Reality: It’s Just Three Hits

Read on tedwild.cc  | 2023.7.11 | #18

Happy Reality Day! Here is your weekly dose of reality to help you live 1% happier↓

---

❤ 1 Insight From Me

I have a friend who doesn’t like to study, but he is a very present and happy person.

Once we talked about how he tried to play truant when he was in elementary school. I asked “When you didn’t finish your homework on weekends, weren’t you worried about going to school the next day?

He said: “I actually felt anxious every Sunday afternoon because I didn’t do any homework. But then I thought to myself, “If I don’t do the homework, the result is just three hits on my palm by the teacher, but I can play happily for a whole weekend, it’s totally worth it.” So I just accepted the three hits, and played without worrying.”

I can hear my brain buzzing at that moment…

Because what he said actually reveals the core of solving anxiety, worry, and overthinking problems: Acceptance.

You hear people say “Live in the moment”, “Stop thinking about it, what’s the use of thinking so much”, “Anxiety is bad for your health”, “Worrying will only waste your time” all the time, but inside you are yelling, “Of course, I know that! But I just CAN’T stop worrying about it!!!”

The core of this is one word: “Acceptance”.

Think about exactly what might happen to the thing you’re worried about, then do what you can to prepare, and be ready to accept bad outcomes.

Anticipate, prepare, repair, and accept, these are the only 4 things you can do about worry.

And the most important of these is acceptance.

The core of acceptance is to accept bad results in advance:

“It’s just three hits!”

[  Share this on Twitter  ]

---

❤ 1 Insight From Others

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.”
― J.K. Rowling

---

❤ 1 Small Step To Take

“ReWorry Worksheet“:

This is the worry-setting practice I put in the article “Overthinking: From Hello to Goodbye“. You can download the Excel file and open it to practice, or you can answer these 10 questions on paper at will to clarify the things you are worrying about.

I hope that after this practice, you can let it go, and live with peace of mind.

---

Do you find this issue of Reality helpful? Leave a reply to this email, I check every reply in my inbox.

Until next week,

Ted Wild

---

PS: What You Need To Know About Your Thoughts

PPS: That Last Scoop Sucked My Soul

---