Why Your Brain Should Shut Up and Leave You Alone

A Year of Being Better — Day 20 of 365

Saturday, January 23rd, 2016 — Approx. 9:50 A.M.

The third thing on my list of things to improve this year is calming down. I want to work on staying calm and slowing down because honestly, I worry too much. I overthink things and work myself into a frenzy.

Sometimes worrying is good. Worrying keeps us alert and working on solving problems.

But worrying is only good when you have a way to solve the problem you’re worrying about. If there is no clear, actionable way to solve the problem you’re worried about, you are just wasting time and making yourself miserable.

I think our culture (here in the US at least) encourages us to worry. We’re constantly told that we need the latest and greatest thing, and if we don’t have it we’re uncool. We’re inundated with notifications, emails, text messages and more. Everything is focused on being faster. That means that when something is not happening or being solved as quickly as we would like, it makes us really uncomfortable.

In some instances this can be a good thing and it’s part of what keeps us motivated to accomplish awesome things.

But sometimes we worry about things that aren’t reasonable, are out of our control, or simply won’t contribute to our end goals.

Worrying about things that are out of our control is unproductive. It occupies our mind, preventing us from thinking clearly about things that we can act on. Unnecessary worrying gums up the works of our brain and generally brings our productivity to a grinding halt.

My rule of thumb on worrying is as follows:

If I am worrying about something….

• That I cannot reasonably expect to change
• That is not relevant to my long-term goals
• That does not adversely affect my family or friends
• Or that is better left to someone more qualified than me

…..just let it go.

I’ve used these four questions to help me cut out unnecessary work from my business, and they apply very well to removing unnecessary worries.

Don’t let unproductive worries hold you back from being happy or moving closer toward your goals. If it’s not actionable, truly relevant, negatively affecting loved ones, or not something you’re really qualified to deal with, just let it go.

The more stress and worry we can remove from our lives, the better we will be able to apply our minds to achieving our goals.

<< Day 19 — Becoming More Self-Aware

Day 21 — How to be Lazy and Productive at the Same Time >>

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