MOTIVATION - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

MOTIVATION – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC – April 2009

I’m not sure who penned this, but it says “Today is the tomorrow we were worried about yesterday.”

I have a friend (let’s call her Susan) who has a 7 year old daughter (let’s call her Jane) who has a slight problem.  She worries about everything!  Susan often has to go out of town on business and then Jane is left with her 28 year old brother – so it’s not like she is neglected in any way, but Jane worries all the time.  Susan now only tells Jane that she is leaving the day before she goes, to minimize Jane’s worrying.  Had Susan told Jane that she was leaving when the decision was made or when the travel booking was made, Jane would start worrying from that time.

The problem here of course is, that Jane would be so busy worrying about the fact that her mother was going away (not that anything has gone wrong for her to worry about this), that she hasn’t enjoyed any of the ‘now’.  All the fun things that they have done together, since the time that Jane got to know that her mother was leaving, have been negated because Jane was worried. 

What a way to go through life – not enjoying things as they happen, because she is worried about what might happen in the future.  Yet, most of us are guilty of this very same thing. Worrying about the future before the present even happens. 

I know I do it!  I often stress about things, like if I am called into a meeting by one of the clients and in my mind there is no need for that meeting to take place – I stress about it, dream about it agonize over it and then when it happens, it is usually something totally without any kind of merit and I could kick my own rear end for being such a baby – yet the next time it happens, there I push the panic button all over again.  In retrospect – what a waste of time!

Retrospect is a wonderful thing, don’t you think?  Looking back on what you did and how to change it – it’s in the ‘changing’, that we all need to do the most work – me included, actually it should be ‘me especially’ if the truth must be told.  I am a lot better though I must admit, but still not quite where I know I should be, because the panic button is still the first thing that gets pressed.

Logic tells me though, that worrying about something will not change the outcome.  What is to happen, will happen irrespective of whether we worry about it or not – so what’s the point of worrying?

Looks like I need to work on this a bit more – what about you?  Are you also a worry wart?

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za