The Energy Leak You’re Not Accounting For: Worry
Back in January I heard a New Year prompt from Tim Ferris- that stopped me cold. I’ve been thinking about it for a few months.
Make a list of everything you worried about last year that didn’t actually happen.
Not the things that were hard.
Not the things that required courage.
The things that never materialized at all.
Illnesses that didn’t come.
Conversations that never blew up.
Losses that stayed hypothetical.
Outcomes that resolved themselves—or never arrived.
When I did this exercise, what surprised me wasn’t the list.
It was the amount of energy I had already spent living inside those imagined futures.
That’s when it hit me:
Worry isn’t harmless. It’s an invisible tax on your life.
Worry Is a Rocking Chair
There’s a line that captures this perfectly:
“Worrying is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.”
— Erma Bombeck
That’s worry in a sentence.
You feel busy.
You feel occupied.
You feel like you’re doing something.
But you’re not moving forward.
Worry Is Not Preparation. It’s Rehearsal for a Reality That May Never Exist.
We often justify worry by calling it responsibility, foresight, or care.
But worry rarely produces better outcomes.
What it does produce is:
Endless mental looping
Tight shoulders and shallow breathing
Shortened patience
Reduced creativity
A nervous system that never stands down
Worry keeps you busy without making you effective.
What Worry Does to Your Body (Whether You Notice It or Not)
Worry isn’t just a mindset—it’s a biological state.
When you worry:
Your body releases cortisol and adrenaline
Your nervous system stays in low-grade fight-or-flight
Digestion, immunity, and repair get deprioritized
Sleep becomes lighter and less restorative
Inflammation quietly increases
Your body doesn’t know the difference between real danger and imagined danger.
It reacts to both as if they’re happening now.
So every time you replay a fear, your body lives it again.
That costs energy.
And over time, it costs health.
The Real Cost: What You Didn’t Do With That Energy
Here’s the question that matters most:
What could you have done with the energy you spent worrying?
That energy could have gone to:
Strengthening your body
Deepening relationships
Creating something meaningful
Being present instead of preoccupied
Enjoying the life that was actually happening
Worry pulls energy backward into imagined futures instead of forward into lived experience.
A Fresh Intention
I’m not aiming for a worry-free life. That’s unrealistic.
I am aiming for this:
Not worrying before there’s evidence something deserves my attention
Treating worry as a signal, not a residence
Redirecting energy toward action, curiosity, and presence
When something real shows up, I’ll meet it.
But I’m done paying interest on problems I don’t yet own.
A Simple Practice That Retrains Your Nervous System
Try this once a month:
Write down what you’re currently worried about.
Put the list away.
Revisit it 30–60 days later.
Cross out everything that didn’t happen.
Let the evidence teach you.
Over time, your body learns something essential:
Most things resolve themselves without your worry.
Imagine the Reclaim
Imagine reclaiming that energy.
Less bracing. More breathing. Less vigilance. More vitality.
That’s not naïve optimism.
That’s disciplined presence.
And presence—unlike worry—actually moves you forward.
Download: The Worry Interruption Practice (A 90-second reset you can do anywhere)
Stay Connected with Candra & Live Bright Now
Subscribe for periodic updates filled with Bright Thoughts on company culture, leadership, family, and the everyday adventures that inspire awe.