What ten things make most of us worry..?

If you spend a lot of time worrying, don’t worry – we all do, so you’re not alone.

Apparently, the average Briton frets about something seven times a day, for at least eight minutes on each occasion. I love Psychologists they produce superb quotes don’t they..? In this case a group employed by nPower.

Some of our biggest fears are over putting on weight, the cost of living and falling ill, along with not being able to afford to eat and forgetting to lock the house. Our more obscure worries include having a big bottom, managing to keep the house clean and going grey. The results of the survey of 3,000 people suggest that we each worry for the equivalent of just under an hour a day – which adds up to 2.3 years over the average adult lifetime of 60.5 years.
 

The French Philosopher Montaigne said: “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”  This illustrates the negative power of our worried mind is often focused on things that have nothing to do with reality. Worry can be exhausting and have negative consequences on your emotional and physical well-being. Yet there is something about worrying that makes it hard to give up.

The main messages to be gleaned from the survey are:

• We all worry, so you are not alone
• While some worries may seem trivial, they are very real to the ‘worrier’
• Most of us share common concerns

At Be More Effective, we like to look at people as individuals and also how they work together as a group or team for an organisation. The dynamics and chemist in that team are two vital elements which underpin the group’s effectiveness. Worry and stress in some members will in one way or another impact the whole.
Typical team building events are unlikely to bring these issues out clearly and often the turmoil one person is going through because of a “worry” can be misread as a lack of trust or engagement. It is always worth holding one-to-one development sessions with each member of your team before such team building events, training programmes or the launch of a new initiative to pick up on individual sensitivities.

When you do discover one or more person has troublesome worries, do treat them with respect. Listen well and where possible write a list of the things on their mind. Then apply some of the principles from and all time self-help classic; Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. He recommends we learn to face trouble by:
a.    Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?”
b.    Prepare to accept the worst.
c.    Try to improve on the worst.
d.    Cooperative with the inevitable
e.    Apply the law of averages to outlaw excessive worry.

Of course, if you feel out of your depth, do call in a more experienced Coach, Consultant or Counselor. Feel free to contact us too

Now I know you’re dying to hear what the top ten worries were, in this survey carried out by energy supplier nPower. Don’t worry – here they are:

1. Cost of living
2. Lack of money
3. Illness
4. Personal health
5. Not being able to pay a bill
6. Remembering to lock the house
7. Having enough put by for a ‘rainy day’
8. Putting on weight
9. Spending too much money on shopping
10. Upsetting someone

May be the best advise for most of these ten comes from that Monty Python song - no not Spam Wonderful Spam - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life...