第4章　解开忧虑之谜

前面提到的威利斯·卡瑞尔的魔法公式是否能解决所有的忧虑呢？不能，当然不能。

那该怎么办呢？答案是我们一定要学会下面三个分析问题的基本步骤，用它们来解决各种不同的困难。这三个步骤是：

第一步：看清事实。

第二步：分析事实。

第三步：做出决定，然后依照决定行事。

显而易见？是的。这是亚里士多德教的方法，他也使用过。如果我们想解决那些压迫我们、使我们成天像生活在地狱中的问题，我们也必须应用这些方法。

我们先来看第一步：看清事实。看清事实为何如此重要呢？因为除非我们看清楚事实，否则就不能聪明地解决问题。没有事实，我们只能在混乱中摸索。这是我的理论吗？不，这是哥伦比亚大学哥伦比亚学院已故院长赫伯特·霍基斯说的，他当了22年院长。他曾帮助过20万学生解决他们的忧虑问题。他告诉我说：“混乱是导致忧虑的主要原因。”他认为：“世界上的忧虑有一半是因为人们没有足够的知识做决定而产生的。例如，”他说，“如果我有一个问题必须在下星期二三点以前

try to make a decision about it until next Tuesday arrives. In the meantime, I concentrate on getting all the facts that bear on the problem. I don't worry,” he said, “I don't agonise over my problem. I don't lose any sleep. I simply concentrate on getting the facts. And by the time Tuesday rolls around, if I've got all the facts, the problem usually solves itself!”

I asked Dean Hawkes if this meant he had licked worry entirely.“Yes,” he said, “I think I can honestly say that my life is now almost totally devoid of worry. I have found,” he went on, “that if a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

Let me repeat that:“If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

But what do most of us do? If we bother with facts at all—and Thomas Edison said in all seriousness:“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking”—if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think—and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts—the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices!

As André Maurois put it:“Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage.”

Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five—or maybe five hundred!

解决，那么在下星期二之前我根本不会去试着做出什么决定。我将在这段时间里集中全力搜集所有的相关事实。我不会发愁，不会为这个问题而难过，更不会失眠，我只是全心全力地搜集事实。等快到星期二的时候，如果我已经搜集了所有的事实，问题本身通常会迎刃而解。”

我问霍基斯院长，这是否表明他可以完全抛除忧虑了。“是的，”他说，“我想我可以老实说，我现在的生活完全没有忧虑。我发现，”他继续说，“如果一个人能把他所有的时间都用在以一种超然、客观的态度去寻找事实的话，那么他的忧虑就会在知识的光芒下消失。”

让我重复一遍：“如果一个人能把他所有的时间都用在以一种超然、客观的态度去寻找事实的话，那么他的忧虑就会在知识的光芒下消失。”

可是，我们大多数人会怎么做呢？如果我们要考虑事实——托马斯·爱迪生很郑重地说：“一个人为了避免花时间去思想，往往会用各种手段。”——如果我们真的考虑事实，我们通常会像猎狗那样，去找寻那些我们已经想到的，而忽略其他的一切！我们只需要那些适合我们的事实，那些只适合我们的如意算盘、适合我们原有偏见的事实。

正如安德烈·马罗斯所说的：“和我们个人欲望相适合的看来都是真理，而不适合的只会使我们感到愤怒。”

无怪乎我们会觉得，要得到我们问题的答案这么困难。如果我们一直假定2加

What can we do about it? We have to keep our emotions out of our thinking; and, as Dean Hawkes put it, we must secure the facts in “an impartial, objective” manner.

That is not an easy task when we are worried. When we are worried, our emotions are riding high. But here are two ideas that I 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 collecting this information not for myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions.

2. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that is worrying me, I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparing to argue the other side of the issue. In other words, I try to get all the facts against myself—all the facts that are damaging to my wishes, all the facts I don't like to face.

Then I write down both my side of the case and the other side of the case—and I generally find that the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremities.

Here is the point I am trying to make. Neither you nor I nor Einstein nor the Supreme Court of the United States is brilliant enough to reach an intelligent decision on any problem without first getting the facts. Thomas Edison knew that. At the time of his death, he had two thousand five hundred notebooks filled with facts about the problems he was facing.

So Rule 1 for solving our problems is: Get the facts.Let's do what Dean Hawkes did: let's not even attempt to solve our problems without first collecting all the facts in an impartial manner.

