Worry has a sneaky way of stealing our best moments. One minute you’re enjoying a perfect morning, and the next, your mind is spiraling over something completely out of your control. Sound familiar?
I learned this lesson firsthand during what should have been an ideal fishing trip. What started as a blessed morning on Ross Barnett Reservoir quickly turned into a mental wrestling match — all because of one nagging thought about whether I’d locked my truck. That experience taught me something profound about the nature of worry and how we can choose to handle it.
Let’s explore practical strategies for releasing worry by dealing with it head-on, so you can reclaim your peace of mind and live more fully in each moment.
The Anatomy of Worry: When Good Moments Go Bad
There I was, early morning on the water with a light breeze, sun shining, and a perfect stand of flooded timber where crappie were actively chasing bait fish. Everything was set up for an amazing day of fishing — my favorite hobby and one of retirement’s greatest perks.
The morning started perfectly. Two nice crappie in the first 20 minutes confirmed my hopes. Then, like a bolt from the blue: “Did I lock my truck?”
That single thought hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe I had forgotten. As I replayed my steps, I missed a bite. Before I knew it, 15 minutes had passed — 15 minutes of prime fishing time wasted on worry instead of enjoying what I came to do.
This is how worry operates. It doesn’t announce itself politely or wait for a convenient time. It barges into our best moments and demands immediate attention, often robbing us of the very experiences we should be savoring.
The Three-Option Framework: A Simple Decision Model When worry strikes, we typically have three choices available. Let me share how this played out during my fishing trip:
Option 1: Take immediate action. Load up, motor back to the boat ramp, check the truck, then return to the fishing spot. This would cost about 45 minutes of prime fishing time, but it would eliminate the worry completely.
Option 2: Do nothing and continue worrying. Stay in the spot but let the anxiety ruin the entire morning. This is the worst of both worlds—staying physically present while being mentally absent.
Option 3: Assess and release. Recognize that locking the truck is a habit, the parking area is public with plenty of traffic, and the risk is minimal. Trust your instincts and get back to fishing.
Which option would you choose? Too often, we default to option two without even realizing it. We worry about something while taking no action, which not only diminishes the present moment but also distracts us from our full potential.
The Power of Conscious Choice
I chose option three, and I’m grateful I did. After quantifying the risk and consciously releasing the worry, I had an amazing morning focused entirely on fishing. Four hours later, when I returned to the boat ramp, my truck was indeed locked — just as I’d suspected.
This experience highlighted something crucial: the act of worrying didn’t change the reality of whether my truck was locked or not. It only changed my experience of those precious hours on the water.
The breakthrough came when I realized that worry is often a choice we make unconsciously. By bringing awareness to this choice, we can begin to respond differently.
The Habit of Presence
Learning to release worry is ultimately about developing the habit of presence. When we’re fully engaged in the current moment, worry loses its power over us.
This doesn’t mean adopting a carefree attitude toward genuine responsibilities. It means learning to distinguish between productive concern that leads to helpful action and unproductive worry that only creates suffering.
The Ripple Effect of Presence
When you stop allowing worry to steal your moments, something beautiful happens. You begin to show up more fully for your life. You enjoy experiences more deeply. You perform better at work and in relationships. You access creativity and insights that were previously blocked by anxiety.
That morning on the water taught me that every moment we spend worrying is a moment we could spend living. The choice is always ours.
And it takes practice…. Developing good habits!
“If you were to anticipate how strong a company’s culture needs to be to transform and thrive in the future, Joey Havens paints a beautiful horizon in his book Leading with Significance.” Daniel Burrus
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