What is a Worst-Case Scenario?

I find some resources more helpful than others when learning about the Six.

The first book I read about the Enneagram, The Road Back to You, convinced me that I wasn't a Six.

He started the chapter on Sixes talking about some ultimate survival guide book and said that all the Sixes were out buying it. Since I hadn't, nor wouldn't, buy that book, I automatically assumed I wasn't a Six.

Also, the way the author described Sixes as always imagining the worst case scenario threw me off.

"I don't sit around worrying about the worst-case scenario."
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THE worst-case scenario is a nuclear bomb being dropped where I live and my children being the only survivors.

And honestly, I don't spend much time thinking about that (not that the fear hasn't crossed my mind).

That said, just the other day my 15 year old daughter cut her foot on a rock in a river and I was CERTAIN she was going to die of either staph, tetanus, or a flesh-eating bacteria. No lie. That was my first thought and what I considered almost certain to happen. (She's fine, btw.)

I've now realized that I always imagine what I consider the worst-case scenario in every situation:

• My daughter doesn't answer when I call her? She's just been killed in a car wreck.
• My husband doesn't pick up when I call him? He's having dinner with another woman.
• I notice that I'm bloated? I must have stage 4 ovarian cancer.
• My friend doesn't respond to my text? I've offended her and the friendship of 20 years is over.

Thankfully, none of these scenarios has ever been true (for me anyway....but the scenarios I make up for myself are almost always based on someone else's experience, hence why they become my worst-case scenario). 

So don't think you aren't a Six just because you aren't a prepper and constantly worried that the world is soon coming to an end. 

Be aware of what your initial response is to any given situation. Do you automatically think of the worst-case scenario for that situation? 

Then you just might be a Six. 

I'll tell you how I handle worst-case scenario thinking soon!