Most people spend far too much time worrying about things that may never happen. If you find yourself doing this you are wasting energy. Here is a simple way to control worry instead of letting it control you.
What is worry? By definition, it is "to feel disturbed or depressed through fear regarding some event or outcome". In other words, you fear that a certain thing will happen in the future.
When you worry about something you are bringing one possible future into your mind and living it as if it was the present. It is exactly that, one POSSIBLE future, but there are many others that you can choose from.
Many success books and programs suggest that you shift your mental focus to the more enjoyable possibilities. When that worrisome thought enters your mind you are to think of a better future outcome instead.
One way to do this is by relaxing your body and mind and visualizing the best possible scenario instead of the worst. But this is not always easy for some people to do. There is an easier way that you may not have considered before.
A Simple Way to Stop Worrying
The first thing to remember is that you will usually worry about something at ANY time and part of the solution is to control the time when you worry. Decide upon a specific time when you will worry and stick to this schedule.
Select a certain time each day such as 8:15 PM to worry about anything and everything that could go wrong. This may sound silly but it is no more so than the worrying you are experiencing.
Next, whenever a worrisome thought enters your mind at any other time, tell yourself that it is not time to worry and that you will do it at the scheduled time. In this way you are not telling yourself to stop worrying but only that you will do it later because you don't have the time right now.
Once that time arrives, say 8:15 PM, tell yourself that is NOW time to worry about anything you want. One of two things will then happen to you.
You will either think that this is ridiculous and may not even remember what it is that you had to worry about. If so then have a good laugh and repeat this exercise each day until you realize that worrying is a waste of your time and energy.
The second thing that may happen to you is that worries WILL actually enter your mind at the scheduled time. If this happens you should embrace them and not try to shut them out. If you try to deny them then they will only return at another time.
Also, instead of accepting the worry as you feel it, try to exaggerate it as much as possible. In other words make it even worse, even horrible to the point where you realize that such an outcome would be impossible.
As an example, suppose you had a credit card bill that you couldn't easily pay and the fear or worry of what would happen kept entering your mind. First you would tell yourself that you would worry about it later at 8:15 PM. Second, once that time came and it entered your mind again you would imagine a far worse outcome.
Imagine that the bill was never paid, the VISA or MASTERCARD police came and arrested you and you went to prison where you were immediately sentenced to death by being buried alive or by slow torture. Impossible? Of course but your worries are most likely to be just as unlikely.
Again, when this happens you will probably start to laugh at why you were worried about it in the first place. If you keep doing this your worries will vanish because your mind will think that it's no use to bother you with them any longer.
Another thing that you can do to remind you about when it's time to worry is to draw a large letter W or print the one below. Post it somewhere you can always see it and look at it to remind yourself when it's time to worry or not.
Worrying will not help you find success and you can turn it around if you desire to by following these simple techniques. You can even enjoy a good laugh by doing it. Remember what Alfred E. Newman from MAD Magazine used to say:
What Me Worry?
