第4章　解開憂慮之謎

前面提到的威利斯·卡瑞爾的魔法公式是否能解決所有的憂慮呢？不能，當然不能。

那該怎么辦呢？答案是我們一定要學會下面三個分析問題的基本步驟，用它們來解決各種不同的困難。這三個步驟是：

第一步：看清事實。

第二步：分析事實。

第三步：做出決定，然后依照決定行事。

顯而易見？是的。這是亞里士多德教的方法，他也使用過。如果我們想解決那些壓迫我們、使我們成天像生活在地獄中的問題，我們也必須應用這些方法。

我們先來看第一步：看清事實。看清事實為何如此重要呢？因為除非我們看清楚事實，否則就不能聰明地解決問題。沒有事實，我們只能在混亂中摸索。這是我的理論嗎？不，這是哥倫比亞大學哥倫比亞學院已故院長赫伯特·霍基斯說的，他當了22年院長。他曾幫助過20萬學生解決他們的憂慮問題。他告訴我說：“混亂是導致憂慮的主要原因。”他認為：“世界上的憂慮有一半是因為人們沒有足夠的知識做決定而產生的。例如，”他說，“如果我有一個問題必須在下星期二三點以前

try to make a decision about it until next Tuesday arrives. In the meantime, I concentrate on getting all the facts that bear on the problem. I don't worry,” he said, “I don't agonise over my problem. I don't lose any sleep. I simply concentrate on getting the facts. And by the time Tuesday rolls around, if I've got all the facts, the problem usually solves itself!”

I asked Dean Hawkes if this meant he had licked worry entirely.“Yes,” he said, “I think I can honestly say that my life is now almost totally devoid of worry. I have found,” he went on, “that if a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

Let me repeat that:“If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

But what do most of us do? If we bother with facts at all—and Thomas Edison said in all seriousness:“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking”—if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think—and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts—the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices!

As André Maurois put it:“Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage.”

Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five—or maybe five hundred!

解決，那么在下星期二之前我根本不會去試著做出什么決定。我將在這段時間里集中全力搜集所有的相關事實。我不會發愁，不會為這個問題而難過，更不會失眠，我只是全心全力地搜集事實。等快到星期二的時候，如果我已經搜集了所有的事實，問題本身通常會迎刃而解。”

我問霍基斯院長，這是否表明他可以完全拋除憂慮了。“是的，”他說，“我想我可以老實說，我現在的生活完全沒有憂慮。我發現，”他繼續說，“如果一個人能把他所有的時間都用在以一種超然、客觀的態度去尋找事實的話，那么他的憂慮就會在知識的光芒下消失。”

讓我重復一遍：“如果一個人能把他所有的時間都用在以一種超然、客觀的態度去尋找事實的話，那么他的憂慮就會在知識的光芒下消失。”

可是，我們大多數人會怎么做呢？如果我們要考慮事實——托馬斯·愛迪生很鄭重地說：“一個人為了避免花時間去思想，往往會用各種手段。”——如果我們真的考慮事實，我們通常會像獵狗那樣，去找尋那些我們已經想到的，而忽略其他的一切！我們只需要那些適合我們的事實，那些只適合我們的如意算盤、適合我們原有偏見的事實。

正如安德烈·馬羅斯所說的：“和我們個人欲望相適合的看來都是真理，而不適合的只會使我們感到憤怒。”

無怪乎我們會覺得，要得到我們問題的答案這么困難。如果我們一直假定2加

What can we do about it? We have to keep our emotions out of our thinking; and, as Dean Hawkes put it, we must secure the facts in “an impartial, objective” manner.

That is not an easy task when we are worried. When we are worried, our emotions are riding high. But here are two ideas that I have found helpful when trying to step aside from my problems, in order to see the facts in a clear, objective manner.

1. When trying to get the facts, I pretend that I am collecting this information not for myself, but for some other person. This helps me to take a cold, impartial view of the evidence. This helps me eliminate my emotions.

