“Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn’t you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn’t most of them turn out all right after all?” Dale Carnegie

The voices you hear at 2:00 a.m. are always the loudest. We all know these voices because their reach is universal.

The spider web of worry reaches all facets of your life. Your worried about that performance review at work the next day. Your worried that sometimes you yell too much at your kids and you wonder if that is all they will remember about you. Your worried about what it is you want to get out of this life. Your worried whether your time will be cut short on this earth. Your worried whether or not you will grow old with your spouse or whether you will be able to watch your children have children. You worry if you are good enough for anything or everything. You watch the digital red sliding slow to the next number, minute by minute, and then you worry how you won’t be able to wake up when your alarm clock rings.

I am trying to wage a battle against worry. Because to be honest, I’ve worried about things that have never come to pass. In my twenties, I worried about whether or not I had what it took to get into graduate school. Once I got into graduate school, I worried if I could pass the bar exam and get a job. Once I passed the bar exam and got a job, I worried if I could keep my job. In my personal relationships, I worried about whether my then boyfriend, who is now my husband, would ask me to marry him.  In my thirties, I worried about having a baby. When I had a life growing in my stomach, I worried if he or she would be healthy. I think each one of us could write volumes about what we worry about. And how it was futile.

If you believe in statistics, consider this one: Eighty percent of what we worry never happens. Read it again. Eighty percent of what we worry about never happens. Sometimes you have to work backwards. Ask yourself what you worried about a year ago and determine if this ever came to pass. Chances are your worrying wasn’t warranted.

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What do you worry about? Any insight on how to stop worrying? Has what you worried about in the past ever came to fruition?

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