However, getting all the facts in the world won't do us any good until we analyse them

2等于5，那不是连一个二年级的算术题都不会做了吗？但事实上，世界上就有许多人坚持认为2加2等于5——或等于500——以至于弄得自己和别人的日子都不舒服。

对此我们该怎么办呢？我们应该将感情排除于思想之外，就如霍基斯院长所说的，我们必须用“超然客观”的态度来看清事实。

要在忧虑的时候那样做可不是一件简单的事。因为当我们忧虑的时候，会情绪激动。不过，我还是找到了两个有助于我们以清晰客观的态度看清所有事实并克服忧虑的办法：

第一，在搜集各种事实的时候，我假装不是为自己搜集这些资料，而是为别人做这事，这样我可以保持冷静超然的态度，也可以帮助自己控制情绪。

第二，在搜集造成各种忧虑的事实时，我有时候还将自己假设成对方的律师。换句话说，我也要搜集一些对自己不利的事实——搜集那些有损我的希望以及我所不愿面对的事实。

然后，我会把这一边的和另外一边的所有事实都写下来。这时，我通常会发现，真理就存在于这两个极端中间。

这就是我想说明的要点：如果不事先看清楚事实的话，你、我、爱因斯坦，甚至连美国最高法院，也不能对任何问题做出聪明的决定。爱迪生就清楚这一点，他死前留下来的2500本笔记中，记满了他面临的各种问题的事实。

所以，解决我们困难的第一个办法，就是看清事实。让我们仿效霍基斯院长的方法吧：在没有以客观态度搜集所有的事实之前，不要想着如何去解决问题。

and interpret them.

I have found from costly experience that it is much easier to analyse the facts after writing them down. In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision. As Charles Kettering puts it:“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”

Let me show you all this as it works out in practice. Since the Chinese say one picture is worth ten thousand words, suppose I show you a picture of how one man put exactly what we are talking about into concrete action.

Let's take the case of Galen Litchfield—a man I have known for several years; one of the most successful American businessmen in the Far East.Mr.Litchfield was in China in 1942, when the Japanese invaded Shanghai. And here is his story as he told it to me while a guest in my home:

“Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour,” Galen Litchfield began, “they came swarming into Shanghai. I was the manager of the Asia Life Insurance Company in Shanghai. They sent us an‘army liquidator'—he was really an admiral—and gave me orders to assist this man in liquidating our assets. I didn't have any choice in the matter. I could cooperate—or else. And the‘or else'was certain death.

“I went through the motions of doing what I was told, because I had no alternative. But there was one block of securities, worth $750，000, which I left off the list I gave to the admiral. I left that block of securities off the list because they belonged to our Hong Kong organisation and had nothing to do with the Shanghai assets. All the same, I feared I might be in hot water if the Japanese found out what I had done. And they soon found out.

然而，如果对事实不加以分析和解释，即使把全世界所有的事实都搜集起来，对我们也没有任何帮助。

根据我个人代价高昂的过往经历，把所有的事实都记下来，然后再做分析，事情就会容易得多。事实上，只要在纸上记下各种事实，把我们的问题明明白白地写出来，有助于我们做出合理的决定。正如查尔斯·凯特林所说：“把问题写清楚，就已经解决了一半问题。”

让我用实例来告诉你这种方法的成绩，中国有句古话叫“百闻不如一见”。我要告诉你，一个人是怎样把上面所说的付诸行动的。

以格兰·李克菲的事情为例——我认识他好几年了，他是远东地区最成功的美国商人之一。1942年，日军侵入上海，李克菲先生正在中国。下面是他在我家做客时告诉我的故事：

“日军轰炸珍珠港之后不久，”格兰·李克菲说，“他们攻占了上海。当时我是上海亚洲人寿保险公司的经理。他们派来了一个‘军方清算员’（他实际上是一位海军上将），命令我协助他清算我们的财产。这种事我毫无办法，要么合作，要么算了——而所谓算了，当然是死。

“我只好遵命行事，因为我无路可走。不过，我将一笔大约75万美元的保险费没有填写在清单上。我之所以不填进去，是因为这笔钱属于我们香港的公司，和上海公司的资产无关。但我还是担心万一日本人发现了这件事可能会对我不利。他们很快就发现了。

“I wasn't in the office when the discovery was made, but my head accountant was there. He told me that the Japanese admiral flew into a rage, and stamped and swore, and called me a thief and a traitor! I had defied the Japanese Army! I knew what that meant. I would be thrown into the Bridge house!

“The Bridge house! The torture chamber of the Japanese Gestapo! I had had personal friends who had killed themselves rather than be taken to that prison. I had had other friends who had died in that place after ten days of questioning and torture. Now I was slated for the Bridge house myself!

“What did I do? I heard the news on Sunday afternoon. I suppose I should have been terrified. And I would have been terrified if I hadn't had a definite technique for solving my problems. For years, whenever I was worried I had always gone to my typewriter and written down two questions—and the answers to these questions:

“1. What am I worrying about?

“2. What can I do about it?

“I used to try to answer those questions without writing them down. But I stopped that years ago. I found that writing down both the questions and the answers clarifies my thinking.

“So, that Sunday afternoon, I went directly to my room at the Shanghai YMCA, and got out my typewriter. I wrote:

“1. What am I worrying about?

