Worry can suck the energy out of our lives. I’ve heard it said that coward dies 1000 deaths, but a brave person but once.

I remember a time several years ago when my business was especially slow.

I hadn’t had any customers for a couple of months and my savings account was quickly dwindling. I was too proud to borrow money from my parents and I was wondering what was going to happen.

I was feeling so uptight and worried that I developed acid reflux and I could barely eat. I lost about 30 pounds unintentionally.

I read some books about controlling worry and by far my favorite was “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie.

There are a lot of great strategies to deal with worry in this book and I will go over a few.

One thing is to realize that approximately 97% of the things we as human beings worry about never come to pass. So generally it’s a big waste of energy.

You can use the law of averages to outlaw your worries. You can ask yourself: “What are the odds against this thing happening at all?”

You can try this formula:

a.       Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can’t solve my problem?”

b.      Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst – if necessary.

c.       Then, try to improve upon the worst – which you have already mentally agreed to accept.

Sometimes we worry about things because we don’t have all the facts necessary to make a proper decision. Be sure to get all the facts.

A great exercise to do if  you’re having trouble making up your mind is to write down on a piece of paper:

a.       What is the problem?

b.      What is the cause of the problem?

c.       What are all the possible solutions?

d.      What is the best solution?

I also find it very helpful to write down the pros and cons regarding an important decision that I’m trying to make.

I take a piece of paper and put “pros” on one side and “cons” on the other.

I then proceed to write down all the important pros and cons that I can think of regarding the decision at hand.

It amazes me how it helps to take things out of  the fog of my abstract thinking and put them on a piece of paper like this. Sometimes it makes the correct choice to make much more obvious.

I remember considering quitting my Toastmasters public speaking group. I was, at the time, stressed out and it is sometimes stressful giving speeches and I was considering quitting Toastmasters.

I wrote down all the pros and cons of being in Toastmasters. By the time I had written them all down and I could see them in black and white, the pros were so much more powerful than the cons it was obvious to me that I should continue with the group.

I did and I have been enjoying it for years.

I also find it comforting to have faith that God has all things under control. That I can trust Him to ultimately work out things for the best.

I like to quote Bible verses to myself in times of stress.

One of my favorites is Romans 8:28.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

I’ve also found it to be very important to have some kind of support system and to not try to go it alone too much.

Otherwise things can start getting too dark and tragic.

I have found joining small groups in my local church to be very good for this.

How about you? What are some of your favorite ways of dealing with worry?

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