Would you
like a quick, sure-fire recipe for handling worry situations-a technique you
can start using right away, before you read further?
Then let
me tell you about the method worked out by Willis H. Carrier, the brilliant
engineer who launched the air-conditioning industry, who headed the world-famous
Carrier Corporation in Syracuse, New York.
"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
analysed 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 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 realise 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 those vague
imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate
on our problem.
"This
incident that I have related occurred many years ago. It worked so superbly
that I have been using it ever since; and, as a result, my life has been almost
completely free from worry."
Now, why
is Willis H. Carrier's magic formula so valuable and so practical,
psychologically speaking? Because it yanks us down out of the great grey clouds
in which we fumble around when we are blinded by worry. It plants our feet good
and solid on the earth. We know where we stand. And if we haven't solid ground
under us, how in creation can we ever hope to think anything through?
Professor
William James, the father of applied psychology, has been dead for thirty-eight
years. But if he were alive today, and could hear his formula for facing the
worst, he would heartily approve it. How do I know that? Because he told his
own students: "Be willing to have it so ... .Be willing to have it
so," he said, because "... Acceptance of what has happened is the
first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."
The same
idea was expressed by Lin Yutang in his widely read book, The Importance of
Living. "True peace of mind," said this Chinese philosopher
"comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think, it means a
release of energy."
That's
it, exactly! Psychologically, it means a new release of energy! When we have
accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means-we
have everything to gain! "After facing the worst," Willis H. Carrier
reported, "I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't
experienced in days. From that time on, I was able to think."
Makes
sense, doesn't it? Yet millions of people have wrecked their lives in angry
turmoil, because they refused to accept the worst; refused to try to improve
upon it; refused to salvage what they could from the wreck. Instead of trying
to reconstruct their fortunes, they engaged in a bitter and "violent
contest with experience"-and ended up victims of that brooding fixation
known as melancholia.
Would you
like to see how someone else adopted Willis H. Carrier's magic formula and
applied it to his own problem? Well, here is one example, from a New York oil
dealer who was a student in my classes.
"I
was being blackmailed!" this student began. "I didn't believe it was
possible-I didn't believe it could happen outside of the movies-but I was
actually being blackmailed! What happened was this: the oil company of which I
was the head had a number of delivery trucks and a number of drivers. At that
time, OPA regulations were strictly in force, and we were rationed on the
amount of oil we could deliver to any one of our customers. I didn't know it,
but it seems that certain of our drivers had been delivering oil short to our
regular customers, and then reselling the surplus to customers of their own.
"The
first inkling I had of these illegitimate transactions was when a man who
claimed to be a government inspector came to see me one day and demanded hush
money. He had got documentary proof of what our drivers had been doing, and he
threatened to turn this proof over to the District Attorney's office if I
didn't cough up.
"I
knew, of course, that I had nothing to worry about-personally, at least. But I
also knew that the law says a firm is responsible for the actions of its
employees. What's more, I knew that if the case came to court, and it was aired
in the newspapers, the bad publicity would ruin my business. And I was proud of
my business-it had been founded by my father twenty-four years before.
"I
was so worried I was sick! I didn't eat or sleep for three days and nights. I
kept going around in crazy circles. Should I pay the money-five thousand dollars-or
should I tell this man to go ahead and do his damnedest? Either way I tried to
make up my mind, it ended in nightmare.
"Then,
on Sunday night, I happened to pick up the booklet on How to Stop Worrying
which I had been given in my Carnegie class in public speaking. I started to
read it, and came across the story of Willis H. Carrier. 'Face the worst', it
said. So I asked myself: 'What is the worst that can happen if I refuse to pay
up, and these blackmailers turn their records over to the District Attorney?'
"The
answer to that was: The ruin of my business-that's the worst that can happen. I
can't go to jail. All that can happen is that I shall be ruined by the
publicity.'
"I
then said to myself: 'All right, the business is ruined. I accept that
mentally. What happens next?'
"Well,
with my business ruined, I would probably have to look for a job. That wasn't
bad. I knew a lot about oil- there were several firms that might be glad to
employ me. ... I began to feel better. The blue funk I had been in for three
days and nights began to lift a little. My emotions calmed down. ... And to my
astonishment, I was able to think.
