Okay guys, Day 3 is on! This time we’re going to be studying How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie.
I’ve been a Carnegie fans since I was 14 (yes, I started on self growth early). But oddly, I’ve never read this book despite reading and re-reading his “How to Win Friends and Influence People” seven times cover to cover.
How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie.
“Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they got rid of their fears and worries”
~ Dale Carnegie from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
I love that line. It reminds me of a quote from another great book by Jose Silva, “The Silva Method” where Mr. Silva says that he believes 90% of illness is caused by stress and our own negative beliefs.
For those who are interested in reading the whole book, you can get it from Amazon here »
After you’ve logged into your membership account and downloaded the Note, let’s get the discussion rolling. What’s your biggest takeaway and how can you start implementing the wisdom from this book?
Now a lot of people have been asking, “Can I still join the Challenge?” And the answer is YES, of course you can. All you have to do is catch up on the first two Notes (which shouldn’t be too hard). Just grab your copy of PhilosophersNotes here » and you’ll get an email about the challenge.
Before you start your discussion, check out this video Brian’s made for today’s Note.
Oh! And one more thing. Twitter users, don’t forget to add #50days to your tweets.
Can’t wait to get the discussion going on today’s Note. Talk to you guys tomorrow and if you haven’t got your 100 PhilosophersNotes yet, you can grab them here »
FinerMinds is hosted by 
And the timing of this note is perfect...
Great note. Phrase that caught my attention was if we lived our lives on the proverbs of the past we would be leading perfect lives. That and knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.
I also noticed everything he talks about, I do.
When I’m walking down the road I feel people in the cars are critiquing me.
When I’m driving I feel everyone around is starring and thinking about me.
In the back yard I was thinking of erecting a 6 foot wooden fence just because I didn’t want other people knowing what I was doing (whether it be practicing some shots or whatever)
When I go for job interviews I feel like my dad has found some way to screw things up.
When I’m sitting at my computer in my room I actually black out my curtains, lock the door and I feel I have attained some sense of privacy.
“Other people aren’t thinking about you, they’re thinking about themselves.” That quote actually resonated with me that much more after a moment of reflection in typing out this post.
Hmm… I always thought Dale Carnegie would be antiquated and fuddy-duddy but HSW&SL was a delightful surprise. I resonated with most of the big ideas, but ‘Day-Tight Compartments,’ ‘Be Willing to Have it So’ and ‘Decide and Rock It’ appealed to me most, blending philosophy with simple action steps that I could take right away. Excellent!
Okay, freakin’ awesome PDF Note, and freakin’ perfect placement in our sequence of Notes. This was JUST what I needed after bumping up the game with not only daily Notes, but with higher attention and commitment to the principles we’re covering. Great sequence so far, Brian!
In today’s notes, the part about relaxing while working and “just living today” were the biggest help for me. I used to be much more relaxed at my desk, shifting and just feeling more casual. Over the last few years, I seem to have forgotten that. Now I’m pretty good at being in the same posture for hours. Even getting up once an hour isn’t the same as continuously relaxing muscles and body as your work. And my stiffness shows in all kinds of places (I’m feeling old some days!).
The day-compartments is a great concept that I think also helps calm and focus, denying mind-space and time to those streams of past-scene-replays and future-scene-visions.
I’m keeping that in mind as I shift and relax and kick back at my desk. Nice!
I’m beginning to see that while each book and each concept is powerful, when they combined and reinforcing each other in a short span of time, the effect is synergistic.
This rocks, Brian. Thank you and thank your team for doing this!
I also noticed that each note we go through expands upon and compliments the others. Major themes like integrity, energy, people’s opinions, etc. really start to pop out as you see them from different perspectives. Good stuff!
Exactly. I’m feeling a boost of energy already. Whoa. Apparently 2 parts action + 1 part community = rockin’!!
