A short spoken piece by Dr. Aziz teaching a simple practice to reduce anxiety and build confidence by embracing uncertainty. The central technique is saying the three-word phrase “I don’t know” (delivered either with fear/defensiveness or with curiosity) to free oneself from people-pleasing and prediction-based avoidance.
I want to share three magic words with you today that can transform your confidence for today and ultimately for your life. Are you ready? Well, before I share them, you have to realize what causes all the anxiety and the fear and the social anxiety. And the people are going to judge me. It's. They could dislike me, they could reject me, and that's terrifying. And so, because I don't know what's going to happen, I'll play it safe. I'll be quiet, I'll hold back. I'll do what I'm supposed to do. I'll be who you want me to be, because I don't know. In fact, I'm going to predict that you're probably going to dislike me, and that'll keep me safe. So the magic three words are going to set you free? I don't know. So what happens if I go talk to that person? I don't know. Now, there's two ways to say I don't know, right? One is, I don't know. It's going to be terrible. You kind of pretend like you do know. And the other one is with wonder and fascination. I don't know. Maybe a smile on your face. So what happens if you step into the next moment of your day, spontaneous, fresh, alive, and say, I don't know?
