Seriously, I AM a worrier; I’ve worried far too much in my life. And even though I KNOW it’s a completely pointless exercise I still do it far too often. And it makes my life a bit of a misery sometimes.

The good news is that I don’t worry as much as I used to.

The even better news – especially if you’re a worrier too – is that I’ve written an article showing you, me and everyone just HOW to stop worrying…

* I’ve got 3 inspirational worry quotes to help me along

* I’ve got years of worrying experience to draw on

* And I’ve developed an ability to communicate my wisdom (meaning your wisdom) one-to-one via the written word

So what can possibly go wrong, eh! (Y’know, I’m not gonna even imagine. I’m just going to trust the (creative) process and KNOW that your worrying (and mine) will reduce greatly just for having read/written this article.)

So let’s go, then, with the first inspirational quote about worrying…

Inspirational Worry Quote #1:

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”
– Leo F. Buscaglia

So, I’ve already said it once, but I think it bears repeating: worry really is pointless. Not only does it NOT achieve its stated intention – making tomorrow ‘better’ – but it clearly makes today much worse.

So why would anybody participate in an activity that achieves nothing tangible other than to make themselves miserable? And that’s a question to me, dear reader, as much as to you.

Here’s my answer – I’ve been thinking about this a long time, by the way – the answer is this: we think worrying protects us from ‘nasty experiences’.

The thing is, though, these so-called ‘nasty experiences’ are ALWAYS worse in our imaginations than in reality, and most often they never occur anyway.

But the real problem here is that we think we can’t handle the looming situation, and that’s why we make it ‘nasty’.

Yes, we worry because we are insecure, and unsure of our own strengths to handle what life brings us. Simple as that. And when I say we, I mean I. Because I’m sure you’re not daft enough to worry about nothing for the sake of it – surely not?

Hmm, so what are we to do here? Answer: recognise that WORRYING IS POINTLESS. And repeat it to ourselves each and every day. “Worrying is pointless. Worrying is pointless. Worrying is pointless…”

And if you can sing those words to a tune, then mores the better.

Another inspirational quote about worrying that pretty much says the same thing as Leo’s is this one by Glen Turner:

“Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.”
– Glenn Turner

More succinct, I guess, but now I’m worrying that those mighty fine editors at EzineArticles.com (ahem!) might not approve this ‘worry article’ you’re (hopefully!) reading as I’ve called it 3 Quotes to STOP Worrying but I’ve included 4! (Ooh dear, what am I to do!…)

Inspirational Worry Quote #2:

“Worry is like a signpost pointing in a direction you don’t want to go”
– Dr Rob Pennington

Now Dr Rob has great experience of worrying, so I hear. He even wrote a book about it – or rather, what to do instead of worrying – and it’s called “Find The Upside of the Down Times”.

And I quite like his business-focussed approach to not worrying. It’s pretty much saying, if you’re going to fantasise about your life – and worrying, as we’ve seen is nothing more than a gory fantasy – then you might as well fantasise on what you want, via the act of goal-setting and visualisations.

(I know you can’t get all of that from Dr Pennington’s worry quotation, I’m just reading between the lines. Trust me, there’s nothing to worry about here – this IS what Dr Rob is trying to say!)

So, next time you find yourself worrying, ask yourself why would anyone (especially you!) fantasize about going somewhere they don’t wanna go?

Instead of doing that, do this: FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT!

And when I say that, I’m pretty much hoping that you want good things to happen in your life – good experiences, good friendships, a good relationship etc. – rather than grim stuff!

Because nobody WANTS grim stuff in their life, do they?…

Inspirational Worry Quote #3:

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
– Charles F. Kettering

Hmm, and no insightful look at worrying would be complete if it did not contain a spiritual approach, also.

Because maybe we like being foolish and engaging in pointless activities. Maybe we like to think of goals that are ghastly, too, or just don’t believe in setting nice goals – too much like hard work! And that’s okay, I guess (bear with me, here!). But we cannot deny the truth of what our worrying is really all about. And it is this:

Worry: a psychological fear of how something (‘imaginary’) is going to make us feel.

Yep, we’re not really worrying about the event. We’re worrying about how that event will make us feel afterwards. Repeat: it’s not the event that’s important, but our feelings of the event.

And, as Charles F. so brilliantly puts it, YOU (and I) have the power inside us at any time to change how we feel about something.

