How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

by Dale Carnegie

leadership usually gravitates to the man who can get up and say what he thinks.

Just this: a deep, driving desire to learn, a vigorous determination to stop worrying and start living.

“Step I. I analyzed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure.

“Step II. After figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, I reconciled myself to accepting it, if necessary.

“Step III. From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.

1. Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?” 2. Prepare to accept it if you have to. 3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.

‘Face the facts: Quit worrying; then do something about it!’ “

three basic steps of problem analysis. The three steps are: 1. Get the facts. 2. Analyze the facts. 3. Arrive at a decision—and then act on that decision

two questions—and the answers to these questions: “1. What am I worrying about? “2. What can I do about

“1. Writing down precisely what I am worrying about. “2. Writing down what I can do about it. “3. Deciding what to do. “4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.”

1. What is the problem? 2. What is the CAUSE of the problem? 3. What are all possible solutions to the problem? 4. What solution do you suggest?

“Trivialities are at the bottom of most marital unhappiness”;

Here we are on this earth, with only a few more decades to live, and we lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worth-while actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings. For life is too short to be little.” Even

Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember “Life is too short to be little.”

nearly all of our worries and unhappiness come from our imagination and not from reality.

“Let’s examine the record.” Let’s ask ourselves: “What are the chances, according to the law of averages, that this event I am worrying about will ever

For every ailment under the sun, There is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.

God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference.

Lincoln said: “You have more of a feeling of personal resentment than I have. Perhaps I have too little of it; but I never thought it paid. A man doesn’t have the time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him.”

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Montaigne, the great French philosopher, adopted these seventeen words as the motto of his life: “A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.” And our opinion of what happens is entirely up to us.

“There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.”

Count your blessings—not your troubles!

Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.

The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; and it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.

What people want,” continued Professor Phelps, “is a little attention as human beings.

Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what is troubling us.

Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our burdens, of not being alone.

Prayer puts into force an active principle of doing. It’s

I realize now that people are not thinking about you and me or caring what is said about us. They are thinking about themselves—before breakfast, after breakfast, and right on until ten minutes past midnight.

You can answer the man who answers you back, but what can you say to the man who “just laughs”?

wasting time, stewing around over trifles, arguing and contradicting people.

The small man flies into a rage over the slightest criticism, but the wise man is eager to learn from those who have censured him and reproved him and “disputed the passage with him.”

our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment.

If you act “as if” you are interested in your job, that bit of acting will tend to make your interest real. It will also tend to decrease your fatigue, your tensions, and your worries.

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” By talking to yourself every hour of the day, you can direct yourself to think thoughts of courage and happiness, thoughts of power and peace. By talking to yourself about the things you have to be grateful for, you can fill your mind with thoughts that soar and sing.

the people who worry about insomnia usually sleep far more than they realize. The man who swears “I never slept a wink last night” may have slept for hours without knowing it.

that ninety-nine per cent of the things we worry and stew and fret about never happen,

Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Ask yourself: How do I KNOW this thing I am worrying about will really come to pass?

I realize that the world has always been in the throes of agony, that civilization has always been tottering on the brink. The pages of history fairly shriek with tragic tales of war, famine, poverty, pestilence, and man’s inhumanity to man.