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How to enjoy your life and your job | Book summary

 

About the author


Dale Carnegie was an American writer

and lecturer,and the developer of 

courses in self-improvement,

salesmanship, corporate training, 

public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

One of the core ideas in his books is that 

it is possible to change other people's

behavior by changing one's behavior 

towards them.


Contents


Stop Working


  1. Four working habits that will help 

    you to prevent fatigue and worry.

  2. How to Banish boredom that 

    produces fatigue, worry, 

    and resentment

  3. Find yourself be yourself.

  4. How to overcome Tiredness.

  5. Do this and criticism can’t hurt you.

  6. Would you take a million dollars for 

    what you have?



Stop working


1)Four good working habits that will

 help prevent fatigue and worry.



Good working habits No. 1

Clear your desk of all papers except

those relating to the immediate 

problem at hand.


"Order is heaven's first law".

Order ought to be the first law of 

business, too. But it is? No,the 

average desk is cluttered up

with papers that haven't been 

looked at for weeks.

The constant reminder of "a million 

things to do and no time no time to 

do them" can worry you not only 

into tension and fatigue but also 

into high blood pressure, 

heart trouble, and stomach ulcers.

United States supreme court said: 

"men do not die from overwork. 

They die from dissipation and worry.

Yes, from dissipation of their energies 

and worry because they never 

seem to get their work done.


Good working habit No. 2

Do things in order of their importance.


Henry L. Doherty, the founder of the

nationwide cities service company, 

said that regardless of how much 

salary paid, there were two abilities 

he found it almost impossible to find.

Those two priceless abilities: first, 

the ability to think. Second, the ability 

to do things in order of their importance.


Good working habit No. 3

When you face a problem, solve it 

then and there if you have the facts 

necessary to make a decision.

Don't keep putting off decisions.


Good working habit No. 4

Learn to organize, deputize and

supervise.


Many business persons are driving 

themselves to premature Graves 

because they never learned to 

delegate responsibility to others. 

They insist on doing everything 

themselves, result: details and 

confusion overwhelm them. 

They are driven by a sense of hurry,

worry, anxiety and tension.


Dale Carnegie

"Our fatigue is  often caused not by 

work but by worry frustration, and 

resentment of work."



2) How to banish the boredom that

produces fatigue, worry, and 

resentment


One of the chief causes of fatigue is 

boredom.It is a well-known fact that 

your emotional attitude usually has 

far more to do with reducing fatigue 

than physical exertion.The tests have 

shown that the blood pressure of the 

body and the consumption of oxygen 

actually decreases when a person is 

bored and that the whole metabolism 

picks up immediately as soon as he 

begins to feel interest and pleasure 

in his work.

"We rarely get tired when we are doing 

something interesting and exciting."


Dr. Edward Thorndike of Columbia was 

conducting experiments in fatigue that 

kept young men awake for almost a 

week by keeping them constantly 

interested. After much investigation. 

Dr. Thorndike is reported to have said 

boredom is the only real cause of the 

diminution of work.



"The lucky folks are the ones that get to 

do things they enjoy doing." Such folk is 

lucky because they have more energy, 

more happiness, less worry, less fatigue. 

Where your interests are there is your 

energy also. Walking ten blocks with a 

nagging wife or husband can be more 

fatiguing than walking 10 miles with an 

adoring sweetheart.


We talk a lot about the importance of 

physical exercise to wake up out of 

the half-sleep in which so many of us 

walk around but we need even more
spiritual and mental exercises every 

morning to stir us into action. Give 

yourself a pep talk every day.

"Our  Life is what our thoughts make it".

By thinking the right thoughts we can 

make a job less distasteful.

“If you don't find happiness in your work, 

you may never find it anywhere.”


Dale Carnegie


"People rarely succeed unless they have 

fun in what they are doing."


"Remember happiness doesn't depend 

upon who you are or what you have; 

it depends solely on what you think."



3) Find yourself and be yourself.


No matter what happens, always be 

yourself.

"Nobody is so miserable as he who 

longs to be somebody and something 

other than the person he is in body 

and mind."


