Worry is a complete waste of time and energy. Have you ever witnessed any problem being solved by simply worrying about it? As human as we are and by the mere fact of our existence, we encounter problems which causes us to worry. However, problems are solved with rational thoughts coupled with decisive actions.
“Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere” – Erma Bombeck
In this piece, I seek to briefly give you insights on how to stop worrying about anything and an approach to start living a productive life. Now, the three-step guide we shall go through is aimed at helping us all to dump our usual over-estimated worries and start doing something productive for ourselves.
REMEDY STEP 1: Analyse Your Worry
Our foremost stage will be to objectively analyze the worry in itself. You should ask yourself these two questions;
- What am I worried about?
- What can I do about my worry?
Given these two questions, pick a pen and a paper and describe your worry in precise detail. After that, write-down at least three causes of actions you can opt to take. Be frank to yourself in this exercise.
Now, objectively analyze the options you wrote down and decide on what option best tackles the problem causing you to worry. Just by making a mere choice after this analysis, about half of your worry will vanish. Again, a chunk of your worry gradually disappears once you start carrying out your decision. If the decision is too difficult that picking an option becomes problematic, think of it for few minutes. If the foremost option that clicks the mind does feel right after that, act upon it and if not, act on the next best option. You have to realize at this point that the more action you take the more your worry fades away.
REMEDY STEP 2: Think Of The Worst-Case Scenario
To wipe out the little remaining worries (after going through Remedy Step 1), Remedy Step 2 completely saves you from any cause to worry. The worst thing about worry is its ability to destroy your concentration. When you worry, your mind jumps here and there, and everywhere which eventually causes you to lose your power of decision making.
At this point, you should rigorously think of the worst-case scenario of whatever you are worrying about. What at all would be the worst thing to happen in case things don’t get better? If you prepare to face the worst and mentally accept it, you eliminate all those vague imaginations and rather put yourself in a position where you can holistically think through your problems. The Swedish Proverb, “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow” , simply outlines the unnecessary pressure worrying imprints on our minds.
REMEDY STEP 3: Prevent Worry From Coming Back
Finally, you should prevent the fears of yesterday and worries of tomorrow from flooding into your mind. To make sure this prevention technique works, firmly iron the doors of prevention. Wake up every morning imagining you are living a new life. Imagine your old self died last night and this morning is the first day of the rest of your life. Then go on to constantly tell yourself if I take care of today, tomorrow will take care of itself. Take the rightful decisions now, after holistically analyzing your worries, and tomorrow will take care of itself.
“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today” ― H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
To this end, let’s learn to manage our worries and to put ourselves in the best psychological shape possible to productively tackle them. To see this come to fruition, remember to always;
- Objectively analyze your worry,
- Think of the worst-case scenario and
- Prevent worry from coming back.
Peace!