{"id":19956,"date":"2017-11-23T11:51:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T11:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=19956"},"modified":"2024-04-14T12:47:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T12:47:21","slug":"cheer-might-never-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2017\/11\/23\/cheer-might-never-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"“Cheer up, it might never happen”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n As cold, wet weather and grey skies descend on the British Isles, out come the scowls. A particularly cheeky response to encountering a dour-faced stranger is the peculiarly British quip, “Cheer up, it might never happen.” Obviously, there are situations where this can backfire – such as in a funeral cortege – but often it can catch the hearer off guard with the appearance of psychic powers. That is, the quipper knows that you were worrying about a future event over which you do not have control.<\/p>\n Sometimes awareness alone can be (at least momentarily) curative. The phrase often provokes a smile of shared recognition. But I wonder: is it really possible to just “cheer up”? For me, it often takes a bit more than a good joke. It appears I’m not alone. In the previous tax year, the UK Health and Safety Executive estimates that 11.7 million days were lost due to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression<\/a>. While each of these conditions are complex psychological disorders, it is generally agreed that worrying is one major common component of them all.<\/p>\n For me, one of the most effective ways I have found to get my worry-wort mind to leave me alone is to make full use of the Getting Things Done\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0(GTD\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0) methodology to externalise my concerns. It has helped me in particular with obsessing over endless possibilities. If your own mind has ever sent you round-and-round in loops thinking about what might happen, you might want to read on.<\/p>\n You see, whenever I give my mind a clear outcome, it helpfully starts thinking about the steps from here to there. However, when I present it with an uncertain outcome, especially one where I have a strong interest in it going a particular way, it then starts spilling out endless emotionally-charged ‘what-ifs’. It is these ‘what-ifs’ that keep me from being present with ‘what is’. And so, I start burning up large amounts of mental energy trying to suss out every eventuality. Meanwhile, to those around me I appear distracted, spacey – and am probably wearing a scowl.<\/p>\n