Why Worrying is a Waste of Time

This past 4th of July weekend, I went golfing with my boyfriend. I had not been golfing in a while and we did not go to the driving range beforehand. I just decided to get out on the course and play. Well - the first two holes were pretty bad for me. It looked like I had never played a round of golf before in my life!

I felt anxious to play well and the harder I tried and the more I thought about it, the worse I did! I felt enraged inside that I could not hit a decent shot and I could feel myself getting angrier and angrier with each failed shot I took.

After the second hole, my boyfriend - who was not having fun due to my horrendous showing - decided we should take a break and regroup. We sat on a bench and let another group play through for about 10 minutes. I got a drink, let myself relax for a little bit and we started again on the third hole.

From that point on I played much better and started having fun. The ironic part about this was that once I actualy did relax, I didn't even have to think when I was hitting the ball. The more relaxed I was with my swing the better my hits became. It felt effortless to hit a good shot.

I began thinking about how easy it seemed right then and also about how hard it was on the first two holes no matter how hard I tried. It made me think about how silly it was that I was putting so much pressure on myself to hit a great shot, but then when I relaxed I actually did hit a great shot.

In that moment I had an epiphany about golf and more importantly about life! Worrying and anxiety take you totally out of the game. You cannot think straight when you are worrying or anxious. I realized that while you should always try your hardest at whatever you are doing, overthinking things or trying too hard can actually back fire. It is best in life to try and not worry about the outcome of whatever you are doing, but to simply try your best, relax, have fun. Usually if you do those things you will get the outcome you want. If you worry though and try too hard, usually the opposite of what you actually want to happen - will.

It seems counterintuitive doesn't it? But if you look at my simple example on the golf course, it is easy to see how this method of thinking and acting can actually benefit you in most aspects of you life.

So stop worrying - relax and have fun! Things would turn out much better for all of us if we could learn how to do this and we would all enjoy our lives so much more in the process! Worrying is simply a waste of time when really there is so much fun to be had instead!