds you solutions. Without measuring the items you can’t get an honest feedback about things.
