I’ve never sold a house one day and a bought another the next. Until this week. While meeting with our attorney a few days beforehand, I quizzed her a bit to understand how wiring the money worked. I wanted to know the likelihood of the sales proceeds not getting through in time to cover our purchase the next day. Seeing that a short delay would have fairly minor consequences, I took the next logical step. What if the sale fell through completely due to some unforeseen calamity? I pictured ourselves arriving at the second closing with no money in hand and all our belongings in a moving van due to deliver within two hours. This is when the attorney said, “Turn your brain off or you will go crazy.”

Now that is a statement with which I could not disagree more! For three reasons.

1. Ignoring concerns does not make them go away.

No matter how hard you try to ignore nagging concerns, they don’t go away. They eat at you instead. Making you feel sick to your stomach, giving you a headache, or generally stressing you out. People do this far too often. They are embarrassed to reveal their fears. They don’t want anyone to think they are neurotic. They’ve been told too many times to, “Stop being silly! You’re worrying over nothing.” So they try to ignore their concerns. But it doesn’t work. They continue to worry. And then, when something does go wrong, proving their worries to be well-founded, they either kick themselves or others. This approach is good for neither your health nor your relationships.

2. The worst case scenario is rarely as horrible as the monster in the dark.

When you turn on the lights, the monster under the bed almost always disappears! A similar thing happens when you identify worst case scenarios. Once you convert general unease and distress into specific problems, you can assess both the likelihood of the problem occurring and the seriousness of the problem should it occur. In many cases, neither the likelihood, nor the seriousness, when exposed to the bright lights of clarity, warrants concern. This is what happened when I asked about delays in wiring the money. It wasn’t very likely to happen, and if it did, everyone would just sit tight and wait. The seller would still want to sell. We would still want to buy. And the attorneys and agents would still want to finish the job. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be the first time for any of them. The lights are on and the monster is gone.

In the event, the monster turns out to be real and representative of a serious problem, frankness and clarity put you in a position to identify ways to reduce or deal with the problem should it occur. The idea that our house sale could be seriously delayed at the last minute sounded like a complete disaster. But then I applied the same logic as I did to the delayed funds. The seller would still want to sell. We would still want to buy. The moving company could either keep our belongings on the truck or put them in storage temporarily. We would stay at the inn a little longer or go visit friends. With a little time, there were a couple of ways we could get our hands on the missing cash. We could even rent out the old house if the sale fell through completely. Suddenly, the empty pit in my stomach was transformed into several concrete ideas I was ready to jump on, should that become necessary. If I had tried to turn off my brain, I would have been a helpless victim trying not to look at the monster under the bed. I would much rather understand the risks and think about options for mitigating those risks.

3. Why wouldn’t you protect your plans?

Last, but not least, plans fail. Why wouldn’t you want to be prepared? A few months ago, I scheduled a ride with Lyft to pick me up early in the morning and take me to the train station. The distance wasn’t great, but the forecast was for sleet, it would be dark when I needed to leave, and the sidewalks weren’t plowed. The idea of running down an icy road in the dark dragging my roller bag was not appealing. I was surprised when the Lyft reservation came through. I also did not trust it. I knew exactly what time I needed run down that icy road in the dark to catch my train and I got ready early just in case that is what I needed to do.

Sure enough, five minutes before I had to leave to make it to the station on foot, Lyft canceled. If I hadn’t been ready – if I hadn’t anticipated this eventuality and prepared Plan B, I would have missed my train and my plane.

Plans fail. Amazingly often, as a matter of fact. If you turn off your brain, you will miss your train. And much, much more. Now that would drive me crazy!

This article first appeared on Forbes, March 14th, 2018.