Hurry & Worry
Those words ring out to all of us once in a while. Things don’t always go as planned. Life, traffic, mistakes, timing; good fortune and bad plot to constantly change the mix. Stuff happens, but making a habit of these two insidious traits isn’t a good thing. It’s also interesting to realize they’re connected. Worrying causes us to be in a hurry, and being in a hurry means we’re worried about missing something. A vicious cycle, one that needs conscious effort to break.
Being rushed creates an opportunity for mistakes and omissions. Worry causes us untold stress and needless suffering. I once read a great rule of thumb about worry, and I think it’s pretty darn accurate: 80% of what we worry about never comes to pass, 15% of what we worry about we already have the tools to handle, and the remaining 5% we have others to help us with. 80% of what we worry about NEVER HAPPENS! Wow! Think about how always keeping that front and center in your train of thought would completely revolutionize your life. It makes one wonder why we worry at all.
The concept of failure must be one of our biggest worries. But, here again, we are worrying as if a failure is an end in and of itself, as if it is absolute. But as long as we are breathing, it’s not! It can’t be. Unless it’s a truly existential crisis, there is always something more. And don’t tell me your business is existential to your survival – sorry, but it’s not. I’ve been through that one, and there’s way more to life beyond that business, or that career.
Denzel Washington has mimicked others by saying failing is about failing forward. Alan Mulally said there is always a way forward. Keep moving forward, or just keep moving. Google it, there’s a whole thing about ‘failing forward.’ Things, good things, will happen if you keep moving. It’s like the old baseball aphorism, “Good things happen when you put the ball in play.” Looking at a third strike is like watching the world go by. Taking a hack at that ball brings the chance of success.
Procrastination is the same as watching that third strike – watching life pass you by is a high price for fear of failure. Hurry and worry is fear of failure. Don’t let it get you. Be a doer. Fake it ’til you make it. Don’t wait for the positive to take you forward, keep doing until you find that positive reward, that win, that success road, the one that leads you ahead with an accomplishment, a joy. The steps forward are those momentary wins, they are where you lose the fear, find your courage, create your life, and your path forward.
Moving and doing are habit forming, too, just as hurry and worry. Moving and doing create a repeating experience of accomplishment and put you on a road of successes. Hurry and worry freeze your ability to move forward, making life arduous, scary and joyless. Remove the fear, embrace the ability to keep moving and trying both new and old things. The more you do the more opportunities you find. It’s just like another old adage: ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ Just don’t be in a hurry to do it, or find it. It will come as long as you take the time to find the joy in what you’re doing.
