James Altucher on 3am Anxiety

Watching Chase Jarvis interview James Altucher on his 30 Days of Genius series, and this nugget stood out:

When Altucher wakes up at 3am full of worry or anxiety, instead of fighting it, he reschedules it to 3pm the next day. By allowing himself to come back to it later, he is able to return to a calm state now and get some rest.

By the time 3pm comes around, he has long since moved on from the anxious thought.

I know a smoker who used a similar trick to quit. Whenever he got a craving, he convinced himself that he shouldn’t have a cigarette now, but could have one later. It helped fight the craving in the moment, and when later came, he repeated the trick. He’s 3 years smoke-free after 10 years of smoking.

So next time you're struggling with a thought or habit - just lie to yourself!

Originally published on Vladdit.com