Why are you worrying? (1) You are idle about a problem for which you have done nothing to solve it. (2) The worried-about event is not today, but you lack the mental discipline to shut off the nagging thoughts. Let us share here 3 methods that have worked for millions.
1) Live in one-day days
You have enough problems for today, and that is really part of life. So let tomorrow’s problems present themselves to us tomorrow, and reserve today for today’s problems. This requires some disciplines, but as soon as you practice it, you will find the peace in living one-day days. Or as famous writer Dale Carnegie put it, “day-tight compartments.”
2) Set aside a fixed 30-mins slot each day reserved for the problem
When your mind knows that you have a plan to think about the problem, the stress is hammered down to size. It should no longer hog your attention span the whole day. Now you have the mental reserve and discipline to go about your day, and you know there is sometimes already plenty of things on a work day, without some other problem lurking in your mind.
This brilliant quote from Jeff Bezos sums up the reason for stress. Your anxiety is telling you something, it is saying you should do something about the problem now. Bezos added that as soon as you start to take action towards it, “even if it’s not solved, the mere fact that we’re addressing it dramatically reduces the stress that might come. Stress comes from ignoring things that you shouldn’t be ignoring.”
In practicing this method, keep it to a fixed time, say 9PM each day.
3) Scale the problem down to its appropriate size
If you spill 100ml of coffee on the floor, you need to mop up the 100ml of coffee. It is 100ml of coffee, nothing more, nothing less. Don’t dramatize the problem by playing it consistently in your mind.
What is the real size of the problem? Would you worry it about it 5 years from now? 1 year? 6 months?
Stop worrying and start living! Life is random! Learn to live one day at a time.