Events will always happen that we like and that we don’t like. That’s life, to use a cliche somewhat appropriately. So our challenge is ONLY to understand that we can CONTROL OUR THOUGHTS and feelings. We need not fear them at all, we really needn’t.

For the truth is that we are all powerful enough to bear the good, bad and indifferent things that come our way, we really are. WE CAN COPE; there really is no need to fear that we can’t.

–

End of this worry article. All 3 quotes used up. Written communication between you and I nearly over. And… 5-4-3-2-1 back in the room, you no longer worry! Snap.

You now see that worrying is pointless. You now see that worrying takes you in the opposite direction to where you want to go. And you now see that worrying is a lie, because it’s not the event that we fear but the feelings about that event.

You now see all this, I know you do. And that’s why I know, repeat KNOW, that you WILL worry less from now on.

And, no, I’m not worried that you won’t stop worrying, I’m not. I believe in you, I really do (just like you do).

AUTHOR RESOURCE BOX

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And there really is no more for you to do here. I suggest maybe that you might like to sing to yourself (“la la la”), and do a hop skip and a jump now that you’re worry-free! But If you’d really like to find out more about me, the author of this article, then just do a search on Google for the words “Steve M Nash”. (please ignore any results for a certain Canadian basketball player, eh! )

Or you can click the link below, whichever’s easiest

From Steve M Nash – Editor of http://www.SelfHelpCollective.com

Like this entry? You will love getting my free weekly newsletter. I do not spam or share your email address with any third party. You will also receive a free ebook of 101 Motivation Tips

Photo Cr: David Reece

Think about that quote for a minute, really think about it. How can you apply it to your life right now and really make a difference? Here are 2 areas where you can apply this principle right now and ‘change’ your circumstances:

1. Business or work: Are you unhappy, unfulfilled and frustrated in your work or business right now because you are not earning what you would like to be earning? Are you getting tired of the routine? Are your hours too long? How can you change the way you are looking at your work or business?

a. It’s a good thing you have a business or a job right now because many do not

b. Maybe the universe is leading you in a new direction, a career or business change and until you get really uncomfortable in your present situation, you will not make that move.

2. Goals: Do you wish that you could achieve your goals overnight? Are you tired of waiting? Do you feel like giving up?

a. First of all, stop waiting, this is it! Learn to live in the moment. Do what you can with what you have and live in the ‘now’. Make sure to have your goal written down, a plan to achieve them, set milestones along the way and celebrate.

b. Trust that you will achieve your goal when you are ready to achieve it. There may be some lessons you need to learn before you are mentally ready for your goal. Nothing happens before its time.

The next time you experience something negative, life-transforming, challenging in your life. Before you get angry, sad, frustrated, before you internalize your situation that the ‘Gods’ must be against you, change the way you look at it. Look for the lesson to be learned, look for the positives and look for the things to be grateful for. There is always something to be grateful for even in the worst circumstances. Once you find the positives, focus and dwell on that. If you do this exercise in earnest, you will start to feel a calm come over you. And you will be feel renewed strength to conquer and move on from that situation.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this or how you may have applied any of the suggestions above in your own life. Use the box below to leave a comment.

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Your privacy will be protected at your discretion. I look forward to hearing from you.

Top Billionaires Famous Quotes

5 Simple Ways to Control Your Negative Inner Chatter

The Power of Repetition on Personal Development

1.    The act of repeating; doing or saying again: Repetition helps learning. Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws (Emerson).

2.    A repeated occurrence; thing repeated: The repetition soon became boring.

Photo by Steph Meslin-Weber

Along the journey of self-improvement we sometimes lose our way and that my friend is completely normal. The trick is to get back on track and keep on doing that even if we lose our way several times. The Power of Repetition is helpful in several aspects of self-improvement or personal development. Here are two important uses of repetition:

1.    Repetition is essential to form a new habit or drop an old bad one They say it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit. Some say it’s best to go for 30 days. Steve Pavlina advocates treating it as a 30 day trial. Making the decision that you will adopt a new habit for only 30 days then go back to status quo afterward. This diminishes the inertia that we feel when we think of a permanent change so we can just get started. Period. Once you have created the 30 day momentum, it’s easier to extend it to 60 days, 90 days or permanently.

