WORRY
Trouble is bad enough when it gets here.
As the leader of our organization, I speak with many people who are worried. These worries always seem to be about some possible catastrophe that may happen sometime in the future. That future may be coming tomorrow or even this afternoon. It may be months or even years away.
Worrying about a problem is not the same as preparing for it. In fact worrying is an activity that usually prevents people from preparing. Preparing involves gathering information, analyzing the problem and its components, and preparing alternative responses. Worrying involves ... worrying.
Worrying also frequently involves "catastrophizing." Something really bad is going to happen and then my whole life will be messed up. When my life is messed up, then the lives of all the people I love will be messed up. How can I possibly survive that?!!!!
You can. How do I know? I went through a real catastrophe. It was terrible. It was also painful and embarrassing. During the extended period that it lasted, I reached the point multiple times where I seriously questioned my ability to continue. Yet, I did continue, and the catastrophe abated. I am still here, and so is our organization. In fact, we are stronger and better than ever, and we are getting stronger and better all the time.
Although I experienced a real catastrophe, I have found that real catastrophes are much rarer than most people think. Almost any serious problem can become a catastrophe. Fortunately, this almost never happens. I have seen people worry and "catastrophize" about problems that we face in our organization thousands of times. Only one really became a catastrophe, and we survived that one too!
Trouble will get here. There is no doubt about that, and it will be bad enough when it does. But trouble is not a catastrophe. It may be uncomfortable to experience the trouble. It may be difficult to resolve the trouble. But we can and we will resolve it. We always do.
I understand that you are worried even though I am not. Tell me what you are worried about. How might this affect us? What can we do to prepare for it? How can we respond? Who should?
As the leader of our organization, I speak with many people who are worried. These worries always seem to be about some possible catastrophe that may happen sometime in the future. That future may be coming tomorrow or even this afternoon. It may be months or even years away.
Worrying about a problem is not the same as preparing for it. In fact worrying is an activity that usually prevents people from preparing. Preparing involves gathering information, analyzing the problem and its components, and preparing alternative responses. Worrying involves ... worrying.
Worrying also frequently involves "catastrophizing." Something really bad is going to happen and then my whole life will be messed up. When my life is messed up, then the lives of all the people I love will be messed up. How can I possibly survive that?!!!!
You can. How do I know? I went through a real catastrophe. It was terrible. It was also painful and embarrassing. During the extended period that it lasted, I reached the point multiple times where I seriously questioned my ability to continue. Yet, I did continue, and the catastrophe abated. I am still here, and so is our organization. In fact, we are stronger and better than ever, and we are getting stronger and better all the time.
Although I experienced a real catastrophe, I have found that real catastrophes are much rarer than most people think. Almost any serious problem can become a catastrophe. Fortunately, this almost never happens. I have seen people worry and "catastrophize" about problems that we face in our organization thousands of times. Only one really became a catastrophe, and we survived that one too!
Trouble will get here. There is no doubt about that, and it will be bad enough when it does. But trouble is not a catastrophe. It may be uncomfortable to experience the trouble. It may be difficult to resolve the trouble. But we can and we will resolve it. We always do.
I understand that you are worried even though I am not. Tell me what you are worried about. How might this affect us? What can we do to prepare for it? How can we respond? Who should?
posted by Paul Volosov, Ph.D. 
1 Comments:
I have been reading your blog for some time now. I wanted to let you know that we have something in common. You are obviously a man who thinks. Me too. I ponder, wonder, and ask questions of others until they want to skewer me. I believe they become inpatient because they feel my questions are challenges, not queries to satisfy unending curiosity. Does this happen to you? Is that why you started your blog? So you can think about things and pose questions without others becoming aggravated?
While I realize you are quite intelligent, I wonder if you would agree that thinking really does not have much to do with IQ. It seems to me that many very well educated people spend a frightfully short amount of time actually thinking about anything. It seems many only want to know the fragments of information that apply to their jobs, and want nothing to do with overall systems.
While many of your blogs are interesting, a few struck me today. First, your story about the embezzling employee. It is easy to be “trustworthy” when everything is fine. It is not easy to live up to your principles when threatened by pain, loss, or deprivation. I suppose we cannot truly know ourselves until we have been well tested by misery. I am glad I am well acquainted with misery, because I know what I will do when the stakes are high. I have a bigger struggle with the little things.
I am presently trying to decide if small injustices are worth fighting about, or if I should “keep my head down” and my mouth shut. How do I respond to individuals that are so sensitive about appearances that their need for recognition and accomplishment clouds their judgment?
No catastrophe will result from not taking action. The result of inaction most probably will be “sputtering.” I like that word. “Sputtering.” Dr. Volosov, I am writing to you to take advantage of your invitation to tell you my worries. I am worried about sputtering.
My ego will sputter from letting others intimidate me from taking a stand, but I am resilient. Services will sputter; we will bog ourselves down in the quicksand of murky reasoning, but we will limp on. My biggest worry is morale. Limping always stresses the healthy limb because the extra weight eventually becomes too much to bear. When such irritations become chronic, they wear down the best of us.
When simply saying the truth is not an option because retaliation will follow, the weak often resort to whatever will ease the burden. They simply subtract from areas that will not be noticed so that they can complete the work that is closely monitored. One of the worst examples I have witnessed was when an elderly woman was told to “go in the bed” because the nurse did not have time to get the bedpan. If you were that nurse, would you have brought the bed pan and taken a punishment for being late with a medication? Would you pretend you didn’t hear her calling? Would you give up and look for another line of work? Thanks for hearing my worries Dr. Volosov.
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shades of gray, At
August 10, 2008 2:20 PM
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