Brian Johnson (Heroic +1 #1,325) revisits peak-performance advice about focusing on the present to counter depression and anxiety. He references Brian Cain’s framing (depression = past, anxiety = future, performance = present) and quotes Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), urging listeners to 'spit on your hands and get busy' as an antidote to worry.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one we spent a little more time with Brian Cain and his wisdom on the fact that depression is obsession with the past, anxiety is obsession about the future, and optimal performance is obsession about the present. All of which beg the question, what are you obsessed about these days? And all of that led to my admonition to activate our soul force by getting our energy to heroic levels and and focusing it on what's important now, all day, every day. Today I want to revisit the topic and bring another peak performance guru to the party to share his wisdom on the subject. We'll go old school and invite Dale Carnegie to join us. As you almost certainly know, Carnegie wrote one of the all time best selling personal development books, how to Win Friends and Influence People. He wrote that book in 1936. It sold over 30 million copies. Check out the notes for more. What you may not know is that he wrote another great book called how to Stop Worrying and Start Living. That book was written in 1948. Six million copies of that book have been sold as well. Check out the notes for more now. In how to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Carnegie echoes Kaner's wisdom about focusing on the present to deal with any potential depression and anxiety. He tells us, and 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 or not you are happy. 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. There you go, feeling stressed. Perfect. That's part of a good noble life. The moment you quit thinking, you should be exonerated from the pain of uncertainty and the pain of hard work will be one of the most powerful antifragile confidence building moments of your life. Now spit on your hands and get busy doing your best at whatever is in front of you right now. Gremlins. Come back to the party a minute or three later. Perfect. Repeat. Get back to work focusing your energy on what's important now. Not once in a while. Not only when you feel like it all day, every day. Especially when today.
