Wait to Worry – Sharing a Story of Synchronicity
Do you ever get the sense that you’re supposed to share a story?
As you may know from my blogs, my first Life Principle is to “Expect Synchronicity”. I’m not much of a believer in coincidences, so I tend to notice and pay attention to little things, and these little things seem to just keep happening. Well, the strangest thing happened to me this week.
I was at a working session on Monday night and at one point during a break, I overheard two colleagues talking about something they had read and the topic was “Wait to Worry”. I was somewhat intrigued by what I had overheard, but that was the end of it. I never asked them for clarification of what they were talking about and I really didn’t hear enough to understand the context either. I filed the thought away, and moved on to the rest of the meeting.
Later that night I opened up my e-mail to catch up on the day’s messages. The first message was from a reader in response to a recent blog, the Subject: line was “Wait to Worry”, and it contained an excerpt from a book. What? Really? Well the truth is that I don’t really know what this means, but it sure struck me as a moment of synchronicity. Maybe there is a message in this excerpt that’s meant for me to read, maybe I’m supposed to buy and read the book, or maybe I’m simply supposed to share the story as it came to me.
While I still have to decide on the first two options, it certainly seems like I’m supposed to share the story. I loved this excerpt and there’s probably a message in it for all of us. I’m sure I’ll blog about the “worry” emotion in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy this excerpt.
An excerpt from
Attitude is Everything
by Vicki Hitzges
I used to worry. A lot. The more I fretted, the more proficient I became at it. Anxiety begets anxiety. I even worried that I worried too much! Ulcers might develop. My health could fail. My finances could deplete to pay the hospital bills.
A comedian once said, “I tried to drown my worries with gin, but my worries are equipped with flotation devices.” While not a drinker, I certainly could identify! My worries could swim, jump and pole vault!
To get some perspective, I visited a well known, Dallas businessman, Fred Smith. Fred mentored such luminaries as motivational whiz Zig Ziglar, business guru Ken Blanchard and leadership expert John Maxwell. Fred listened as I poured out my concerns and then said, “Vicki, you need to learn to wait to worry.”
As the words sank in, I asked Fred if he ever spent time fretting. (I was quite certain he wouldn’t admit it if he did. He was pretty full of testosterone-even at age 90.) To my surprise, he confessed that in years gone by he had been a top-notch worrier!
“I decided that I would wait to worry!” he explained. “I decided that I’d wait until I actually had a reason to worry-something that was happening, not just something that might happen-before I worried.”
“When I’m tempted to get alarmed,” he confided, “I tell myself, ‘Fred, you’ve got to wait to worry! Until you know differently, don’t worry.’ And I don’t. Waiting to worry helps me develop the habit of not worrying and that helps me not be tempted to worry.”
Fred possessed a quick mind and a gift for gab. As such, he became a captivating public speaker. “I frequently ask audiences what they were worried about this time last year. I get a lot of laughs,” he said, “because most people can’t remember. Then I ask if they have a current worry-you see nods from everybody. Then I remind them that the average worrier is 92% inefficient-only 8% of what we worry about ever comes true.”
Charles Spurgeon said it best. “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength.”
If you’d like to share an interesting “wait to worry” story, send it along to [email protected].
Namaste, Ken
Written by Ken
Ken Jaques describes himself as a Health Care Evolutionary, Community Builder, and Speaker. True healing begins when we treat root causes instead of just masking symptoms. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2008, Ken has experienced many facets of the health care system. As “the only patient who ever lost their hair on this low of a dosage of chemotherapy” – as spoken by his rheumatologist – Ken has been on an amazing journal of self-discovery, a journey of true healing. In his blog, Ken shares stories of how his beliefs have changed over the past few years, and how they are still changing. Is it possible that our bodies can heal themselves? Do we really have to live without hope after we receive a chronic illness diagnosis? These are the types of questions that Ken encourages people to ask themselves as they embark on their own physical or emotional healing journey.
Ken is creating a platform to connect People, Patients, Practitioners, Partners and Promoters, enabling a collaborative effort to help shift the focus on health from I-llness to We-llness. Check out the pilot at www.myHealthyCommunity.ca.
“When ‘I’ is replaced with ‘we’, even I-llness becomes WE-llness” ~ Malcolm X
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