A discussion about business ethics, character traits, integrity, and values

Unlike the Beach Boys, you and I sometimes have things to worry about other than cars, women and surfing. It’s a shame, I suppose, but it’s true. Worry about little things and big things and all the things in between can take all our time and energy.

One approach is that used by Napoleon Bonaparte. He apparently instructed his secretary to hold all mail for three weeks. By the time Napoleon opened it, he always found that many of the things he might have worried about had already been resolved one way or another. Probably, that’s not a good long-term solution, but the point is that much of what we worry about today won’t be a worry a few days from now.

Norman Vincent Peale offered a better way to beat worry:

“Here is a practical procedure which will help to eliminate abnormal worry from your experience. Practice emptying the mind daily. This should be done preferably before retiring at night to avoid the retention by the consciousness of worries while you sleep. During sleep, thoughts tend to sink more deeply into the subconscious. The last five minutes before going to sleep are of extraordinary importance, for in that brief period the mind is most receptive to suggestion. It tends to absorb the last ideas that are entertained in waking consciousness.”