Nerves are the engine revving at the red light. It doesn’t mean the car’s about to crash.

The physical signs of fear and the physical signs of readiness are nearly identical: fast heart, shallow breath, narrowed attention. Your body produces them before anything that matters, whether it goes well or badly. Reading that state as a warning is a guess, and usually the wrong one, since the same chemistry is what makes you quick once it starts.

Before the next thing you are dreading, try naming the sensation as preparation rather than danger. Slow the breath going out. Then begin on time, because the feeling almost always drops the moment you are moving.