How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: Dale Carnegie

by Dale Carnegie

William James, who has never been topped in his knowledge of practical psychology, once made this observation: “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.” In other words, William James tells us that we cannot instantly change our emotions just by “making up our minds to”-but that we can change our actions. And that when we change our actions, we will automatically change our feelings. “Thus,” he explains, “The sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if your cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”

William James Formula : Brain - Mind > Body - Actions > Feelings - Emotions