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How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
The self-help classic that helps you stop worrying
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) is a self-help classic that outlines clearly why worrying is bad for you and what you can do about it. With tools and techniques to put to action, as well as a wealth of examples and anecdotes to back up its recommendations, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living can help you worry less today.
- Anyone who wants to worry less
- Anyone who wants to deal better with their worries when they occur
- Anyone who feels his or her kindness goes unthanked
Dale Carnegie is the quintessential self-help author. His 1936 bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People is still a popular title and has sold 15 million copies. He wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living because he felt he was ”one of the unhappiest lads in New York” due to excessive worrying, and wanted to find out how to stop.
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How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
- Read in 19 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 12 key ideas
Synopsis
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) is a self-help classic that outlines clearly why worrying is bad for you and what you can do about it. With tools and techniques to put to action, as well as a wealth of examples and anecdotes to back up its recommendations, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living can help you worry less today.
Key idea 1 of 12
Confusion causes worry: get the facts about your worries and solve the problem.
How would you feel if someone told you on Sunday evening that, come Monday morning, you would be thrown into a torture chamber? Would you worry? Probably. But there would be a way to deal with those worries.
Confusion is the chief cause of worry, said Herbert E. Hawkes, Dean of Columbia College. According to him, few people bother analyzing the facts of their situation when they are worried.
He proposed that all kinds of worries can be resolved by applying a simple three-step analysis.
That is precisely what Galen Litchfield did in 1942 when, stuck in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, he got news that a Japanese admiral had found out about the assets he’d hidden from the Japanese. His punishment was to be thrown into the notorious torture chamber of the Japanese secret police on Monday. Litchfield heard the news on Sunday, and wondered what to do.
His solution was to follow these three steps:
First, get the facts about why you’re worried: Litchfield took a typewriter and wrote down what he was worried about – being tortured to death in the morning.
Second, analyze those facts: Litchfield wrote “What can I do about it?” and underneath listed his various options, like fleeing, explaining himself or acting like nothing happened.
Third, make a decision about what to do, and do it: Litchfield decided his only option was to go into work like nothing had happened.
Apparently, the Japanese admiral had calmed down, for he merely scowled at Litchfield.
As you can see, analyzing your worries carefully can even save your life sometimes.
Key ideas in this title
- Confusion causes worry: get the facts about your worries and solve the problem.
- Once you’ve decided how to address your worries, take action and never look back.
- Live for today: keep the worries of yesterday and tomorrow out of your head.
- Whenever you’re facing trouble, embrace the worst-case scenario and then try to improve from there.
- Don’t sink energy into hopeless situations or grudges: set a limit for yourself after which you stop worrying about them.
- Be happier by focusing on the positives in life and acting happy.
- Don’t expect gratitude; give for the joy of giving.
- Don’t envy or imitate others; be yourself.
- People criticize those they envy; think of criticisms against you as disguised compliments.
- Learn to relax and rest before you get tired.
- Enjoy your work and negate stress by being organized.
- Final summary
