Episode 1074: How to Worry Less and Do More

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1074 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Winston Clements: Western Clements, motivational speaker and limitation breaker. I challenge you to invest yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world using your time, the talent and your treasures to live out your calling.

[00:00:21] Having the ability to recognize your limitations are an illusion and develop. Resilience is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardships called podcast. It's called NEDA.

[00:00:36] Scott Maderer: doing its job. It's no longer serving any sort of benefit instead, it's freezing you in place. And once you recognize that and you recognize what the worries really are, and you begin to pay attention to that pattern, then you can break that habit. You can break that cycle and you begin to worry. And to live and do more [00:01:00] welcome.

[00:01:01] And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can.

[00:01:25] The word

[00:01:26] and today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about what worry is. I share my top tips on how you can reduce worry. And I also talk about why we often get trapped in a cycle of worry. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books.

[00:01:48] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via.

[00:02:14] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books. The same way you're listening to this podcast worry is defined in the dictionary is a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems. I would also say that it's also sometimes a state of anxiety or uncertainty.

[00:02:39] Perceived actual or potential problems. I think it's important to add that word because the truth is a lot of the stuff that we end up worrying about. Isn't really a problem at all, but we worry about it and almost create a different problem. The problem of worry. [00:03:00] My favorite analogy is worry, is like sitting in a rocking chair, we're rocking back and forth, like crazy, hoping that you cross the road.

[00:03:09] Yeah, you might actually be able to get across the room doing it that way, but it's not the most efficient way to do it. It sure takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort and a lot of emotion and drains you. And yet you barely get across the room at all. Are maybe don't get there at all. Worry is the thing that keeps you up at night and just gnaws away at you.

[00:03:33] And it can even be debilitating and takeaway emotional and physical. Energy. And the interesting thing is that worry is at times a habit that we get into the habit of worrying about things. But the truth is that just like any other habit we can learn to reframe and rework the habit of worry and reduce the [00:04:00] amount of worry that we have.

[00:04:03] The truth is you need to learn to think about worry differently, ask yourself, does this worry serve a purpose? Does it help reduce or eliminate the problem that I'm worried about? And if the answer is no, then what would reduce that? What would make the problem lesser? What thing action do you need to take?

[00:04:27] What thing do you need to do? What person do you need to talk about? I actually have some friends that do this as well. They schedule a time that they allow themselves to just worry. They have a timeframe, maybe 15 minutes or 30 minutes and they put a timer on and they're like for the next 30 minutes, I can just worry as much as I want to about anything that's out there because the truth is by bringing that worry out and putting it on a schedule and making it happen, you begin to gain control over the habit.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] We've talked before about dealing with things that are inside of your control and outside of your control. A lot of the stuff that we worry about, if we sit down and think about it, it's actually completely outside of our control. And because of that, it's something that at the end of the day, worrying about it does nothing anyway, because you can't change it.

[00:05:22] You can't do anything about it. That's what that first question about. Is this something, what action can I take is about, you also can ask yourself, is this fact or fiction an exercise that I've done before is you take a piece of paper and you make four columns on the far left on the first column.

[00:05:44] You write the worry you're having in the next column you identify is this a. Or a fiction. And what evidence supports me believing that this fact or fiction, then you write another way of thinking about [00:06:00] it and think about whether the original thought was helpful or not. So for instance, somebody has a ticket to the show on Friday and they're worried.

[00:06:13] That they'll get sick and miss the show that the that they'll get COVID with the pandemic that's going on. So they write that down. The second column says I'm not sick. I don't have columns. So it feels like this may not be true at this point in time. This may be a fiction. The third I'll take care of myself and I'll actually get proper rest and I'll avoid doing anything that would expose me to COVID to the best of my ability.

[00:06:43] And then the last one is I didn't get sick. And in fact, I did make it to the show. Therefore, my worries didn't actually come to fruition because by paying attention to when your worries actually come to fruition and when they don't, you begin to [00:07:00] learn the fact that again, 85% or so of what you worry about, doesn't actually happen anyway.

[00:07:08] It's giving you perspective on what's going on, that allows you to recognize this what is the feeling of worry? Why do you believe it? What's the deeper meaning behind it and then begin to examine that and unpack it. Because the truth is worry is a habit that we often get trapped into that cycle of worry, where we go from one, worry to the next.

[00:07:38] And when that one doesn't happen, we just invent a new one to be worried. Because we're constantly perceiving and focusing on the problems and the risk, by the way, that's probably why we've learned to worry. It probably has a certain amount of survival benefit because it allows us to identify potential problems that may [00:08:00] come and then prepare ourselves for those products.

[00:08:03] The problem is when that worry becomes no longer serving that purpose no longer leading to action, but instead freeze freezes you in place and keeps you from doing anything then that worry is no longer doing its job. It's no longer serving any sort of benefit. Instead, it's freezing you in place. And once you recognize that and you recognize what the worries really are, and you begin to pay attention to that pattern, then you can break that habit.

[00:08:33] You can break that cycle and you begin to worry less and to live and do more. Thanks for listening.

[00:08:42] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you [00:09:00] like this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent inside.

[00:09:09] For our five week series on the stewardship of talent, or if you're in the us, you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4, 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.