There are so many fears out there that we may spend an inordinate amount of time just worrying. Some people even worry about worrying. If that’s you, this Nugget may be timely.
A cursory glance of alternative and mainstream media enabled me to create a basic list of over 65 fears. And that list is not complete. I got tired of reading about fears in the press so switched off my computer.
Life has plenty of things we must worry about. Not a day will go by without us fearing something and often some new thing. Plenty of people find this to be overwhelming and many are overcome, paralysed with worry. To hold onto, and worry about almost everything is the equivalent of participating in fear porn. Yet, many people spend their lives looking for anything that can go wrong as if it will go wrong. That’s a terrible way to spend this life with which we are so blessed.
On the other hand, I do not advocate ignoring everything that may cause fear as if nothing bad or worrisome will ever happen. There has to be some way to create a balance of reasonableness when it comes to deciding which matters are worth worrying about. (Some fears are phobias, and this Nugget is not directed at phobias. For phobias, you ought to seek medical attention if those phobias are debilitating or causing you any dysfunction in life.)
When you come across a fear that causes you to begin to worry, there is a very powerful question to ask yourself that can free you from becoming a victim of fear and worry. Simply ask, “To what degree will it impact me and my family?”
Plenty of things will cause you to worry, so you need to have a ranking system of most important fears/worries to least. Ranking and measurement systems are useful because they can clarify issues which then allows us to build action plans, a way to respond. It is responding, TAKING ACTION, that let’s us take back control. When we take back control we ENABLE and EMPOWER OURSELVES.
If you feel that you need more strength in managing your worries/fears, I propose that you adopt the following “IMPACT SCALE“.
IMPACT SCALE
Buy ranking on a scale from 4, most important, to 1, least important you can empower yourself in the face of fear/worry. The idea is to Build and IMPLEMENT a strategy, (take action), for the fear/worry that scores 4 “Highs”. Next for fears/worries scoring 3 “Highs”, then 2. Lastly on those scoring 1. The power of this approach is in ranking, identifying where you need to most urgently spend your time, energy, and resources. Note: sometimes, by acting on a 1 early enough you can prevent it from escalating into 3 or 4.
- How likely is it that this fear/worry will impact me, my family? [HIGH, medium, or low?]
- How big of an impact does it have or can it have if it does impact me/us? [HIGH, medium, or low?]
- How likely is it to happen soon, or in the foreseeable future? [HIGH, medium, or low?]
- How likely is it that I can react in time to influence, control, or reduce the impact/consequences of it? [HIGH, medium, or low?]
- How likely is it that the underlying cause or associated events will change and thereby cause this to rise higher on my list of fear/worry/urgency/impact?
Simply worrying will get you nowhere. But you know that.
Likely, you didn’t know that by taking a few minutes to rank the fear/worry and build a response strategy that you can live a much happier, more fulfilled life. You should understand, though, it is NOT POSSIBLE TO LIVE A WORRY-FREE LIFE. We humans have limitations and the world is constantly pushing us to learn more, grow more, be more today than yesterday. With such change comes plenty of fear/worry. Thus, you can never live worry-free. But you can live a much less stressed, and a much better managed life.