"I
was clear-headed enough now to face Step III-improve on the worst. As I thought
of solutions, an entirely new angle presented itself to me. If I told my
attorney the whole situation, he might find a way out which I hadn't thought
of. I know it sounds stupid to say that this hadn't even occurred to me
before-but of course I hadn't been thinking, I had only been worrying! I
immediately made up my mind that I would see my attorney first thing in the
morning-and then I went to bed and slept like a log!
"How
did it end? Well, the next morning my lawyer told me to go and see the District
Attorney and tell him the truth. I did precisely that. When I finished I was
astonished to hear the D.A. say that this blackmail racket had been going on
for months and that the man who claimed to be a 'government agent' was a crook
wanted by the police. What a relief to hear all this after I had tormented
myself for three days and nights wondering whether I should hand over five
thousand dollars to this professional swindler!
"This
experience taught me a lasting lesson. Now, whenever I face a pressing problem
that threatens to worry me, I give it what I call 'the old Willis H. Carrier
formula'."
At just
about the same time Willis H. Carrier was worrying over the gas-cleaning
equipment he was installing in a plant in Crystal City, Missouri, a chap from
Broken Bow, Nebraska, was making out his will. His name was Earl P. Haney, and
he had duodenal ulcers. Three doctors, including a celebrated ulcer specialist,
had pronounced Mr. Haney an "incurable case". They had told him not
to eat this or that and not to worry or fret-to keeps perfectly calm. They also
told him to make out his will!
These
ulcers had already forced Earl P. Haney to give up a fine and highly paid
position. So now he had nothing to do, nothing to look forward to except a
lingering death.
Then he
made a decision: a rare and superb decision. "Since I have only a little
while to live," he said, "I may as well make the most of it. I have
always wanted to travel around the world before I die. If I am ever going to do
it, I'll have to do it now." So he bought his ticket.
The
doctors were appalled. "We must warn you," they said to Mr. Haney,
"that if you do take this trip, you will be buried at sea."
"No,
I won't," he replied. "I have promised my relatives that I will be
buried in the family plot at Broken Bow, Nebraska. So I am going to buy a
casket and take it with me."
He
purchased a casket, put it aboard ship, and then made arrangements with the
steamship company-in the event of his death-to put his corpse in a freezing
compartment and keep it there till the liner returned home. He set out on his
trip, imbued with the spirit of old Omar:
Ah, make
the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we
too into the Dust descend;
Dust into
Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans
Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and-sans End!
However,
he didn't make the trip "sans wine". "I drank highballs, and
smoked long cigars on that trip," Mr. Haney says in a letter that I have
before me now. "I ate all kinds of foods-even strange native foods which
were guaranteed to kill me. I enjoyed myself more than I had in years! We ran
into monsoons and typhoons which should have put me in my casket, if only from
fright-but I got an enormous kick out of all this adventure.
"I
played games aboard the ship, sang songs, made new friends, stayed up half the
night. When we reached China and India, I realised that the business troubles
and cares that I had faced back home were paradise compared to the poverty and
hunger in the Orient. I stopped all my senseless worrying and felt fine. When I
got back to America, I had gained ninety pounds. I had almost forgotten I had
ever had a stomach ulcer. I had never felt better in my life. I promptly sold
the casket back to the undertaker, and went back to business. I haven't been
ill a day since."
At the
time this happened, Earl P. Haney had never even heard of Willis H. Carrier and
his technique for handling worry. "But I realise now," he told me
quite recently, "that I was unconsciously using the selfsame principle. I
reconciled myself to the worst that could happen-in my case, dying. And then I
improved upon it by trying to get the utmost enjoyment out of life for the time
I had left. ... If," he continued, "if I had gone on worrying after
boarding that ship, I have no doubt that I would have made the return voyage
inside of that coffin. But I relaxed-I forgot it. And this calmness of mind
gave me a new birth of energy which actually saved my life
Now, if
Willis H. Carrier could save a twenty-thousand-dollar contract, if a New York
business man could save himself from blackmail, if Earl P. Haney could actually
save his life, by using this magic formula, then isn't it possible that it may
be the answer to some of your troubles? Isn't it possible that it may even
solve some problems you thought were unsolvable?
So, if
you have a worry problem, apply the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier by doing
these three things-
1. Ask
yourself,' 'What is the worst that can possibly happen?"
2.
Prepare to accept it if you have to.
3. Then
calmly proceed to improve on the worst.
Culled from: “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”
By Dale Carnegie
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