Fear and excitement feel almost the same in your body. Sometimes you get to choose which name you give it.

A fast heart, a tight stomach, dry mouth and shallow breathing are the same arousal in both cases. Your body does not produce two different signals, it produces one, and the name you give it comes from your reading of the situation. That reading then changes what you do next, which is why the label is not a trick but a genuine fork in an ambiguous moment.

Next time it arrives before something you chose, try calling it readiness rather than dread. Then notice whether your behaviour follows the name.