Outsource your worry!

I had breakfast with a former client the other day, and we bantered a bit on the topic of worry. About how there are people in our life who like to generate worry and then share the worry generously...with us!

You know who they are. The naysayers. The dream crushers. The worst-case scenario simulators. They do it for love. They do it because that is all they know. They do it because, in a strange way, it's what they do best.

So rather than fighting it or taking on their worry as your own, here's a better solution - outsource your worry to them!

There is an art and science to successful outsourcing, and I have long believed that it is critical to success, both on a professional and personal level. Tom Peters himself recommends that you "Do what you do best and outsource the rest." So what better than to outsource worry to someone who has decades of experience in generating it!

(The thought is making you smile naughtily, isn't it?)

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you decide what's worth outsourcing and what's worth keeping. I'll use worry in this example, but you can substitute any function, both business and personal:

• What's your vision for your life/work?
• Where does worry fit into this vision?
• In what ways can it support your vision?
• How critical a role does it play?
• How much of your time and energy is it consuming?
• What could be done instead with this time and energy?

To some extent, sources of worry are useful when assessing the potential downside of an endeavor. As we all have experienced, however, too much of it can block action, even the smallest of steps. Not only that, it creates anxiety, physical and emotional stress, and well, WHO NEEDS THAT?!??!?

If after answering the initial questions you decide that a certain amount of worry is valuable to you, but that perhaps you're not interested in engaging in that role, then perhaps it's time to outsource it. How can you effectively do that? And to whom?

Consider these as you decide:

• Who in your circle is an expert at worry? Who do you trust in their worry?
• How can you delegate the performance of worry while maintaining responsibility for it?
• How might you effectively incorporate your CWO's (Chief Worry Officer) input?
• How transparent are you willing to be about this decision? (After all, you can't give someone a job and not tell them about it...or can you?)

Right now is a great time to banish worry. We've got the change of seasons to support us. It's a time that encourages transformation, being radical, clearing clutter from our lives. So consider banishing or at least outsourcing worry for the next couple of months, and let me know what shows up in its place!

In good cheer,

Carolyn