“How to stop worrying and start living” by Dale Carnegie, Chapter-8: A law that will outlaw many of your worries!

Did you know? In 2021, 83.40% of all road accident deaths are caused by only two reasons over-speeding and reckless driving in India – Times of India

By solving only two problems you could avoid 83.40% of deaths from accidents, that’s the power of statistics!

In this chapter, the author explains why we should use the lens of statistics to see the world to reduce our worries that are not at all probable.

He explains how when he was a child, he was always worried about getting buried alive, stuck by lightning, and other less probable things. These thoughts keep his nerve shaking and he was worried all the time. He realized 99% of all the things he was worried will never happen. Even getting stuck by lightning, the probability is 1 in 3,50,000, and getting buried alive is close to zero.

This way of thinking calmed his nerves and further teaches him to think analytically, rather than worrying about it. Just as a lawyer think analytically before he speaks! When I was in CA. Foundation, I learned about the fact that most of the students at this level fail because of Maths; be it Calculus or trigonometry.

I was not that good at Maths but when I came to know about this statistics, I spend 3 months just studying Maths subject. It was my weakness and I learned to strengthen my weakness.

Worrying about the less probable things is the root of all worries. Next time, when you are stuck on a problem, try to think analytically and use probability for decision-making.