This doesn’t happen to me very often anymore, but when I first launched my business, I found myself thinking about it in the middle of the night. I’d get up to check on one of my kids, or whatever, and the next thing I knew, the problem solving (worrying) wheels were turning. Needless to say, lots of sleep lost (and very little accomplished).
One night, I happened upon a very useful insight: I could choose not to have the conversation during the night.
That’s right. With much less effort than I would have thought, I learned to simply say to myself, “We don’t talk about this at night; we’ll talk in the morning.”
Letting your mind race through alternatives, possible outcomes and even worries, requires active participation on your part — I don’t think it just happens. It might originate from “nowhere” when a thought pops into your head, but you can just shut it down by choosing not to join in.
I still get those worrying thoughts in the middle of the night sometimes, but at this point, I’ve learned to immediately pull the plug on the conversation. Not only do I sleep better, I’ve come to find that problems, like monsters under the bed, don’t seem that scary when the sun is shining.
Brilliant, clear and simple advise: coaches everywhere envy you, sir!
Passed this one on to one of my clients just yesterday…
Thanks for the great support material.
Yeah, I could worry even a minute before going to sleep. This month- a few hours before going to sleep it’s personal time. If a thought comes up I write it down and look at it til tomorrow. The next day, it’s just that, a thought that didn’t deserve attention.
I unfortunately have this problem almost every night. I have recently noticed that when I’m tired (usually fron lack of sleep from the night before!) I have less of a conversation. This is, as you said, because I choose not to have that conversation.
I shall try your suggestion for when I am not as tired and see how I get on.