Sometimes, we inadvertently increase the chances that our biggest fears might come true.

That’s not to say it’s your fault if something bad happened to you. Bad things happen to us through no fault of our own much of the time.

But there are times when our fear of something causes us to react in a way that actually increases the chances that our fear might come true.

From dating the exact type of person you said you wanted to avoid to getting into the financial mess that you swore you’d never get into, there are plenty of other ways in which our efforts sometimes backfire. 

Here are the four reasons we sometimes accidentally make our biggest fears come true, how to recognize when you’re doing it, and what to do about it.

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