Going all-in on maybe.

Across many recent conversations, a dark pattern keeps surfacing—one that clouds judgment and distracts too many people: carrying the stress and burden of decisions that have no business occupying the mind or wasting attention. There are too many “what if” questions orbiting too many people for my comfort, let alone theirs.

And it’s hard not to jump into this pool when there’s so much bullshit and injustice layered on top of an already unkind world—one more than willing to drag people down with health issues, career setbacks, and, well, humans just being bags of dicks because they can’t manage their issues with unearned ego, anxious insecurity, and presumed imposter syndrome.

What utter bullshit we all suffer from our fellow man—while perpetrating our own violations, rooted in some form of fear. If I knew more about psychology, maybe I’d have a label for it. But I don’t, so bullshit will have to do.

We’re living in a vortex. Always have been—since we climbed down from the trees and started making tools. It was just harder to see across a single lifetime—because that’s how these things work. The path around the edge is long and wide. But get closer to the center, and everything speeds up until you're pulled down. You and me, we’re in it. And sometimes we hit a juncture—war, recession, famine, catastrophe. Bad shit.

That’s where we are now: a big juncture. Not quite as catastrophic as the time a celestial object the size of Iceland paid a visit to the dinosaurs—but definitely worse than when Clinton lied about getting some extra attention from an intern.

There is nothing going on right now—and there’s a lot, I know—that requires you to carry the stress of a decision that hasn’t actually landed in front of you. Preparing is fine. But preparing to prepare? That only adds unnecessary stress, which chips away at your health—mental and physical.

If this is you, then I need you to knock that shit off. Right now. Knock it off.

Take a page from the Bob Wiley playbook and take a vacation from your problems. We can learn a lot about stress management from Bob. He's not real, but what we learn from him is. Cold, hard facts. I could ask my robot friend for all the science and studies to back me up, but I'm having it sit this one out. I know how this movie ends.

Early this morning, I got a text from a longtime friend about the weight—the burden—of a potential decision he’s been lugging around like an 800-pound yoke. I texted back: “Don’t carry the weight of a decision that is not in front of you right now.”

Let me say this in a slightly different way: We have to stop carrying the weight of decisions that may never even happen.

If you need to hear it, you have my permission to weep. Sob loudly until your head hurts. Punch a wall if you have to—just aim between the studs. Drywall is easier (and cheaper) to replace than your mental health. Or take a page from the Kevin Bacon handbook: light up a cigarette and rage-punch your way through the woods*. Sell everything. Forget everything. Accept van life as your personal lord and savior. Whatever it takes to get the unnecessary weight off your shoulders.

There are a lot of you I haven’t talked to in a while—maybe never—but I’ll bet against the house that you’re doing this too. To all of you, spoken to or not: this applies. Don’t carry the weight of a decision that is not in front of you right now.

We already have too much on our plates. The last thing any of us needs is to keep piling on at the Circus Circus buffet of potential problems.