Advice for the Worrier

Here’s some sound advice to the worrier. There is a way to cope with your concerns:

“And you say, ‘Let’s see, what are my troubles? What are my troubles? What difficulties am I having?

“Write them down, make a list of them. Here they are, here they are, here they are, ‘I’m obsessed with the idea that the landlord is going to evict me at any moment, and…’

“Now we don’t even have to go and talk to the landlord. It’s an oddity. Of course, the reality of having some cash to pay him with is very nice. But when we don’t have the cash, there’s no use worrying about it too. Get the idea? It’s one thing to be arrested and it’s another thing to worry about being arrested and be upset about because you’re arrested. If you’re arrested, you’re arrested. Why worry about it too?

“All right. Now, we make a list of these little problems and then we read them over. Read that first one that you wrote down and just say to yourself, ‘Now how am I going to tackle this?’

“You see that’s kind of a communication to it, isn’t it, hm?

“You say, ‘Now how am I going to tackle that? Well I’ll do so-and-so and so-and-so.’ …

“Funny part of it is, after you have occasionally answered the question, something will happen to the situation. You’re really not looking at mysticism or necromancy or good luck charms. It’s just the fact you’re communicating in that direction. And if you communicate in that direction, your sphere of influence increases in that direction. And things start to work better in that direction. It’s as easy as that, easy as that.”

— L. Ron Hubbard