If you take a step back (to gain better perspective), it is pretty laughable that we routinely feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.
We believe that without us everything will stop…nothing will work…or that people will make catastrophically horrible decisions and ruin lives if we don’t intervene. Ok, sure, this might be true some of the time…but not all of the time :)
The more I live, the more I realize that life goes on and people figure out how to do it on their own. It may not have been the best or most efficient way (which it surely would have been with our genius input!), but things have a way of working themselves out.
When I’m asked for advice, I try to give helpful input. But outside of that, I’m trying harder to just say, “I know you will make the right decision.” And most of the time, that simple phrase can boost confidence, shorten unnecessarily long conversations, and allow that person to move forward. The result? The person probably made the same decision they would have made even with the genius advice!
(As an extra bonus, you get to use all of that saved energy for something much more fun — and less stressful — than trying to solve other people’s challenges with brilliant, yet, unsolicited advice :)
Photo source: Atlas (across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral – NYC)
Photo note: Whenever I think of carrying the weight of the world, I always think of the Greek Titan Atlas who did just that. I often try to post images that connect with my travels, and since I’m in New York at the moment (3am post!), this was an absolutely perfect fit! With St. Patrick’s Cathedral just across from the statue of Atlas, I see this image as being a silent message to drop the weight of the world off to God, the Creator, the Universe or however you choose to look at the higher powers at work. If we have more faith that things will happen as they are meant to (and that the past could not have happened any other way), we remove that weight from our shoulders and are much more free to just be…and spend our time enjoying the present without the stress that weight brings.