Why Worrying Won’t Work: 10 Encouraging Quotes

Image: Justin Cozart

I’ve been worried about something. It’s kept me up a night. It’s made me agitated during the day. Then I realized, worrying won’t work. Worrying won’t win me the war. Worrying rots the soul. Why? Because worrying fools you into thinking you’re problem solving. In reality, all you’re doing is wasting precious energy on stuff that probably won’t happen.
Are you a worrywart?
I did some research on worrying and found some great advice from some sages of the ages. Whatever is worrying you, remember these 10 things:
1. Don’t misuse your imagination.

“Worry is a misuse of the imagination.” – Dan Zadra

2. Don’t stress over something that may never happen.

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” - Benjamin Franklin

3. Don’t let the future disturb you.

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”  – Marcus Aurelius

4. Don’t believe your worries.

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”  - Mark Twain

5. Get up and do something.

“If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.”- Dale Carnegie

6. Live each day as it comes.

I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us. - Dorothy Day

7. Be strong today.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” – Leo Buscaglia

8. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

“Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” – Robert Eliot

9. Spend yourself on the work before you.

“Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

10. Ask yourself if it really matters.

 ”Ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter a year from now?’” - Richard Carlson