Disraeli said: "Life is too short to be little." [...] often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. ... 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.

Once you have made a careful decision based on facts, go into action. Don't stop to reconsider. Don't begin to hesitate, worry, and retrace your steps. Don't lose yourself in self-doubting which begets other doubts. Don't keep looking back over your shoulder.

1. What am I worrying about?
2. What can I do about it?
"I used to try to answer those questions without writing them down. But I stopped that years ago. I
found that writing down both the questions and the answers clarifies my thinking.

Those who keep the peace of their inner selves in the midst of the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases. Said by Dr. Alexis Carrel

The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. Said by George Bernard Shaw

If you and I don't keep busy - if we sit around and brood - we will hatch out a whole flock of what Charles Darwin used to call the "wibber gibbers". And the "wibber gibbers" are nothing but oldfashioned gremlins that will run us hollow and destroy our power of action and our power of will.

Worry is most apt to ride you ragged not when you are in action, but when the day's work is done. Your imagination can run riot then and bring up all sorts of ridiculous possibilities and magnify each little blunder. At such a time," he continues, "your mind is like a motor operating without its load. It races and threatens to burn out its bearings or even to tear itself to bits. The remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive. Said by James L. Mursell

When we are not busy, our minds tend to become a near-vacuum. [...] Nature also rushes in to fill the vacant mind. With what? Usually with emotions. Why? Because emotions of worry, fear, hate, jealousy, and envy are driven by primeval vigour and the dynamic energy of the jungle. Such emotions are so violent that they tend to drive out of our minds all peaceful, nappy thoughts and emotions.

The hours after work - they are the dangerous ones. Just when we're free to enjoy our own leisure, and ought to be happiest - that's when the blue devils of worry attack us. That's when we begin to wonder whether we're getting anywhere in life; whether we're in a rut; whether the boss "meant anything" by that remark he made today; or whether we're getting bald.

Any psychiatrist will tell you that work - keeping busy - is one of the best anesthetics ever known for
sick nerves.

The peace that is found in libraries and laboratories. Said by Pasteur

In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision. As Charles Kettering puts it: "A problem well stated is a problem half solved."

1. When trying to get the facts, I pretend that I am collecting this information not for myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions.
2. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that is worrying me, I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparing to argue the other side of the issue. In other words, I try to get all the facts against myself-all the facts that are damaging to my wishes, all the facts I don't like to face.

If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries usually evaporate in the light of knowledge."

"Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision. For example," he said, "if I have a problem which has to be faced at three o'clock next Tuesday, I refuse even to try to make a decision about it until next Tuesday arrives. In the meantime, I concentrate on getting all the facts that bear on the problem. I don't worry," he said, "I don't agonise over my problem. I don't lose any sleep. I simply concentrate on getting the facts. And by the time Tuesday rolls around, if I've got all the facts, the problem usually solves itself!"

a. Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can't solve my problem?"
b. Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst - if necessary.
c. Then calmly try to improve upon the worst - which you have already mentally agreed to accept. The magic anti-worry formula