The Wisdom of Mark Twain

For years, I had a quote from Mark Twain on the walls of my corporate cubicle: “I am an old man and have known many troubles, and most of them never happened.”

This is the story of my life. You might have guessed by now that I’m a professional worrier. Partly I am paid to worry as part of my job. We do a lot of implications thinking in this line of work: if we say this here, how might it play out later? Is it best to be proactive and tell our story?

Another part is my nature – I come from a long line of worriers. My mother was a world-class worrier, although she doesn’t worry much anymore, she says. Life is pretty good, now that she’s 80.

But I don't want to wait that long.

So, day by day, the challenge is to be mindful about it. There’s a difference between worrying enough to be productive so we don’t make missteps in the present – things like misspelled words in news releases, or incorrect figures on budgets – and worrying so much that life becomes a nightmare, full of imagined bad things that never happen.

Sometimes I do it well and keep things in balance. Sometimes I don’t. It is a practice.

Mark Twain’s quote nudges me to remember.

- Mary Lilja