第2章　消除忧虑的魔法公式

你是否想找到一种快速有效地消除忧虑的药方——也就是那种你不必再往下多看之前，就能立即应用的方法？

那么，让我告诉你威利斯·卡瑞尔发明的这个方法。卡瑞尔是一位聪明的工程师，他创建了空气调节器制造公司，现在是世界闻名的纽约州塞瑞卡斯市卡瑞尔公司的负责人。这是我听过的消除忧虑的最好办法之一，我和卡瑞尔先生在纽约工程师俱乐部吃午饭的时候，从他那里得知的这个方法。

“我年轻的时候，”卡瑞尔先生说，“我在纽约州水牛城的水牛锻造公司工作。有一次，我被派到密苏里州水晶城的匹兹堡玻璃公司——一座花好几百万美元建造的工厂，安装一台瓦斯清洁机，以便清除瓦斯中的杂质，使瓦斯燃烧时不至于烧坏引擎。这是一种新的清洁瓦斯的方法，以前只试过一次，而且当时的情况很不相同。当我去密苏里州水晶城工作的时候，没有预料到的困难发生了。经过一番调整，机器总算可以用了，但并没有达到我们所保证的程度。

“我对自己的失败非常吃惊，觉得好像有人在我头顶猛击一下。我的胃和整个腹部开始疼痛起来。有好一阵子，我担心得难以入睡。

“最后，常识告诉我，忧虑并不能解决问题；于是我想出了一个不需要忧虑就

using this same anti-worry technique for more than thirty years. It is simple. Anyone can use it. It consists of three steps:

“Step I. I analysed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could possibly happen as a result of this failure. No one was going to jail me or shoot me. That was certain.True, there was also a chance that I would lose my position; and there was also a chance that my employers would have to remove the machinery and lose the twenty thousand dollars we had invested.

“Step II. After figuring out what was the worst that could possibly happen, I reconciled myself to accepting it, if necessary. I said to myself: This failure will be a blow to my record, and it might possibly mean the loss of my job; but if it does, I can always get another position.Conditions could be much worse; and as far as my employers are concerned—well, they realise that we are experimenting with a new method of cleaning gas, and if this experience costs them twenty thousand dollars, they can stand it. They can charge it up to research, for it is an experiment.

“After discovering the worst that could possibly happen and reconciling myself to accepting it, if necessary, an extremely important thing happened: I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't experienced in days.

“Step III. From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.

“I now tried to figure out ways and means by which I might reduce the loss of twenty thousand dollars that we faced. I made several tests and finally figured out that if we spent another five thousand for additional equipment, our problem would be solved. We did this, and instead of the firm losing twenty thousand, we made fifteen thousand.

可以解决问题的办法，结果非常有效。我使用这个抗忧虑的办法已经30多年。这个办法很简单，任何人都可以用。它有三个步骤：

“第一步：毫不害怕而且坦诚地分析整个情况，然后找出这一失败将会导致的最坏的情况。没有人会把我关起来，或者枪毙我，这一点可以肯定。不错，我很可能会丢掉职位，我的老板也可能会拆掉整个机器，使投入的两万美元泡汤。

“第二步：找出可能发生的最坏情况之后，我就让自己在必要时接受它。我对自己说：这次失败对我的人生纪录是一个打击，我可能会丢掉工作。但即使是这样，我还是可以找到另外的工作。而且事情可能更糟。至于我的老板，他们也知道我们现在正在试验一种新的清洁瓦斯的方法，如果这个试验要花两万美元，他们还付得起。他们可以把这笔账记在研究费用上，因为这只是一种试验。

“当分析到可能发生的最坏情况，并让自己必要时接受它之后，一件非常重要的事情发生了：我马上轻松下来，感受到了几天以来未曾经历过的平静。

“第三步：从那以后，我就平静地把我的时间和精力用于改善我在心理上已接受的最坏情况。

“我努力寻找各种办法，以减少我们目前面临的两万美元的损失。我做了几次实验，最后发现，如果我们再多花5000美元加装一些设备，我们的问题就可以解决了。我们按照这个办法去做，公司不但没有损失两万美元，反而赚了15000美元。

“如果我一直担心，恐怕再也不可能做到这一点。因为忧虑的最大害处，就是

“I probably would never have been able to do this if I had kept on worrying, because one of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate. When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision. However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all these vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.

