Be Anxious for Nothing
I’m going to be honest. By nature, I still worry about things. Over the years, I’ve worked on how I manage the strong urge to worry. In intense moments of angst, I am calmed by some advice from my dad. Often, he’s said to me “Be anxious for nothing”. Like most incredible advice from dad, its biblically rooted. Philippians 4: 6-9 reads:
6.Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7. and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. 8. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. 9. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Pray
Prepare
Practice
Patience
Peace
I promise today’s episode is not a sermon, but it is certainly a good word! As I’ve said before, this podcast encourages me too! I am going to share with you a few ways this has helped me keep my sanity and focus on what matters during acquisition seasons in my life here on the View 112 Podcast.
Good morning. I wrote the concept of today’s podcast with the intent to record during Thanksgiving week and here we are in February. Funny how timing works. As it turns out, this episode is more relevant in my life today that it was 90 days ago. I’m glad for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you.
Be Anxious for Nothing has been said from my dad and recalled mostly during moments in which I am agonizing about either landing a big deal, getting a job, promotion, or concerned about money. The waiting period in finding out if I am going to be awarded something can be so awful for me. I have allowed failures over the years cause me to be more anxious in big moments in my life. I’ve experienced major failures in my life from failing my thesis in college to divorce to not getting promotions even being laid off. Although, I have rebounded incredibly well from all of these situations, I still need to be reminded about not having an anxious heart. Here are 5 quick actions I take to work through anxiety in my life:
1. Pray
I literally cannot do anything in life without praying. I pray for a lot of different reasons. But if I am being honest, praying mostly centers me, connects, me and CALMS ME DOWN. I am absolutely one of those ‘cast your cares on the Lord” kind of person. I express how I am feeling, how I think I need help, and what I want the outcome to be. I practice gratitude everyday by thanking God for all things big and small before I start with the “care casting”. Want to know something funny about that process? By the time I am done thinking of things to be grateful for, I am reminded of how many ways I am blessed and how generous God and life has been. When I start to get into what I’m worried about, the feelings of worry and angst have already reduced. So even if you are not a prayer warrior (not saying I am), that is one benefit of incorporating gratitude daily. Its relieves your anxiety. Mine happens to be in the form of prayer.
2. Prepare
Now that I’ve prayed. I start to prepare to receive what it is I’m seeking. So many of us go through these steps of ideation, goal-setting, writing things down, and then stop. An incredibly popular book I read years ago (maybe 10 years ago) is The Secret and The Law of Attraction concept was explosive back then. Everyone was talking about The Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction focuses on your thoughts and the concept is you attract everything you are thinking. I believe that. When I first heard about the law of attraction, I was unemployed. I saw on TV where someone said that they wrote themselves a check for 100,000 dollars and thought about it everyday and one day they received a check in the mail for $100,000. I thought, cool I’m going to do that. I wrote myself a check for $100,000 while in my old bedroom at my parents house thinking that $100,000 would get me back on my feet. I thought about the check in the mail but I didn’t do a single thing other than write that check and check the mailbox. I still have never received a $100,00 check in the mail…at least not yet. BUT, I did start getting serious about my job search. I also decided to take some of my savings money and start my first company, Endorse Apparel. Through years of work, focus, failures, and successes, I’ve certainly earned $100,000 several times over. I’ve attained more financial success in the last 10 years since I wrote that $100,000 check to myself. My advanced lesson since that time is The Law of Attraction is a real thing. I think working through the Law of Attraction, you can prepare for the most amazing things. I have learned over the years, you can’t simply just say you want something and pray about it. You have to start getting ready for the things you are attracting to your life. Or you won’t be prepared to receive them and they won’t come. One more thing on this. I saw on Instagram, a post from comedian Leslie Jones. She posted a picture of herself in the gym and she said sometimes she feels like she’s working out for nothing. No one is going to notice and she feels like she’ll be single forever. Another actress, Megan Good left a comment encouraging Leslie saying “Your doing it from something (career, relationship, purpose etc) Making it so that your body will continue to take you wherever God wants you to go.” She said more, but I found Megan’s words of encouragement so touching and motivating. I can think of all the books I’ve read and podcasts I’ve listened to and seemingly mindless work and tasks I’ve done that have prepared me for this very moment in my life. All things I’ve been equipped to handle and complete. All the baby steps prepare us so we don’t have to be anxious.
3. Practice
I’ve spoken about this before when its comes to public speaking for example. Any opportunity I get I practice in advance. I just had a conversation with a colleague that was preparing for a job interview. He asked me to help him by doing a mock interview and he asked me for interview tips. I told him one of the things I do is repeat out loud certain things I want to share over and over again. Sometimes we come up with amazing ideas or thoughts or have amazing stories to share and just can’t get it out at the right time. Its awful for me as an interviewer to meet fantastic people that cannot communicate a vision or the incredible work they’ve done. In corporate training, I think what people groan about most is role-playing. There is so much push back to role playing. I’ve had countless sales people say to me “I will be fine when I’m with the client-role playing just makes me nervous”. I then hear these same people fumble when its time to close with a client. They don’t have anything prepared to overcome objections or the rollout was choppy. You don’t need to scripted, I’m not advocating that. You do need to know what you sound like and how your phrasing comes across. I really do not know of a successful person that wings everything. The greatest ones rehearse, run drills etc. President Obama spent hours with speech writers practiced his speeches and making edits.
4. Be Patient
What is for you will not pass you by. Sounds cliche, but its so true. Take it from me. I’ve made more mistakes jumping the gun or forcing things to happen. There have been many times I have groaned to myself “Why didn’t you just WAIT?” Over the last 18 years of working impatience has caused me to overcome poor hiring decisions. That’s the most impactful. My team knows now if its not a resounding YES situation, then its a no for me. I’m sure you’ve heard the adage of saying no a lot to get to yes. When you’re anxious, you often say yes to the wrong things. There is a quote from author Cheryl Strayed in which she says “I don’t think there’s a s single dumbass thing I’ve done I my adult life that I didn’t know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it. Even when I justified it to myself-as I did every damn time-the truest part of me knew I was doing the wrong thing. Always”-Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. For me this rings true and most of the time I did those dumbass things, it was when my patience with something was lacking or I was anxious to make something happen. Sometimes you gotta just wait.
5.Peace
When I have done all of the above: Prayed, Prepared, Practiced, and exercised Patience, I have found that I am not anxious and I have peace. I have peace because I am no longer concerned about any outcome. If things go I way I expect, then of course they did because I put in the work for the expected outcome. If things do not go the way I want, then I know because I’ve put in the work, there is a better alternative I have yet to discover. That’s exciting! Don’t get me wrong, there have certainly been times in which the outcome has been disappointing. In those times, I am hopeful because I know with clarity that particular path was not mine. I now have options for another path. One of my favorite intangibles in life? Options.
Like I said, I wrote 90 percent of this post to have ready in time for Thanksgiving week and didn’t get an opportunity to record it. Looks like I same across it again at the right time in my life and I’m glad I got it out to share with you. Thank you so much for listening. Connect with me online, I’m online as @jeanitamorris in most places. Email me at jeanitamorris@view112.com and checkout the blog-View112.com. The audio recording of this episode is on Apple Podcasts under View 112.
