Mastering-Life.com

I just finished reading (or rather listening to the audio version of) Dale Carnegie’s book: “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” and can highly recommend it. Most of the illnesses as well as stress and depression is the result of worries. Often worries are completely unwarranted for as only 10% of those dreadful scenarios really come to pass. Since there was no course on how to overcome worries, Dale decided to write one himself, to be used in his adult education.

If worries are holding you back from going after your dreams, if you feel like you’re stuck and don’t know what it is that you truly want and you still have to “make a living” in the meanwhile, get this book. In it you will find an abundance of information on how to overcome these worries once and for all.

The short of it is:

1. Write down the problem and what the worst possible outcome is. For example: losing your job.
2. Think of what your options are in that situation… For example: get another job, spend more time with your family, … Look if there is even any sort of benefit or try to see the upside of it. Don’t forget, it is the worst-case scenario. Accept it if it should come to pass. It does not mean you work towards that but you just accept that this will be a blemish on your life but that you will have learned from it and you will have grown from this experience if it were to happen. You will feel more relaxed because you don’t have to worry anymore. You KNOW now what the worst-case scenario is so let it go and you will start to feel more relaxed.
3. Start to focus on how you can improve upon this worst-case scenario. See what you can start to do to make the impact less severe or how you can avert it at all. For example. You can start to talk to some more people that may be able to help you secure a new job. Also, the fact alone of talking with more people and putting yourself out there will make you more confident and receive ideas and inspiration from the people around you. It may also make you put in the extra effort that your superiors may notice to keep you on or even give you a promotion.

The most important thing is this: If you are worrying, you are in a downward spiral; you can’t see any solutions when you’re looking at the downside of a situation. It’s when you have taken the time to worry about it, to objectively look at the situation and accept the worst-case scenario then you can leave that part behind you. There is no need to worry any longer. From now on you can focus on solutions and that is what it is all about.

This is far from the only gem that you will find in the book. The audiobook takes about 10 hours to listen to but it is full of wonderful and priceless knowledge as well as stories from how people that he tought have overcome their worries and what the impact has been on their life.

Take a genuine interest in somebody you meet today. You will see that he will beam all day as it is only through giving that you will receive.

Have a great weekend,
Chris