I Can Turn Myself Into a Shouting Optimist Within An Hour - Great Advice From Mr. Roger W. Babson
Roger W. Babson, phot courtesy of Babson College
“When I find myself depressed over present conditions, I can, within one hour, banish worry an turn myself into a shouting optimist. Here is how I do it. I enter my library, close my eyes, and walk to certain shelves containing only books on history. With my eyes still shut, I reach for a book, not knowing whether I am picking up Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico or Suetonius’ Lives of Twelve Caesars. With my eyes still closed, I open the book at random. Then I open my eyes and read for an hour; and the more I read the more sharply I realize that he world has always been tottering on the brink. The pages of history fairly shriek with tragic tales of war, famine, poverty, pestilence, and man’s inhumanity to man. After reading history for an hour, I realize that bad as conditions are now, they are infinitely better than they use to be. This enables me to see and face my present troubles in their proper perspective as well as to realize that the world as a whole is constantly growing better.”
