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1
- What are you predicting will happen?
- Write down your predictions
- 0-100 percent?
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2
- Consider a full range of possible outcomes
- What is the worst outcome?
- What is the best outcome?
- What is the most likely outcome?
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3
- Evidence for and against your prediction
- What is the evidence against your prediction?
- Consider some of the positive things
- Weigh the evidence
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4
- How many times have you been wrong in the past?
- You are a worrier
- Is predicting the worst a habit of thinking?
- Or is is realistic?
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5
- Costs and benefits of worry for you
- How will repeatedly focusing on the negative help you?
- How about the costs?
- How would you weigh the costs and benefits?
- Do the costs outweigh the benefits?
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6
- Any evidence that worry has really helped you?
- Is worry really helping you get things done?
- Can’t you be prudent, planful and prepared—without the added burden of persistent worry?
- Is taking action, confronting problems directly, and getting your work done more helpful?
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7
- How could you handle a bad outcome if it did occur?
- You are more resilient than you give yourself credit for.
- Do you underestimate your ability to solve real problems?
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8
- What difficulties in the past have you coped with?
- Haven’t you solved real problems in the past
- Think of past difficulties, disappointments, and losses and ask yourself if you were able to cope with them eventually.
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9
- How will you feel about this in the future?
- Things you worried about don’t even occur to you.
- Maybe things resolve themselves on their own—without worry.
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10
- What advice would you give a friend with your worries?
- Try to think of yourself as the compassionate friend that you are to other people.
- Use some tools to address the worry
- Try to view things more rationally