"Those who do not know how to fight worry, die young." By Dr. Alexis Carrel
With so much happening in and around us, these days, which are beyond our control, it is quite natural to get worried at times. More than six months of complete isolation at home due to Covid19 pandemic has virtually shattered the confidence of so many.
Well, life is now coming back to a kind of normalcy, but the threat is not over yet. The devastating impact of the pandemic has brought economy and business to a grinding halt, leading to massive job cuts across most of the segments.
For survival, people are left with no option but do any kind of job. The other day, I read about two school teachers running cycle repair shops. And recently I noticed a post on LinkedIn, that 2 pilots of an Australian Airline, after losing their jobs, have taken up the assignment of bus driver.
People are doing whatever they can to remain afloat, and that comes with an element of worry. It is practically impossible to avoid worrying. Even during normal regular life, we have so much to worry about.
However, simply worrying does not take us to any solution. For that, we have to initiate some methodical steps. What I am taking about is a result oriented approach to handle worry in such a way that it does not cause us any emotional damage. Too much worry is the root cause of not only mental diseases, but physical ailment also.
Few Days ago, I had been reading a great book: "How to stop worrying and start living," by Dale Carnegie. I had read it long ago. However, it faded away from my memory. I am sure most of you must have read it at some point.
I don't know how much you remember from that book.. However, in just an hour of reading, I came across couple of amazing solutions provided by the author. In fact, I tried them out myself, and let me tell you the results are astonishing.
It has not completely stopped me from worrying, but certainly it has reduced the same to a great extent. I am sure, during this time of so much stress and strain, we need to implement these practices for reducing our worries to whatever extent possible.
Let me share with you a case study of how to solve worry problem from his book in his own words:
"When I was a young man,” Mr. Carrier said, “I worked for the Buffalo Forge Company in Buffalo, New York. I was handed the assignment of installing a gas-cleaning device in a plant of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Crystal City, Missouri—a plant costing millions of dollars. The purpose of this installation was to remove the impurities from the gas so it could be burned without injuring the engines. This method of cleaning gas was new. It had been tried only once before—and under different conditions."
"In my work at Crystal City, Missouri, unforeseen difficulties arose. It worked after a fashion—but not well enough to meet the guarantee we had made. I was stunned by my failure. It was almost as if someone had struck me a blow on the head. My stomach, my insides, began to twist and turn. For a while I was so worried I couldn’t sleep. Finally, common sense reminded me that worry wasn’t getting me anywhere; so I figured out a way to handle my problem without worrying. It worked superbly. I have been using this same anti-worry technique for more than thirty years. It is simple. Anyone can use it."
It consists of three steps:
Step I. I analyzed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure. No one was going to jail me or shoot me. That was certain. True, there was also a chance that I would lose my position; and there was also a chance that my employers would have to remove the machinery and lose the twenty thousand dollars we had invested."
Step II. After figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, I reconciled myself to accepting it, if necessary. I said to myself: This failure will be a blow to my record, and it might possibly mean the loss of my job; but if it does, I can always get another position. Conditions could be much worse; and as far as my employers are concerned—well, they realize that we are experimenting with a new method of cleaning gas, and if this experience costs them twenty thousand dollars, they can stand it. They can charge it up to research, for it is an experiment. After discovering the worst that could possibly happen and reconciling myself to accepting it, if necessary, an extremely important thing happened: I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn’t experienced in days.
Step III. From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally. “I now tried to figure out ways and means by which I might reduce the loss of twenty thousand dollars that we faced. I made several tests and finally figured out that if we spent another five thousand for additional equipment, our problem would be solved. We did this, and instead of the firm losing twenty thousand, we made fifteen thousand.
I probably would never have been able to do this if I had kept on worrying, because one of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate. When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision. However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all these vague imaginings imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.
Practically speaking, we can't get rid of our worries completely. It is not possible. So the best approach is to tackle them as much as we can with the above mentioned tools. That is exactly what is the need of the hour now.
I am sure, very soon we will come out this crisis situation and life would become normal again. Even then, we still will have our share of worries and must not get frustrated by the pull of the same. Rather, we should go through the above mentioned steps for solving our worries as much as possible.
