time traveling worriers

We like to imagine we can predict the future and tell ahead of time what is likely to happen.

We try our hardest to picture the possible outcomes and then tell ourselves fretting over them is preparing us somehow.

My dad asked me this week, regarding an important meeting I had coming up, if I thought my worrying was helping or serving me in any way. It wasn’t. It never really does.

Harris III says worry is a misuse of our imaginations. All humans have the ability to imagine, for better or worse, and we keep running storylines of our imaginings in our heads at all times. He says we can use our imagination for wonder or for worry — and that choice is up to us.

Worry is the limited survival-brain tool we use to try to keep ourselves safe, to forebode joy, to plan for all contingencies, to feel more in control. Worry is us pretending we know what’s going to happen or fretting against our awareness that we don’t know what’s going to happen.

We aren’t fortunetellers. We aren’t prophets or time travelers coming back to disclose the secrets of the future.

Worrying doesn’t do anything to improve that future or to make any kind of difference or change (except for negative ones in our energy and how we show up!), and it certainly doesn’t enhance our experience of today.

So the best choice? Imagine with wonder instead, and then take some action. Through your small, doable next steps, one after another, you’ll usher your future towards you, you actually will have the power to spark change and difference (unlike when you were worrying), and whatever comes true will unfold as it comes. You’ll keep responding, with your best effort, values, tools, and imagination, and this is how we will keep going and keep growing.