Don’t Worry

‘I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.’

-Mark Twain

‘How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.’ 

-Thomas Jefferson

‘Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.’

-Glenn Turner

Quick two part exercise.  Part one: What are you worried about right now?  Ok, if you are anything like me, it is pretty darned easy to get a list going.  There are certainly a bunch of ‘what ifs’ that loom out there when I choose to think about it.  Geez, it is downright scary and I feel my body tense up just thinking about all of my ‘what if’s’. 

Part two:  What were you worried about one year ago today?  Wow, this is a much more challenging exercise.  I am able to come up with a few that I can recall.  Those that I can recall turned out fine and were not as big a deal as I remember worrying about.  The funny thing, I am certain I had a lot more than a few ‘what if’s’ a year ago, just as I do now.  Why can’t I instantly recall them?  Because they never happened!!

Hindsight is a wonderful tool to help us with the present.  We all have spent an inordinate amount of time worried about the ‘what if’s’ in our life.  We all know with the power of hindsight that most of them never happened.  Use this insight today.  Don’t worry about what might happen, more than likely it won’t.

Worry is negative goal setting.  You are allowing your mind to focus on the worst case scenario.  You are filling your brain with negative information and negative outcomes.  This is the exact opposite of goal setting.  Why would you do this to yourself?

Well, it seems that we have this worry function built into our brains.  It was probably first installed to keep us alert and alive from the wild predators that we were living amongst a long, long time ago.  If you lived among Lions, it was probably a good thing to be worried about them crouching behind the bush up ahead.  Unfortunately, this is still a part of our brain. 

Accept this and make every effort you can to focus on the positives and what you can control.  Our tendency to worry is exactly why it makes sense to spend time working on yourself by creating positive mental habits.  There is no simple trick to stop worrying.  You must work out your mind just like you work out your body.  Keep focusing on the positives in life.  Smell the roses, cherish the successes.  Don’t waste your time on energy worrying about things that will probably never happen.

Kyle C. Ryan