“I Have No Time or Energy to Deal with My North Carolina Auto Accident – Help!”
They say that time slows down during and immediately after an auto accident in North Carolina (or elsewhere).
Subjectively, that might be true for certain people. But here’s something else that’s far more true – and far more germane, if you’re seeking damages to pay for medical care, broken auto components, and long-term rehab. And that is this: if you thought you were busy and “pressed for time” before the accident…you weren’t!
Crises have a funny way of forcing us to radically reprioritize our lives, in short order. Suddenly, taking the kids to piano lessons, returning that email from your high school reunion coordinator, and paying that credit card bill all take a distant fourth place in your life. This urgent renewal of focus can help you make progress, but it is not necessarily welcomed with open arms.
Even though accident victims enjoy enhanced clarity and a sense purpose/direction, they also simultaneously find themselves totally overwhelmed and unable to find time to manage even basic needs, such as the needs to rest, eat, and pay bills. As a result of the time crunch, the stresses spike. When you don’t have time to think, you tend to make more reactive, less deliberate decisions, which tend to lead to more stress and so forth and so on in a vicious cycle.
So how do you break that cycle?
The typical approach involves “grinning and bearing it” – that is, you acknowledge that your current situation is difficult and you just plug away, hoping that your perseverance and relentlessness will ultimately help calm things down. That attitude certainly can work, but it’s not necessarily the most efficient, and it may not be the most effective.
When we tell ourselves “I don’t have time to think” or “I’ll deal with this all later,” our brains don’t actually forget about our commitments. Our brains subconsciously keep track of what we’ve committed to. Later on, when you have time to come up for air, you may not consciously recall that you’ve made commitments, but your subconscious memory of those commitments makes you feel jittery, stressed, and uneasy.
Psychologists have found one tool to help alleviate that stress: it involves “pre-thinking” decisions. Right now, it feels like you have zero time to plan. But when you plan and actually think through your problems, you’ll almost certainly save more time and energy by finding efficiencies than you expend by doing the planning itself. (Read that last sentence twice: it’s key!)
That’s to say nothing of the extra energy and oomph you’ll enjoy from getting more of your plate. Except in urgent emergencies, it’s almost always “worth your while” to stop what you’re doing, take stock of where you are, and do good planning.
For help planning how to deal with your auto accident in Charlotte, get in touch with the reliable team here at the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo for a consultation.