The author asked Paul Boynton, 

employment director for a major oil 

company what is the biggest mistake 

people make when applying for jobs. 

He ought to know, he has interviewed 

more than sixty thousand job seekers 

and he has written a book and title 

"6 ways to get a job" he replied, 

"the biggest mistake people make in 

applying for jobs is in not being 

themselves instead of taking their 

hair down and being completely 

frank they often try to give you the 

answers they think you want."

William James said,

"We are making use of only a small 

part of our physical and mental 

resources stating the thing broadly 

human individuals thus far live within 

their limits. They possess powers of 

various sorts which they habitually fail

to use.

"You and I have such abilities so let's 

not waste a second worrying because 

we are not like other people. You are 

something new in this world. Never 

before since the beginning of time has 

there ever been anybody exactly like 

you and never again throughout all the 

ages to come will there ever be anybody 

exactly like you again.

Truly, we are  "fearfully and wonderfully" 

made. Even after your mother and father 

met and mated there were only one in 

300,000 billion chances that the person 

who is specifically you would be born. 

In other words, if you had 300,000 billion 

brothers and sisters they might all have 

been different from you. Is this all a 

guesswork? No, it is a scientific fact.


"You've got to be with all his faults

and limitations. You can't possibly 

be anybody else."


You are something new in this world. 

Be glad to make the most of what nature 

gave you. In the last analysis. All of this 

is autobiographical. You can sing only 

what you are, you can paint only what 

you are, you must be what your 

experiences to the environment and your 

heredity have made you, for better or for 

worse you must cultivate your own little 

garden, for better or for worse you must 

play your own instrument in the 

orchestra of life.


There is a poem the late 

Douglas Malloch said:


If you can't be a point on the 

top of the hill

Be a scrub in the valley but-be

The best little scrub by the side 

of the rill;

Be a bush, if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush, be a bit 

of grass,

And some highway happier make; 

if you can't be muskie;

then be a bass---

But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains we have 

got to be crew,

There is something for all of us 

here. There is big work to do and 

there is lesser to do

And the task we must do is near

If you can't be a highway then just 

be a trail, if you can't be

the sun, be a star it isn't by size 

that you win or you fail

be the best of whatever you are 


Dale Carnegie


“speakers who talk about what life has 

taught them never fail to keep the 

attention of the listeners.”


“Success is getting what you want. 

Happiness is wanting what you get.”



4) How to overcome tiredness.


Psychiatrists found that most of our 

fatigue derives from our mental and 

emotional attitudes. The greatest part 

of the fatigue from which we suffer is 

of mental origin; in fact, exhaustion of 

purely physical origin is rare.

What is the answer to this nervous fatigue?

Relax! Relax! Relax, learn to relax. 

while you are doing your work.


“Tension is a habit, relaxing is a habit 

and bad habits can be broken, good 

habits formed.”

If you can completely relax the muscles 

of your eyes you can forget all your 

troubles, the reason the eyes are so 

important in relieving nervous tension 

is that they burn up one-fourth of all the 

nervous energy is consumed by the body 

that is also why so many people with perfectly 

sound vision suffer from "eye strain."  

"They are tensing their eyes."


“Relaxation is the absence of 

all tension and effort.”

Think of ease and relaxation. 

Begin by thinking of relaxation 

of the muscles of your eyes and 

your face saying over and over let go, 

let go, let go and relax. Feel the energy 

flowing out of your facial muscles to the 

center of your body. Think of yourself as 

being as free from tension as a baby.


Dale Carnegie


Take a chance! All life is a chance. 

The man who goes for this is generally 

the one who is willing to do and dare.



5) Do this and criticism can't 

hurt you.


People are not thinking about you 

and me or caring what you said about 

us, they are thinking about themselves 

before breakfast after breakfast and 

right on until 10 minutes past midnight. 

They would be a thousand times more 

concerned about the slight headache of 

their own than they would about the news 

of your death or mine.


