Are you a control freak? 8 ways to loosen the reins and relax

Your need to control may come from fear of catastrophe: If you sleep in and are late for work, you’ll be fired. If you don’t mail the package yourself, it won’t arrive and disaster will occur. So stop for a moment and ask yourself honestly, “What will happen if I miss my alarm one time?” Will you lose your job, or will your supervisor merely ask you to be more careful? Or more likely, if you’ve never been late, no one will even notice. By taking an extra moment to challenge your own exaggerated thinking – a phenomenon in psychology called “catastrophising” – you can resolve a number of perceived concerns and feel less tense about getting everything exactly right all the time.