“How to stop worry and start living” by Dale Carnegie audiobook review
The godfather of self-help books particularly those with long names Dale Carnegie is probably most famous for his title “How to win friends and influence people” which has sold over 30 million copies.
It was this book that first introduced me to Dale Carnegie and despite neither wanting to ‘win friends’ or ‘influence people’ I found it immensely helpful. To me, the name is a bit misleading but it grabs attention, a tactic still prominent in the genre with titles such as “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck” or “Unf*ck Yourself“.
“How to stop worrying and start living” is a great book and a great audiobook. It’s full of practical actionable tips that I could implement as soon as I had heard them with positive results.
Good Points
- Actionable advice
- Andrew MacMillan is a good narrator
- Still largely relevant and the core lessons are timeless
- The advice and exercises are simple which makes it accessible
Bad Points
- Like most self-help books it was a little too long
- Too many example stories and most felt quite dated
- It would have been good to update the examples
‘How to stop worrying and start living’ audiobook review
I found the audiobook helpful, it contains a few short exercises that really worked and both consciously and subconsciously I have been worrying less.
Published in 1948 the book has sold millions of copies. The audio version was released in 1999 on 9 separate CDs! You can actually still buy the CD version but I opted for the audiobook through Audible.
Narration
The version on Audible is the same version as back in 1999. Read by Andrew MacMillan who I think does a good job, it is quite a traditional narration that fits the style of writing. It’s not high energy or exciting but it does the job.
Key Take-aways
- Exercises to implement today to reduce your worry
- Why worrying is bad for you
- How to get busy so you can’t worry
- How to embrace situations and analyse problems to reduce worry
- Live in the moment
Exercises, tips and rules
Tip 1: Live in day-tight compartments. Just live each day until bed time.
Tip 2: When you do run in to trouble, try this:
- What is the worst that can happen?
- Prepare mentally to accept it if necessary
- Calming proceed to improve on the worst
Tip 3: When you are worrying do this:
- What am I worrying about?
- What can I do about it?
- Here is what I am going to do about it
- When am I going to start doing it?
Tip 4: Reduce business worry. Get the facts, weigh the facts and come to a decision, once reached act, write out these questions:
- What is the problem?
- What is the cause of the problem
- What are all possible solutions?
- What solution do you suggest?
Tip 5: Get Busy – when are you busy with action you have no time to worry
Tip 6: Ask yourself what are the chances that this worry will ever happen?
Tip 7: Put a stop-loss on your worry
Taking advice from the financial investing world, apply a stop-loss to your worry. Have a limit on how far you will worry about something. Say STOP and worry no further.
Tip 8: Take criticism as a compliment.
When people say something about you, it is usually a reflection on themselves. An insecurity or jealously and they want to make themselves feel better. Take their criticism as a compliment, move on if there is nothing constructive or take it on board if it seems valuable.
