Energy without direction is heat

light painting at night

The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.

Ryan Holiday

You can worry all you want. However, how is it going to help you? If there is no clear action at the end of your worry, you are just generating heat and wasting energy.

Imagination

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.

Dan Zadra

The mind is a powerful tool that allows you to experience things that will never happen. However, worrying is not all a completely wasteful activity. As Seneca suggested with Premeditatio Malorum (“the pre-meditation of evils”), it is the right thing to envision the bad things that could happen. Since it also allows you to be prepared, and when faced with adversity, you are not surprised but know what to do.

Keep it within boundaries

Of course, you can now completely go overboard, and think of the evilest evils of the world, though does that help? Focus on what is in your control. You can do that about your emotions, judgements, creativity, attitude, desires and decisions since that is what you can prepare. You can not prepare to be hit by lightning (even though you can prevent yourself from standing under a tree at that moment).

Worry, but not too much. You don’t want to waste energy on things that will never happen. In the end, fears and worries can also ruin the days that are still perfectly fine.

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