Focus on today.   “Don’t take tomorrow to bed with you.”   Focusing on this day today and on tomorrow when it arrives can save you a lot of stress and improve your focus and performance. Of course, you may need to plan for tomorrow. But thinking about it compulsively will just shatter your focus and ensure that you won’t be able to concentrate on what’s in front of you today. You can – over time – build a habit of spending more time in the present and less time in imagined future scenarios or old memories. You may do this through things like focusing on your breathing or on your inner body. You can read about in 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment. Don’t walk around with the world on your shoulders.   “Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don’t take yourself so seriously.”   I won’t spend much time on this point because I mentioned it just a few days ago and have written about many times before. It’s important though and can really change how you see the world and your life. It makes most things lighter. Check out Lighten Up! for practical tips and foundations for learning to think about things this way. And have a look at the last part of How to Keep Yourself on Track: 5 Helpful Questions for more on the two useful questions that can snap you out of a overly serious state of mind.   You may be surprised if you just step up and face your obstacles.   “Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.”   “The “how” thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile “ifs” but goes right to work on the creative “how.”     It’s very easy to spend your time thinking and imagining all the horrible things that may happen if you stand up and face your obstacles and troubles in life. But if you actually do that those negative images seldom come into life. They are just huge monsters that you build in your mind. Just like you did when you were a kid and imagined monsters in the closet or under your bed.   When you actually stand up and face your obstacles you may find that the experience isn’t as bad as you imagined. Sometimes it’s actually a bit anti-climatic. You think to yourself: ”What?! Is this it?”.   So, after having done some thinking, research and planning on how you can accomplish something just stop thinking. Don’t fall into the trap of overthinking and monster-building. Just go and do what you need to do instead.   Understand to overcome.   “Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.”   Talk to people, do some research – in books, online, etc. – and the mist of anxiety and fear often vanishes. A situation may seem scary because it’s not understood and undefined and so your mind projects your worst fears upon that scary looking mist. It can seem like just about anything may jump out of it and attack you. So understanding can be useful. Overthinking, as mentioned in the previous point, not so much.   Expect to get what you expect.   “Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.”   “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture… Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.”   “Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.”   What you focus your mind on you will see in reality. Your mind can only take in a small part of reality. And the attitude you take toward