“This incident that I have related occurred many years ago. It worked so superbly that I have been using it ever since; and, as a result, my life has been almost completely free from worry.”

Now, why is Willis H. Carrier's magic formula so valuable and so practical, psychologically speaking? Because it yanks us down out of the great grey clouds in which we fumble around when we are blinded by worry. It plants our feet good and solid on the earth. We know where we stand. And if we haven't solid ground under us, how in creation can we ever hope to think anything through?

Professor William James, the father of applied psychology, has been dead in 1910. But if he were alive today, and could hear this formula for facing the worst, he would heartily approve it. How do I know that? Because he told his own students:“Be willing to have it so... Be willing to have it so,” he said, “because... acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.”

The same idea was expressed by Lin Yutang in his widely read book, The Importance of Living.“True peace of mind,” said this Chinese philosopher, “comes from accepting the worst.Psychologically, I think, it means a release of energy.”

That's it, exactly! Psychologically, it means a new release of energy! When we have

毁掉我们集中精神的能力。当我们忧虑的时候，思想会到处乱转，从而丧失所有的决策能力。然而，当我们强迫自己面对最坏的情况，并且从精神上接受它时，我们就能权衡所有可能的情形，使我们可以集中精力解决问题。

“刚才我所说的这件事发生在很多年以前，因为这种方法非常好，所以我一直使用它。结果，我的生活几乎不再有烦恼了。”

为什么威利·卡瑞尔的魔法公式从心理的角度来讲有这么大的价值，如此实用呢？因为它能够把我们从那巨大的灰暗色云层中拉出来，使我们不再因为忧虑而盲目地摸索；它可以使我们脚踏实地，而我们也都知道自己身处何处。如果我们脚下没有这块结实的土地，又怎么能想通事情呢？

“应用心理学之父”威廉·詹姆斯教授于1910年去世，可是如果他今天还在世，听到这个直面最坏状况的公式的话，一定也会大加赞同的。我怎么会知道呢？因为他曾经对他的学生说：“你们要愿意接受这种情况……要愿意接受这种情况……因为接受既成事实，是战胜随之而来的任何不幸的第一步。”

林语堂在他那本广被阅读的《生活的艺术》中也表达了同样的意思：“思想上的真正平和，”这位中国哲学家说，“来自接受最坏的情况。从心理而言，我认为这就意味着能量的释放。”

这就对了，一点也不错。在心理上，你就能发挥出新的能力。当我们接受了最坏的情况时，就不会再损失什么，自然也就是说一切都可以重新获得。“在面对最

accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means—we have everything to gain!“After facing the worst,” Willis H. Carrier reported, “I immediately relaxed and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't experienced in days. From that time on, I was able to think.”

Makes sense, doesn't it? Yet millions of people have wrecked their lives in angry turmoil, because they refused to accept the worst; refused to try to improve upon it; refused to salvage what they could from the wreck. Instead of trying to reconstruct their fortunes, they engaged in “a bitter and violent contest with experience”—and ended up victims of that brooding fixation known as melancholia.

Would you like to see how someone else adopted Willis H. Carrier's magic formula and applied it to his own problem? Well, here is one example, from a New York oil dealer who was a student in my classes.

“I was being blackmailed!” this student began.“I didn't believe it was possible—I didn't believe it could happen outside of the movies—but I was actually being blackmailed! What happened was this: the oil company of which I was the head had a number of delivery trucks and a number of drivers. At that time, war regulations were strictly in force, and we were rationed on the amount of oil we could deliver to any one of our customers. I didn't know it, but it seems that certain of our drivers had been delivering oil short to our regular customers, and then reselling the surplus to customers of their own.

“The first inkling I had of these illegitimate transactions was when a man who claimed to be a government inspector came to see me one day and demanded hush money. He had got documentary proof of what our drivers had been doing, and he threatened to turn this proof over to the District Attorney's office if I didn't cough up.

