There is an old saying: "Worrying won't stop the bad stuff from happening; it just stops you from enjoying the good."
Such wisdom! It is advice I take to heart and try to remember when I am facing a situation like we are going through today with the coronavirus pandemic.
Worry is the most destructive habit. I am as bad about worrying as anyone. I always think about what can go wrong with any project. Over the years, I have learned that worrying does not give you anything but wrinkles; something else to worry about.
Worry does not do any good. I know; most of the things I worried about didn't happen.
Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.
Dr. Charles Mayo, one of the co-founders of the Mayo Clinic, said: "Worry affects circulation, the heart and the glands, the whole nervous system, and profoundly affects the heart. I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt."
In my most recent book, "You Haven't Hit Your Peak Yet!" I wrote a chapter on "The Second Ten Commandments." The first of these new commandments reads: "Thou shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities. You can't saw sawdust. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. People get so busy worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, they forget about today. And today is what you have to work with."
Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" has been one of my favorite books for the last 50 years. It was first published in 1948, but the advice it contains is just as fresh and valuable as it was then and is right-on for these uncertain times.