Dear Fellow Traveler,
In 1909, the legendary writer and speaker Dale Carnegie described himself “as one of the unhappiest lads in New York.” Why? In Carnegie’s words — worry. Despite his education, he never learned how to stop worrying.
His struggles and fascination with the topic led him to write the classic, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Carnegie explained,
I went to New York’s great public library at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street and discovered to my astonishment, that this library had only twenty-two books listed under the title WORRY. … Almost nine times as many books about worms as about worry! Astounding, isn’t it? Since worry is one of the biggest problems facing mankind, you would think, wouldn’t you, that every high school and college in the land would give a course on ‘How to Stop Worrying’?
Carnegie dedicated seven years to writing and researching. He read what the philosophers of all ages had to say about worry. Along with hundreds of biographies — from Confucius to Churchill.
How do you think about (or define) worrying?
A simple definition is to feel or experience concern or anxiety. Worrying (at normal levels) is a natural and healthy part of being human. But how do we know when our worries go too far?
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