坏的情况之后，”威利斯·卡瑞尔说：“我马上轻松下来，感受到了几天以来未曾经历过的平静。然后，我就能思考了。”

这些话很有道理吧？但仍有千百万人因为愤怒而毁了他们的生活，因为他们不想接受最坏的情况，不愿由此做出改进，不愿在灾难之中尽可能地救出一些可以救出来的东西。他们不但不去重新创造财富，反而参与了“一次冷酷而激烈的斗争”，终于变成了被称为颓丧情绪的牺牲品。

你愿意看其他人如何利用威利斯·卡瑞尔的魔法公式来解决他们自己的问题吗？好，下面就是一个例子。这个人是纽约的一位汽油经销商，他是我班上的学员。

“我被勒索了！”他说，“我不相信这种事情会发生，更不相信会发生在电影以外的现实生活中——可是我真的被勒索了。事情的经过是这样的：我当头儿的这家石油公司有好几辆运油的卡车和几个司机。当时，战时管理委员会的条例很严，我们只能运给每一个顾客有限的汽油。事情的真相我并不知道，可是确实有一些送油的司机克扣顾客的油量，然后再把多余的油卖给其他人。

“一天，一个自称是政府调查员的人找到我，跟我索要红包。他说他拥有我们送油司机违法舞弊的证据，还威胁说如果我不答应他的要求，他就把这些证据转交给地方检察官办公室。我这才发现这些违法交易。

“当然，我知道我不必担心什么，因为这事至少跟我个人无关。但是我也知道

“I knew, of course, that I had nothing to worry about—personally, at least. But I also knew that the law says a firm is responsible for the actions of its employees. What's more, I knew that if the case came to court, and it was aired in the newspapers, the bad publicity would ruin my business. And I was proud of my business—it had been founded by my father twenty-four years before.

“I was so worried I was sick! I didn't eat or sleep for three days and nights. I kept going around in crazy circles.Should I pay the money—five thousand dollars—or should I tell this man to go ahead and do his damnedest? Either way I tried to make up my mind, it ended in nightmare.

“Then, on Sunday night, I happened to pick up the booklet on How to Stop Worrying, which I had been given in my Carnegie class in public speaking. I started to read it, and came across the story of Willis H. Carrier.‘Face the worst', it said. So I asked myself:‘What is the worst that can happen if I refuse to pay up, and these blackmailers turn their records over to the District Attorney?'

“The answer to that was: The ruin of my business—that's the worst that can happen. I can't go to jail. All that can happen is that I shall be ruined by the publicity.

“I then said to myself:‘All right, the business is ruined. I accept that mentally. What happens next?'

“Well, with my business ruined, I would probably have to look for a job. That wasn't bad. I knew a lot about oil—there were several firms that might be glad to employ me... I began to feel better. The blue funk I had been in for three days and nights began to lift a little. My emotions calmed down... And to my astonishment, I was able to think.

“I was clear-headed enough now to face Step III—improve on the worst. As I thought

法律规定公司应该对员工的行为负责。我还知道万一官司捅到法院，上了报纸，那么这种坏名声就会砸了我的生意。我对自己的生意非常骄傲，那是我父亲在24年前打下的基础。

“我担心得不得了，很快就病了，接连三天三夜吃不下睡不着。我一直担心那件事。我是向那个人付5000美元，还是对那个人说随他的便呢？我一直做不了决定，每天都做噩梦。

“后来，在一个星期天的晚上，我碰巧拿出一本小书《如何停止忧虑》，这是我上卡耐基公众演讲课时领到的。我开始阅读它，读到了威利斯·卡瑞尔的故事，里面提到了‘面对最坏的情况’。于是我问自己：‘如果我不肯向那家伙付钱，他把证据交给地方检察官的话，可能发生的最坏情况是什么？’

“答案是：这将会砸了我的生意——最坏也就是这样。但我不会被关起来。可能发生的事就是我将被这件事毁了。’

“于是我对自己说：‘那好吧，即使生意毁了，但我可以接受它。接下去又会怎样呢？’

“是的，生意毁了之后，我也许得去找工作。这也不坏，我对石油了解很多——有几家大公司可能会乐意雇用我……我开始觉得好多了。接连三天三夜以来，我的忧虑开始消除了一点。我的情绪也稳定下来……而让我感到震惊的是，我能够思考了。

of solutions, an entirely new angle presented itself to me. If I told my attorney the whole situation, he might find a way out which I hadn't thought of. I know it sounds stupid to say that this hadn't even occurred to me before—but of course I hadn't been thinking, I had only been worrying! I immediately made up my mind that I would see my attorney first thing in the morning—and then I went to bed and slept like a log!

