Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.
Tags: inspiration, life, philosophy, self-improvement, the future, the past, worry, worrying, writing
In our personal growth efforts we can reduce our emotional discomfort by making conscious choices concerning what we will worry about.
It’s similar approach to the concept of “choosing our battles” carefully.
As with most advice on achieving our self-improvement potential, however, such suggestions are easier to accept intellectually than they are to actually put into practice.
So what follows is not anything we don’t already know, but more of a reminder for us (when possible) to try to think consciously about worrying rather than falling into doing it reflexively.
One definition of worry describes it as “A state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.”
To that we might add “or imaginary problems” that will likely never actually develop.
To choose what we worry about, here are is a reminder about just a few of the well-known key worry “inducers” we should concentrate on reducing or eliminating:
* Focusing on the past
* Dwelling on the future
* Thinking too much about things we can’t control
* Assuming bad outcomes
* Constantly trying to please others
Our worry patterns are baked-in over our lifetimes, so we can’t just will ourselves to stop worrying.
But when we catch ourselves obsessing/worrying at any given time, we are able to rationally approach that particular worry and decide if it is worth investing our emotional and intellectual energy.
Worry quote:
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.” – Mark Twain
– Dennis Mellersh
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Personal Development Potential.
Tags: achieving goals, Carl Jung, Insipiration, life, philosophy, self-actualization, self-esteem, writing
In the internal work we do towards achieving our personal development potential, there can be great satisfaction in having full command over one aspect of our studies.
We often achieve significant mastery in the work we do to earn a living. We become experts in our vocation.
But because of the seemingly endless/alternate approaches to personal success and the overall complexity of the general topic of self-improvement, it can sometimes seem that we are putting in a lot of effort, but not making much progress towards achieving our goals.
We might say that all of our work “makes us a better person” but we still seek something more definitive and concrete.
Carl Jung in writing about psychology said:
“Our profession is such that one has to deal with many subjects. But this gives one the feeling of being an amateur in all things. That is why I wanted to study at least one area thoroughly down to its roots – and that (area) was alchemy.”
Perhaps we should each choose one area of personal development to investigate and study it more thoroughly.
Doing so might help us reach a new level of fulfilment in our journey.
— Dennis Mellersh
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