How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

by calmly analysing our past mistakes and profiting by them—and forgetting them.

When someone asked him if he knew he was bankrupt, he replied: “Yes, I heard”—and went on with his teaching. He wiped the loss out of his mind so completely that he never mentioned it again.

I should have analysed my mistakes and learned a lasting lesson.

“it is easier to teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one of twenty to follow mine own teaching.”

It taught me to keep from spilling milk if I could; but to forget it completely, once it was spilled and had gone down the drain.”

“Don’t cross your bridges until you come to them”

knowledge isn’t power until it is applied

“How many of you have ever sawed wood? Let’s see your hands.” Most of them had. Then he inquired: “How many of you have ever sawed sawdust?” No hands went up. “Of course, you can’t saw sawdust!” Mr. Shedd exclaimed. “It’s already sawed! And it’s the same with the past. When you start worrying about things that are over and done with, you’re merely trying to saw sawdust.”

Part Three in a Nutshell How to Break The Worry Habit Before It Breaks You RULE 1: Crowd worry out of your mind by keeping busy. Plenty of action is one of the best therapies ever devised for curing “wibber gibbers”. RULE 2: Don’t fuss about trifles. Don’t permit little things—the mere termites of life—to ruin your happiness. RULE 3: Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries. Ask yourself: “What are the odds against this thing’s happening at all?” RULE 4: Co-operate with the inevitable. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change or revise, say to yourself “It is so; it cannot be otherwise.”

Part Three in a Nutshell How to Break The Worry Habit Before It Breaks You RULE 1: Crowd worry out of your mind by keeping busy. Plenty of action is one of the best therapies ever devised for curing “wibber gibbers”. RULE 2: Don’t fuss about trifles. Don’t permit little things—the mere termites of life—to ruin your happiness. RULE 3: Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries. Ask yourself: “What are the odds against this thing’s happening at all?” RULE 4: Co-operate with the inevitable. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change or revise, say to yourself “It is so; it cannot be otherwise.” RULE 5: Put a “stop-loss” order on your worries.

Part Three in a Nutshell How to Break The Worry Habit Before It Breaks You RULE 1: Crowd worry out of your mind by keeping busy. Plenty of action is one of the best therapies ever devised for curing “wibber gibbers”. RULE 2: Don’t fuss about trifles. Don’t permit little things—the mere termites of life—to ruin your happiness. RULE 3: Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries. Ask yourself: “What are the odds against this thing’s happening at all?” RULE 4: Co-operate with the inevitable. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change or revise, say to yourself “It is so; it cannot be otherwise.” RULE 5: Put a “stop-loss” order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth—and refuse to give it any more. RULE 6: Let the past bury its dead. Don’t saw sawdust.

“A man is what he thinks about all day long.”

the only problem we have to deal with—is choosing the right thoughts.

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

if we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. If we think miserable thoughts, we will be miserable. If we think fear thoughts, we will be fearful. If we think sickly thoughts, we will probably be ill.

As a result of thirty-five years spent in teaching adults, I know men and women can banish worry, fear, and various kind of illness, and can transform their lives by changing their thoughts.

I found out the hard way what power our thoughts can have over our mind and our body. Now I can make my thoughts work for me instead of against me.

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

“A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.”

Put a big, broad, honest-to-God smile on your face; throw back your shoulders; take a good, deep breath; and sing a snatch of song.