Hey friend – Rob here.

Do you worry about things? Or at all? My suspicion is that you worry far too much about everything. But don't worry, so do i. I think it's part of what makes strategists minimally good at the job. We are always wondering what else we might be missing. It's not a point of advantage, but it's definitely a point of parity. Worrying means we don't take anything for granted. And that's the first ingredient you need to challenge preconceptions about a problem.

However. As you and i know, the secret is in the dosage, and worrying too much can become so debilitating you end up doing nothing. And if you do nothing, then well, the worry ain't gonna go away. Consider what Dutch watchmaker Corrie ten Boom said about this:

An important question, then, is this: is what you're doing giving you strength today? I recently wrote a piece for Papapalooza, after realising that a particularly emotionally draining episode provoked in me a desperate need to cry. But as i was doing it, and by the time i was done, i realised that i was doing it in order to re-capture all my strength. Crying, as i said in the piece, operates like a valve. You need to let that steam go on occasion, even if in liquid form.

Worry, however, seems to play a different role. It doesn't relieve pressure from your body like crying does, if anything it compounds that pressure. Worrying about what a creative director might think of your brief will only add to the pressure you already felt to write and deliver a good one. Worrying about the client's feedback creates even more double-guessing beyond the already complex question of, "which of these strategic territories is right?".

Whenever i feel worried about something, i tend to rely on a two guiding principles:

1. Reframing being right as being "less wrong". My job isn't always to guarantee i've cracked something wide open, it's to remove options that definitely aren't the answer so we can explore the ones that might be. This comes from a personal view, but i hate the pressure of needing to solve things myself. I'm a collectivist.
2. Specific options over vague opinions. Related to the previous point, whenever i feel overwhelmed by a brief i try and write not one, not two, not three, but sometimes four or five strategic conclusions to an argument i am exploring. The benefit of this is you can then run them past people, get their input and kill what doesn't work.

It's inevitable to worry about things, but there are practical things we can do avoid worrying so much. This isn't to say we need to completely eliminate worries from our lives, for that would mean we miss out on important things. But it does mean worry is something we can manage, just like you manage a friend who's close, but... complicated.

I would probably go so far as to say worry, like anxiety and anger, are misguided friends who deep down are looking to help you make better decisions, or protect yourself from worse ones. So our job isn't to push them aside just because they have some tough love ways. It's, instead, to take what works from their advice and politely say about the rest, "i hear you, but here's what i'm doing about it now". We don't gain strength by hiding from problems that may or may not be real. We gain strength by isolating what's in our control, and building some muscle around that.

Keep swimming,

Rob

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Rob Estreitinho Founder of Salmon Labs Here’s how else we can help you: 📱 Join our private community​ 💌 Read our newsletter archive​ 🛠️ Let's work together​

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