(Principles are basic truths that, when applied, cause success to come to you easier and quicker.)

 

Recently a person used the phrase, “I want to make sure I’m not borrowing problems from the future.” Struck by that language, I asked him to say more about it.

He was talking about worry. A technical definition of worry is ‘projecting possible negative outcomes onto the future.’ Thinking about the future, planning for it, even considering possible undesirable outcomes, is of course useful. It’s when that projection turns to worry that it ceases to be useful. Worry can cause you to freeze up, act out of fear, and not be present to what-is-so right now.

Telling me not to worry about the future just sounds like lecturing and I may ignore it, but to me the beauty of the phrase, “borrowing problems from the future” is the visual it evokes.

While there are a lot of things I might like to borrow from the future, problems are not on the list!

 

Coaching Point: When have you borrowed problems from the future?

 

Copyright 2016 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.