Except there probably aren’t any.

That person isn’t thinking that about you.  You are not an idiot who lost out in the gene pool.  You don’t need permission to explore your dream.

Conspiracy stories don’t look like conspiracies most of the time, of course.  They’re just the way we think about things, the reasons we make the choices we do.  There has to be a reason, we reason, rather than this simply being randomness.

Brené Brown connects conspiracy with story.  We are storytelling animals, everything is story to us:

‘Conspiracy thinking is all all about fear-based self-protection and our intolerance for uncertainty.  When we depend on self-protecting narratives often enough, they become our default stories.  And we must not forget that storytelling is a powerful integration tool.’*

It’s possible, though, through effort, to learn the secret of seeing things for what they are and moving from the past into the future:

‘The good news is that people aren’t born with an exceptional understanding of the stories they make up nor does it just dawn on them one day.  They practiced.  Sometimes for years.  They set out with the intention to become aware and they tried until it worked.  They captured the conspiracies and the confabulations.’*

When Seth Godin writes about it being our turn, he means this life is our opportunity to do the thing or things we feel we are here to do:

‘You don’t need a permit or a blessing or any sort of permission to decide to take your turn.  You only have to open your eyes and look.  And then choose.”**

Cue more conspiracy stories: it’ll never work, someone else is already doing it …. better, no one is interested because you put an email out and no-one got back to you.  Hit the pause button and practice being aware.  One of the most powerful tools we have is writing – just writing it all down uncovers the conspiracies for what they are – confabulations.  Literally note down the anxieties and fears, and then move on to do what you must do.

Just by writing, you have taken action:

‘When fear arrives, do what you should do.  Note the fear, welcome it if you can, but do what you should do.’**

(*From Brené Brown’s Rising Strong.)
(**From Seth Godin’s What To Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn.)