Are You Too Busy for Worry?

“If you are too busy to spend time with worries, they will be too discouraged to hang around…”

“Worry is a companion like any other – it will not stay around for long if you do not spend any time with it. When you are so busy with positive, constructive actions that you do not have time to worry, you have already begun to climb the ladder of success. This is not to suggest you should blithely ignore problems. What it does mean is you should not so internalize problems that you are paralyzed and unable to take constructive action. When you find your worries are keeping you awake at night, remember the cracker-barrel wisdom that says: “The best way to kill your worries is to work them to death…”

— Napoleon Hill

When I was in my early twenties, I was a person consumed by worry. I worried about everything and everyone. I worried about my brothers dying, my parents dying, my friends dying and everything falling apart. I was always stressed and uptight. I would dream of bad things simply because I worried about them. One Monday when I was working on a project near my Mom and Dad’s house, I stopped by even though I knew both were gone to work. I thought I would open up a can of soup and along with some crackers have a quick cheap lunch and get on my way back to work. I heated up the soup and put it in a bowl and sat down to eat it.

I bowed my head to thank God and bless the food when the strangest thought occurred to me: “Why don’t you worry that spoon into the bowl.” I actually giggled and said out loud while thinking this is the craziest thing I have ever thought. I can’t worry that spoon into that bowl, how stupid. A strong thought came into my heart that said, “If you are unable to worry that spoon into that bowl you could starve to death.” I then laughed out loud and again and said that is stupid I can’t worry that spoon into that bowl. Right then in my heart the words came that said, “Neither can you do anything else positive with worry so stop worrying and begin to be a positive person. Think right and quit allowing worry and fear to dominate your thoughts. It will only cause you a miserable existence and a life filled with anxieties and possible early death.

Ok, fear has gripped me many times since then. Worry has stuck its ugly head into my heart many times too, but what I have done is learned to block them and keep them from becoming dominate in my heart and thinking. I have become a very optimistic person believing all things will work to my good.

I know this story may seem crazy, but it is true. I have been in many stressful situations and after an initial gripping of fear and worry, I am always able to turn it around to the positive. I simply ask you to let those words sink in and take root in your heart as well if you are a worrier. The worry will not be of any help to you but being optimistic about life and believing all things positive, will…

Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…

Respectfully,

Rick Cox