How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

“Be willing to have it so,” he said. “Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune.”

William James. “Be willing to have it so,” he said. “Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune.”

circumstances alone do not make us happy or unhappy. It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings.

“I wouldn’t worry if I lost every cent I have because I don’t see what is to be gained by worrying. I do the best job I possibly can; and leave the results in the laps of the gods.”

“When I can’t handle events,” he said, “I let them handle themselves.”

Henry Ford told me much the same thing. “When I can’t handle events,” he said, “I let them handle themselves.”

“When I am up against a tough situation, if I can do anything about it, I do it. If I can’t, I just forget

“When I am up against a tough situation, if I can do anything about it, I do it. If I can’t, I just forget it.

“There is only one way to happiness,” Epictetus taught the Romans, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

What will happen if we refuse to “bend like the willow” and insist on resisting like the oak? The answer is easy. We will set up a series of inner conflicts. We will be worried, tense, strained, and neurotic.

I overcame my worry and fears by forcing myself to accept an inevitable situation.

“Try to bear lightly what needs must be.”

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.

Co-operate with the inevitable.

‘I put a stop-loss order on every market commitment I make. If I buy a stock at, say, fifty dollars a share, I immediately place a stop-loss order on it at forty-five.’ That means that when and if the stock should decline as much as five points below its cost, it would be sold automatically, thereby, limiting the loss to five points.

“If your commitments are intelligently made in the first place,’ the old master continued, ‘your profits will average ten, twenty-five, or even fifty points. Consequently, by limiting your losses to five points, you can be wrong more than half of the time and still make plenty of money?’ “I adopted

“If your commitments are intelligently made in the first place,’ the old master continued, ‘your profits will average ten, twenty-five, or even fifty points. Consequently, by limiting your losses to five points, you can be wrong more than half of the time and still make plenty of money?’

How I wish I had had the sense, years ago, to put stop-loss orders on my impatience, on my temper, on my desire for self-justification, on my regrets, and on all my mental and emotional strains.

her late seventies. I said to her; “Aunt Edith, Uncle Frank did wrong to humiliate you; but don’t you honestly feel that your complaining about it almost half a century after it happened is infinitely worse than what he did?”

How much does this thing I am worrying about really matter to me? At what point shall I set a “stop-loss” order on this worry—and forget it? Exactly how much shall I pay for this whistle? Have I already paid more than it is worth?