(Part of me is a little bit scared about either keeping up (or not) and/or breaking thru (or not!)! WHAT WILL HAPPEN!?!?!)
what i can start doing TODAY: rest BEFORE i get tired. brilliant.
the essence of the message for me:
focus on what I am doing right now, dare to be vulnerable while being who I is, and when things don’t turn out the way I would prefer, take the lesson, put it in my pocket for later and let the unsupportive stuff go.
was it mark twain who said
“most of the problems I thought about never even happened”
let go and let everything be ok. it is what it is anyways
Hi,
I liked most the concept of letting what is, be. I never used to have a problem with that. It seems to have crept up with age. It brings crankiness and anger at the universe. All car going forward in reverse right? Gonna smash into something. I’ve had a few big crashes lately.
On the topic of regular rest, I wanted to share this with you: During a stint in Turkey, I tried out the Islamic ritual of praying/meditating 5 times a day when the call for prayer came. It was fabulous. I noticed that the by the time call came, I was really ready for it again. I’d gotten a little stressed and was losing control. The meditation would chill me right out and I’d be cool with everything that came my way. Also, it was super for creativity. I actually did some of my best artistic work at that time… truly inspired work — because I was really in touch.
This days notes was useful for me, and identified a couple of areas I need to still work on. Having in the past been an avid worrier, with a mind that ruminates, I already use strategies to overcome and compliment this, and am always open to new ideas in this area. My brain operating style in effective use, is useful as the rumination makes me useful as a analyst and solution provider, but overly worrying can be a negative offshoot to this, which does need mindfulness, and awareness and workable techniques to avoid unnecessary worry or fear.
Having tools and abilities that encourage relaxation, and stress release also helps, laughter an extremely good one, meditation, reiki, exercise, Quadrant II stuff, basically.
The nap aspect I can also confirm, works extremely well, and just 10 minutes can really recharge energy at times when full rest isnt available or practical.
One technique I do use, and I find this extremely effective for myself for worry and stepping outside my comfort zone or facing fearful situations, is “worst case scenario” what is the worst case scenario, and what startegy would you follow if that should happen. Once you know that, and have visualised it as a projected outcome, and then you can create your preferred outcome, knowing that in the likelyhood of it being worst case scenario, you are prepared to deal with it, makes it a reality you can achieve and as is the case with most worries extremely unlikely to happen, but in the unfortunate event that it does, you take it in your stride. Namaste everyone XxX
I was laughing when I read the quote by Montaigne: “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened”. hahaha
This was the first book I had not already read although I did read How to Lose Friends and Influence People
I never would have made it through this book without the cheerleading of Brian. Carnegie just seemed too ancient for me to identify with. But with Brian as the interpreter I recognized many concepts that I already knew from other sources, such as too much stress isn’t good for us, live in the now, live purposefully, follow your imagination, accept reality so you know where you are, meditate, relax and stop worrying and begin just living. So I knew about many of these ideas and now realize through Brian’s translation that they were within this book, making it a much better book than I thought it was
“Carpe Punctum” — Sieze this moment!!
If I can accept and embrace the present with mindfulness and joy, there is no room for me to regret things that have happened/not happened in the past or to worry about the future. Better still, in this state of “grace” I “flow’.
Big shout out to all you incredible and inspiring people here on PN! I feel so blessed! THANK YOU!!!
Just home from the magical world of Disneyland — tried to get started on the challenge there but the pull of fantasy and family was too great
Great comments by so many!! Looking over my key take aways from days 1 thru 3, I would say that BOUNDARIES with others rings in my ears. Coming from a co-dependent family, caring too much what other’s think has always been my road block. It is inherent in my inability to act on my life in a big way (small things create small waves of which i have learned to deal with… but the big waves, DUDE i’ve got to learn to surf!!)
I’m going to practice surfing on “Don’t Take It Personally” It could even be fun to push it a bit (with respect of course) but maybe really put myself out there with passion and let go of reaction entirely! Hmmmm… wonder what outrageous thing I could do?
Piper — I just joined the Challenge and started with Day 3, what a great book! I also picked up on the notion of boundaries and specially liked the idea of “containerizing” each day, letting yesterday be yesterday and tomorrow be tomorrow. Have you experimented with the day-tight compartments today?
I looked at my calendar this morning and tomorrow is packed, it felt GREAT to look at it and let it go. Today is being a sweet day.
I also loved the quote: “You don’t get stomach ulcers from what you eat, you get ulcers from what’s eating you.” (quote by Dr. Montague).
