Avoiding Worry

Most of us try to avoid certain things like illness and injury, poverty, stress, depression and pain, just to name a few. Some of us avoid confrontations and arguments, as if they were the plague.

Now, it makes sense to try to avoid some of these things as much as possible. However, there are a number of people who spend an enormous amount of time worrying about how to avoid them, and worrying about how to cope with them if they do happen to occur. Well, just by spending that much time worrying, they are pretty much eliminating the possibility of feeling happy.

These folks are also raising their stress level, thereby weakening their immune system, which makes them more susceptible to the illness and pain they are trying to avoid. Depression often follows excessive worry, and if you are stressed and depressed, chances are you are not going to do your best at work, at home, or anyplace else. Happiness is out of reach.

You see, worry creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, because we move toward and become like what we think about. When we worry, the pictures we are creating in our minds are overwhelmingly negative. Remember, as human beings, we are picture oriented. We follow the strongest pictures in our minds. So, if we spend most of our time worrying about something, we shouldn’t be surprised when it, obligingly, shows up.

Worrying is a lot like putting a down payment on trouble, before you even get the bill. You wouldn’t think of doing that with your money, would you? So, why in the world would you do it with something more precious than money – your time and your life?

For every minute you spend worrying, how could you be affirming personal, professional or organizational success and happiness instead? Shifting your mindset, finding a different perspective, allows you to ditch the worry, and drive off in new directions.