Weve overcome many of the worst diseases known to man in the past century, but weve made no headway whatsoever against the crippling disease that lies behind many emotional and physical problems: worry. While there is no way to avoid problems, there are ways to fight the stress they might cause.

Author and speaker Dale Carnegie cautioned that it was impossible to live in the past or the future. But by trying to do so, he wrote, we can wreck both our bodies and our minds. So lets be content to live the only time we can possibly live: from now until bedtime.

Stress and worry saps energy, warps thinking and kills ambition. The only way to keep them at bay is to focus your attention on the one place you can act to achieve your ends: today.

As Robert Louis Stevenson said, Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.

Many of us spend far too much time worrying about things that will never come to pass and one of the best sways to stop this is to consider the odds. You can do this by simply looking at the mathematical odds that an event will actually come to pass. This will help you put your concerns in perspective.

For example, say youre worried about flying. The odds that your plane will crash are about one in a hundred thousand. Knowing that, should you still worry? Or lets say a competitor opens up a new business. Put odds on its success. How long will it take the new company to gain the same experience and good will you enjoy? The odds are in your favor.

Its impossible to worry if youre busy with a project, learning a new skill, helping others, or reading a book. Many successful actors and actresses such as Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts say that they fight worry by practicing a part, even before its been offered to them. By doing this it keeps them from worrying about whether theyll get the part or not.

Sometimes you have a real reason to worry, youre in danger of missing a meeting and losing a prime account or youve made a major mistake. Try this three step process to ease the situation:

1. Ask: Whats the worst that can possibly happen? Maybe your boss will tell you, youll miss a deadline, or youll lose an account. Often the consequences arent worth losing sleep over.

2. Prepare yourself to accept the worst. Imagine you get fired. Or go bankrupt. It will be no fun to contemplate the worst, but doing so will help you confront the issue in a calmer frame of mind. Youll also see that its possible to recover from the worst.

3. Work calmly and methodically to improve upon the worst. Is there anything you can do to make the situation better? Make a list of the steps to take, people to call, research you can do, anything that will help.

Much of our stress and worry comes from resisting reality. We engage in denial. We become angry and insist that this should not have happened to us or should not have happened at all. We reject it and wish that it hadnt occurred in the first place.

It is this resistance and denial that causes most of our worry and stress. When you use the three steps that Ive listed above, you will lower your flash point and become more relaxed. Youll become calmer and you will develop a more detached perspective. Youll be able to stand back from the situation as though it were happening to someone else.

As a result youll become more constructive about how the situation can best be resolved. Youll never allow yourself to become emotionally involved in every little thing that happens or might happen to you.

Nothing has any meaning except what you give to it. Without the meaning or emotion that you attach to an event or circumstance, it has no emotional significance for you, and you can change the meaning by controlling your thinking. You can even eliminate its negative effect on you altogether by refusing to become emotionally involved in a short-term setback. It is up to you.

Your ability to keep stress and worry at bay will do more to enable you to succeed and say more about you to other people than any other single factor. Successful men and women are invariably those who have developed the ability to respond constructively to the large and small crises that occur everyday, unexpectedly, and unavoidably. When you learn to do the same your life will be much more happy, healthy, and successful.

Copyright2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. A former ad agency executive and marketing consultant, Joe?s work in personal development focuses on helping his clients identify hidden marketable assets that create windfall opportunities and profits, as well as sound personal happiness and peace.

For Joe, success in life is the comprehensive product of greater wealth and income, better personal relationships, and productive attitudes and environments. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing.

Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.