I wonder if my fears/concerns have helped me more than they have been a disservice to me this year?

most fears are kinda like intuitions, where you come up with scenarios of things going downhill, they can definitely help you skip a few such scenarios

Does it feel as if they clarify the kind of life you want to live or that they’re forcing you to avoid them?

I can't think of them almost ever helping me in any way. The vast majority of things I worry about never end up happening and even in the cases where being prepaired has helped/saved me I likely would've been prepaired without all the worrying too because of common sense.