What—Me Worry?
I can be a worrier. Sometimes I lay awake at night, worrying for hours about things that might happen, or about things that already did. I try to be all Buddhist about it and stop grasping at things I can’t change, but it’s hard to be enlightened when you can’t sleep and you’re grinding your teeth and your monkey-mind is scampering around in your skull at 100 MPH.
At times like these, I find it helpful to divide my worries into two categories: problems and situations. Problems are things that I can actually solve. Situations are things I can’t. Here are a few examples:
“My boss is a jackass.” Situation.
“I am currently working for someone who’s a jackass.” Problem.
“There’s a global f---ing pandemic.” Situation.
“I haven’t gotten my second booster shot yet.” Problem.
“The Mariners haven’t been to the playoffs in two decades.” Situation.
“I don’t enjoy watching baseball anymore.” Problem
Okay, so those aren’t the most nuanced examples, but you get the idea. I find that situations usually outnumber problems. Once I’ve taken all the situations off the table, the remaining problems seem more manageable. Then I ask myself how many of the problems on my list I can actually solve in the middle of the night. That usually clears off the rest.
We sometimes delude ourselves into thinking that worrying is the same as doing something, when, actually, it’s pretty much the opposite.
