I want to share some key thoughts from a book written almost a century ago that could have been written yesterday. The book is called ‘How to Stop Worrying and start living’ by Dale Carnegie. 

Whilst lecturing on his most favourite subject of public speaking in New York, he realised that many of his students were worried about so many things, like studies, money and family issues. These are still some of the hot topics that people always worry about.

Maybe this is how you feel right now. I hope that this insight will empower you to break the cycle of worry in your life. These simple strategies still work today in every situation possible. You could be worrying about work or a relationship issue. Then keep reading!

Guinea pigs students

Carnegie had learned valuable insights from many vital people like Henry Ford and his other contemporaries.  So over five year period, he began to share what he was learning with his students using them as guinea pigs to test these ideas on, and he realised that it was making a difference for them. 

As worry is something that so many people struggle with today, his top tips and discoveries still make sense and may help you as they have helped me. 

In this book, he recommends three things we can do to stop worrying:

Analyse your worry by asking the following two questions.

1. What am I worried about? 

Be specific and write it down. 

1. What can I do about it?

Choose at least three options or actions that you could take and then choose the one that seems the best option. The book suggests that 50% of the worry will be solved when you make a decision and another 40% is when that action is carried out.

Therefore by merely taking these first two steps, most of the worry is solved. The more action we take, the less worried we will feel.

But what about the other 10%?

Think of the worst-case scenario

Think of the worst-case scenario and all that could go wrong and be at ease with this as these things will often be out of your control. By thinking of the worst, it will take us out of the grey clouds of thinking where we are blinded by worry and then it plants us firmly on the ground as Carnegie suggests.

One way to experience the worst-case scenario is to create a to-do list of things that need to happen today and imagine it is now the end of the day, and you have done any of them. Then think of one thing you can do to improve upon the fact that nothing has been done and this one action will help eliminate your concerns.

Live in day-tight compartments

Act like a captain of a ship who would hit the red button to release a shutter on the vessel to prevent flooding if they were going to hit a rock.

In the same way, we can take the same approach by living each day as a brand new day and as a brand new person and therefore dealing with the fears of yesterday and the worrying of tomorrow from crippling our lives.

Game Changers

Remember that most worries will not happen; it is merely your mind causing you to panic.

When you are worried, take these three steps:

1. Analyse your worry and take some action.

2. Do a pre-mortem and think of the worst-case scenario and then improve on it even by one thing.

3. Live each day as a new day and release the fears from yesterday and the worries of tomorrow.

It is still a fantastic book and one I would recommend you read or listen to on audio.

Thanks for reading.