I have always been a worrier I was an anxious child and lived in a very situation which cost me my colon in my early twenties due to 98% of my colon being diseased with ulceritive colitis seriously was in the hospital when I should have been enjoying and active in life… I love being willing to have it so. It is so hard to just accept it for what it is…this has been a struggle for me…I am a fix girl wanting to fixing everything.
I learned from my youngest daughter when she was 2 she would always say mo worries mom its all good…You have to love the wisdom of the indego children and the chrystalines…seriously they are here to deliver this very message in a living physical representation of living in the now… the don’t cry over spilled milk is a lesson we talk about in our home all the time…I of course being taught by my children:)
I love the rest before you get tired. I have started a new implementation routine this year as part of my becoming more productive in less time new years resolution and one of the ways I am doing this is by pre-planning, setting the vision and outcome I want and the time it will take to do it and then putting time in my day in 50 minute increments for work allowing myself 10–15 minutes at the top of every hour to stretch, relax, meditate, rest…I am getting a lot more accomplished
Create a GREAT day!
Really enjoyed these Notes! How to stop worrying and start living was definatly for me. The biggest thing that i took away was to make decision and just do it! As well as “dont cry over spilt milk” and “dont cross the bridge till you get there”. Heard it a million times before and yet it was like hering it for the first time in this context.…
Again, I love that you are starting out with a great foundation of solid principles. I am a personal development and spiritual philosophy junkie so my natural instinct would be to jump right in on the Tao te ching or bhagavad Gita or something a little more esoteric that allows me to think “oh, if i weren’t living in busy modern America, spiritual development
would be easier”. Of course that’s bs. Anyways, I love that we are doing seven habit then this, which remind me that the most profound path to spiritual growth involves doing the work that is in front of me. Spilt milk (what’s done is dine, what are you going to do about it), taking responsibility for how I feel physically and mentally… Dale Carnegie has truly made an impact on humanity that’s probably more profound
than that Andrew C
How good is DC…love his style.
So real.
What smashed me today was “Decide and Rock it” — that formula, man, bang bang bang.
I am going to take that on board. I reckon that’ll stick an arrow straight through most of my worries.
Was going to write “petty worries” but we can all see now (if not before) that all worries are petty, silly even. A waste of time.
Which brings me to GBS — how funny is the guy,what an amazing perspective: “The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not”… unreal.
I have totally noticed that when I was busy at work, I had awesome days, if I wasn’t busy = bored, listless, anxious… (deliberately framed that in the past because now I have some maximum dynamite to blast away worry…booyah!)
Awesome choice,
Thanks B and DC
Hi! I found this quote to be very powerful! It is like a reminder to practice! To test what we are learning in the real world!
“knowledge isn’t power until it is applied; and the purpose of this book is to remind you of what you already know and to kick you in the shins and inspire you to do something about applying it.”
It is also like something I read recently that said “We have not really learned something until there is a change in behaviour” Amazing concepts!
Good placement in the sequence of PhilosophersNotes for the 50 Day Challenge!
Thank You Brian!
The serenity prayer says it all.
& so does this…
Don’t worry, Be happy now
Ha, really rocks this book…
Computer problems and the death of my dearest friend last week put me a bit behind so I am playing catchup this week. Great PN for Tuesday. I grew up in a home with a mother who worried herself into a nervous breakdown. It was at the age of 7 a terrifing time for me. I also learned to worry and it took years for me to get it at least a liveable undercontrol. I really needed this note to finish clearing the cobwebs of that destructive behavoir from my life. My grandmother used to tell me…Don’t build a bridge until you have a river to cross. That thought has gotten me threw and away from many hours of worry. Great Note!!
Brilliant ideas put in simply clear words, genius!
feels good to be reminded!!
I will defenitly consider resting more and without feeling guilty about it!! keeping up with my beautiful heart!! heheh:)
and balancing with staying busy and positively active!
liked the quote from Montaigne: “my life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.“
action. “knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.” I got inspired and received the kicks, Thanks!
I am applying, in motion. WOOOOhhhoOOhohoOOO!!! Dancing in the shower!!