Timely Truth for an Overworked Worry Wart

Risk, fear and worry  

by Seth Godin Jul 24, 2012  

They're not the same.  

Risk is all around us. When we encounter potential points of failure, we're face to face with risk. And nothing courts risk more than art, the desire to do something for the first time--to make a difference.  

Fear is a natural reaction to risk. While risk is real and external, fear exists only in our imagination. Fear is the workout we give ourselves imagining what will happen if things don't work out.  

And worry? Worry is the hard work of actively (and mentally) working against the fear. Worry is our effort to imagine every possible way to avoid the outcome that is causing us fear, and failing that, to survive the thing that we fear if it comes to fruition.  

If you've persuaded yourself that risk is sufficient cause for fear, and that fear is sufficient cause for worry, you're in for some long nights and soon you'll abandon your art out of exhaustion. 

On the other hand, you can choose to see the three as completely separate phenomena, and realize that it's possible to have risk (a good thing) without debilitating fear or its best friend, obsessive worry.  

Separate first, eliminate false causation, then go ahead and do your best work. 

So timely. My worries and my fears need a permanent vacation, especially now as our family faces even more uncertainty. Hopefully this will help others as well. 


~vbb

I really do want…

"I really do want world peace." 

Replace this line of Sandra Bullock's character from the end of “Miss Congeniality” with this one:

"It really is all about letting go of pride and trusting in God's Greatness enough to allow Him to gently teach me and help me Do whatever is next to help me become like Him."

Sometimes you get to the place where you really believe what you once thought crazy.

~vbb

Got Needs?

Why is it that when you ask some people for help (and even offering to pay them for that help), they think you want a lecture on how to avoid needing their help?

Maybe what they’re really saying is that they really need some help but don’t know how to ask for it nor even what it is they really need.

When a person has a need (internally or externally created) for help from someone, they have amazing ways of communicating that need if we really listen. 

… And sometimes they just tell you the boring way, with words.

~vbb

More Tossing

 Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.

Tony Schwartz, author, speaker, and founder of The Energy Project

I think I found this on Facebook a while ago, and I’ve kept it around until I could really make it mine by writing about it.

“Let go of certainty” speaks as though from Him who also said, “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee” Psalm 55:22. More tossing. Knowing that the Lord is a good catch gives me hope of release.

“The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides.” This tells me that I don’t need to carry the burdens that keep me from His promised joy and wonder and love in life.

“The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” Can there be any greater challenge? Any greater burden? Anything that feels less certain?

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. Moroni 7:48

If you get to a place where you find it difficult even to keep breathing. That place where everything feels overwhelming, and everywhere you turn you falter no matter how good or right your life should be.

If you get to that place, stop. Stop asking. Stop planning. Stop evaluating. Stop doing. Release. Reach out. Re-connect. Toss out the certainties that weigh us down and seek instead to be filled with His love.

The ultimate challenge is to Trust Him and sincerely and Faithfully reach out to Him in the midst of our struggles and our burdens and feel God’s love for us. Allow Him to sustain you, and heed His tender guiding hand as you learn and grow.

But start with tossing.

~vbb

Tossing Stones

 Hmmmmm . . .

Do I have enough?

...OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little. =]

~vbb