How to care without worrying

A new year! A fresh start! Entering any new chapter from the start of a new day to the start of a new year is best met with optimism, gratitude and encouragement. The reality is that many of the worlds most driven do not know how to do this naturally. Instead they are ruled by years of destructive emotional thinking patterns that result in stress.

I get it, you care so much about what you are trying to do, it is easy to worry and stress about what can feel like a barrage of problems and obstacles in your way. From my experience, stress and worry don't help solve those problems.

Many studies have found that entrepreneurs / founders are more prone to mental health problems than your average person. I have seen and felt this first hand from anxiety, self doubt, and depression. When you are so ingrained into the business you've built it becomes a part of you, and this can be challenging as it can lead to high emotional strains and often burn out. This is why I believe that the business that MUST come first is the business of you.

Stress & worry seem to be part and parcel of life, especially for those driven, goal oriented people. This is why managing that stress and redirecting that worry is crucial to your success and most importantly your' fulfilment. In 2005 Ohio State university published a paper on the effects of stress on our problem solving abilities. David Beversdorf, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center and senior author of the studies explains;

“Essentially, we propose that this state of arousal resulting from stress inhibits a person’s ability to access mental resources to solve problems in a flexible manner under stressful circumstances, and that a specific system in the brain may be responsible for that effect,”

If there is ever a time that we want our problem solving to be at its peak, it's when the pressure is on and we have important solutions to create. This means changing the way you think, so you can change the way you feel. Your brains chemistry is effected by the perspective you have chosen to see your world through. Let's break it down very simply with thanks to Achieve Medical and look at how your brain functions differently with positive & negative thoughts;

Positive Thoughts

• Synapses (areas connecting neurons) increase, in turn, increasing mental productivity by improving cognition.
• Intensifies ability to pay attention
• Improves the ability to think and analyze incoming data
• Enhances the ability to solve problems quickly and enhances creativity

Train your mind to view the world around you through a more positive lens and your ability to create positive outcomes is increased.

Negative thoughts

• A decrease in the speed our brain processes information
• Finding solutions becomes difficult
• Creative thinking is impaired
• Activity in the cerebellum is decreased – positive feelings are impaired
• Mood, memory, and impulse control are affected

Give in to the negative perspectives and pessimistic views of your world and you will have all those feelings validated by a more challenging life.

Now I get it, it's not a simple as clicking your fingers and thinking differently. I was born an optimist and still I have had to work hard to be more conscious of my thought during times of stress and struggle. There have been many times in my entrepreneurial career that I have found myself short by ten's of thousands to hit my monthly financial expenses requirement due to failed projects or bad investments. I have had a couple weeks to figure out how to make 10-20k to make sure I don't loose it all. The reason I was able to figure out a solution that was viable and useful for my career direction was because of the way I had trained myself to think about problems.

The quality and consistency of the commitments I have made to my mental, emotional and physical wellbeing are displayed when times of extreme pressure and challenge arrive to test me.

Learning to shift your perspective isn't a strategy you save for when times are hard, it's a lifestyle. Stay ready so you are ready. You see we all have a mental dashboard that fills up with the most common thoughts, feelings and perspectives that we have chosen in our life. The first thing I had to do was to recognise what these were, and whether they were serving me or not. Then I chose to input some new thoughts, feelings and perspectives onto my mental dashboard that were to become my new pattern of thought. This is an in-depth strategy but like anything worth doing, the results are great. So today I prepose a simple shift in perspective learn't over time to become a habitual way of thinking when problems arise.

Instead of allowing yourself to worry about a problem, instead care enough to find a solution.

When we care about solving a problem the, "what happens if it all goes wrong?" becomes, "What can do to give myself the best chance of success here?" & "What are some of the possible obstacles that could challenge me here, and what can I do now to prepare for them?"

Worry is a stagnant emotion with no request for forward motion. Unlike caring which promotes a curious and creative solution oriented motion.

Struggle is a part of life, so use it as an opportunity for growth and progress.

Your coach

James