Hello Why Team Weekly Member! This is a friendly reminder that the Why Team Weekly blog has moved to Substack. You are probably receiving a notification from that platform. If you haven't received the notification from Substack, be sure to subscribe here: Why Team Weekly | Steve Luckenbach | Substack Thank you for your support and journeying with us to Substack! Dear Why Team member, I hope this week’s message finds you well, encouraged, and enjoying the cooler weather. Depending on where you live, you may have already noticed the leaves changing and the days getting shorter. We know the patterns of the seasons but… do we really know our patterns? How about this season, more than ever, - noticing our patterns of behavior? Mel Robbins inspired this blog. I saw her share a brief insight on Instagram that invited me to revisit the powerful insight that anxiety is future minded.
Our brains are so preoccupied with “what if it doesn’t work out”, when we have the power to consider “what if it does work out”. Hyper focus on the worse case scenario can protect us from death but it also can keep us from living an abundant life. Hence, Mel invites us to notice and interrupt the pattern of thought by counting backwards: 5,4,3,2,1 and then saying to ourself: “What if it all works out?”. A few months ago, I was speaking with an advisor of mine about a concern I had, and she said the following powerful words I have found myself returning to time and time again: “I think this could be a good thing.” Again, the brain does not automatically jump to that conclusion- its primary pattern is to assume the worse. Most of us function with a mindset of planning for the worse and hoping for the best. It requires an act of Will, an effort in personal reprogramming to change our patterns of thought from what if it doesn’t work out to what if it all works out. No matter what you may currently perceive as going sideways for you, consider interrupting the doom loop of catastrophizing with “I think this could be a good thing” or “What if it all works out?”. All you have to do is look at your own life thus far; how many worries and anxieties either did not manifest or in the end actually worked out?! There is an old Mexican proverb that says, “it won’t work out the way you planned but it will work out”. Why are we so prone to our way or the highway. Our highway to what - hell? The desire for control stems from our fear of the future. Every time our expectations are not met we are reminded that life happens despite how we may plan for it to happen. This can be very unsettling. Virginia Satire once said that most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. This is why people will stay in unhealthy relationships - choosing to be with the devil they know rather than the one they don’t. Notice the assumption that the next relationship could be worse - including the one alone with one's self. I once heard a recent divorcee comment that all her married life she worried about the strength of her marriage, will it fail, will it work, will it fail - and then proclaimed, after she left her husband, how wonderful it was to finally know the truth: it failed! Now sit on that for a minute. As long as the marriage was working there was always the potential for it to fail - but if it failed, well, that would close the case on it working. Certainty of misery over the misery of uncertainty. Interrupt the patterns that do not serve you. Plan for the future, but don’t worry about it. And when you do, catch yourself, notice and reprogram: 5,4,3,2,1 and say to yourself “What if everything works out?!” and/or “I think this could be a good thing”. Change your thoughts change your life - Wayne Dyer In the ancient text we are told that the Kingdom of Heaven is found within - and to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. Our true wealth lies within - we need only mine more for it. Notice the pattern and reprogram those that limit to those that lift. Make it a great week! Steve Luckenbach Comments are closed.
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