Why worry? I used to think this was just something people said when they had nothing helpful to offer. I would hear it and just nod, but deep down I’d be thinking, come on, you don’t know what I’m dealing with. If you live in Zimbabwe, you know exactly what I mean. Things never run smoothly for long. You sort out one thing and another one pops up before you even get a chance to celebrate. Sometimes it feels like you are running on a treadmill that never stops. Rent is due, water cuts off, someone in the family needs help, the kombi conductor is already shouting before you have even found change. And then on top of that, there is this little voice in your head worrying about things that may not even happen.
But there’s this old-school wisdom that sticks with me. It came from a man I really respected. The kind of person who had seen it all, lost businesses, lost friends, started again from scratch. One day, I was explaining my latest problem to him. I was really wound up. I told him, I can’t sleep, I keep thinking about how this will go wrong, how I am not ready, how I might lose what little I have built. He just looked at me calmly and asked, do you have a problem? Of course I have a problem, I told him. He smiled and shook his head like he’d heard it a thousand times.
He said, let me ask you again. Do you have a problem? If you don’t have one, then there’s nothing to talk about. But if you do, ask yourself, can you do something about it? If you can, then what are you waiting for? Do it. Why spend your nights worrying when action is the answer? But if you can’t do anything about it, then worrying won’t change a thing. So why worry?
Sometimes I catch myself falling into the old trap. A bill comes in, or someone calls me with bad news, and my mind starts racing, imagining the worst-case scenario. I forget my own advice. I find myself lying awake, listening to the generator humming somewhere down the street, counting the hours until morning, hoping that by then maybe I will have some brilliant solution. But sometimes all the worrying in the world changes nothing. It just leaves you tired, grumpy, and less ready to deal with whatever comes.
Worrying is like trying to fill a bucket with a hole at the bottom. You pour in your energy, your time, your thoughts, but the bucket never fills. You only end up more exhausted than when you started. The real enemy is not always the problem in front of you, but the way you let worry eat up your peace. It can rob you of sleep, ruin your focus, and even affect your health. Stress in Zimbabwe is real. People are losing sleep over things that can’t be changed. Some even end up getting sick, not because of the problem, but because of the worry.
I’ve realized the problem is not just the situation itself. It’s the way we go in circles in our heads, overthinking every little detail. Think of something that’s stressing you right now. Ask yourself, do you have a problem? When the answer is no, you can relax. But when the answer is yes, consider whether there’s something you can do about it. Take action when you can fix it. And when nothing can be done, remember that worrying is only making you tired for nothing
There are days I sit back and remember when I was just starting out. Back then, I was building my brand from a single desk in Mkoba, working with almost nothing, just hope and stubbornness. I would stress about clients who hadn’t paid, about logos that didn’t come out right, about running out of airtime when I needed to send an urgent email. Most of what I worried about never even happened. I wasted hours on problems that never showed up. And when things did go wrong, I found a way to get through. Sometimes I failed, but I learned. Other times, things worked out on their own. The things that went right were never because of worry. They were because I did something, or I simply let time do its work.
Worrying is a habit, and breaking it isn’t easy. You don’t just wake up one day and stop overthinking. But the more you practise letting go, the easier it gets. I started with small things, missing a call, losing a file, running late for a meeting. I would ask myself, can I fix it? If yes, I acted. If not, I let it be. Gradually, I stopped losing sleep over the small stuff. Even the big problems lost their power to control my mood.
We are all fighting silent battles. Nobody has it all together. Some people just hide it better than others. When you see someone walking through town looking calm, you have no idea what storms they’ve faced that week. Maybe they just decided not to let worry run their life. It’s not magic, but it works. It’s a choice you make, sometimes a hundred times a day.
If you wake up tomorrow and things are still not perfect, that’s okay. It means you are still in the game, still fighting, still living. Let the rest go. Life will always bring its share of troubles. Your peace of mind is worth more than any problem. Stress will always try to find its way in, but you decide how long you let it stay.
So, the next time you feel your mind running in circles, just pause. Ask yourself the question that legend asked me: Do you have a problem? Can you do something about it? If yes, get up and do it. If not, leave it and move on. Your energy is better spent on hope than on fear. In the end, you are stronger than you think, and most of your worries are not as big as they seem.
Why worry?
Why Worry? How I Learned to Stop Overthinking and Live Better in Zimbabwe
Most of what we stress about never even happens. Life in Zimbabwe is never smooth, but I’ve learned a simple lesson: when problems come, do what you can and leave the rest. Worrying doesn’t solve anything, it only steals your peace. Sometimes the best thing you can do is pause, ask yourself the right questions, and focus your energy where it really matters.
