Stop Worrying – Choose Trust

by | May 6, 2016 | Personal Mastery

2 (2)

Who doesn’t worry? Anxiety and worry are a fact of life for most people. Certainly all my clients find that anxious worrying constantly drains their energy. Sometimes they carry around a general level of anxiety they’re not even aware of. This unconscious worry simply depletes them until they learn to stop and notice specifically what they’re worried about.

Worry—conscious and unconscious–used to drain my energy too, but less and less since I started using the InPower strategy of “Choosing Trust.” Now I almost never find myself exhausted from anxiety.

The opposite of worry is trust. To stop worrying, choose to trust.

Choosing Trust leverages the simple reality that where there is trust, there is no emotional energy left for worry (and visa versa). A lot of us spend energy thinking about things out of our control, which puts us at an immediate disadvantage because no amount of thinking about it will guarantee success.

So the solution is to ask yourself, “What am I not trusting that is making me worry?” and then find the thing you can trust to put your energy into.

For example, at 4pm when you haven’t gotten confirmation that your client received your proposal, due by 5pm, you may start to worry.

Ask yourself: What am I not trusting that would calm my worry? Perhaps you’re not trusting that the intern tasked with dropping off the packet knows the importance of doing so by COB. What can you choose to do that will help you trust her more? Pick up the phone and call her? Call her supervisor? Do it! Do whatever you can to put your energy into creating more trust.

Then what? If you can’t get her on the phone and end up leaving a message, how can you stop the remaining worry? This is where most of us get messed up. We do what we can and then we still worry. What’s the answer to this last bit of worry? Choose to trust the Universe.

Sure, sometimes the Universe doesn’t exactly follow orders, but you know there’s truth in old saws like “when one door closes another opens,” “every cloud has a silver lining” and “be careful what you wish for.” Some things that appear terrible on the surface turn out to be blessings in disguise.

Since you can’t control it anyway, choose to trust that you’ll deal with the outcome when the time comes, regardless of how things go.

Stop worrying. Choose to put your energy into trusting and let the worry go.

Dana Theus

Dana Theus

Dana Theus is an executive coach specializing in helping you activate your highest potential to succeed and to shine. With her support emerging and established leaders, especially women, take powerful, high-road shortcuts to developing their authentic leadership style and discovering new levels of confidence and impact. Dana has worked for Fortune 50 companies, entrepreneurial tech startups, government and military agencies and non-profits and she has taught graduate-level courses for several Universities. learn more

Recent Posts

Can you get to the top without playing office politics?

Can you get to the top without playing office politics?

Office politics is as much a part of work as drawing a salary. And yet, I don’t know anyone who wants more of it. In fact, many clients come to me because they feel stymied in their career advancement goals because they perceive “office politics” to be getting in...

Career Coaching Tip: The Limits of Empathy

Career Coaching Tip: The Limits of Empathy

Early in my career, empathy was my ace-in-the-hole management technique. I was all business when it came to helping my team on technical, process and performance issues, but if they had an emotional reaction or issue, I reverted to empathy because it was the easy...

How To Get Through The Never Ending To-Do List

How To Get Through The Never Ending To-Do List

I’m a list maker. There’s something very gratifying for me to be able to cross things off my “list”. They’re done. Finished. It feels good and satisfying. I’m sure those of you who are list-makers can relate. But what about the task list that never ends? The one that...

Coaching Resources