“How did it end? Well, the next morning my lawyer told me to go and see the District Attorney and tell him the truth. I did precisely that. When I finished I was astonished to hear the D.A.say that this blackmail racket had been going on for months and that the man who chimed to be a‘government agent’was a crook wanted by the police. What a relief to hear all this after I had tormented myself for three days and nights wondering whether I should hand over five thousand dollars to this professional swindler!

“This experience taught me a lasting lesson. Now, whenever I face a pressing problem that threatens to worry me, I give it what I call‘the old Willis H. Carrier formula'.”

At just about the same time Willis H. Carrier was worrying over the gas-cleaning equipment he was installing in a plant in Crystal City, Missouri, a chap from Broken Bow, Nebraska, was making out his will. His name was Earl P. Haney, and he had duodenal ulcers. Three doctors, including a celebrated ulcer specialist, had pronounced Mr. Haney an “incurable case”. They had told him not to eat this or that, and not to worry or fret to keep perfectly calm. They also told him to make out his will!

These ulcers had already forced Earl P. Haney to give up a fine and highly paid position. So now he had nothing to do, nothing to look forward to except a lingering death.

Then he made a decision: a rare and superb decision.“Since I have only a little while to live,” he said, “I may as well make the most of it. I have always wanted to travel around

“我清醒地看到了第三步——改善最坏的情况。当我找到了解决办法之后，一个全新的视角展现在我面前：如果我把整个情况告诉我的律师，他可能会帮我找到一条我从未想到的对策。我知道这听起来似乎很笨，因为我刚开始确实没有想到这一点——当然，我起先并没有好好思考，只是一直在担心。我马上决定第二天一大早就去见我的律师——我上床之后，睡得很踏实。

“结果呢？第二天早上，我的律师叫我去见地方检察官，并把真实情况告诉他。我真的那样做了。当我说完之后，竟出乎意料地听地方检察官说这种勒索案已经连续出现几个月了，那个自称是‘政府调查员’的人，实际上是警方正在通缉的罪犯。当我因为无法决定是否该把那5000美元交给这个罪犯而担心三天三夜之后，听到这番话我真的松了一口气。

“这次经历给我上了永难忘怀的一课。现在，每当我面临让我忧虑的难题时，我就会应用所谓的‘老威利斯·卡瑞尔公式’。”

就在威利斯·卡瑞尔担心他正在密苏里州水晶城一家工厂安装的瓦斯清除设备时，来自内布拉斯加州布罗肯堡的一位伙计也正在写遗嘱。他的名字叫艾尔·汉尼。他得了严重的胃溃疡。三位医生，包括一位非常有名的胃溃疡专家，都说汉尼先生无药可救了。他们告诉他什么都不必吃，什么都不必担心；还告诉他确立遗嘱。

胃溃疡已经迫使艾尔·汉尼放弃了一高薪能位。现在他无事可干，什么都不指

the world before I die. If I am ever going to do it, I'll have to do it now.” So he bought his ticket.

The doctors were appalled.“We must warn you,” they said to Mr. Haney, “that if you do take this trip, you would be buried at sea.”“No, I won't,” I replied.“I have promised my relatives that I will be buried in the family plot at Broken Bow, Nebraska. So I am going to buy a casket with me'.

“I purchased a casket, put it aboard ship, and then made arrangements with the steamship company—in the event of my death—to put my corpse in a freezing compartment and keep it there till the liner returned home. I set out on my trip, imbued with the spirit of old Omar:

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend，

Before we too into the Dust descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie，

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End!”

However, he didn't make the trip “sans wine”.“I drank highballs, and smoked long cigars on that trip,” Mr. Haney says in a letter that I have before me now.“I ate all kinds of foods—even strange native foods which were guaranteed to kill me. I enjoyed myself more than I had in years! We ran into monsoons and typhoons which should have put me in my casket, if only from fright—but I got an enormous kick out of all this adventure.

