From Worry to Concern

Have you ever paid attention to the character of worry?  In most cases it is repetitive, cyclical, amorphous, and insidious.  It slips into your consciousness and lurks there, eating away at you but never really declaring its size, shape, or purpose.  Do you have certain worries that have remained the same for weeks, months, years, decades???  Have no doubt, they will continue to lurk in the shadows, waking you up in the dead of night in a cold sweat, until you shine a light on them and take away their power.

You can dis-empower your worries by transforming them into clearly identifiable concerns.  Concerns (unlike amorphous worries) are well defined and actionable.  Let's look at an example.  Let's take one that we have all experienced!

Worry:  "I have so much to do tomorrow, there is no way I can get it all done, I don't know what I am going to do."

Concern: "I think I have too much on my plate for tomorrow."

Excellent.  If you truly have too much on your plate, you need to decide what you want (to eat) and what you are willing to share.

1. Prioritize - List everything on your plate and assign priority numbers.
2. Eliminate - Anything that can be postponed to another day - postpone.
3. Deligate - Anything that absolutely needs to be done, but someone else can do, share it.  Ask for help!!!
4. Separate - For the things that have to be addressed, can you separate it into steps to be taken, and address only the steps that are absolutely necessary.
5. Allocate - Start with the highest priority and give your energy to that item to the extent that you need to (for today), and then move on.
6. Evaluate: How did your day turn out?  Did you do all you could do?  Were there items left over?  What does this tell you?

The bottom line on this kind of concern is that you can only do what you can do when you are giving your best.  If you take all of the above steps and find that you could still not accomplish your list, you need to get a new list.  Remember, reality rules.  If the reality is that you can not possibly do all that you have on your list, your list is the problem.