Staring into the abyss as a core life skill

Staring into the abyss as a core life skill

Recently I’ve been thinking about how all my favorite people are great at a skill I’ve labeled in my head as “staring into the abyss.”

Staring into the abyss means thinking reasonably about things that are uncomfortable to contemplate...I also noticed that for many of the people I know who have struggled to make good high-level life decisions, they were at least partly blocked by having an abyss that they needed to stare into, but flinched away from.

I would just add that from my own experience; overthinking, ruminating, and researching endlessly don't count as staring into the abyss. The flinch is from pain, uncertainty or fear that waits on the other side of the decision. Staring into the abyss is at least as much an emotional process as it is a logical one.