BOOK REVIEW
Book:How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Author: Dale Carnegie
Reviewed by: Tabish Feroz
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, written in 1948, is still relevant. Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer who has written many books, including How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Enjoy Your Life and Your Job, among others.
The book was first printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay. It has 30 chapter with 321 pages. The aim of the author was to advise people on how to solve their problems and be happy in their lives.
According to Carnegie, mostly people make up their minds that they can solve their problems by a magic formula, which is an incorrect perception. Carnegie explains how worrying too much can ruin your life and how to fix this. The book contains tips on dealing with worries that are really helpful. His approach is simple, really: get the fact, analyse the fact, and arrive at a decision. Then, act on that decision.
Among those three points, the most effective one I found is ‘get the fact’. According to Carnegie, unless and until we have the fact, we can’t solve our troubles intellectually. Without the fact, all we can do is to remain confused, and confusion is the chief cause of worry. So, get the fact before trying to solve any problem.
Another interesting concept in the book is you can be happy if you want to. He explained that if you don’t want to worry about your problem, then have a good time at your work, because if you enjoy what you do, you may work for long hours and that will make you quite productive.
Carnegie stresses that our life is what our thoughts make it. If we think happy thoughts, we will be happy; if we think about stuff that is worrisome and depressing, we will be agitated. In the same way, if we become worried about our problems, we will be compelled to find out the solution of our problems.
Later, he states that worrying causes people to commit unconscious acts and decisions which further harm them more than their created problems. Looking at this, the author suggests to check the solution more than four times and see whether or not the solution is going to benefit them; if found beneficial, head towards and achieve the results.
Dale raises two significant questions in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. The first is, “Are we making our work harder than it actually is?” The second question is, “Am I using my muscles that are not being used while I work?” These two questions are helpful if one finds the answers of each and might help him/her to find relaxation. So he left these two questions upon his readers to find out the answers and try them practically. After giving this book a read, I learned various tips to solve my worrying problems and also found the important information that if we worry about our problems, we can’t find the solution of our problems. Therefore, it is better to make ourselves ready to compete against any kind of problems. The main purpose of this book is to never worry about the problems in your life, and remember that always get the facts which assists you to solve your problems easily.I recommend this book to those who cannot solve their unwanted problems. Read this book once; you will be able to solve your problems easily.