Over-Reacting and Under-Reacting

Paul Wyman, April 11, 2025

This week, as the stock market careered between dramatic declines and sudden recoveries, I experienced two simultaneous, opposite reactions from my Inner Team.

The first was an escalation of urgency, the fear that this could be bad... perhaps really bad. What if the market drops and your retirement savings are wiped out? If you don’t do something now, you’re going to regret it. I felt my pulse quicken, a kind of coiled tension in my body that was demanding to be released into movement.

Simultaneously, I felt a reaction from another part which wanted to reassure me that this was no big deal. The market goes down, then it goes up. This is normal. Stay the course. It’s not as bad as it looks. As I listened to this part, my body felt not so much calm as a bit numb, as sensations were slightly muffled.

The argument within was between two parts called Maximizer and Minimizer.

Maximizer was trying to protect me by exaggerating the urgency of the situation, to make sure I didn’t overlook or ignore a danger. Minimizer was making it seem less urgent, more normal.

In the face of a potential threat, Maximizer wanted me to know that complacency is dangerous. Minimizer wanted to remind me that reactivity and impulsiveness are equally dangerous.

Each distorts reality, enlarging or shrinking a potential problem. To listen to only one is to gaslight myself, turning proverbial mountains into molehills, or molehills into mountains.

Between over-reacting and under-reacting, a middle way is beginning to emerge. It’s calm rather than numb, attentive rather than panicky. As my Inner Leader has taken over the task of deciding what, if anything, needs to be done, I feel neither the need to rush nor the need to defer and delay.  

Since the current levels of volatility and uncertainty don’t show any sign of slowing, I’m choosing to stay close to both my Minimizer and Maximizer, inviting them to stay with me. In the tension that exists between the two, I’m finding that I can sit with what is, trusting that a wiser path will reveal itself.