“I am afraid I will be thrown into the Bridge house tomorrow morning.

“Then I typed out the second question:

“2. What can I do about it?

“他们发现的时候，我恰巧不在办公室，但会计部主任在场。他告诉我，日本海军上将大发脾气，还拍桌子直骂人，说我是强盗和叛徒，我侮辱了日本皇军。我知道这是什么意思，我可能会被关进宪兵队。

“宪兵队是日本秘密警察的行刑室。我有几个朋友，他们情愿自杀也不愿被送到那个地方。我还有一些朋友在那里被审问折磨了10天之后，死在那里。而我现在也要被关进宪兵队了。

“我该怎么办？我星期天下午得知的这个消息，我想我当时应该吓得要命。如果我找不到解决问题的方法，我一定会被吓死的。多年来，每当我担心的时候，总会坐在打字机前打出下面两个问题，以及问题的答案：

“第一，我担心什么？

“第二，我能做什么？

“以往我都不把答案写下来，只是在心里回答问题。不过几年前我就不再那样做了。我发现把问题和答案都写下来，会使我的思路变得清晰。

所以，在那个星期天的下午，我直接回到我在上海基督教青年会的房间，取出打字机写道：

“第一，我担心什么？

“我担心明天早上会被关进宪兵队里。

“然后我打出第二个问题：

“第二，我能做什么？

“I spent hours thinking out and writing down the four courses of action I could take—and what the probable consequence of each action would be.

1. I can try to explain to the Japanese admiral. But he “no speak English”. If I try to explain to him through an interpreter, I may stir him up again. That might mean death, for he is cruel, would rather dump me in the Bridge house than bother talking about it.

2. I can try to escape. Impossible. They keep track of me all the time. I have to check in and out of my room at the YMCA. If I try to escape, I'll probably be captured and shot.

3. I can stay here in my room and not go near the office again. If I do, the Japanese admiral will be suspicious, will probably send soldiers to get me and throw me into the Bridge house without giving me a chance to say a word.

4. I can go down to the office as usual on Monday morning. If I do, there is a chance that the Japanese admiral may be so busy that he will not think of what I did. Even if he does think of it, he may have cooled off and may not bother me. If this happens, I am all right. Even if he does bother me, I'll still have a chance to try to explain to him. So, going down to the office as usual on Monday morning, and acting as if nothing had gone wrong gives me two chances to escape the Bridge house.

“As soon as I thought it all out and decided to accept the fourth plan—to go down to the office as usual on Monday morning—I felt immensely relieved.

“When I entered the office the next morning, the Japanese admiral sat there with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He glared at me as he always did; and said nothing. Six weeks later—thank God—he went back to Tokyo and my worries were ended.

“As I have already said, I probably saved my life by sitting down that Sunday afternoon

“我思考了几个小时，写下了我能采取的四种行动，以及每一种行动可能带来的后果。

“第一，我可以试着向日本海军上将解释。可是他不会说英文，若是我找翻译对他解释，可能会让他再次生气，那可能是死路一条，因为他是个凶残的人，宁愿把我关进宪兵队，也不愿费神和我讲理。

“第二，我可以逃走。但这不可能，因为他们一直都在监视我。我从基督教青年会进进出出都要登记，如果我想逃走，可能被抓住枪毙。

“第三，我也可以留在房间不再上班。如果这样做，那位日本海军上将就会怀疑，也许会派人来抓我，根本不给我任何说话的机会，直接把我关进宪兵队。

“第四，我可以星期一早上照常上班。如果我这样做，那位日本海军上将很可能正在忙着，忘掉了我的事情。而且即使他想到了，也可能已经冷静下来，不再找我的麻烦。如果是这样，我就万事大吉了。甚至即使他还来找我，我仍然有机会向他解释。所以我应该和平常一样在星期一早上去办公室，就像什么事也没有发生过，可以给我两个逃避宪兵队的机会。

“等我通盘考虑之后，我决定采取第四个计划——和平常一样，在星期一早上去上班——我大大地松了一口气。

“我第二天早上走进办公室时，那位日本海军上将坐在那里，嘴里叼着香烟，像平常一样看了我一眼，但什么话也没说。六个星期之后——谢天谢地——他调回东京去了，我的忧虑也就此告终！

and writing out all the various steps I could take and then writing down the probable consequences of each step and calmly coming to a decision. If I hadn't done that, I might have floundered and hesitated and done the wrong thing on the spur of the moment. If I hadn't thought out my problem and come to a decision, I would have been frantic with worry all Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't have slept that night. I would have gone down to the office Monday morning with a harassed and worried look; and that alone might have aroused the suspicion of the Japanese admiral and spurred him to act.

