Relieve stress by being decisive. The Future You Doesn't Trust "You".

It’s true that you really can’t put faith in the future “you.”

It’s also true that future you may not trust the “now you” as well. It works both ways.

I’m honored to offer up my personal advice as a guest contributor for HC Consulting Group.  I’ve spent the better part of a decade learning how to be an entrepreneur and a good majority of that time was managing stress.  Stress is a leading cause of illness, depression, and poor quality of life.  Here’s how I learned to minimize it effectively…

I’ve spent the last 6 months bouncing an idea around but only started seriously thinking about it a couple months ago. When I say “big” I simply mean, an idea that largely impacts my life. I have a family, a budget, bills, and the same stresses everyone else deals with.

If you’re not careful, stressing about a big decision can really cause you a lot of anxiety.

So how do you relieve it?

When you’ve got to decide the best school for your children to go to, or the purchase of a home, or getting a degree, it’s easy to have built up anxiety long after you’ve committed action.

That’s where trust and faith come in. Give yourself as long as you need to make a big decision and spend a good bit of time really thinking it through. It took me 3 weeks of serious thinking but 6 months of even considering it. Once you think you’ve come to whatever decision feels right based on everything you researched, thought through, etc, it’s time to stand by yourself.

Stand by your decision and remind yourself that in 6 months, future you will not remember the painstaking work you put in to seriously analyzing the right choice. You will alleviate yourself from having to constantly think about if you made the right choice. Future information may sway your direction and that’s ok. Just don’t let every important choice you make lead to another layer of stress your body doesn’t need.

In the end, it’s important to see your goals through as long as it’s still right for you. It doesn’t hurt to revisit that every now and again but for me, life has it’s way of letting me know when that is. Sometimes it’s a unexpected “black swan”  but you’ll never know if it’s a good one if it’s hidden by unneeded stress.

Remember to remind yourself that future you would otherwise forget that you spend all that important time and energy making that decision or setting that goal. The act of doing so will make it nearly impossible for future you to forget and so YOU will be at peace with the important choices you make.

Until next time,
Keith Wellman
FX Marketing Inc
Guest Contributor