When the future scares you

It's a few days before payday and you're checking your bank balance, doing math in your head. Rent, bills, the car that's making a strange noise. Every envelope in the mailbox makes you flinch. What if one day it's just not enough? That question follows you all the way to bed.

Then there are the big worries. The evening news talks about layoffs, a shaky economy, prices going up. You think about retirement, your kids' future, the world they'll inherit. It feels like the ground under your feet isn't as solid as it used to be.

And there's the fear of not making it. Of failing at this project, not being up to this new job, staying stuck where you are. You compare your life to other people's and feel like you've fallen behind. At night, your mind plays out the worst scenarios, one after another.

This fear wears you out. It keeps you from enjoying what's going well today, because your head is always somewhere in tomorrow. You stop making plans, or you try to control everything so nothing is left to chance. What you feel isn't weakness. It's a deep need for security.

There's something you should know. You are not the only one afraid of tomorrow. Many people around you, at work and on your street, are running the same numbers tonight and asking the same questions. This fear is shared, even if no one says it out loud.