If there’s one thing that is true about writing, it’s that it requires a lot of emotional energy. Even professional writers confess to only being able to write for a few hours a day.

That’s why we must stay emotionally healthy. One of the things that sucks your emotional energy, almost more than anything else, is worrying about things you cannot control.

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who worked with her family to help Jews escape from the Nazis in World War II. Along with her family, she was later arrested and sent to a concentration camp for a time.

She said, “Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”

That is great advice, but almost impossible to follow, isn’t it? We are worried about getting our work done, worried about how many people will read it, worried about that client paying us on time, worried about what the next year, or five, or ten years holds for us in our writing careers.

But when you look at the struggles and difficulties of someone like Corrie ten Boom, or anyone who has literally fought for their lives, our struggles and worries as writers seem to pale by comparison.

There is very little we control in this life. In fact, the only thing we truly control is what we do on a daily basis. So whenever you feel worried or stressed, take a deep breath, go for a walk, count your blessings, and invest your emotional energy in the things you can control.