Who, me worry?

Yes, as a matter of fact. We all worry at times. Some of us more than others. But no one is immune.

And sometimes that worry may be justified, especially if it’s over something we cannot control. Or about someone we love who may be making bad decisions, or may be very ill.

But when worry takes over your mind, consumes almost your every thought, prevents you from enjoying anything about your life, that’s a big problem.

Worry can keep you awake at night, laying in bed while your mind runs wild in every direction with every worrisome thought you can imagine. Small worries turn into bigger than life problems as your thoughts take you to places and circumstances that don’t even exist…except in your mind.

Worry can consume you to the point of becoming physically ill. You’re so focused on not knowing how you’re going to fix something in your life, that you don’t eat properly, which in turn makes you ill. You worry so much that you develop headaches that last for days, and then worry that the headaches could be a warning of something else wrong in your life.

Or you dwell on a specific problem you have for so long that you can’t find a solution for it, because all you’re doing is concentrating on the problem itself and not doing anything to find a way to solve it. Your friends or family offer their advice, but all you can think about is why their suggestions won’t work…without even giving them a try.

Or you concentrate so much on that problem, on various scenarios that could happen, your mind runs away with you to the point that every solution has a disastrous ending. In fact, you convince yourself that not matter what you do, that problem is going to have a very unhappy ending. And suddenly your worry becomes a paralyzing fear.

Does any of this sound familiar? Have you done this? Or maybe you’re doing it now. Or someone you care about is doing it.

Worrying is a natural thing to do when circumstances in your life start to go wrong. But how you deal with those circumstances makes all the difference in how quickly the circumstances can change.

Worry doesn’t make the problem go away. It only escalates it to a higher level. And it solves nothing.
But what do you do?

Instead of continuing to dwell on how bad, how bleak your situation is, and worrying that it won’t get better, start focusing on ways to fix it. Make plans that can help you make the problem go away, or at least become easier to deal with in the interim.

Worrying about your situation never solves your problem. Neither does ignoring it. It never makes it easier to deal with. And instead of making it go away, it becomes larger and larger, until you feel like you’ll never get ahead again…you’ll never get out of the situation you’re in.

And guess what!? Your situation won’t change, and you’ll be stuck in your circumstances, wondering why everyone else is doing so well while you’re barely hanging on.

Worry can suction the very life out of you if you let it.

So what do you do?

It’s easy to say stop worrying, but that’s easier said than done.

You simply have to start finding solutions to your situation. That’s not always easy either, but it’s the only way out. Many times the short term solutions are the only way, and even though you may not like that short term solution, it may be the only solution available for now. It’s a start, at least.

But “now” doesn’t mean forever. It means just that…for now. In six months or a year that “now” may be gone, and a permanent solution found. One that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t taken the temporary solution.

You’ll notice up to now I haven’t mentioned any of those specific worries you may be burdened with. There are all the big ones, like losing a job, an unwanted or unforeseen divorce, having to quickly find a new place to live, facing a serious medical diagnosis, paying medical bills for a prolonged illness…and the list could go on.

Sometimes the situations we worry about have no good solutions, but instead of doing nothing but worrying about them, we have to make plans on how to deal with them. You may want the problem to go away, but sometimes you can only find ways to deal with it rather than solve it, because there really may be no real solution.

But worrying is not a solution. And neither is ignoring it. Because chances are, that problem won’t go away, but it sure can grow!

What are you worrying about today?

What are you going to do to solve that problem you’re worrying about?

Or are you going to keep worrying and not do anything about it until it’s almost too late?

Only you can make that decision. But make it now before it’s too late.