bluehawq's Full Review: Dale Carnegie - How to Stop Worrying and Start Liv...
Being very young when I first encountered the name Dale Carnegie, I was somewhat apprehensive with his methods of positive thinking. My Dad had long been a fan of Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziggler and used their individual methods for encouragement in the work force for many years. My Dad was a new car dealer and was for 30 some odd years. With that in mind, you can imagine the stress and discouragement that comes with the territory. He had to look beyond his own mind at times for help and soul searching. That is how he came about finding the works of Carnegie and Ziggler, and in turn showed me the finer points of reading and implementing both's strategies of life.
This review is in accordance with Caleo's and Elvisdo's Great One Liner W/O. I elected to review the extraordinary creation, How to Stop Worrying & Start Living, written by Dale Carnegie. My one liner from this book that has stuck with me through my life and has been a turning point for me in many situations has been: Believe that You will Succeed and You Will. A list of participants will follow the summary of this review.
About the author.
Dale Carnegie who was born in Maryville, Missouri, is with out a doubt an innovator in the aid of personality growth and speaking freely in the eye of the public. He is best known for his exemplifying stories he told and his most simple one liner keys to success and happiness. Some of Carnegie's other best sellers are: How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in 1936, and probably his first being Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business, written in 1931. The creation that I am reviewing, How to Stop Worrying & Start Living was written in 1948. Carnegie came into our lives in 1888 and left us in 1955.
About the book.
How to Stop Worrying & Start Living is my favorite of Carnegie's works. In this book, Cargegie presents you with examples of real life situations of real people and how through his advice changed their situations for the better. The stories are good and being real just adds to the effectiveness of Carnegie's techniques in your own life. This book does not only appeal to the business man or woman but to housewives and children alike. Carnegie's techniques for living a happy life and a successful one applies to anyone who wishes improvement in their lives, and in any area of that life.
When you begin to enforce Carnegie's suggestions, you will begin to notice a difference in your behavior, you attitude toward others and how you react to different situations. You will see that it is a positive influence that his principles and techniques will have on you and through your actions the influence it will have on your family and co-workers alike. Through you and your behavior others will begin to see that change and it can't help but have some sort of influence on them as well.
Carnegie uses simple techniques. Techniques that you will feel silly for not realizing yourself. Common sense strategy and know how. It is just that we, as simple human beings fail to see the obvious and do not realize that a black cloud sometimes hovers and masks our thinking abilities for even the simplest problem. This book has been a tremendous aid in helping to restore a once torn apart sense of self confidence that I have experienced. It can aid you in showing how to over come personal weakness and help you to remember things that you might had a hard time with because of memory failure. It can also teach you organizational skills that will apply to you in your personal life as well as your business life.
Much of Carnegie's reasoning comes from many other greats since our creation. Some of them include Einstein, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and most importantly from the works and words of Jesus Christ Himself. I can't think of anyone better to gain wisdom from than from Jesus. Wise man extraordinaire. Through all of these famous men's works and wisdom incorporated with Carnegie's own, this book is by far one of the most important "self help" books that I have had the privilege of reading. Another axiom of Carnegie's that stands out in my mind is: Believe that You will Succeed and You Will. Through his one liners alone we can learn a lot.
There is actually one part of this book that I would like to go into just a wee bit. The reason for this is because I think that it relates to many of us here at Epinions. The fact that some of us, me included, have some trouble accepting certain ratings on our reviews. We are unable to accept criticism. So it would seem anyway. Right? Though you, some of you, may not wish to admit that you have a problem with that, it is true that we do. We want or rather we even desire for people to like or even love what we write. But this can not always happen the way we would like. We have to learn to accept criticism. And this book will help us with that. In part six of How to Stop Worrying & Start Living, Carnegie deals with the issue of criticism and how we tend to worry about criticism. We all do at one time or another in form or another.
Carnegie explains that in many instances, criticism that appears to be "unjust" may be a compliment in disguise. How you say? Well, it could be that your review or what ever it is in your life that has aroused criticism from another person may be in fact jealousy or envy. What is funny is this phrase that is included in that theory: "Remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog". Yes, I definitely find humor and fact in that statement.
Carnegie suggests that in order to deal with criticism, we must do the best we can and then "quote", Put up an umbrella and keep the rain of criticism from running down the back of your neck. He also says that we should keep a record of the foolish things that we do or say and then criticize ourselves, since we obviously can not hope to be perfect.
One last thing that I would like to mention here is the fact that Carnegie was a very spiritual man. He lived by the words of our Lord every day and followed the golden rule. He was creative with that rule though. His cure for conquering worry? Simply put, that would be: Prayer.
Conclusion and final thoughts.
My final thoughts about this book, How To Stop Worrying and Start Living is this. Everyone has worries. All of us has problems, be it in the home or at work. I realized through the works and teachings of Dale Cargegie that there are logical and simple ways to over come our obstacles with a little help from wisdom. And I recommend Carnegie's wisdom in his many titles that you have to choose from. I am positive that you can not read one of his books and not come away a better person for having done so. You will also find that your reading this book several times will not be uncommon. It has not been for me. I have read it many times and will do so again. It serves as an important tool for life.
For your information, here is a list of the chapters in this book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living:
1. Fundamental facts you should know about worry
2. Basic techniques in analyzing worry
3. How to break the worry habit before it breaks you
4. Seven ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness
5. The perfect way to conquer worry
6. How to keep from worrying about criticism
7. Six ways to prevent fatigue and worry and keep your energy and spirits high
I sincerely hope that you will find the time to read one of Carnegie's works. I am sure that you will not regret it. Not in the least.
Please take the time to visit other participants in Caleo's and Elvisdo's Great One Liner Write Off. They are:
Carnegie uses tested techniques and a set of practical formulas to prove that something can be done to stop worrying. From turning criticism around to...More at Buy.com
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