Are You a Worrier or a Warrior?
"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened."
- Mark Twain
In his landmark book, The Worry Cure, Dr. Robert Leahy, after studying scores of subjects, determined 97% of the things we worry about either never happen or when they do, they are not as bad as we anticipated.
Imagine how you would live your life if you knew this to be true.
Despite this fact, many of us still can be consumed by worry, preventing us from being in our most optimum state and/or taking the action necessary to live the empowered and prosperous lives we desire and deserve. When we truly understand that worry is actually “imagination wasted”, our lives will transform.
Here are six strategies that can assist you in overcoming worry and transform you from being a worrier in your problems to a true warrior in life.
- Slow down and breathe – One of the first physiological reactions in the body when we are feeling anxious or under the attack of worry is to move into short, rapid and shallow breathing. Champions understand that the best way to clear their mind and maintain focused calm is deep, intentional breathing.
The next time you find yourself in worry or anxiety, enact the strategy groups as diverse as transcendent yogis to the United States Special Forces utilize called “box breathing”. Breath in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, etc.
Do this for 5 cycles and experience how your emotions calm, and your mind clears. Peak performers understand a calm mind is a creative mind.
Through deep, steady and controlled breathing, you put yourself in a peak state of calm and creativity where solutions to your problems can be discovered, allowing you to handle any challenge before you.
- Write it Down – There can be a lot of crazy things rattling around in those minds of ours when we find ourselves worrying about a particular life challenge. If you are like me, the longer I ponder (some might say obsess) about a challenge, the more insurmountable it seems and the more intense my worry becomes.
The next time you find yourself beginning to get into the dis-empowering cycle of worry and catastrophizing, take out a piece of paper and a pen and write out in detail your perception of what is happening. Take time put into words all the things that are going wrong, the people who have wronged you and all of the possibly calamities you foresee happening. Spare no details.
Once this is completed, take a breath and then write out what is REALLY happening.
This does not include your STORY of gloom and despair, but just the facts of what is occurring. Once the fear and emotion are extracted from the facts, you can then put together a plan to work on your specific challenge and/or reach out to appropriate resources for assistance.
- Determine what you can control and what you can’t – In any challenging situation we may encounter, there are only two types of things to be dealt with; those we CAN control and those we CAN’T.
Let’s be honest, there is really no benefit to worry about the things we cannot control. Our mental energies are much better focused on what we can do about the things we do have control over; namely our emotions, our thoughts and the actions we can take to remedy a challenge.
Once you identify what you can control in any given circumstance, begin to devise a plan of action for how you will deal with the situation.
Then, put yourself in an optimum state of excitement. Think about taking on a challenge versus dealing with a problem. Make it a game.
Experiencing excitement gets your creative juices flowing. This often leads to solutions seemingly “coming out of nowhere” to bring the perfect answer to your challenge.
- Imagine your success – I once had a teacher tell me, “If you are going to fantasize, you might as well win!” Champions know that taking on challenges with a positive anticipation for the desired outcome is often the key to success.
Instead of being concerned and saying to yourself, “What if this goes wrong?”, discipline yourself to ask the question, “What if this goes right?” and get very clear on the desired outcome.
Imagine it happening now. See the perfect solution having already come to you. Then get ready to take action from THIS place.
- Take action – Once you have determined what you can do from an empowered state of being – take action NOW!
The longer you wait, the more your mind will bring up doubt as a means of protecting you. Think of all of times you were excited to take an action and then said to yourself, “I’ll get to it tomorrow.” Then tomorrow came, and with your enthusiasm faded, you didn’t take any action at all.
It doesn’t need to be some huge act of courage (although it can be), rather, it can be just one small step, which leads to another and another and another.
Remember, small things done consistently over time can lead to massive results. What action can you take TODAY?????
- Let go and trust - Once you’ve done all you know what to do, it is time to let go and trust.
Remind yourself of past experiences where you had fallen into worry and whether it made any positive difference at all (I can guarantee it didn’t).
Compare that to times you did all you could do and then let go of the outcome. Recall how when you did, things began to flow to you easily and even the most challenging situations began to unfold and take care of themselves.
Use these six strategies the next time worry presents itself. Center yourself, be conscious of what is truly occurring, determine your plan, take action and then let go.
Do this and you too can transform from being a worrier to a warrior.
Chris Natzke
Black Belt Leadership Speaking & Coaching
PS: If you want to let go of worry and experience breakthrough results in your life, download my FREE REPORT, The Top Ten Big Ideas to Create Breakthroughs to take a deeper dive into these strategies and principles.