Above: Image by Gina Milicia
“Inside of me, there are two dogs. One is mean and evil, and the other is good, and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”
― Sitting Bull
Imagine if you invited guests into your home and they spent the whole time reminding you about all the mistakes you’ve made in your life and telling you not to attempt a new challenge because it’s too tricky and you will probably fail.
I call these house guests “Worry” and “Fear” and the home they visit is my mind. They swagger in uninvited, put their feet up on my furniture, and eat all my Nutella.
I hate them, hate how small they make me feel, but at 3 am when my defences are down they sneak into my mind, wake me up and proceed to scare the caca out of me.
For many years I let Fear and Worry bully me into believing they were right and no matter how good my life was in that moment my future was going to suck.
“Worry is a misuse of the imagination.”
Fear and Worry are imaginary house guests that our brain creates to keep us safe. Allowing them to enter our thoughts and letting them run wild in our imagination will only make them stronger and harder to get rid of.
Our mind is a powerful thing, and worry is a misuse of our imagination. We have no control over what will happen tomorrow. So the best way to stop worrying is to not focus on what might go wrong but to put all our energy and imagination on what could go right.
Worry and Fear kill creativity.
“…the best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today’s work superbly today. That is the only possible way you can prepare for the future.”
― Dale Carnegie
The only guests you want in your head at 3 am are Hope and Trust and the person of your dreams (Hi Brad!).
