Author: Juli Shulem
Worrying is psychologically debilitating and The Opposite of Worrying Planning Recently, I helped a client eliminate the worrying component in his narrative which was causing serious procrastination. This is not unusual, and here are some thoughts for those who find themselves trapped in this wheel of hell. I understand worry intimately. I know those who […]
Worrying is psychologically debilitating and The Opposite of Worrying Planning
Recently, I helped a client eliminate the worrying component in his narrative which was causing serious procrastination. This is not unusual, and here are some thoughts for those who find themselves trapped in this wheel of hell. I understand worry intimately. I know those who are chronic worriers and it can quite literally ruin your life. Everything elicits worry in their mind. The truth is that the majority of the things people worry about never manifest into anything at all.
“Time wasted when you don’t know what the outcome will be, but insist on ruminating on the possibilities.”
This is what most people do when they worry – they mull over ALL the possible problems that could occur – often to the point of mental paralysis. This can lead to serious procrastination and even stagnation. The epitome of ‘going nowhere in a hurry!” Worrying is mainly a cognitive process (Breznitz, 1971) – that means it’s all in your head.
If you are someone who worries a lot – my advice is to PLAN more.
Planning gives you a chance to consider potential roadblocks during the planning process. Let’s say you have a big project that is due soon and you are “worrying” about all the steps that need to occur in order to complete it, as well as the outcome, how it will be perceived, etc. Fine. Try this instead:
If you are so wound-up that you are too stuck to get busy, then pick the smallest, easiest first step and just do that. Starting – on anything really – gets the process going and tends to spur us into action. You may actually notice that starting that first step reduces the anxiety that’s holding you back.
“Worrying is simply the feeling caused by not knowing if something will or will not happen.” Well, if you PLAN ahead – you don’t have to concern yourself about whether something will or will not happen – you MAKE it happen. Done. Worrying is a complete waste of time. Literally.
Instead of sitting around worrying about whether it will or will not happen, you could be making progress on changing the outcome of a situation. Well, guess what? If you sit around worrying about it – you have a significantly greater chance of that thing NOT happening. Good job! Worrying can make things worse in reality by disrupting your performance of the tasks and making you miserable in the process (Davey, Tallis, & Capuzzo, 1996). However, if you plan what needs to happen and can SEE – in writing – the potential of it happening – rarely will worry creep into your mind and impede your progress.
So, the next time you start letting the ‘worry-wart’ tendencies to start growing in your mind – plan everything out and get started. This starting will help ward off negative thoughts and once you see the progress made on your tasks, chances are that the worrying will become a non-issue. Don’t worry – You’ve got this!
Breznitz, S. (1971). A study of worrying. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10(3), 271-279.
Davey, G. C., Tallis, F., & Capuzzo, N. (1996). Beliefs about the consequences of worrying. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20(5), 499-520.
Article written by Juli Shulem
Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Twitter
Author Profile
The articles, video and images embedded on these pages are from various speakers and talent.
These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.
When it comes to diversity and inclusion as a leader you need to understand one thing, you need to understand that; It is more than just activism, minorities vs the privileged, and correcting the injustices I’ve observed the efforts of many organizations and leaders when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion, to be more […]
Let’s imagine for a moment that you are a gardener. Do any of the actions below seem like a good idea and Why Being Too Helpful Is A Bad Habit For Leaders? Planting a seed and then digging it back up from time to time to check its progress Forcing open a flower bud […]
Know What You Want and Success is actually fairly simple. Firstly, set a goal. Then break it down into actionable activities. Do the activities. Add in some patience, resilience, hard work and discipline, and voila…..Success! Easy, right? Well, if it were that simple, we wouldn’t need an entire industry dedicated to motivation, training and coaching. […]
One of the attractions of Work-At-Home schedule is the vision of freedom it invokes — no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside — you are likely wasting a […]
You don’t just suddenly wake up one day, and digitally transform To Make AI Work. You don’t suddenly wake up with the know-how, where you solve your problems with artificial intelligence. It’s a journey that you have to progress through! Video Transcript Brett St Clair Welcome to teraflow.ai. And I’m really excited about the question, […]
The Dos and Don’ts of Handling Courageous Conversations at work or in your personal life that needs to happen that you keep putting off? We all face difficult conversations that need to be handled, but we all dread them. We can call these ‘Courageous Conversations’ because they oftentimes require so much courage to handle. In […]
As a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, connection, resilience, and relationships, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about Choose Compassion Over Empathy over the past year and Why Leaders Must Choose Compassion Over Empathy. In fact, in my virtual presentations on personal connection, I quickly became aware of the buzzwords associated […]
For Africas growth path it is important to recognize that lessons learnt in a particular place and time in history are not automatically transferrable to another part of the world. However, the growth of Africa mirrors to some degree that of Asia over the past 40 years. The development of the four main Asian Tigers – […]
Our Mission
© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME
