Are You a Professional Worrier? It Might Be Time for a Career Change

Do you find yourself bracing for disaster even when life is going well? You might be suffering from a case of being 'too good' at worrying. Let me tell you about Sarah...

The Chief Worry Officer

Sarah had always been exceptional at her job. As Chief Worry Officer at Murphy & Associates (a very small, very anxious consulting firm), she was responsible for anticipating every possible disaster that could befall their clients.

"The presentation will crash," she'd warn. "The client will hate it. The projector will explode. Everyone will get food poisoning from the catered lunch."

For years, Sarah took pride in her thoroughness. She had contingency plans for contingency plans. She carried backup batteries, extra phones, and once even brought a spare tyre to an indoor meeting "just in case."

But then something strange started happening. Her disasters... didn't.

The presentations ran smoothly. Clients loved the work. The projector worked fine. The catered lunch was delicious, and nobody got food poisoning.

Week after week, her carefully crafted catastrophes failed to materialise. Her disaster predictions had about the same accuracy rate as her weekend weather guesses.

One Tuesday, after predicting that the elevator would break down, the coffee machine would explode, AND it would rain frogs (it was a stressful morning), Sarah sat in the perfectly functioning elevator, sipping perfectly brewed coffee, looking out at a perfectly normal, frog-free day.

"I'm terrible at this job," she realised. And for the first time in years, she smiled.

Maybe it was time for a career change. Perhaps Professional Optimist had better benefits anyway.

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Our brains are prediction machines, but sometimes they get stuck in disaster-forecasting mode

• Most of our worst-case scenarios never actually happen

• This pattern often develops as a protective mechanism, but can become exhausting

• Recognition is the first step - once you see the pattern, you can start to change it

• You don't have to live in constant anticipation of "the other shoe dropping"

If you recognise yourself in Sarah's story, you're not alone. Many of my clients come to me feeling exhausted from constantly waiting for something bad to happen. Through hypnotherapy, we can help retrain your brain to expect good things - or at least neutral things - instead of always bracing for disaster.