- “It took me a long time to figure out that 99 percent of my worrying was completely unnecessary. It was very humbling to realize that my worries were there just to make me miserable. It was even more humbling to realize that I was the guy who had his finger firmly pressed on the misery button. It was wonderful, though, to discover that I also had the power to quit pressing the button.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 70
- “The crucial sign that we’re worrying unnecessarily is when we’re worrying about something we have no control over. Worrying is useful only if it concerns a topic we can actually do something about, and if it leads to our taking positive action right away.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 64
- “There’s a good way to know if a worry-thought is something you should pay attention to. Just ask yourself: Is it a real possibility? And…Is there any action I can take right now to make a positive difference?” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 65
- “When things are going well, or when you’re feeling particularly good, you can always bring yourself down by manufacturing a stream of worry thoughts. Once you’ve brought yourself down by worrying, it’s very tempting to inflict those worrying thoughts on others. If we’re in the grip of worrying while someone around us isn’t, we seem to have an almost uncontrollable urge to criticize that person until he or she jumps into the stream of negativity with us.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 66
- “worry is definitely an addiction. In fact, worrying is like playing a slot machine in a gambling casino. Occasionally the worrier will hit the jackpot and be rewarded for something that actually happens. If you worry long enough about the stock market crashing, you’ll eventually hit the jackpot, because from time to time it’s always going to crash.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 69
- “I notice myself worrying about something. I let go of the worrying thoughts, shifting my focus away from them. I wonder: what positive new thing is trying to come into being? I usually get a body feeling (not a thought or idea) of where that positive new thing is trying to come through. I open my focus to feel that body feeling deeply. I let myself feel it deeply for as long as I possibly can. Later, I often get an idea of the positive thing that was trying to come through.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 71
- “My worry-thoughts about money were simply a sign. The sign said it’s time for me to expand my capacity to revel in the joy of having created abundance and love. To my knowledge, that combination is something new in my family lineage. It’s new territory, and I’m learning to live in it. To do that, I need to overcome thousands of years of programming that adversity is a constant requirement of existence. We need to savor our success, first for seconds at a time, then for minutes that grow into months.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 75
- “Worrying won’t stop the bad stuff from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good.” Charlie Brown