We know that worrying is among the most unproductive thing we can do on earth.
But why do most of us keep worrying so much? Why do we feel that worrying will prevent bad things from happening? Why does it feel almost wrong to not worry about things? Why do we worry about not worrying enough? It’s because worrying has been given so many ‘badges of honour’ that it never deserves at the first place.
We often weel that worrying is a form of responsibility, a way of loving, or what we’re paid to do at work. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Worrying doesn’t make us responsible. Worrying isn’t loving. And certainly no one is consciously opting to hire someone whose primary skill is worrying. If we’re able to see worrying for what it really is, we’ll see just how counterproductive it is. Worse than that, it will do us more harm than good.
Worrying takes so much of emotional toll on yourselves and it’s not helping anyone. It’s an unnecessary suffering because you’d have to bear the burden of anxiety and misery for multiple times (maybe hundreds or thousands times) before the worst-case scenario ever happened. All this is energy wasted because while you’re focusing on what could go wrong, you are distracted from many other important aspects of your responsibility. When your brain is constantly on othe flight or flee mode, your brain will constantly be preoccupied. You won’t have enough cognitive resources to be able to see things from the big picture, and you won’t be able to fully live in the present either. You will tend to miss on the truly important things that make a difference.
If you truly want the best for your loved ones, our career, or our teams, then you need to let go of our habit of worrying as much as we can. Think about the likelihood of the bad things (that kept you so worried about) actually happening. If it has 1% chance of happening, then don’t allocate more than 1 percent of your time thinking about what could happen. Then tell yourself that worrying isn’t
the same with loving. You could love and make a better use of your energy by focusing on actions that yields positive results.
A useful thing you can do to ease your worry is to write down your positive feelings for a few minutes. Write several things that you feel positive about in life, i.e. the people you have in your life, the passion that keeps you alive, the values you’ve stayed true to, and more. This may sound very simple, but it has been proven by research to be able to significantly lower our levels of worry and pessimism. Not only that, it has also been proven be a performance enhancer.
When you’re able to block the negative worrier in you and focus in being a more positive version of yourself, you’ll improve your brain functions that will enable you to pick up all the positivities around you that you missed before. Your brain will shed light on the better choices out there that will lead you to healthier, happier, and more successful life. The warrior wins.