Learn How To Stop Worrying through Good Risk Management.

Life is full of risks! If you are a worry wart, then learning how to stop worrying is simply a matter of gaining a better understanding of risk management.

Effective risk management is usually thought of as a business skill, but it can be used just as effectively in your personal life. Risk management and the skills involved with learning how to stop worrying go hand in hand.

Just like in business, personal risk management involves six basic steps. First you take the time to plan for risks. Then you identify what those risks may be. Third, you analyze those risks, quantitatively, to determine their severity. Fourth, you analyze those risks qualitatively. Fifth, you decide how you will respond if the risk occurs. Sixth, you monitor and control the situation so that you are ready when and if the risk occurs.

If you don't believe that this is all there is to learning how to stop worrying, please know that these six basic steps to effective risk management form a part of an internationally recognized problem solving business model and this model is used by corporations all over the world. In fact, it's considered to be the global standard for risk management. I learned about it from the Project Management Institute in the US. The book is called "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge."

Consider a personal life challenge like going on a hike with a couple of kids. You could just throw caution to the wind and go for the hike and then you will be at the mercy of the risks that are out there. By living life this way, you create a very reactive situation. In other words, you are simply forced to react as things go wrong or right as you really have left yourself no other alternative. If your goal is to learn how to stop worrying so that you can reduce your stress level, then this model is not a good one.

Living reactively will create all the right conditions for constant worrying and even obsessive worrying. As a poorly managed situation, such as a wilderness hike with children, begins to fall apart, the effects of worrying are felt by everyone involved. For someone who wants to know how to stop worrying, this model is a really great way to set yourself up for failure and because of the potential safety risks, the failure could be a big one.

However, a hike is not usually something that is a regular part of life and so may not be a great example. Let's consider something that is a part of daily life and that is just getting through the day. If you are reactive and have no plan or systems in place for managing a day, then you will be forced to be at the mercy of whatever the day throws at you. It's a perfect recipe for constant, obsessive worrying.

Conversely, if you develop a few systems, such as a to do list or some support systems for how you will handle each routine thing that happens in the day, then you will not be caught off guard when life just happens. This will free you up to be better able to respond effectively to occurrences that are out of the ordinary. Since day to day life will not be so stressful, you will have more energy to be able to deal with anomalies. As you become better at risk management in day to day life, you will also naturally be better at risk management when crazy things happen.

Being a good risk manager is not really something you do once in a while; it's more a way of being. If you use effective risk management skills in every area of your life, then the need to worry disappears because you feel like you have a lot more control. Basically, if you want to learn how to stop worrying, then becoming an effective risk manager is definitely a habit you want to pick up.