I have read this book twice now, and I find it immensely helpful. This book can be read in a few hours, and while it probably doesn’t contain anything you didn’t already know – it is always helpful to be reminded of such things specially when you are going through a stressful period in your own life. This is also touched upon in the book itself which has the following passage:
If you were to read everything that has ever been written about worry by the great scholars of all time, you would never read anything more basic or more profound than such hackneyed proverbs as “Don’t cross your bridges until you come to them” and “Don’t cry over spilt milk.” If we only applied those two proverbs instead of snorting at them, we wouldn’t need this book at all.
There are several quotes in the book which I quite like, and this is consistent with Dale Carnegie’s writing as well, which lends it a familiarity when you are reading it.
An example of a quote I really liked:
“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
This particular quote really resonated with me because at the time of reading this book – there were a number of things going on in my life, and I was going crazy thinking about all the different outcomes there could be if a thing turned out one way or if it did another.
In the end thinking about all of it at once is far too overwhelming, and ultimately you go down a rabbit hole of worries that you are better off away from. Much more prudent is to live in what the book calls “day-tight compartments” and finish off the tasks at hand. This will make you feel much more in control of your life, and ultimately if you do these things today they will help you prepare much better for the future.
I really like How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, and I think I have read it twice now, and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves worrying too much about things out of their control.
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