“I played games aboard the ship, sang songs, made new friends, stayed up half the night. When we reached China and India, I realised that the business cares that I had faced back home were paradise compared to the poverty and hunger in the Orient. I stopped all my senseless worrying and felt fine. When I got back to America, I had gained ninety

望了，只等着末日到来。

然后，他做了一个决定，一个很罕见却很大胆的决定：“既然我只有一点时间可活了，”他说，“不如好好利用它。我一直想在死之前环游世界。如果我还打算做的话，那就现在去做。”于是他买了票。

医生得知了消息。“我们必须警告你，”他们对汉尼先生说，“如果你去旅游，将会葬身大海。”“‘不，我不会的。’我回答说。‘我已经答应我的亲友，我要葬在内布拉斯加州我们家族的墓地中，所以我打算买副棺材随身带着。’

“我去买了一副棺材，把它运上船，然后和轮船公司约定好，如果我去世的话，就把我的尸体放在冷冻舱中，一直运到我的老家。我踏上旅程，心里只想着奥玛·凯恩的一首诗：

啊，在我们化作泥土之前，岂能辜负人生？

不拼搏一番，物化为泥，永寐黄泉之下，

没酒没弦没歌伎，而且没有明天！”

但是，他这次旅行可不是没酒为伴。“旅途中我喝了老酒，抽了长长的雪茄，”汉尼先生在给我的信中说，这封信现在就在我的面前。“我吃了各种东西——甚至包括当地许多奇奇怪怪的食品，而这些据说都是我吃了一定会送命的。多年以来，我从来没有这样享受过生活。我们碰到过季风和台风。这些事情如果内心害怕的话，也会让我躺进棺材，可是我却从这次冒险中得到了极大的乐趣。

pounds and I had almost forgotten I had ever had a stomach ulcer. I had never felt better in my life. I went back to business and haven't been ill a day since.”

Earl P. Haney told me he realizes now that he was unconsiously using the selfsame principles that Willis H. Carrier used to conquer worry.“But I realise now,” he told me quite recently, “that I was unconsciously using the selfsame principle. I reconciled myself to the worst that could happen—in my case, dying. Third, I tried to improved the situation by getting the utmost enjoyment out of life for the short time I had left... If,” he continued, “if I had gone on worrying after boarding that ship, I have no doubt that I would have made the return voyage inside of that coffin. But I relaxed—and I forgot all my troubles. And this calmness of mind gave me a new burst of energy which actually saved my life.”

So, Rule 2 is: If you have a worry problem, apply the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier by doing these three things—

1.Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?”

2.Prepare to accept it if you have to.

3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.

“我在船上做游戏、唱歌、结交新朋友，晚上一直待到深夜。到了中国和印度之后，我发现回去之后需要处理的私事，比起我在东方所见到的贫穷与饥饿简直是天壤之别。我抛弃了所有无聊的担忧，觉得非常舒服。回到美国时，我的体重增加了90磅，我曾患过胃溃疡的事也几乎全忘了。我这一生中从没有这么舒服过。我重新回去工作，此后再也没有病过。”

艾尔·汉尼告诉我，他是在无意识中应用了威利斯·卡瑞尔征服忧虑的办法。“但是我现在认识到，”他最近告诉我，“我是无意识中用到这种方法。我让自己做好最坏的打算，准备接受死亡。第三，我尽力想办法改善这种情况。我开始尽量享受我所剩下的这一点点时间……如果我上船之后还继续忧虑的话，毫无疑问，我一定会躺在棺材里完成这次旅行。可是我放松下来，我忘掉了所有的麻烦。而这种心理上的平静，使我产生了新的力量，挽救了我的生命。”

所以，克服忧虑的第二条规则是：如果你有担忧的问题，就应用威利斯·卡瑞尔的魔法公式，做好下面三件事情：

第一，问你自己：“可能发生的最坏情况是什么？”

第二，如果你必须接受的话，就准备接受它。

第三，镇定地想办法改善最坏的情况。