How to Conquer Pervasive Worries

You know what’s really cool? Discovering a book that offers a simple practice to level up your life. Well, that’s exactly what happened with The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. (Thank you to my friend Danielle Corcione for the recommendation!).

The book’s premise is that we all have an upper-limit problem that gets in the way of achieving our full potential. One of the ways that this manifests itself is through worry. Picture this: you’re feeling great about a project you just completed, the sun’s out, and you’re strolling along, feeling happy. And then suddenly, you start worrying about your daughter and whether she is making friends at school, and then it spirals into whether she will be lonely for the rest of her life. Sound familiar? 

Worrying is just one of the many ways we limit ourselves (blaming, criticizing, getting into petty arguments, bottling up emotions, and flaking on commitments also make the list). Hendricks gets into all of these, but guess which one really struck a chord with me? Yup, worrying. It’s like that uninvited guest who drops by way too often.

So, now we get to the part where Hendricks offers two simple questions to ask yourself when you worry:
1. Is it a real possibility?
2. Is there any action I can take right now to make a positive difference?

If both answers are a firm YES, you have a reality-based worry. Example: you’re driving to work, and it occurs to you that you may have left the tea kettle boiling. This worry is a real possibility, AND you can do something about it. But let’s be honest; most of our worries are not reality-based, and they hog brain space and drain our energy.

I love having these questions to check in with myself whenever worry begins to show up!

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