+1 #870: How to Stop Worrying

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. At this stage, most people have heard of Dale Carnegie's uber best selling book how to Win Friends and Influence People. It was Originally published in 1936 and has sold 15 million copies. It helped kick off the whole self development movement and is one of the best selling self help books of all time. It was number 19 on Time magazine's list of all time most influential books. Having said that, I actually avoided reading it for over 20 years. I just couldn't get past what appeared to be a pretty shallow transactional view of human relationships, so I didn't read it. Alas, a couple years ago I finally submitted to the pressure of countless requests to do a Philosopher's Note on it and I really enjoyed it. Check out the notes in a link in this plus one. But that's not quite the point of today's plus one. This is did you know Dale wrote another book a dozen years later called how to Stop Worrying and Start Living? It's true and it's awesome. Check out those notes as well. Quick question. You ever worry? Insert laughter here once again. Of course you do. You're human. You want a quick tip on how to stop worrying and start living? Well, Dale offers a bunch of practical wisdom, but this is one of my favorites. I quote George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said, the secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. Dale continues by saying, so don't bother to think about it. Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating, your mind will start ticking, and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It's the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth, and one of the best. End quote. Now, obviously it's a bit more nuanced than that, but yep, that's about right. As George Bernard Shaw says, the secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. And as Dale says, spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating, your mind will start ticking, and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It's the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth, and one of the best. Insert spit on your hands. Let's get busy and stay busy. While of course properly oscillating and shutting down completely when the time's right today.