I Almost Failed to Live as Myself
Korean title: 하마터면 나로 살지 못할 뻔했다
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Written by Huang Yang-ming and Zhang Lin-lin
Media Soop / June 2026 / 288 pp. / 18,800 KRW
Lesson 1 Emotional Anxiety — Why do emotions affect anxiety?
Is your level of anxiety "optimal anxiety"?
The usefulness of optimal anxiety: In 1908, the psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson ran an experiment on the relationship between stimulation and performance. They gave laboratory rats a task and administered an electric shock whenever a rat failed to complete it. Using shocks of varying intensity, they found that the rats accomplished the task fastest under a moderate level of shock. As this experiment shows, anxiety and performance are closely related. When anxiety is low, performance is also low. Conversely, as anxiety rises, performance improves, and once anxiety reaches a certain level, one can achieve one's best results. But when anxiety exceeds the optimal level, excessive stress lowers performance. Researchers defined the level of anxiety that elicits peak performance as "optimal anxiety." Excessive anxiety and stress must be guarded against. In such a state you fear the future and cling to the past, so that you not only fail to solve your problems but may also miss the ideal moment to solve them. How can we effectively manage useless anxiety? I would like to introduce two methods: "reinterpreting emotions" and "shifting your thinking."
Method 1.
Contents
- Lesson 1 Emotional Anxiety — Why do emotions affect anxiety?
- Lesson 2 The Anxiety of Choice — Do you always regret the choices you make, large and small?
- Lesson 3 The Anxiety of Growth — Are you living as the protagonist of your own life?
- Lesson 4 The Anxiety of Occupation — How do you overcome anxiety in the workplace?
- Lesson 5 The Anxiety of Relationships — Why am I uncomfortable with human relationships?