The Myth of Pandora
many books on the subject, such as
Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying
and Start Living the Rest of your Life,
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, some
teachings of Jesus. The following are
highlights worth sharing.
I’ve learned to ask myself these
questions:
1. Do I tend to put off living in the
present in order to worry about
the future, or to yearn for some
magical rose garden over the
horizon?
2. Do I sometimes embitter the
agreed to accept.
Remind yourself of the exorbitant price
you can pay for worry in terms of your
health. Those who do not know how to
fight worry, die young. And lawyers are
so prone to intolerable stress.
Fear of the unknown kicks in our
survival instincts, our “reptilian brain.”
Rationality goes out the window. The
adrenal glands fire like a machine gun.
We revert to our atavistic instincts,
and logic takes a vacation. We want to
either fight or run—or both.
“... there seems to be a remedy
that might reach a solution to
the problem of ensuring that
debtors are able to receive
the protection of bankruptcy
and permitting the bankruptcy
attorneys to receive their fees.”
present by regretting things
that happened in the past—
that are over and done with?
3. Do I get up in the morning
determined to seize the day to
get the utmost out of these 24
hours?
4. When shall I start to do this?
Next
week?
Tomorrow?
Today?
The next time trouble backs you up
in a corner, ask yourself “What is the
worst that can possibly happen if I can’t
solve this problem?” Prepare yourself
mentally to accept the worst—if
necessary. Then calmly improve on the
worst—which you’ve already mentally
In other words— worrying is not good.
Half the worry in the world is caused by
people trying to make decisions before
they have sufficient information on
which to base a decision. Instead, after
carefully weighing all the facts, come to
a decision. Then, get busy carrying out
your decision—and dismiss all anxiety
about the outcome.
Smart businessmen use this technique
when presented with a problem:
A.
What
is
the
problem?
B. What is the cause of the problem?
C. What are all possible solutions?
D. What is the best solution?
This is a system for occupying a nonstop mind like mine.
§ Crowd worry out of your
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Summer 2015
mind by keeping busy. Plenty
of action is one of the best
therapies ever devised for
curing the bedeviling anxiety
(sometimes it takes more
coffee than I can handle).
§ Don’t fuss about trifles. Don’t
permit little things—the mere
termites of life—to ruin your
happiness. Put them in a box
and forget about them. (Men
can do this “compartment”
trick a bit easier than woman,
unless that man is prone to
obsessing, like this author).
§ Use the law of averages to
outweigh your worries? Ask
yourself: “What are the odds
against this thing happening
at all?” (As Tom Petty sang,
“Most things I worry about
never happen anyway.”)
§ Cooperate with the inevitable.
If you know circumstances are
beyond your power to change
or revise, say to yourself: “It is
so; it cannot be otherwise.”
§ Put a stop loss order on your
worries. Decide just how much
anxiety a thing may be worth—
and refuse to give it anymore.
Bury the past as if it were dead.
Don’t saw sawdust.
Seven ways to cultivate a mental
attitude that will bring you peace and
happiness:
1. Let’s fill our minds with
thoughts of peace, courage,
health and hope because our
life is what our thoughts make
it. Shakespeare said it. So did
Marcus Aurelius.
2. Never try to get even with our
enemies, because if we do we
will hurt ourselves far more
than we hurt them (yet I still
carry grudges).
3. Instead of worrying about
ingratitude, resign yourself
and expect it. Jesus healed 10
lepers in one day—and only
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