The MONTHLY Motivator - December 2019

Live beyond worry

Here’s a simple, easy way to make an immediate and profound improvement in the quality of your life. Stop worrying. Worry poisons your thoughts and keeps life’s best opportunities hidden from you. Worry actually increases the power and influence of those undesirable things you worry about. Certainly it’s important to look clearly and realistically at life’s dangers, problems and challenges. Yet there is nothing to be gained by worrying about them.

What is worry? Worry is intensely visualizing and imagining the reality in your life of something you fear. And as such, worry can be terribly debilitating. It can often serve to bring about whatever it desires to avoid. Worry is a waste, and more than that, it is destructive. Because worry prevents other, more positive and effective thinking.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a day without worries? Just imagine how creative, productive and effective you could be if you were not plagued with constant, nagging worries. The fact is, you can have a day without worries every day. Worry is not a foregone conclusion, it is simply one of many ways in which you can choose to respond to your circumstances.

When you were very young, you developed an astounding number of new skills in a short period of time. You quickly worked your way from a helpless infant into a capable and knowledgeable young person. How were you able to make such rapid progress? One big reason why you moved ahead so quickly was because you weren’t worried about making mistakes. Certainly you did make your share of mistakes. You fell down while learning to walk, and used the wrong words while learning to talk. And yet, you persisted, undeterred by your past errors and unimpeded by the prospect of more mistakes. You had an unshakable faith that you would eventually get it right, and indeed you did. In fact, you made enormous progress in a short amount of time. That’s the kind of progress you can make when you’re free of worry.

When your focus, on the other hand, is primarily on avoiding mistakes, you avoid achievement as well. Being constantly worried about getting it wrong prevents you from getting it right. Whenever you worry about something you give it life, energy and influence over your world. The more you worry about what you do not want, the more likely and possible you make it.

Imagine what would happen, though, if every thought of worry were replaced with a positive, creative thought or action. Instead of giving power to your worst fears, you could be giving life to your best possibilities. Your thoughts have power and influence, whether they are negative or positive. The more positively they are focused, the more surely will your thoughts lead you forward. You can choose to redirect the intensely negative energy of your worries into positive, productive actions. Instead of worrying about what you don’t want, you can put your time and energy into creating what you do want. Though there is much that you can worry about, there is even more that you can achieve.

So how do you do that? What are some ways you can banish worry from your thoughts?

First, just step back and think for a moment about worry, about your own worries. Most of the things you worry about are not worth the time and trouble you take to worry. And all that needless worry distracts you from other, more productive, creative and joyful things you could be doing.

Realize that with every worry also comes the option to let it go. You can feel the worry, see it for what it is, and then choose to immediately walk away from it. As soon as you do, your mind becomes vastly more clear and more focused. Your spirit experiences a glorious refreshment.

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--Ralph Marston

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