If it's in your mind, if you're worried about all these problems,
they will consume your creativity and they'll consume your physical energy,
and your two best assets are, number one, your mental focus,
and number two, your physical energy. I'll repeat that,
your two primary assets are your mental focus and your physical energy,
as a business person and as a human being.
Protect those as we go through the intense disruption that will continue.
If your mind is full of worry, you're going to miss the
opportunities because you're focusing on what's not working versus what is working.
Joseph Campbell said, “we see the world through our stained glass window”.
While most people are seeing through the eyes of fear
versus through the eyes of opportunity. So let me get right into it,
I've got about five or six tactics for you
that are really, really granular and tactical that you can use today
to help you defeat the worry habit. Number one, model Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee used to write out a worry list on a piece of paper.
He'd actually dump all of the worries that were swirling through his mind
onto a piece of paper, why? Because if it's in your mind,
if you're worried about all these problems, they will consume your creativity and they'll
consume your physical energy, and your two best assets are,
number one, your mental focus, and number two, your physical energy.
I'll repeat that, your two primary assets are
your mental focus and your physical energy, as a business person and as a human being.
Protect those as we go through the intense disruption that will continue.
So the first tactic is, write all the worries down on a piece of paper
and then what Bruce Lee used to do is he'd rip up the piece of paper
into many pieces and he'd hold the lighter to it or match and he'd see them burning up.
You don't have to do that, but it's just simply powerful
to start keeping a worry list , so you start to dump all the worries
that are consuming your focus out onto a piece of paper,
and then guess what? Your mind has space for its
creativity to express itself. Second tactic, worry beads.
This is not philosophical, don't worry about the you know,
this is a really practical tactic. Get a bunch of beads or beans or whatever it is
and every time you're at your desk working and your mind goes to worry,
dump one of those beads or beans, you know, a dried bean,
and so on the second point, just every time your mind drifts to a worry,
you drop the worry bead into a cup or into a glass.
What does that do? It starts to give you an intense
awareness about how much time you spend worrying,
and more particularly how many worries you have.
And with more awareness, you can make more better choices,
and with better choices, you'll see better results.
Third tactic, affirmations. Staggering power in the words you use,
if all day long the words you use when you talk to other people,
let's say you're complaining, complain, complaining about this, complaining about that.
Complaining is worrying made verbal. And so watch your words and actually,
change your words
because the words you use influence your subconscious mind
and the words you use rewire your beliefs. So as you start saying, ”you know what,
I'm looking for the opportunities”, as you stop complaining,
as you start using the language of possibility, which is, “I can”,
versus, “I can't”, your mindset will start to change,
your worries will start to evaporate, you will have more energy,
and actually, you'll see the world through a fresh and more
positive set of lenses. A few final tips,
gratitude. The field of positive
psychology is confirming scientifically that when you record gratitude on a daily basis,
you begin to pay attention about the simple blessings in your life
versus focusing on what is missing in your life. In other words, you will shift from
scarcity to abundance through gratitude. I mean, no matter where you are in the world,
I guarantee you there are good things in your life.
So all you do is every morning,
I'll make it again really tactical, in your journal, you should be keeping a journal,
every single day, write down five things that you're grateful for,
and do it for about 40 days, you're going to rewire
your brain so you defeat worry. And you start to notice the simple things like,
“wow, I'm drinking clean water, wow, I have a family who loves me,
I have work that fulfills me”, let's say, “wow, I have a roof over my head”.
Or like the Persian proverb says, “I cursed the fact I had no shoes
until I saw the man who had no feet”. Two final tips.
To beat the worrying habit, if you're facing problems and the only
people who don't have problems are dead people. You want to see someone with no problems?
Go to the cemetery. Being alive means you will have problems, why?
Because problems come to serve us, they help us grow,
they help us express more of our gifts and our talents.
I mean, problems breed innovation. So problems are actually good things because,
but for problems we wouldn't grow, we'd stay stuck.
I know it's difficult going through problems, but there's tons of rich growth in those problems,
those problems will help you progress in your business and in your life.
But one of the ways to defeat worry is to make sure you do a list of your problems
and then you start taking some action on every problem.
I know it sounds obvious but most people think about their problems,
but they're not proactive, they play victim, they make excuses,
they think that their problems cannot be overcome.
I want to challenge you and push you and encourage you,
whatever your problems are start taking action on the problem,
because half of the battle of overcoming a problem and defeating worry
is moving through the problem, through action. OK, and then the final thing
I'm going to leave you with, is look for the lessons in any problem.
And one of my favorite questions is, what's the opportunity here?
Make that a brain tattoo. What's the opportunity here?
So do a list of your problems so you can actually see
those problems right in front of you and then ask yourself, maybe do it
as a written exercise in your journal or do it with a friend or do it with yourself
on a long walk in nature and ask yourself,
“for every one of the big problems that is consuming my energy and my mental focus,
what is the opportunity?” Because I promise you,
inside of every single problem that might be causing you to worry
and creating stress for you is a gorgeous opportunity
to build an even better business or build an even better life, or install a better belief,
or change who you are and grow and move through a fear
into confidence and more of your power.