“Experience has proved to me, time after time, the enormous value of arriving at a decision. It is the failure to arrive at a fixed purpose, the inability to stop going round and round in maddening circles, that drives men to nervous breakdowns and living hells. I find that fifty per cent of my worries vanishes once I arrive at a clear, definite decision; and another forty per cent usually vanishes once I start to carry out that decision.

“So I banish about ninety per cent of my worries by taking these four steps:

“1.Writing down precisely what I am worrying about.

“2.Writing down what I can do about it.

“3.Deciding what to do.

“4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.”

Galen Litchfield is now the Far Eastern Director for Starr, Park and Freeman, Inc., III John Street, New York, representing large insurance and financial interests. In fact, as I said before, Galen Litchfield today is one of the most important American businessmen in Asia; and he confesses to me that he owes a large part of his success to this method of analyzing worry and meeting it head-on.

Why is his method so superb? Because it is efficient, concrete, and goes directly to the

“就像我前面所说的，我之所以能捡回这条命，大概就因为我在那个星期天下午写出了可以采取的各种不同步骤，以及每一个步骤可能产生的后果，然后镇定地做出了决定。如果我不那样做，我可能会思想混乱或者犹豫不决，以至于在紧要关头出错。如果我没有分析我的问题并做出决定，整个星期天下午我就会心急如焚，那天晚上也睡不着觉，星期一早上上班时可能满面惊慌和愁容——仅此一点，就会使那位日本海军上将起疑心，从而使他采取行动。

“以后一次又一次的经验证明，达成决定的确大有价值。人们正是因为不能实现既定的目的，而且不能控制自己，总是局限在一个令人难以忍受的小圈子里，才会精神崩溃和生活窘迫。我发现一旦做出清楚而明确的决定之后，一半的忧虑会立即消失，而另外的40%通常会在我按照决定去做之后消失。

“采取以下四个步骤，通常就能消除90%的忧虑：

“第一，清楚地写下我所担心的是什么。

“第二，写下我可以怎么办。

“第三，决定该怎么办。

“第四，马上就照决定去做。”

格兰·李克菲已经成了纽约市第三约翰大街斯塔尔-帕克-弗里曼公司的远东区总经理，代表大保险和金融集团的利益。事实上，他现在是亚洲最重要的几位美国商人之一，他诚恳地告诉我：他的成功很大程度归功于这种分析并敢于正视忧虑的方法。

heart of the problem. On top of all that, it is climaxed by the third and indispensable rule: Do something about it.

Unless we carry out our action, all our fact-finding and analysis is whistling upwind—it's a sheer waste of energy.

William James said this, “When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.”（In this case, William James undoubtedly used the word “care” as a synonym for “anxiety”.）He meant—once you have made a careful decision based on facts, go into action.Don't stop to reconsider.Don't begin to hesitate, worry and retrace your steps.Don't lose yourself in self-doubting which begets other doubts.Don't keep looking back over your shoulder.

I once asked Waite Phillips, one of Oklahoma's most prominent oil men, how he carried out decisions.

He replied, “I find that to keep thinking about our problems beyond a certain point is bound to create confusion and worry. There comes a time when any more investigation and thinking are harmful. There comes a time when we must decide and act and never look back.”

Why don't you employ Galen Litchfield's technique to one of your worries right now?

Here is:

Question No.1—What am I worrying about?（Please pencil the answer to that question in the space below.）

Question No.2—What can I do about it?（Please write your answer to that question in the space below.）

Question No.3—Here is what I am going to do about it.

Question No.4—When am I going to start doing it?

为什么他的方法这么管用？因为它有效、具体，直抵问题核心。最重要的是，它遵循了第三项且是不可或缺的原则：采取行动。

除非我们采取行动，否则我们寻找并分析事实的做法都将化为泡影——那真是在白费精力。

威廉·詹姆斯这样说：“一旦做出决定，当天就要付诸实践，同时不要理会责任问题，也不要关心后果。”（在这里威廉·詹姆斯无疑是用“关心”指代“忧虑”）他的意思是说，一旦你以事实为基础做出了谨慎的决定之后，就要付诸实行，而不是停下来再重新考虑，要毫不迟疑、毫不担忧和犹豫，不要怀疑自己。不要不停地回头张望。

我曾问俄克拉荷马州最成功的石油商人之一怀特·菲利浦斯，他是如何把决心付诸行动的。他回答说：“我发现，如果在超过某种限度之后还一直思考问题的话，一定会导致混乱和忧虑。当调查和思考过度对我们有害的时候，也就是我们必须下定决心、付诸行动、不再犹豫的时候。”

何不马上运用格兰·李克菲的方法来解决你的忧虑？下面就是：

第一个问题——我担忧什么？（请写下你的答案）

第二个问题——我能做什么？（请写下你的答案）

第三个问题——我决定怎么做？

第四个问题——我什么时候开始做？