Kicking the Worry Habit
By Michael Angier
I grew up on a Vermont farm. After college I bought a farm of my own and
operated it for several years. You might be interested to know that I learned
the secret to making a small fortune in farming. It's kind of inside information
and I don't pass it around to just anybody. Ready? Here it is: In farming, start
out with a large fortune, and sooner or later, you'll have a small fortune.
Farmers don't lead easy lives. The work is hard and the risks are great.
They're dependent on the weather and many other things outside of their control.
I used to worry all the time. I worried about livestock disease. I worried
about getting bank loans. I worried about the buying price of grain and the
selling prices of livestock. I worried about not having enough money. I was
unhappy, fatigued and irritable. It had become a disease.
And then I read Dale Carnegie's classic, "How to Stop Worrying and Start
Living". In doing so, I realized that I was making myself sick with worry
and that I could pay a very heavy price. Reading that book may have saved my
life.
I came to the awareness that worry was like prayer in reverse. When we worry
and fret over things, we make them bigger than they really are, as well as
attract what we're fussing over. It's proof positive of the principle of
visualization …only in a negative way. It's contrary prayer-prayer in reverse.
Somehow, I had it wired up that worry was actually virtuous. I guess I
figured that I wasn't being a good parent unless I worried about my kids. I
thought I was being irresponsible if I wasn't worrying about my business and my
finances. Not so.
It took me over a year to kick the worry habit. It wasn't easy. It took daily
diligence to eradicate it from my life. I occasionally slip back into worry for
brief periods, but I don't stay with it. It no longer runs my life.
Worry is not our friend. It's our enemy. Jim Rohn says, "Worry is like
an economic cancer. And if continued, it will haul you off into a financial
desert where you will choke on the dust of your own regrets." How's that
for a vivid picture?
Most of the things we worry about are things over which we have little or no
control. If we think about it, it's stupid. Agonizing about what might occur and
about things we can't control gives our power away. Thankfully, most of what we
worry about never occurs. The French philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne,
wrote in the 1500's, "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune;
most of which never happened."
What do YOU worry about? In my research, I've found most people are excellent
worriers. They worry about illness, lack of money, old age, taxes, the next
generation … you name it! They burn up their energy, lower their resistance to
illness and actually draw to them what they fear. Like Job in the Bible,
"That which I have feared has come upon me."
Our hospitals and cemeteries are filled with people who made worry an
everyday companion. Don't be one of them. If you suffer from this affliction,
you need to cure yourself.
The biggest lever for change is to be aware of what we're doing and realize
how detrimental it is to our lives. If you find yourself upset or anxious, check
to see if you're worrying. If so, focus on what you WANT rather than what you
DON'T want. You can't STOP worrying. You have to START thinking about desired
results … something good instead of something bad. Start working on the
solution rather than a possible negative outcome.
By doing so, you'll be healthier, live longer, have more fun and produce more
of what you want.
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