Choice to worry

There’s a lot to worry about in the world today. And it seems that media and social media are designed to magnify that worry.

But the truth is that you have a choice here.

After all, there are a billion things you DON’T worry about. Because you don’t even know they exist, and they don’t affect you.

So just because you’ve heard about something doesn’t mean that you need to increase your mental and emotional load about it. I might say “it’s not your job”, but that kinda implies that someone else has control over the decision.

No, you have control. So how do you choose?

• It affects you or the people you care about
• You could actually take useful action which would decrease the impact
• You would have a reason to take that action

If these aren’t true, then it’s not your task to worry about it. If you choose to, that’s your choice, but it’s not useful and is just increasing your stress.

I remember my childhood as fairly worry-free compared to being an adult. It’s not that my parents weren’t worried about losing a job or societal issues – they just did a good job of insulating me from all that. Because there’s nothing I could have done about it.

Over the course of becoming engaged with Rotary, I’ve started to do a lot with supporting those experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. I’ve chosen to start caring about them, and worked to take useful action in this space. It’s fulfilling and helps our community.

But it all started with making a choice.