Three Great Tips to Truly Help You Stop Worrying

The Greatest Tips to Help You Stop "Worrying"

Why do we worry?

Recent research has suggested that worrying evolved along side human intelligence. In early civilization, those who worried more were considered more intelligent and therefore more likely to survive. The rationale behind this is that worrying makes people take fewer chances. Therefore people would be exposed to fewer dangers. If you were exposed to fewer dangers, then you were more likely to survive.

This is all great in the wild where it would be idiotic to chase a lion on foot or recklessly jump off a huge cliff in an attempt to fly without any equipment. However, in today's world, most of our worries are not about being eaten by an animal or not being able to find food. Worrying hinders our personal development and can limit our opportunities to thrive.

Here is the holy grail to help you stop worrying.

1) Focus on the present and immediate future vs. the long-term

While it is important to plan for the future, it is also just as important to focus on the present. Looking too far ahead can be overwhelming at times. In fact, the further ahead you look from the present, the less likely your future projections are to come into fruition. You'll know what you might have for dinner tonight, but what about breakfast a week from now?

Have you had people ask you where you see yourself in 5 years or even 10 years? Now that those 5 or 10 years have passed, is your current situation what you had imagined would happen? Chances are what you imagined life would be now five or ten years ago is not the life you have now. There are too many moving parts to truly know what will happen in the future. This doesn't mean we shouldn't set goals and have aspirations, it just means you need to be aware of the fact that life may throw you curve balls. As a response you'll need to adjust your immediate plans accordingly.

2) Prepare for different scenarios

One of the biggest things stock trading has taught me is to act according to the situation. Nobody has a crystal ball to tell you with 100% accuracy if the market will go up or down on any particular day. But, you can control whether you buy, sell, or hold in cash. Like the stock market, most things in life are out of our control.

We can't control what might happen or what already has happened, but we can control what we do should certain scenarios pan out.

This is no different than any other issues you might have that is causing you to worry. The only difference is that our issues are usually more complicated than whether or not to bring an umbrella outside today. In order to not get overwhelmed, I would recommend Tip #1 above and focus on taking it one step at a time.

3) Accept the scenario 

Worrying, but itself doesn't change the situation at all.

In fact, worrying probably hinders your ability to think of a rationale solution or develop a plan of action. When we spend all of our time on what ifs or what could happen, we do not allow ourselves to focus on creating an action plan.

By accepting the scenario, it doesn't mean that you are giving up. It just means that you are giving yourself the opportunity to understand the facts, discuss it, and then make a decision.

For other things you wished you knew when you were younger, 

See 4 Steps to Mastering Just About Any Skill and How Great Leaders Inspire Action