{"id":7360,"date":"2021-03-15T07:19:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/?p=7360"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:44:07","slug":"how-to-overcome-a-lifetime-of-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/how-to-overcome-a-lifetime-of-worries\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Overcome a Lifetime of Worries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Worries overloaded the young doctor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, he sought a gypsy for advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gypsy
Gypsy and crystal ball\/Creatista\/FeaturePics<\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“What do you see?” fretted the doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You will be poor and unhappy till age 50.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well,” said the doctor, “what happens after that?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After that, you get used to it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worries are bad habits, aren’t they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stick around if we let them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But three steps banish worries quicker than a windstorm clears leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Most worries are fake<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Penn State study says 85% of your worries never materialize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don’t believe that, ask Samuel Langhorne Clemens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened<\/strong>.”
_ Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you don’t believe Mark Twain, listen to these folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.”
_ Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives.”
_ Lewis Thomas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.”
_ Pliny the Younger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Goewey, author of The End of Stress, Four Steps to Rewire Your Brain<\/em>, says you can wipe out fake worries with an imaginary button in your hand.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press it and count to three, thinking of each number as a color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n