Enjoy Yourself

I was always a worrier even as a child. Throughout my life I have constantly been concerned over things that have gone wrong and things that could go wrong. Yes, sometimes those things have happened and they have been really hard. I used to tell myself that at least I was prepared for those things happening, but the truth is that I wasn’t. All I did was tie myself in knots beforehand, preventing myself from seeing the good times as they were happening and having to get through the bad times anyway.

So, when did it stop? Well as of yesterday it hasn’t! It has got far better but I don’t think I will ever fully escape from the problem of worrying over things that haven’t happened but might happen. The thing is that you are genetically hard wired from the start of your life. Your personality is pretty much set in stone whatever your upbringing, although you may find your genetics being reinforced or reduced by that upbringing. Mine reinforced my tendency to be a worrier to the extent that it became my defining personality trait. Even the few people at secondary school who weren’t actively unpleasant to me got great amusement from my pessimistic outlook and called me Marvin after the Paranoid Android from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I can see how miserable I was as a teenager but in my defence I did have a lot to be miserable about. Even my friends at the time weren’t sure how to deal with my moods and I certainly wasn’t. The only person who has been routinely able to snap me out of them is Janet and she has done so for well over 30 years!

So, in the words of the song I would tell myself to

🎵 Enjoy yourself it’s later than you think 🎵