Susan’s Worry Elimination Recipe

Taking time to write a WORRY LIST is time well-spent.

If you don’t take time writing a worry list, what will be the alternative… Worrying?

Worries can obliterate clear thinking. Worries can even freeze us from taking positive steps forward. 

A consultant I worked with during the mind-f*#k time between the sale of my company and my completing a 2-year earn-out with new corporate ‘blue-shirt’ owners, introduced me to a ‘crap sheet’.

I call my updated professional coaching version the Worry Elimination Recipe. The recipe for Worry Elimination is a blend of the ‘crap sheet’ idea, coaching know-how to create lasting change, and having experienced the benefits of writing a worry list that I learnt from Robin Sharma’s Elite Performer series of meditations.

Susan’s Worry Elimination Recipe

You will need:

1. A giant Post-It Note pad – I’m talking extra large or flipchart size. Can be purchased from OfficeWorks. I’ve put the link here for you.
2. Alternatively, a cheaper option is purchase a pad of flipchart paper.
3. A fat black Sharpie permanent marker pen.
4. Blu-Tac if you went with the flipchart paper.

Notes:

• Size matters when it comes to the paper you’re going to write your Worry List on. Psychologically, it feels really good to right this sh*t out big. It’s taken up so much of your brain-space, messed with your sleep and your attention already, it deserves to be ‘graffiti-big’! You want to be able to see what you’ve written from a distance.
• Test if the Sharpie can leak through the paper you bought. It shouldn’t be a problem when you’re writing your Worry List down on the pad, but later you’ll be writing on it, while it’s up on your wall. If it does leak, you’ll need to grab down the Worry List for Step 2 and put it back on the pad to do that part.

What you do:

Step 1:

1. Write down absolutely everything you’re worried about today down the left side of the page – You’re going to need the right hand side for something else later, so give the Worries a 50/50 share.
2. Get all your Worries out, write everything that’s worrying you, big, small, surprise ones you hadn’t considered were worries, just keep them coming til you can’t think of any more. If it means you need a second piece of paper, that’s fine. Keep going.
3. Hang your Worry List on the wall in your bedroom, bathroom, back of your toilet door, the hallway – where YOU are going to see it. (Discretion: if someone is on your worry list, do you want them to see that they are? If not, put it where only YOU can see it easily)
4. Shoulders down, give yourself a little shake, take a few deep breaths and walk away. Your feelings will shift a little at this stage.
5. Grab yourself a glass of water. See if you notice the feeling that your worries have distanced themselves from you, even if just a little. 

Step 2:

1. Come back to your Worry List later, say a minimum of 6-hrs time, with your black Sharpie pen in hand.
2. Draw a long vertical line down the middle of the page.
3. On the right hand side you’re going to write what you know is true, or what choices/actions you can take beside every Worry.
   1. There’s no right or wrong, just let your ideas out onto the paper.
   2. There’s always something you can do, even if it’s acknowledging the part you played or the lesson you take from it.
   3. I’ve heard it said that there’s always 5 choices… something to think about.
   4. The ‘something you can do’ might even be to ‘ just let it go’. The fact you’ve written it down might have been all the action you needed on some worries. You’re winning already!
4. Transfer the actionable tasks you’re going to do to whatever you use to keep track of your To Dos eg. your Weekly Planner.
5. On Your Worry List cross each worry out that you feel you’ve dealt with.
6. Tear it down, tear it up, ready for the next list of worries tomorrow, in a few days, a week.

I wouldn’t recommend you keep adding new Worries to an old list. Every day’s a new day, a new list, no matter if the worries are new or old, the tearing down feels good! In a way it’s you getting used to celebrating you’ve achieved something good. Our brains need us to acknowledge achievements, so it knows to let things go, and move on with what’s important.

As your Worry List changes, your worries will reduce. If some worries do hang on week-after-week, or you feel are too overwhelming, and they freeze you for choices, please don’t hesitate to book yourself into my Online Scheduler for a brainstorm using a free Clarity Call.

I write my Worry List on a Monday morning in preparation for the week ahead and transfer my actionable tasks into my Annual Planner. You might want to start by doing it daily at first until you get the feel for it.

Let me know how you feel after doing this for a couple of weeks.

Take care,

Professional Coach ICF NLP | 3VQ® Certified Trainer

Registered Hypnotherapist

Member International Coaching Federation and American Board of Hypnotherapists