“Stop Worrying and Start Living” – Dale Carnegie – Book review

Dale Carnegie’s how to stop worrying and start living so the first big idea is ask yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen I remember the first year in college constantly worrying about my grades what was I getting to do if I got a B+ rather than an a well surely my life would be over and that i would never amount to anything in life like that was seriously the thought process browsing my 17 year old head now fast-forward five years.

How to Stop Worrying & Start Living
Carnegie tells a story of this guy in World War 2 who’s stuck in a submarine and basically knows that he’ll be dying in the next few hours and he sits there thinking about all the stuff he used to worry about at home and how absurd it was and makes a promise to never waste his life again like that if he survives now that might be hard to resonate with so let me give you a more contemporary example people are having their heads chopped off every single day every single day the only reason it’s not you is because you are born in a certain place. They weren’t that’s it now going back to my friend I told him look here’s what I want you to do every day you will start your morning by watching somebody’s head being chopped off and then you’ll go about the rest of the day.
He started freaking out about how he can’t do that and how he doesn’t like blood and whatever now here’s the thing. I know that’s really crass and morbid but I don’t care if you don’t worry about stuff great you don’t have to watch anything but if you’re worried about stupid all the time you have a disease so you either treat yourself or you never ask about how you can stop worrying again ever. Here’s what I will guarantee you if you start your day by watching someone else have their head chopped off nothing and I mean absolutely nothing could possibly happen to you for the rest of the day that you could get pissed off about and not feel like a complete retard yes when you’ve seen someone’s head chopped off you will have a weird feeling inside you as soon as you start to complain about how you deserve to be paid more at your job or what you’re going to do now since you bought a B+ rather than an A or how your washer is broken you’ll realize that.

automatic weapon bullet camouflage close up

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If the guy had been given the chance to live and wear that same dirty shirt for the rest of his life without ever being able to wash it he would have been the happiest man alive realize the absurdity of it all the third big idea staying busy now I don’t mean the average busy person actually those are the people that worry the foremost the guy who works 12-hour days then comes home and watches Fox all night worrying about whether some guy can marry another guy or about all the foreigners who will come and take his job you know because he’s the only one entitled to that job I’m not talking about that kind of busy here’s how I like to stay busy read a book that I like go to the gym with my girlfriend play around on the piano and compose cook amazing food work on a project. I’m passionate about now here’s what happens when you do that your brain can’t think of two things at one time it just doesn’t have that capability you can try right now if you want you can’t think of your broken washing machine and at the same time think of how much you love playing soccer it’s not how your brain works so the best way to get rid of the negative thoughts in your head is to actually start putting positive thoughts in there get busy with what you love and your brain simply won’t even have the power to stress . Finally, a question that really resonated with me here’s what you’re going to do in your life you’re going to work and worry your entire life so you can gather a bunch of stuff like your house and all the stupid.

woman working girl sitting

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If you’re lucky after 50 years of all that worry and stress all of your stuff could be worth 1,000,000 dollars here’s the question would you sell your legs for a million dollars let me ask you this would you sell your legs for a billion dollars I wouldn’t and you probably wouldn’t either would you sell your arms for another billion dollars no there you go you have already got something that you simply value at two billion dollars actually hopefully more but you do not need to be all Zen you could be a greedy capitalist like me and understand this now here’s what you’re going to do you’re going to ignore and not utilize something worth two billion dollars because you’re too busy worrying and stressing about the things that might amount to 1 million dollars at the end of your life oh and you’ll be considered really lucky if that happens by the way all right.

cheerful barista in apron and hat with portafilter

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So, I don’t know if you’re seeing how crazy that is but that’s kind of like having a huge mansion a personal jet every single car you ever wished for and not using and enjoying those things because you’re too worried about at some point having the ability to shop for a Corolla that’s crazy and sad you have already got everything that you value at billions and billions of dollars so stop ignoring wasting and treating it like for hours and days so you can worry and bitch about how your phone bill went up from a hundred dollars to a hundred and twenty.

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