Basic Techniques In Analysing Worry
Chapter 34
How To Analyse and Solve Worry Problems
Will the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier， described in PartOne， Chapter 2， solve all worry problems? No， of course not. Thenwhat is the answer?
The answer is that we must equip ourselves to deal withdifferent kinds of worries by learning the three basic steps ofproblem analysis. The three steps are：1. Get the facts.
2. Analyse the facts.
3. Arrive at a decision—and then act on that decision.
Obvious stuff? Yes， Aristotle taught it—and used it. And youand I must use it too if we are going to solve the problems thatare harassing us and turning our days and nights into veritablehells.
Let’s take the first rule： Get the facts. Why is it so important toget the facts? Because unless we have the facts we can’t possiblyeven attempt to solve our problem intelligently. Without the facts，all we can do is stew around in confusion. My idea? No， that wasthe idea of the late Herbert E. Hawkes， Dean of Columbia College，Columbia University， for twenty-two years. He had helped twohundred thousand students solve their worry problems; and hetold me that “confusion is the chief cause of worry”。 He put it thisway—he said： “Half the worry in the world is caused by peopletrying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledgeon 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， Irefuse even to try to make a decision about it until next Tuesdayarrives. In the meantime， I concentrate on getting all the factsthat bear on the problem. I don’t worry，” he said， “I don’t agoniseover my problem. I don’t lose any sleep. I simply concentrate ongetting the facts. And by the time Tuesday rolls around， if I’ve gotall the facts， the problem usually solves itself！”
I asked Dean Hawkes if this meant he had licked worryentirely. “Yes，” he said， “I think I can honestly say that my liveis now almost totally devoid of worry. I have found，” he wenton， “that if a man will devote his time to securing facts in animpartial， objective way， his worries usually evaporate in the lightof knowledge.”
Let me repeat that： “If a man will devote his time to securingfacts in an impartial， objective way， his worries will usuallyevaporate in the light of knowledge.”
But what do most of us do? If we bother with facts at all—andThomas Edison said in all seriousness： “There is no expedient towhich a man will not resort to avoid the labour of thinking”—ifwe bother with facts at all， we hunt like bird dogs after thefacts that bolster up what we already think and ignore all theothers！ We want only the facts that justify our acts—the factsthat fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify ourpreconceived prejudices！
As Andre Maurois put it： “Everything that is in agreementwith our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not putsus into a rage.”
Is it any wonder， then， that we find it so hard to get at theanswers to our problems? Wouldn’t we have the same troubletrying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem， if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yetthere are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell forthemselves and others by insisting that two plus two equalsfive—or maybe five hundred！ What can we do about it? We haveto keep our emotions out of our thinking; and， as Dean Hawkesput it， we must secure the facts in “an impartial， objective”
manner.
That is not an easy task when we are worried. When we areworried， our emotions are riding high. But here are two ideas thatI have found helpful when trying to step aside from my problems，in order to see the facts in a clear， objective manner.
1. When trying to get the facts， I pretend that I am collectingthis information not for myself， but for some other person. Thishelps me to take a cold， impartial view of the evidence. This helpsme eliminate my emotions.
2. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that isworrying me， I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparingto argue the other side of the issue. In other words， I try to getall the facts against myself—all the facts that are damaging to mywishes， all the facts I don’t like to face.
Then I write down both my side of the case and the other sideof the case—and I generally find that the truth lies somewhere inbetween these two extremities.
Here is the point I am trying to make. Neither you nor I norEinstein nor the Supreme Court of the United States is brilliantenough to reach an intelligent decision on any problem withoutfirst getting the facts. Thomas Edison knew that. At the time ofhis death， he had two thousand five hundred notebooks filledwith facts about the problems he was facing.
So Rule 1 for solving our problems is： Get the facts. Let’s do whatDean Hawkes did： let’s not even attempt to solve our problemswithout first collecting all the facts in an impartial manner.
However， getting all the facts in the world won’t do us anygood until we analyse them and interpret them.
I have found from costly experience that it is much easier toanalyse the facts after writing them soon. In fact， merely writingthe facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goesa long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision. AsCharles Kettering puts it： “A problem well stated is a problem halfsolved.”
Let me show you all this as it works out in practice. Since theChinese say one picture is worth ten thousand words， supposeI show you a picture of how one man put exactly what we aretalking about into concrete action.