Nobody should be worrying.
Read it again, I will wait.
Done? Good. You are about to find out why I insist on that.
It was one of those days when I was lost in a crowd, thinking about something I had just cracked after a lot of mental work when a friend walked up to me and said "You should not worry too much, it will kill you." I understood her concern as I replied
"I am not worrying, I am thinking, they are different."
Now where did that come from? I had just had an "aha" moment, one that was to lead me to the writing of my own book...seriously, it is on kindle but you get the insights here for free.
Now isn't that nice of me?
But I digress. What hit me was that worrying and thinking are two different things. Worry is thinking put to wrong use.
And a lot of people pay dearly for that, me included. (I will tell my story of how I had hypertension from age 17 for 17 years because of that...in another post). Today I just want to focus on why you should quit worrying. I am serious about that. Nothing justifies you to worry.
1. Big Purpose
There are bigger purposes than your personal issues. Now I don't mean to demean whatever issues that have been leading you to worry but you were born for more. Really. If you are worried about whether you will eat spaghetti or macaroni then may I remind you that there are those who do not know what they will eat this week?! If you think spots on your face are unbearable, then you should think of the cancer patient who has been fighting it for months and it's getting worse.
Bottom line: you are here for a purpose and you can make a difference to those around you. Get to work and worry will be put in its proper perspective.
2. Big Value
Kinda related with the first one but you are a lot more valuable than what you may think. Worrying has been known to cause hypertension, like in my case. When my parents separated, I, like many other children in my case, blamed it on myself and, at age 17 set off a chain reaction that cost me thousands of US$ over the next 17 years with hypertension (that is medical geek for high blood pressure).
One doctor was open enough to tell me that this trend of you people having "old people's medical conditions" was becoming very common... and the majority of the so called "blue collar diseases" are due to stress and worry.
But you are more valuable than that. Worry tends to devalue your health, your relationships, your work (because you put your thinking to wrong use). Your mind should be thinking about a whole lot more things that will be beneficial to you and the community.
3. Unproductive You
Worry is unproductive to you and those around you...well, except for the pharmaceutical industry and its cousins. They basically are making a killing because you worry. Apart from that, there is no productivity on your part...or anybody else's for that matter. I am yet to hear of anyone who ever produced anything out of worry.
There are those that changed and started to think right instead of worrying (thinking wrong), I admit, but that is not the same thing.
4. Design Alert
I believe in design and I believe that we, as human beings, are not designed to worry. Now I know the car is a bit on the extreme but, here in Africa, that is not uncommon. We tend to "maximize" all we have got...but I have also learned something:
A car is designed with the capacity to carry a load up to a certain limit. Load it with more and you begin to break some things. You become
Overloaded.
Worry overloads us.
Worry breaks us.
And, ya, it kills us softly. (to use the the words of Lauryn Hill.)
So I will share with you how I deal with worry in my next steems/posts. Otherwise let me make a bold statement:
stop it!