Practical Insights to Overcoming Worry

Leaders worry about stuff. I don’t mean that wring your hands, fretting and get sick to your stomach kind of worry. But the kind of natural focused concern about the things you care about.

Like we “worry” about our kids. Parents care, we just do. We want our kids to be safe, healthy and make good decisions. That’s normal, but not the best use of our emotional energy and spiritual capacity.

The bottom line is that worry isn’t helpful, productive, and rarely if ever changes anything.

There are common worries leaders experience such as:

• Worry about what other people think.
• Worry about what we can’t control.
• Worry about difficult decisions.
• Worry about finances.
• Worry about conflict and division.
• Worry about opposition or a confrontation.
• Worry about failing relationships.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” That is such good wisdom.

But on a practical level it doesn’t help to simply say “Don’t worry, it will all work out.” As leaders, we know that things work out when we work them out. It requires someone to be out front leading or someone to be working behind the scenes and always in partnership with God. That’s how it “all works out.”

A good attitude and optimistic thinking always helps, but It’s more complex than that.

Sometimes in an attempt to stop worrying we overthink, overreact and end up getting stuck in the state of worry. It’s like telling someone, “Don’t think about the pink elephant.” Guess what they will think of.

Conquering worry is connected to taking appropriate action. We’ll come back to that idea, but for the moment, lets focus on what’s happening when we trade worry for the sense of “At this point I really just don’t care.”

The emotion connected to “I don’t care” is a self-protection mechanism especially in cases of prolonged, unresolved or heightened worry. And rarely is it true, because you really do care, and that’s why that kind of thinking doesn’t work.

What is actually happening is that the worry has caused you to become overwhelmed, and you lose perspective in your thinking. The result is various forms of “I don’t care” are masking your honest emotions.

Essentially, worry is wasted emotion, and rethinking your circumstance is necessary.