"Never be bothered by what people say, 

as long as you know in your heart 

you are right"


"Do what you feel in your heart to be 

right for you will be criticized, anyway. 

You will be damned if you do and 

damned if you don't."


“If you get your head above the crowd 

you are going to be criticized. 

So get used to the idea.”


6) Would you take a million-

dollar for what you have?



I realized how rich I was. I had two legs.

I could walk. I said to myself if a person 

without legs is happy, cheerful, and 

confident without legs then I certainly 

can with legs.


“I had the blues because I had no 

shoes. Until upon the street, I met 

a man who had no feet.”


If you have all the fresh water you want 

to drink and all the food you want to eat, 

you ought never to complain about 

anything. About 90% of the things in our 

lives are right and about 10% are wrong. 

If we want to be happy all we have to do 

is to concentrate on the 90% that is right 

and ignore the 10% that is wrong. 

If we want to be worried and bitter and 

have stomach ulcers all we have to do 

is to concentrate on the 10% that are 

wrong and ignore the 90% that are 

glorious.


"Think and Thank", Think of all we have 

to be grateful for and thank god for all 

our boons and bounties.


Would you sell both your eyes for a 

billion dollars? what would you take for 

your two legs, your hands, your hearing, 

your children, your family. Add up your 

assets and you will find that you won't 

sell what you have for all the gold ever 

amazed by the Rockefeller's the ford's 

and the morgans combined.

But do we appreciate all this?

"We seldom think of what we have but 

always of what we lack. The tendency 

to seldom think of what we have but 

always of what we lack is the greatest 

tragedy on earth.

It has probably caused more misery 

than all the worse and diseases in 

history.


“There are two things to aim for in life, 

first to get what you want; and after 

that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of 

mankind achieve the second."


Dale Carnegie


Tell the audience what you are going 

to say, then tell them what you have 

said.


The essence of all art is to have 

pleasure in giving pleasure.


Conclusion


  1.  Good working habits.

  • Clear your desk of all 

    papers except those 

    relating to the immediate 

    problem at hand. Keep 

    your things in order.

  • Do things in order of 

    their importance.

  • Don't keep putting 

    off decisions.

  • Learn to organize, 

    deputize and supervise.


"Our fatigue is  often caused not by 

work but by worry, frustration, 

and resentment of work."


2) How to banish the boredom that 

produces fatigue, worry, and 

resentment.


  • "The lucky folks are the ones that 

    get to do things they enjoy doing."

  • "Our  Life is what our 

    thoughts make it"

  • "People rarely succeed unless 

    they have fun in what they 

    are doing."


3) Find yourself and be yourself.


  • No matter what happens, 

    always be yourself

  • "You've got to be with all his 

    faults and limitations. You can't 

    possibly be anybody else."

  • “Success is getting what you want. 

    Happiness is wanting what you get.”


4) How to overcome tiredness.

  • Learn to relax

  • “Relaxation is the absence of 

    all tension and effort.”

  • “Tension is a habit, relaxing is a 

    habit and bad habits can be 

    broken, good habits formed.”

  • "Never be bothered by what 

    people say, as long as you know 

    in your heart you are right"


6) Would you take a million-dollar 

for what you have?

  • “I had the blues because I had no 

    shoes. Until upon the street, I met 

    a man who had no feet.”

  • "Think and Thank", Think of all we 

    have to be grateful for and thank 

    god for all our boons and bounties.

  • “There are two things to aim 

    for in life, first to get what you 

    want; and after that to enjoy it. 

    Only the wisest of mankind achieve 

    the second."


Note

Actually, this book has two parts.

  1. How to win friends and influence 

    people

  2. Stop working.

In this summary, I have summarised only 

the second part. If you want the summary 

of 1st part then you can check that on my 

blog I have made an entire blog on that 

summary.


 

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 Rishabh

Credits

Book by Dale Carnegie

Summary by summary Pedia

Written and made by Rishabh Kaushal


Other summaries By me:  

  1. Rich dad poor dad 

  2. How to win friends and influence 

    people 

     

    You can checkout these 

    summaries by scrolling 

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