How Often Does Your Worry Get It Right?

It would be foolish to say there isn’t plenty to worry about in today’s chaotic world. No one can say for sure how it will affect our careers, families, finances, or future.

Worrying can feel responsible. If we keep thinking about what could go wrong, perhaps we won’t be caught off guard.

But how often do we go back and check whether our worry was right?

A Surprising Track Record

Penn State researchers studied 29 people with generalized anxiety disorder. Participants recorded worries for 10 days and tracked their outcomes over 30 days.

The researchers found that 91.4% of their worry predictions did not come true. Read the study summary.​

This doesn’t mean 91.4% of your concerns will never happen. It was a small study of a specific group, tracking predictions over a limited period. It can’t tell us whether our industry will struggle or what the economy will do next year.

But it raises a useful question: Am I treating a worry as though it’s already a fact?

Your boss seems distracted, and you start wondering whether your job is in jeopardy. Business slows down, and you imagine losing everything you’ve built. Someone you love makes a difficult choice, and you mentally follow it to the worst possible ending.

The concern deserves attention. The ending you’ve imagined deserves a closer examination.

When Worry Feels Like Work

You spend an hour mentally rehearsing getting fired without getting any clearer about your next step. Meanwhile, your worry distracts you in meetings, makes you impatient with a co-worker, and makes you procrastinate on a report.

What has all your worrying helped you decide or do?

However, if you use worry as a signal to get serious about preparing for a possible job change, updating your résumé, reconnecting with colleagues, or learning a relevant skill, it can help.

When you put your energy into a problem, make sure it gives you something useful back.

Give Your Predictions a Reality Check

1. Write down the specific outcome you’re predicting from a recurring worry.

Let’s say your worry is “AI is going to wipe out my career.” Get more specific: “I’m afraid that within a year, AI will replace most of the work I’m paid to do.”

2. Then ask:

• What evidence am I seeing in my actual work, and what am I assuming?
• What reasonable action can I take to understand the changes and prepare?
• When will I review what’s changed and whether my actions are helping?

You might experiment with an AI tool to understand the technology better, talk with your manager about evolving expectations, or identify where your human judgment and experience matter most.

You may not be able to settle your career’s future by your review date. That’s okay. Uncertainty doesn’t count as proof that the worst is coming. The point is to examine your predictions and become better prepared to respond.

It isn’t wrong to worry. It’s okay to care about what’s important. But caring doesn’t require you to mentally live through every possible disaster, over and over again.

This week, choose one concern. Give it a fair hearing. Take one useful step. Then give yourself permission to return to and enjoy the life happening in front of you.

The future may need your attention. It doesn’t need every moment.

Jo-Aynne Von Born, Leadership/Executive Coach

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