The Silent Motivation Killer: Worrying

“What if this doesn’t work? What will happen to me?”

Worrying means to focus on future or past consequences of situational “what if’s”.

Most of the situations people worry about never come to fruition.

Every situation ends with one ending.

So mulling over the 20 different ways you could potentially become disappointed…

Not worth it.

After you have done your best, a situation may still be up to another person to make a final decision.

Will that decision affect you?

Yes.

But in a smaller sense than you anticipate.

There is no sense in fretting about much of anything in this world until the situation has unfolded completely.

To do otherwise is a waste of your productive time.

It is out of your control.

Most things are.

As a professional, your task is to do your best.

Present the facts and make good arguments.

Beyond that, people have to make their own decisions.

At the beginning of every task you have set out to complete, you should give yourself a pep talk.

And make it a stern one…

Tell you that ultimately, you might do your best and things still may not work.

Then remind yourself that it is ok.

And it is ok.

It is ok because most of the time during your career, doing your best work will be what is required to get a transaction done.

And for the times that it is not enough…

Your success is not dependent on those times whatsoever.

The most successful people understand one very important character trait…

That it is not about the number of times things go wrong.

Success is about how you bounce back from what feels like a defeat.

How you define a defeat.

And how you let defeat make you feel about yourself.

Take things as they come.

Fear is what makes us want to question every possible outcome.

It is our most basic need for self-preservation that does all of our worrying for us.

At some points in human history this was good motivation.

The first settlers had to be successful at hunting or their families would starve.

That thought made for some really focused motivation.

For us…

If we have our basic needs being met.

And we are good at what we do.

Then most of the time things will work out.

Worrying only prevents us from getting back out in the world and creating new opportunities.

So remind yourself:

“I may lose this deal because another person can’t see the benefit for them. But they are not a reflection of me. Nearly all of my other clients are always pleased with my service.”

And after a certain point…

When you have exhausted all of your professional skills to make it work…

Let.

It.

Go.

Let it go because it is NOT a reflection of you.

Let it go because worrying is a hamster wheel.

Let it go because doing so will free you up to go back out there and be phenomenal for someone else again.

We need you.