What, me worry?

I worry.
A lot.
All the time.

When discussing issues like resource management, population "explosion," etc., I often tell students that we humans worry a great deal about a number of collective problems, in addition to our personal worries.

I also tell them that it is such worrying that has also helped us live long and prosper.  Worrying helps us avert disasters, or at least manage our lives through them.

Sometimes, I have also told them variations of this: "But, if the worry paralyses you into inaction, then that is destructive."

At least thus far into my life, my worry-wart personality has not ruined me.  I just need to ride out another two decades ;)

Worrying is less about the today, and a lot about tomorrow.  We have no certainty about the future--all we can imagine are probabilities.  The uncertainty about tomorrow is what leads people like me to worry.  For instance, the job that I have might not be there next year. If so, then what?  Have I saved enough to live through a period of extended unemployment?  What if there are unfortunate events in the old country that require me to to fly there?  What if ...

The worrying leads us to plan.  I suspect that the happy-go-lucky are rarely the planners that we worry-warts are.  The more the worrying type, the more we plan things in advance.

Even when we plan in advance, we worry that shit will happen and render waste all those plans.

We worry.

The constructive worrying is useful, especially in three ways, research says:

First, by worrying about something, we are more likely to think of reasons to take action and be motivated to do something. Second, worry acts as a reminder to do things – in effect the unresolved uncertainty or concern keeps coming to mind as a mental process to make sure we try and tackle it… Third, worry can involve effective preparation, planning and problem-solving.

Seriously, they need research to arrive at these conclusions? ;)

Worry has an important function:

It’s a signal. It’s essentially pointing us towards something that might be coming and it’s drawing our attention there. It’s motivating us to ideally prevent the bad thing from happening or at least prepare for it.

Yep.  Like how I worry about my wussy personality not being the ideal one for aging, which is why I want to healthily age for which I practice healthy eating and walking and ...

So, here is my one-word advice for you.

Worry!