We all know the feeling: deadlines fast approaching, sleep taking the back seat, your caffeine intake has increased by 85 percent, and you haven’t worn anything other than sweatpants for days. Sound familiar? Whatever stressful situation you’re dealing with, whether it be finals, upcoming graduation, applying for countless jobs hoping to hear something back, uncertainty with a friendship or relationship, problems at home, stress and worry are feelings that nobody really enjoys.
Or do we?
It seems that today your level of success is judged by how much you have on your plate at once. Think about it. The people that juggle ten activities at once and still have free time, somehow, are judged as the most successful because they have the most activities. Do we draw pleasure from talking about how busy we are? I can remember more times talking about how much I was doing than I can remember times talking about how little I was doing.
But that is not healthy. Stretching ourselves too thin, while can be done successfully and bring in great reward, is not a habit that one should regularly engage in. It’s no secret that stress has negative health effects over the long term, so why subject ourselves too it when we don’t need to.
We don’t have to do everything all at once. It may seem that by today’s standards we have to have everything now and all at once, but that’s not the case. No matter how it may seem, life is fairly long. There is time to spend getting everything you need done. Even if it may not seem like it, everything will work itself out. It may sound cliché, but it’s true.
We don’t need to worry about what will get done today, what we need to do tomorrow, what we will be doing for the next five years, or whatever. As long as you work on what needs to get done without procrastinating, everything will be OK. Time spent worrying is time wasted. While you are worried about deadlines, jobs, life, relationships, etc., you could be working toward what needs to get done.
Some of the best advice I ever got in college was to never pass up free food. But almost as important as that was to just take a deep breath when things start to seem overwhelming. Countless panic attacks have been avoided by just breathing whenever things started to get to be too much.
Next time you feel the weight of the world coming down on your shoulders, just remember that your value is not determined by how much you have going on in your life at the moment. And if that still doesn’t help, just remember to take a deep breath and focus on just finishing what needs to get done first. Don’t waste time worrying.
No matter how it may seem, time is on your side. You always have the strength to finish strong. Time spent worrying is time wasted, so don’t waste your time.
