Worry is an effective parent, but a terrible teacher.
Success Strategy #14: At least 90% of everything you’ve ever worried about never even happened.
We waste so much energy worrying about things that we not only cannot control, but will never even happen. Think about it…even if they do happen, will worrying about it prevent it from happening or make things any better?
When we let our ‘fear fantasies’ win out against ‘raw realities’ we usually come out the loser. When we worry about what might happen, we put fear in the driver seat. Remember that concern is valuable, worry is debilitating. Concern pulls our focus from the fear fantasy of future doom and instead puts it on what we can or should do in the current moment. Concern is a natural and important context for channeling our energy so we can appropriately confront and address the best course of action to deal with or mitigate our fears.
If this blog seems too simplistic for you, I urge you to try something. This week, raise your awareness about your distinction between worry and concern. See if you find yourself worrying more than you thought you might have. Then, think about taking the energy you waste on worry and channel it into better assessing what is real in the present moment, and what you should or could be doing in the present moment that would better serve you in the future.
Feeding fear fantasies negatively affects our present realities—sometimes in debilitating ways. Do your best to shift worries into healthy concerns. Life is short and full of enough important things to think about. Why spend time on things that probably won’t even happen in your lifetime?
More everyday success strategies can be found on my website.