When a Cornell researcher asked more than 1,000 older people what they’d do differently, almost none named a risk they took or a financial setback— what they regretted, nearly all of them, was the years they spent worrying about things that never came

When a Cornell researcher asked more than 1,000 older people what they’d do differently, almost none named a risk they took or a financial setback— what they regretted, nearly all of them, was the years they spent worrying about things that never came

If we added up all the hours we’ve spent worrying about things that never ended up happening, the total would probably surprise us. Whole evenings gone to a phone call that turned out to be nothing. Days spent waiting for a test result that came back fine. We don’t keep track of it because worrying doesn’t feel like wasted time while we’re in it. It feels like we’re dealing with something. Almost everyone does it. And it turns out to be one of t…