2.    Repetition trains the subconscious mind If you are working on achieving a specific goal, make a positive affirmation about it and repeat it several times during the day. This will train your mind into believing that you can achieve this goal and you will begin to attract it. As they said in the movie, The Secret, ‘What you think about, you bring about’. Make sure that you are always thinking about your goal and you can do this with positive affirmations repeated throughout the day.

Have you ever reread a good book or watched sitcom reruns or watched a movie that you really liked over and over again? I know that I have done all three. Currently I have been listening to a CD by Earl Nightingale called The Strangest Secret just about every time I am in the car, besides listening to the news in the morning at 7am. This has been going on for several weeks and yet I take away something different from that recording almost every time.

Repetition is similar to practice, doing some repeatedly and you know what they say, Practice makes perfect. Doing a presentation ahead of time repeatedly, increases confidence and helps for a smoother delivery. Studying a previously learned concept over extended periods of time or spaced repetition helps the learning process. Are you learning a new concept, hobby or preparing for a presentation or big meeting or more importantly changing some aspect of your life for the better? Try applying some repetition, rehearsal or practice and analyze the results. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Do you have a personal story about how you applied the power of repetition in your life for lasting change? If so, I would love to hear it.

One of my favorite books, “Think and Grow Rich” describes the subconscious mind as ‘a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in abundance, if the seeds of more desirable crops are not sown therein’. You need to fill your mind with positive thoughts about yourself, your goals and the possibilities abound. And it has to become a daily routine, just like exercise. To keep your body in shape you need to have a regular exercise routine, the mind is no different. Here are some suggestions to keep your mind conditioned and create a winning mindset:

a. Create a mind movie and watch it every day. At the very least, create a PowerPoint slide with pictures or images of your goals. More advanced programs like Windows Movie Maker or online programs like Flash Slideshow Maker can also be used. The idea is to have your goals in front of you and top of mind everyday like a vision board or scrapbook.


b. Read self-help or personal development books or magazines. Some of my favorites are Think and Grow Rich, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Develop a collection of these kinds of books and read and reread them often.


c. Read personal development blogs or websites Try to be organized and selective about this in the interest of time. The idea is to subscribe to a handful of blogs, weekly newsletters and read the updates. Its easy to get lost in the myriad of information out there on this subject.

2. Affirmations

Use affirmations to reaffirm specific goals you are working towards or to affirm qualities of the person you want to become or to affirm a new way of thinking. Some examples:



a. I am so happy and grateful now that I drive a Land Rover Discovery, my dream car


b. I am a goal-setting, smart working self-starter who is a disciplined and persistent positive thinker


c. When God closes one door, he always opens another


A few things to note about affirmations:
• Always use affirmations in the present tense,

• Say affirmations with feeling and emotion behind it

• Use affirmations in the affirmative i.e. Say, ‘I am financially independent’ is better than saying, ‘I am not in debt’





3. Gratitude

Be grateful for what you have no matter how bad things get. Things can always be much worse. Once there is life, there is hope, be grateful for that! As soon as you catch yourself starting to think negative, disempowering thoughts, switch to thoughts of gratitude even for the little things. Say it out loud if you have to. List them one by one and see how far you can go. A great exercise which I first heard on Oprah and then on ‘The Secret’ is to keep a gratitude journal. Write down at least 3 things that you are grateful for every night. If it was a particularly bad day, make it 10 things. Or do a gratitude brainstorm, set a time and see how many things you can write down in the allotted time. Until you can be truly grateful for the things you have in your life right now, you will not be ready to receive what you hope and wish for.


4. How can it go right?

Instead of thinking of all the ways that something could go wrong, think of all the ways that it could go right. Whether you are working on a new business idea, a career change or any worthwhile venture. When you make yourself think of all the ways that things could go right, you open up yourself to new ideas.








5. Visualization

Use your imagination and let your mind soar! Visualize your most desired outcome. Rehearse it in your mind. Picture yourself making that sale, closing on your dream home, doubling your income or whatever your goal or burning desire. You can do it. This is a powerful exercise and should be done daily. With preparation and visualization, you can attract to yourself whatever you want and watch it come through in your life.

So how do you plan to control your negative inner chatter? Or do you have an idea that I have not included here? I would love to hear from you.

