What would you do differently in your life if you weren't worried that you would regret the decision?
So far, we've learned to forget regret, Let it Be, Learn from It and Let it Go, so we can Live Now--but for many of us regret is not our primary distraction. What holds us back from truly living our lives in this age of pandemics and turmoil is worry.
Abraham Hicks once said that worry is using our imagination to create what we don't want. The New Testament tells us not to worry about tomorrow for tomorrow. We'll worry about that, then. Each day has trouble enough of its own.
Researchers estimate that we have over 70,000 thoughts per day. How do you spend yours? Is it worrying about things over which you have no control?
We've also learned that what we feed through our time and attention grows. What we starve recedes.
There's an old saying, “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. We believe it's a form of self-delusion that makes us feel like we're actively addressing a possible future problem when in fact we're doing nothing at all but
thinking or maybe talking or texting about it.
So how can we actively address a problem that doesn't really exist yet in a future that doesn't exist yet and may and never really exist at all?
We address it with a powerful life tool called a plan. We can't control life, but we can plan for it.
This week's challenge is to make a thorough worry list. Rank each worry from 1 to 10, with 10 being the biggest.
Then ask yourself one question about each: Do I really have any control over this?
If the answer is no, let it go. If the answer is yes, it's time to make a plan.