Fearing to miss out on grabbing some tail

There are a lot of opportunities in the world and those that have come into the cryptosphere recently like myself, are slowly having their eyes widened to include a whole lot more that they previously had no idea about at all. This candy store selection of possibility opens up so many options that it can freeze action altogether.

There are so many things to learn, try, invest in and play with that it is hard to know where to get started. If looking at it all together, the sheer volume of opportunity and the speed at which it travels is enough to raise the FOMO. And that is before having a good understanding it.

This high speed movement and changeover of information means that we are unsure which tail to grab onto and even when we grab one, we are wondering if we should have grabbed for another instead.

But, this doesn't just happen in the cryptosphere, FOMO is everywhere and we are hardwired to feel its effects when we come across opportunity. It is one of the drivers of how we advanced as a species as the first with the information is generally, the first to take advantage and eat.

This has obviously expanded well past survival though and the entire attention economy is tailored around FOMO. The idea that in order to be successful, beautiful, happy, loved or something similar is being pushed, one must buy in, experience, possess or else, be left out in the cold.

People spend so much time chasing after things so that they don't feel the fear of missing out that they rarely stop to think if what they are chasing is really what they want at all. This means that people can keep consuming, keep getting and buying-in without ever actually satisfying even a single need other than avoiding the fear of not chasing.

However, there are things that may lead to one leading a more fulfilled and meaningful life, which is what just about everyone actually wants. A purposed life doesn't suffer FOMO because, it already has found meaning. Yet, here we are being pushed all kinds of items and activities promising to fill the void and we believe the hype.

This choice overkill leads to inactivity through indecision. One no longer feels confident in choosing for the self so one gives up agency and instead, outsources their choice to the group and, what is popular. Even if there is an idea of what is actually wanted, once on the path of indecision, it is continually harder to leave it as it becomes the default position.

No matter what the area, my advice in this is nearly always the same, make a small step, the next will lead from there. The reason is that while watching it all rush by trying to decide, the opportunities missed keep piling up, yet very little is being learned. This increases the feeling of missing out and keeps piling on the pressure, especially since one sees others making moves and doing things that they want to be doing.

Making a small step means that one can learn and build some kind of platform to spring off to the next and each move has a cumulative effect so the next step is a little longer than the last. This means that travel becomes faster and faster and catching tails easier.

At each learning point, discovery takes place which will point several logical paths forward and with each layer of movement added, making the choice becomes easier, the skillset and resources higher, and the potential to take to hand more than one tail at a time, greater.

This builds a continually expanding network of experience and platforms that will not only help go forward but be able to take a wide view and notice trends through the various strings. It becomes a spider web that is able to detect the vibrations made in one area and recognise what effects it may have on another.

This again expands opportunity and choice but, it is an expansion based on experience and knowledge, not a naive fear of missing out. There are so many opportunities and potential pathways however that it is likely impossible for anyone person to invest themselves into all but, it is also very unlikely that any one is interested or suitable to them all.

But, all of the thinking and ideas, hopes and dreams are for nought if one is never going to take a step. In a field as immature as crypto and blockchain or in any field or area of interest, the ones who step first have the chance to make very large gains and become influencing forces on future directions, including the direction they themselves take.

There are so many people I know and have met recently who have so much potential to do so much with yet, they are frozen, unsure, unwilling to grab a tail just in case it is not the right one. It is not because they are unskilled in what they currently do, but they are uncomfortable with the uncertainty of doing differently.

Unfortunately, many of these people are likely to become the coulda, woulda, shoulda types of the future. The ones who had the skills and capital at the right time, but waited because they felt it was not the right time for them. We have all experienced this in different forms and different areas throughout our lives.

This is the fear talking, nothing else.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Posted with Steempress