Due to the current economic crisis there were two important updates:

1) The world’s billionaires have an average net worth of US$3 billion down by 23% from last year and
2) There are 793 billionaires in the world down from 1,125 last year.

There is a lot to be learned about life, business and success from the world’s wealthiest. Many are well known and constantly in the media spotlight and some are fiercely private. Many quotes can be found on the web by the more outspoken billionaires. These sound bites give some insight into how they run their business, how they think and how they live their lives. If you read, pick and choose from these billionaire quotes, you will most often find that you learn something that you can apply to your own life or even your business.

Here is a compilation of a few quotes from some of the top 25 richest people in the world.

Hey, I never told anyone to buy my stock! Besides, no one is less happy than I am with the performance of Microsoft stock! I’ve lost tens of billions of dollars this year-if you check, you’ll see that that’s more than most people make in a lifetime!
Bill Gates – 2009 Net Worth: $40 billion – Microsoft Founder

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
Warren Buffett – 2009 Net Worth: $37 billion – Investor/Stock Market Guru

I believe that if a businessman knows how to efficiently manage his business, he should be able to manage a foundation efficiently. It’s not a question of giving money away, it’s a question of going somewhere and doing something and making sure the basic costs are paid…I’m channeling resources to try to solve problems as quickly as possible.
Carlos Slim Helu – 2009 Net Worth: $35 billion – Communications Businessman and Investor

A corporation’s primary goal is to make money. Government’s primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others.
Larry Ellison – 2009 Net Worth: $22.5 billion – Cofounder and CEO of Oracle

I’m a bit tight with money, but so what? I look at the money I’m about to spend on myself and ask myself if IKEA’s customers can afford it.
Ingvar Kamprad – 2009 Net Worth: $22 billion – Founder of IKEA

The typical human life seems to be quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and unsavored. Only those who consciously think about the adventure of living as a matter of making choices among options, which they have found for themselves, ever establish real self-control and live their lives fully.
Karl Albrecht – 2009 Net Worth: $21.5 billion – Co-Founder of Supermarket Giant Aldi

I think that our fundamental belief is that for us growth is a way of life and we have to grow at all times.
Mukesh Ambani – 2009 Net Worth: $19.5 billion – Chairman & Managing Director of Reliance Industries

Everyone experiences tough times, it is a measure of your determination and dedication how you deal with them and how you can come through them.
Lakshmi Mittal – 2009 Net Worth: $19.3 billion – Owner of the world’s largest steel company ArcelorMittal

As kids, we all worked for the company in one way or another. I got to work behind the candy counter or run the popcorn stand when I was five years old. The business was part of life and it was always included in the dinner conversation. We heard a lot about the debt it took to open new stores and I worried about it. I remember confiding to my girlfriend one time – crying – and saying, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do. My daddy owes so much money and he won’t quit opening stores.”
Alice Walton – 2009 Net Worth: $17.6 billion – Daughter of Walmart Pioneer Sam Walton

I think in business, you have to learn to be patient. Maybe I’m not very patient myself. And I think what I’ve learned the most is be able to wait for something and get it when it’s the right time.
Bernard Arnault – 2009 Net Worth: $16.5 billion – Chairman of LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton)

We are approaching a new age of synthesis. Knowledge cannot be merely a degree or a skill.. it demands a broader vision, capabilities in critical thinking and logical deduction without which we cannot have constructive progress.
Li Ka shing – 2009 Net Worth $16.2 billion – Hutchison Whampoa Chairman

Getting the job done has been the basis for the success my company has achieved.
Michael Bloomberg – 2009 Net Worth $16 billion – Founder of Bloomberg Financial Media Company and New York Mayor

The role of business is to produce goods and services that make people’s lives better. And if you have to get a subsidy — if you have to force other people to support your profit — you’re not doing that. You’re not making them better off; you’re making them worse off.
Charles Koch – 2009 Net Worth $14 billion – Head of Koch Industries

“They’re real life demonstrations of the biblical adage ‘If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. If you teach the man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.’”
David Koch – 2009 Net Worth $14 billion – Executive Vice President, Koch Industries

If I’m going to do something, I do it spectacularly or I don’t do it at all.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud – 2009 Net Worth $13.3 billion – Entrepreneur and International Investor

It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an opportunity to make a difference.
Michael Dell – 2009 Net Worth $12.3 billion – Founder and Chairman of Dell Computers

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