How to Stop Worrying and Why it’s OKAY to be Scared

tl;dr: create strategies to overcome worries and why it’s okay to be scared of the unknown.

Worrying won’t stop the bad stuff from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good

What’s the difference between worrying and being scared?

The other day, an entrepreneur was asking for advice on their next milestone. ‘I’m so scared’ they said. I’m scared we won’t hit our goals.

Worry and fear can cross over, and together they can lead to being stuck in our minds and being unproductive. How do we recognize the difference between worry and fear and overcome productivity paralysis?

😬😥 Worrying

Worry is driven by ‘HOW’ statements

• ex: I’m worried about how I’m going to do an upcoming task

🕐 Worry is day-to-day, hour-to-hour. It hangs over us when:

• there isn’t a game-plan
• we’re not confident in our plans
• we don’t have a needed set of skills (ex: I don’t know how)
• we aren’t confident that we can figure out how to do something
• we don’t have time

✔️ Strategies to overcome worry:

• Create a plan: a monthly plan, the weekly plan and the daily plan. This dedicates time to address upcoming worries.
• Write down, for each part of the plan, how you’ll go about doing it
• If you don’t know how you’ll do something? Write down how you’ll go about figuring out how to do it when the time comes
• Still unsure? Write down who you can ask for support for how to understand, think through or execute a task.

Keep this plan in front of you at all times. Worried about how you’ll do something while looking at the plan? Read the bullets for strategies above.

😨 Being scared

Driven by IF statements.

“I’m scared if we don’t succeed” or “I don’t know if it will work” and “If I don’t hit my goals I’ll fail”.

Being scared is OK. Fear drives us to dedicate more time and effort into preparation for the work and to create a plan.

Fear is:

I have a plan, I know how I’m going to go about doing it, but I’m still scared.

It’s OKAY to be scared. We’re all scared. We use that fear of the unknown future to try hard. ‘The new job is scary. The upcoming launch is scary. The big date coming is scary.’

Go back to your how-to-plan. Make it better, build confidence and be more prepared. Because that’s the best you can do. It’s all you can control. Nothing is a given in life and it’s okay to be scared.

What’s the worst that can happen? In the wise words of Aaliyah..

Lift yourself up and try again.

If you don’t want to throw it all away, remember the only consequence of fear is growth.

I write this all to myself. It helps.

If you still find yourself overly stressed, worried and scared in what you’re doing, reach out to someone, or send this author a note to say hello.