Obvious stuff? Yes, Aristotle taught it-and used it. And you and I must use it too if we
are going to solve the problems that are harassing us and turning our days and nights
into veritable hells.
Let's take the first rule: Get the facts. Why is it so important to get the facts? Because
unless we have the facts we can't possibly even attempt to solve our problem
intelligently. Without the facts, all we can do is stew around in confusion. My idea? No,
that was the idea of the late Herbert E. Hawkes, Dean of Columbia College, Columbia
University, for twenty-two years. He had helped two hundred thousand students solve
their worry problems; and he told me that "confusion is the chief cause of worry". He put
it this way-he said: "Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make
decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision. For
example," he said, "if I have a problem which has to be faced at three o'clock next
Tuesday, I refuse even to try to make a decision about it until next Tuesday arrives. In
the meantime, I concentrate on getting all the facts that bear on the problem. I don't
worry," he said, "I don't agonise over my problem. I don't lose any sleep. I simply
concentrate on getting the facts. And by the time Tuesday rolls around, if I've got all the
facts, the problem usually solves itself!"
I asked Dean Hawkes if this meant he had licked worry entirely. "Yes," he said, "I think I
can honestly say that my live is now almost totally devoid of worry. I have found," he
went on, "that if a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective
way, his worries usually evaporate in the light of knowledge."
Let me repeat that: "If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial,
objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge."
But what do most of us do? If we bother with facts at all- and Thomas Edison said in all
seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labour of
thinking"-if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster
up what we already think-and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify
our acts-the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our
preconceived prejudices!
As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires
seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage."
Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems?
Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if
we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of
people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two
plus two equals five-or maybe five hundred!
What can we do about it? We have to keep our emotions out of our thinking; and, as
Dean Hawkes put it, we must secure the facts in "an impartial, objective" manner.
That is not an easy task when we are worried. When we are worried, our emotions are
riding high. But here are two ideas that I have found helpful when trying to step aside
from my problems, in order to see the facts in a clear, objective manner.
- When trying to get the facts, I pretend that I am collecting this information not for
myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the
evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions.