Worry Not

by Business Growth Partner, Rick Palmer

GROUP OF HUMANS®

Published in

GROUP OF HUMANS

5 min readJan 17, 2019

In a world full of reasons to worry, what path do you choose?

Original Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash

As a fully signed-up member of the wonderful Group Of Humans, I wholeheartedly support our Waste Not promise.

Creative Partner Chris Clarke wrote a poem which expresses the Waste Not promise beautifully. You can read the full poem in this blog post, but with Carl Alviani’s words ringing in my ears (“Attention is precious. Stop squandering it”), this brief extract sums things up pretty nicely for me:

Waste Not your time, your talent,
Waste Not your planet earth,
Waste Not your weakness or your wisdom,
Your anger or your mirth.
~ Extract from ‘Waste Not’ by Chris Clarke, Group Of Humans

The passing of a new year provides an opportunity to take stock of your actions, your life and your goals, and allows for a renewed sense of purpose and clarity. Waste Not is certainly an ethos that I carry into the new year with me and one that I hope will inspire others also.

But what else have I learnt this past year and what other lessons do I take into 2019?

Back in 2014 I wrote a blog post called “40 Things You Need To Know By The Time You’re 40”… Hey, it was fashionable back then to write “listicles” (I blame Buzzfeed!) and this one seemed like a no-brainer as I reached this milestone birthday. If you have a few minutes, please have a read. Point 13 is still a personal favourite.

At the time I summed up my life lessons like this:

Enjoy the ride. Don’t take life too seriously. Love your family. Be thankful for your many blessings. Ignore the naysayers. Know your own value (it is far greater than you may realise) and live life on your own terms. Don’t waste your life chasing other people’s dreams… and don’t wait for other people to give you permission to be the best you can be. Get out of bed and take it for yourself. Stop caring what others think of you. It is your own insecurity and doubt that hold you back. And know, with unswerving certainty, that one day you will die, and everything you’ve done and everything you stood for, and everything you’re still yet to do, will be gone. You only get one life. Live it well.

Fast forward to 2019, do I still feel the same way? Would my list look the same? Well, yes and no…

There’s nothing in my previous post that I fundamentally disagree with (thankfully!). In fact, I still subscribe to everything I wrote back in September of 2014. However I would perhaps sum things up a little more succinctly these days, with just this one simple statement:

Enjoy the ride!

Jenny Theolin, Group Of Humans Design Education Human, shared this wonderful video from Gaur Gopal Das on her LinkedIn recently:

“Then why worry?” by Gaur Gopal Das

Here’s a quick remake of the slide itself:

I realise not every problem is straight forward, and not everything can truly be solved with a single slide or simple statement, but the fundamental message rings true. Why worry?

Like a lot of people, I tend to over-think many situations and try to second guess how life will play out if I turn this way or that. I plan goals and work towards “fixing” things in my personal and business life rather than enjoying the journey. Increasingly I have been struck by the unforgivable waste of the now that this sort of anxious worry creates.

And so, as I still get used to saying 2019 rather 2018, and before the year kicks off in earnest, I hereby pledge to stop worrying; to highlight the triggers that build my anxiety levels and remind myself daily of my many blessings. To live in the moment and stop thinking of life as a destination to get to, but rather a journey of discovery to be savoured, cherished and enjoyed.

My girls, Isobel and Olivia ~ all dolled up for Christmas 2018

With two young children who are rapidly becoming young ladies, and who will, before I realise it, fly the nest completely, now more than ever I must waste not my time and worry not my problems.

Thanks to two wonderful humans, Chris Clarke and Gaur Gopal Das (and with hat-tips to Carl, Jenny, Rob and the rest of the GOH team), their simple messages have become part of my personal mantra.

I might even commission someone to create a more aesthetically pleasing version of the most beautiful slide and the Group Of Humans’ Waste Not poem to frame in my house.

Anyone up for the challenge…?