FOMOs and MOMOs
Travelling these days has become a bit of a mental workout, mostly due to my overthinking. I’m still in the middle of a trip, but let me share some reflections from my ongoing journey. It started with an airport announcement: “Flight delayed due to technical issues.” Two keywords – ‘delay’ and ‘technical issues’ - set my mind on a whirlwind of overthinking. Delay meant potential FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) from the conference’s first day. Maybe even a MOMO - Mystery Of Missing Out. What if I missed the 1st day, and no one noticed that I was not even there? That is more intense than FOMO. (I don’t think I had MOMO at that time ). But then I realized: why not embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)? The conference would continue without me just fine—I’m not that indispensable! Technical issues raised bigger concerns. My mind spun tales of in-air catastrophes and set off a FOA (Fear of Accidents) and FOD (Fear of Death). These aren’t fears I like to think about, b...