Identify the source, weigh your options, and take action
DO you suffer from worry?
Worry is an obstacle which can prevent otherwise talented students and business people from setting and achieving goals; even ones that should be well within their reach.
Do you ever twiddle your thumbs for five minutes (or an hour) before making a sales call (or calling the girl/boy you like)? Do you ever worry that people might not like you? Do you ever worry when you feel sick that you might actually be dying?
Worry affects most people at some point in their lives, and in that sense it is perfectly natural. However, if you were completely in control you wouldn’t choose to be worried, would you? It’s uncomfortable, it’s stressful, and worrying makes it more difficult to think clearly and get things done.
To help you retain a calm state of mind, here are 3 steps which you can follow to help you reduce worry and stay in control of your day:
- Identify the source: what are you worrying about? Be specific and write it down. At the same time, also write down a description of what is the worst that could happen. If everything that could go wrong does go wrong, what would that look like? Would it be so bad? Prepare yourself to accept the worst.
- Weigh your options: what can you do about it? Write down possible options that you could use to remove the source of your worries. For example, the source of your worries might be that “the prospective customer will reject me if I try to sell them the product”. This worry provides you with a number of options: for example, you could do nothing and achieve an outcome as good as rejection. You could play it safe and send the prospect a text message or email. Alternatively, you could think carefully, develop a clever pitch, anticipate responses to the prospect’s most likely objections, and then make a call or speak to the prospect in person. Weighing your options can help you understand which ones are most likely to succeed.
- Take action:decide what you should do, and start immediately to carry out your decision.
Just three simple steps, but if you follow them then you will be well on your way to eliminating worry.
If you are serious about reducing worry, you might also want to take a look at an excellent book on the topic written by Dale Carnegie entitled How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
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Keep calm and carry on.
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