Norman Cousins Quotes

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Worry worships the words of the enemy

My biggest enemy for the longest time was my head. When I first became successful, it made me anxious because I was overthinking everything, and you hear so many 'fail' stories.

I always make things worse than they are or create problems that aren't there. And going and doing some simple task becomes a problem. I start imagining problems that aren't there. What people are going to think, who's going to judge me and am I going to be good enough? Am I worthy?

I'm afraid to fail again.

The worst bullies you will ever encounter in your life are your own thoughts.

Spending way too long worrying about what people think about me is a bad habit.

I used to second guess myself all the time. I can sit there and work in circles when I'm nervous about what I'm doing.

I realized that I was afraid to really, really try something, 100%, because I had never reached true failure.

I'm totally an anxious mess all the time. There's a constant dialogue going on in my brain, and it's just reminding me of all the failures that I have had, and all of the things I need to do, and all of the things I'm not doing good enough.

I'm anxious about work, the future, friendships, past relationships... I'm just one of those people that, whatever I'm doing, it's a big worry.

I second-guess myself all the time. I make a decision and then wonder if I made the wrong choice.

A mistake in judgment isn't fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is.

A mind concerned about danger is a clouded mind. It's paralyzing.

It's kind of a rule of thumb for me to self-doubt going into any kind of project. I always think that I shouldn't be doing it and I don't know how to do it and I'm going to fail and that I fooled them. I always try to find a way out.

Being insecure - I'm a master, a virtuoso - they can be handing me the keys to the kingdom and all I can think is, I hope I don't drop the key.

Of course, I would be depressed sometimes, and my Mom would be worried about me because I would just sleep to escape. Cause I was so scared of being a musician or artist, or whatever you want to call it.

Maybe I fear things going wrong so much that I pre-empt them by not getting excited about them when they appear to be. going well.

I'm a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that's never healthy.

The monsters are in your own head.

I know what paranoia is like. I know what it is like to worry about what people are saying about you and become obsessed with what people are saying about you.

I'm too neurotic to ever feel good. If I ever felt good, I think something horrible would happen.

'What if?' is just about the worst question I can ask myself, and I want to avoid it at all costs for the rest of my life.

Once you start worrying about things, you get down about yourself, whatever it may be.

I have a tendency to freak myself out.