Benjamin Franklin once said, "I imagined some horrible things in my life—a few of which actually occurred." Such is the nature of worry. Not always, of course, but often, things don't turn out nearly as badly as we imagined they would.

Although worry is at times, tempting, and it can certainly drain your energy, it usually does very little to produce results. This understanding is quite different from those who equate worrying with being wise and discriminating.

If you think about it, you'll probably agree that when you solve problems you likely do so despite your worry, not because of it. Worry is, in my opinion, vastly overrated!

Many people would go so far as to say when you worry about something too much, you actually increase the likelihood that whatever it is you're worrying about will happen! In other words, your focused energy on the content of your worry draws it toward you instead of keeping it away.

Reminding ourselves that worry is neutral at best, and self-destructive at worst, helps to keep our tendency to worry to a minimum. And absent the worry, we won't be sweating the future. Instead, our futures will be bright and promising.