One afternoon while sitting in my office, worrying about my worries, I decided to write
them all down, for it seemed no one ever had more to worry about than I had. I didn't
mind wrestling with worries that gave me a fighting chance to solve them, but these
worries all seemed to be utterly beyond my control. I could do nothing to solve them. So
I filed away this typewritten list of my troubles, and, as the months passed, I forgot that I
had ever written it. Eighteen months later, while transferring my files, I happened to
come across this list of my six major problems that had once threatened to wreck my
health. I read them with a great deal of interest-and profit. I now saw that not one of
them had come to pass.
Here is what had happened to them:
- I saw that all my worries about having to close my business college had been useless
because the government had started paying business schools for training veterans and
my school was soon filled to capacity. - I saw that all my worries about my son in service had been useless: he was coming
through the war without a scratch. - I saw that all my worries about my land being appropriated for use as an airport had
been useless because oil had been struck within a mile of my farm and the cost for
procuring the land for an airport had become prohibitive. - I saw that all my worries about having no well to water my stock had been useless
because, as soon as I knew my land would not be appropriated, I spent the money
necessary to dig a new well to a deeper level and found an unfailing supply of water. - I saw that all my worries about my tyres giving out had been useless, because by
recapping and careful driving, the tyres had managed somehow to survive. - I saw that all my worries about my daughter's education had been useless, because
just sixty days before the opening of college, I was offered-almost like a miracle-an
auditing job which I could do outside of school hours, and this job made it possible for
me to send her to college on schedule.
I had often heard people say that ninety-nine per cent of the things we worry and stew
and fret about never happen, but this old saying didn't mean much to me until I ran
across that list of worries I had typed out that dreary afternoon eighteen months
previously.
I am thankful now that I had to wrestle in vain with those six terrible worries. That
experience has taught me a lesson I'll never forget. It has shown me the folly and
tragedy of stewing about events that haven't happened-events that are beyond our
control and may never happen.
Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Ask yourself: How do I
KNOW this thing I am worrying about will really come to pass?
I Can Turn Myself in to a Shouting Optimist Within an Hour
By
Roger W. Babson
Famous Economist Babson Park, Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts