How To Stop Worrying

Worrying about things is human nature, it’s that nagging voice in the back of your head that reminds you that you might have left the oven on, or that you have an important exam coming up soon. In fact Healthy worrying is good for you; it protects you from burning down your house and letting you know that you should be studying. On the other hand unhealthy worrying can be disastrous to your mental health and your stress levels; I define unhealthy worrying as compulsive and in many cases irrational worrying. Compulsive worrying is when you worry about something for days or weeks on end or when you irrationally worry about a problem that has a very clear and easy solution. Compulsive worrying prevents you from being productive and being able to relax. How can you possibly concentrate on a task fully when a part of your conscious energy is being taken up by constantly thinking and worrying about something and how can you truly relax and unwind when you are torturing yourself by worrying about a problem.

My Philosophy is that you should only worry about a problem once and once only; this serves the purpose of making you aware that there is a problem and what it is, after this you should come up with a planned solution for the problem and execute it or if there is no solution, drop it there is-nothing you can do about it so what is the point of worrying about it. Follow the instructions below to achieve this.

How to stop worrying

When you notice that you are worried about something don’t leave it to figure itself out and put yourself through days or weeks of constant torture. Recognize that this is your bodies’ way of letting you know that you have a problem. Now simply sit yourself down and ask yourself thisone simple  question

Is there anything I can do about this problem and if so what is the solution?

Its out of your control

If you determine that there is nothing you can do about it then accept that it is out of your control and you are wasting time and energy worrying about it. An example of this kind of problem is worrying about what kind of weather tomorrow will have, Mother Nature has her own plans and there isn't anything you can do to change that so you might as well just accept it and get on with things.

Whats the solution

If there is a solution then figure out a plan of action that you will follow to solve the problem. You will have no good reason to worry about the problem anymore as you now know what you are going to do to solve it and thus it is no longer a problem and no longer requires you to worry about it. If you cant think of a solution on your own, Research it online or tell a friend or family member about your problem and ask them what they would do to solve it. An example of this is worrying about getting bad grades in a exam.You can make a study plan to make sure that you will cover and study all the material on the plan thoroughly thus ensuring that you get good grades.

Try out this technique on the main thing that is worrying you at the moment and free yourself from the prison that is worrying.

How To maintain your computer

As a part time job I fix computers and laptops, The most common problem that people come to me with is Slow and unresponsive computers. This is a problem that is easily avoidable and fixable by someone with even the most basic computer knowledge. If your computer is Slow and unresponsive or if you just want to maintain its speed, Follow these instructions.

1. Do not pay for antivirus programs, The amount of problems that I have solved with computers and laptops simply by removing McAfee or Norton have been unbelievable. They are also extremely resource hungry. Free antivirus programs such as Microsoft Security Essentials and avg are in my experience just as good if not better than anti virus programs that you pay for. The free ones usually take up less resources and thus improve the overall performance of your computer.

2. Use Malwarebytes every couple of weeks, This is bar none the best anti Malware program I have ever used. There never has been a virus or Malware program that I haven't been able to remove with this software. Perform a scan every couple of weeks to give yourself peace of mind.

3. Install ccleaner, cleaner is a great little tool that allows you to remove all those unnecessary temporary files, Fix registry files and manage your start up items.

4. Run a disk defrag, while you use your computer you move delete and add files to your hard drive. The files are stored all over your hard drive and eventually become very unorganized a disk defrag moves all your files so that they are closer together and thus easier found when you are searching for them and respond quicker when you are trying to open them. The best disk defrag program I have used is Auslogics Disk Defrag

In conclusion, Install Microsoft security essentials or avg etc if you don't have one of the installed and run malwarebytes, ccleaner and a disk defrag program every couple of weeks to maintain your computers performance and responsiveness.

Guide to develop the habit of waking up early

Waking up early is suggested by virtually all personal development gurus. Its like the badge of honor in most personal development communities online. So I think it's befitting that this is the first post on my blog especially since building the habit of waking early was the first  habit that I built in my quest of bettering myself.

I would like to tell you my story of what my life was like before I developed this habit. I am a student and like most students I was not fond of getting up early especially if I didn't have to. Every morning my snooze button on my alarm was utilized and abused until I absolutely had to get up, as a result it was a mad dash to get ready and get out the door every morning. I've missed more classes and appointments than I could possibly count because of it. Without the constraints of having to get up for classes during the summer or Christmas breaks my sleeping patterns usually went straight to hell and  I usually wouldn't have surfaced to at-least noon. 

I realized that my habits of hitting the snooze button and staying up into the wee hours of the morning were self defeating and holding me back so I set out to change my situation. I spent many hours researching online and discovered techniques that other people had used to change their sleeping habits. I applied what I had learned and experimented with it, I failed at my first few attempts at developing the habit but eventually I overcame my old habits and can now happily say that I rise early everyday. My life is now much calmer due to the fact that I can take my time in the morning, it sets the tone for the rest of the day. I feel more accomplished by getting up early knowing I started my day the right way. My days also feel more structured and organised since I know that I will be up at a certain time no matter what.

This guide outlines the steps I took to get up every morning at the same time, If you have read other personal development posts about waking early then some of this will be familiar. To make waking early a habit you should complete a 30 day trial of getting up at the same time everyday. Habits are basically actions that you undertake consistently and automatically it is common procedure in the personal development world to commit to a habit for 30 days to make it permanent.

 Before you start
Determine what time you want to wake up at every morning. It is recommended that you get up at the same time everyday as consistency is the key when building habits. If you get up at different times the habit will not stick. I aimed to get up at 7am every morning as this was early enough for me, You can get up earlier or even later if you wish.

Preparation
To prepare yourself for getting up early everyday You need to change your habit of using the snooze button on your alarm. To do this I practiced getting up during the day, This may sound silly but trust me it works. I first discovered this technique from Steve Pavlina, you can find the article here: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/

Basically I set my room to morning conditions, I pulled my curtains set my clothes out and set my phone at the other side of the room. as soon as my alarm went off I would jump out of bed, turn off my alarm and immediately get dressed. I would then reset the conditions and do another practice set. Do about 60 of these practice sets during the first week of your 30 day trial, this will ensure that your conditioned to get up straight away when your alarm goes off

*Tip
If you are using your phone as a alarm, change your alarm tone as you are conditioned not to get up with your existing tone, The trick is to condition your self to get up to the sound of your alarm. If you use a alarm clock that only has the one tone get a new one with a different tone.

Rules for success
to ensure success in your 30 day trial of waking early follow these rules.

1. Got to bed early to rise early
If you plan on getting up at 7 am go to bed about 7 or 8 hours beforehand. This means you should be going to bed at 11 pm or 12 am. Getting enough sleep is the most important thing you can do to ensure success with this habit I cannot stress this enough.

2. Have a morning routine
I outlined a sequence of action that I planned on following as soon as I got up these where

• get dressed
• wash face and brush teeth
• Get breakfast
• Groom

doing this sequence of actions ensures that I don't go back to bed.

3. Do not miss a day
If you miss a day reset the challenge back to day 1, missing a day will break the consistency and break the habit.

4. Defeat grogginess
 when feeling groggy in the morning don't rationalize going back to bed, tell yourself it will pass in 20 minutes as it usually does. also drinking a glass of water and doing some star jumps will snap you out of grogginess.

5. Reward yourself
Reward yourself as soon as you can, The hardest part of waking early is getting out of bed in the morning, make it easier by rewarding yourself straight away. I drink a glass of Juice or  water after I get dressed and go to the kitchen.


If you have any questions or feedback about this article please feel free to comment.