EWOP: Everything Works Out Perfectly
This saying helps keep me living in the present and trusting the adventure of life
It’s pretty easy to allow stress and anxiety to control our lives if we’re not aware of and intentional about keeping them in check.
We’re confronted with a thousand decisions every day, and a million situations and opportunities, and it can be exhausting to try to make the right call every time. Sure, there are plenty of tools (namely the internet and our smartphones) to supposedly help us live more efficient lives, but they can often be counterproductive by providing too much information.
Which route should we take to the restaurant? What color should we paint the bedroom? Which credit card should we apply for? Where should we vacation next year? And then when we do choose an option or direction and get the result, we think “Why did this happen to me?” Rather than this being a rhetorical question, what if we accept EWOP and look at why this did happen to me. What lesson am I meant to learn? Or What message am I meant to get or what direction is this sending me? I know some anxious worriers out there who will relate to these seemingly critical and endless big and small questions.
Can we trust that things are going to work out? That’s what EWOP is all about. It does not mean that things always work out the way we think they should. But can we trust that no matter what happens, we will be OK and we will choose to make it “perfect.” I believe that everything happens for a reason, but I might not know the reason (especially in the moment). I learned this mantra on a trip to Hawaii, and my family has adopted it. We say it to one another as a reminder when one of us may be overthinking or over-worrying or not liking the results that we are facing. Here’s how you can put it into practice.
Focus on what we can control
We can’t control much else in life but our own feelings and actions, so why would we try to? Don’t fret about what others are doing. Don’t go crazy with overanalyzing. Take what information and data is available, then make a decision and commit to it. Then accept the result, even if it doesn’t seem to be the one we expected.
I’m not saying to go live a life without consequences or to give up. In fact, I’m saying the opposite. We should go all out for what we want, strive for greatness, and even fail because there’s no reason not to. Things will work out, and if it feels like they won’t, be patient—maybe they just haven’t yet. It’s all part of the journey of living.
Trust that things will work out
Maybe the “perfectly” in EWOP is a slight exaggeration, but just because something doesn’t go the way we thought it would doesn’t mean it didn’t work out for us in the end. It might just look different than we planned.
We all get to determine our reaction—if something happens to us, we get to choose how to respond and trust that it will work out or that we will make it work. This is a powerful concept to understand and apply to our lives.
Let go and live!
Try embracing the EWOP philosophy for a day to see how it feels. See what results from trying to be intentional in your actions, but then also intentional in your reaction to the results. How will your reaction change if you take an EWOP perspective?
When we look back on something, we’ll find that it all worked out, and all the worry and stress in the moment was all for nothing. Think of all the more productive things we could have done with that energy!
So enjoy the moment. Life is too short not to.
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