A Pareto look on worry

4:17 PM Unknown 0 Comments

The culture of worry

What was the last time you had a full day with no worries? I know, it is not really common in our society.

But, when did worry became the immediate response to any threat in our lives? Hard to say. The whole concept is somehow misunderstood by most people as a manner of "caring about" or even a "passive way of solving problems".

In fact, as we shed some pareto lights (hehe) over the issue, we see that this culture of worry can be diminished, using simple techniques.

So, what is worry ?

In a nutshell, we could define worry as a personal concern about some issue, which sometimes goes beyond the limits of reasonable and cause severe pain to oneself and possibly to others around him.

Can we say that worry is originated by a wrong thought process? I believe so.

There is a famous saying that goes something like this: "my biggest fears simply didn't actually happened to me". And that is one of the reasons worrying is not a good bet. Maybe it does not happen at all.

Best thing is act instead of worrying. But, act on what? You'll find out right below, padawan.

The 80/20 way to deal with worry

Ok, ok. So, how can the pareto principle help me?

First of all, we must remember: the pareto principle is all about focus on the most valuable for us and discarding what only wastes our time.

In this sense, the sole act of writing down your priorities in any area of life will give you a better understanding about what may or may not be worthy of your thoughtful actions.

Therefore, if something is not a must for you, then it can be delegated or even dismissed at all, freeing space for other more important things and people.

To give an example, if you thought about it and found that some particular business plan is not a priority, you can delegate the actions needed for it to be done, postergate it, or even replace the time you would spent on it with some actually important thing for you, like your family or your personal growth.

The conclusion is simple and somehow cliché. Life is short and you can either act on the things you truly want done or worry about them and also about a bunch more useless goals. Your choice.

0 comments: