A recent survey by the Psychology Department of the University of Texas discovered that 15 percent of the US population would describe themselves as chronic worriers. Only 30 percent said that they never found "worry" to be a particular problem. That places the remaining 65 percent somewhere in the middle. Where do you fall along this spectrum?
It’s natural for people to worry to some degree. In fact, it’s even healthy. If you never worried you would lack the necessary motivation to work, earn an income, build your financial security, improve your marriage, or feed and protect your children. Worry (living with a certain degree of anxiety) is necessary if you want to experience SUCCESS IN LIFE.
Our problem comes when the anxiety becomes excessive, when we become a worry-wart. At this point our anxiety steals our energy and destroys our drive to succeed. It gives us headaches, backaches, eating disorders, and sleepless nights. It interferes with our jobs, our relationships, and our overall health. You can't squeeze the life out of life if your daily existence is debilitated by anxiety.
Are you a "worry-wart?" Wait a minute! Now I’ve given something else to worry about. Before you take a long walk on a short pier, please let me say that their is hope. You can be FREED from the destructive affects of anxiety.
The first thing you need to identify WHY you worry. Then you need to heed some simple advice for coping with your anxiety. (I am not a clinical psychologist. If the stress in your life is causing you to consider or practice self-destructive habits, please seek immediate professional help).
THE PERFECTIONIST - Forgive me for sounding harsh, but if this is you it is high-time you get in through your thick-skull that mortal human beings are finite creatures who will never achieve perfection outside divine intervention. You will fail and fall from time-to-time. Get use to it. Learn to fall forward. Never, never quit.
THE HYPOCONDRIAC - Do you know what it says on the hypochondriacs tombstone? It says, "I told you I was sick!". Listen, I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but I’ve dealt with tons of people who have made every headache a brain hemorrhage and every stomachache cancer. Eventually they might be right! To date they have always been wrong. They need to stop worrying about what might happen. How about you?
THE PEOPLE PLEASER - One of the most liberating discoveries you can make in life is the knowledge that not everybody is going to like you. Stop trying to please everyone. You don’t want to make enemies. You should never intentionally seek to alienate anyone. Serving others should still be your highest aim in life. Yet you must remember that your identity is not dependant on who likes you and who doesn’t. Like yourself. That’s enough!
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