2. While trying to collect the facts about the problem that is worrying me, I sometimes pretend that I am a lawyer preparing to argue the other side of the issue. In other words, I try to get all the facts against myself—all the facts that are damaging to my wishes, all the facts I don't like to face.

Then I write down both my side of the case and the other side of the case—and I generally find that the truth lies somewhere in between these two extremities.

Here is the point I am trying to make. Neither you nor I nor Einstein nor the Supreme Court of the United States is brilliant enough to reach an intelligent decision on any problem without first getting the facts. Thomas Edison knew that. At the time of his death, he had two thousand five hundred notebooks filled with facts about the problems he was facing.

So Rule 1 for solving our problems is: Get the facts.Let's do what Dean Hawkes did: let's not even attempt to solve our problems without first collecting all the facts in an impartial manner.

However, getting all the facts in the world won't do us any good until we analyse them

2等于5，那不是連一個二年級的算術題都不會做了嗎？但事實上，世界上就有許多人堅持認為2加2等于5——或等于500——以至于弄得自己和別人的日子都不舒服。

對此我們該怎么辦呢？我們應該將感情排除于思想之外，就如霍基斯院長所說的，我們必須用“超然客觀”的態度來看清事實。

要在憂慮的時候那樣做可不是一件簡單的事。因為當我們憂慮的時候，會情緒激動。不過，我還是找到了兩個有助于我們以清晰客觀的態度看清所有事實并克服憂慮的辦法：

第一，在搜集各種事實的時候，我假裝不是為自己搜集這些資料，而是為別人做這事，這樣我可以保持冷靜超然的態度，也可以幫助自己控制情緒。

第二，在搜集造成各種憂慮的事實時，我有時候還將自己假設成對方的律師。換句話說，我也要搜集一些對自己不利的事實——搜集那些有損我的希望以及我所不愿面對的事實。

然后，我會把這一邊的和另外一邊的所有事實都寫下來。這時，我通常會發現，真理就存在于這兩個極端中間。

這就是我想說明的要點：如果不事先看清楚事實的話，你、我、愛因斯坦，甚至連美國最高法院，也不能對任何問題做出聰明的決定。愛迪生就清楚這一點，他死前留下來的2500本筆記中，記滿了他面臨的各種問題的事實。

所以，解決我們困難的第一個辦法，就是看清事實。讓我們仿效霍基斯院長的方法吧：在沒有以客觀態度搜集所有的事實之前，不要想著如何去解決問題。

and interpret them.

I have found from costly experience that it is much easier to analyse the facts after writing them down. In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision. As Charles Kettering puts it:“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”

Let me show you all this as it works out in practice. Since the Chinese say one picture is worth ten thousand words, suppose I show you a picture of how one man put exactly what we are talking about into concrete action.

Let's take the case of Galen Litchfield—a man I have known for several years; one of the most successful American businessmen in the Far East.Mr.Litchfield was in China in 1942, when the Japanese invaded Shanghai. And here is his story as he told it to me while a guest in my home:

“Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour,” Galen Litchfield began, “they came swarming into Shanghai. I was the manager of the Asia Life Insurance Company in Shanghai. They sent us an‘army liquidator'—he was really an admiral—and gave me orders to assist this man in liquidating our assets. I didn't have any choice in the matter. I could cooperate—or else. And the‘or else'was certain death.

“I went through the motions of doing what I was told, because I had no alternative. But there was one block of securities, worth $750，000, which I left off the list I gave to the admiral. I left that block of securities off the list because they belonged to our Hong Kong organisation and had nothing to do with the Shanghai assets. All the same, I feared I might be in hot water if the Japanese found out what I had done. And they soon found out.

然而，如果對事實不加以分析和解釋，即使把全世界所有的事實都搜集起來，對我們也沒有任何幫助。

根據我個人代價高昂的過往經歷，把所有的事實都記下來，然后再做分析，事情就會容易得多。事實上，只要在紙上記下各種事實，把我們的問題明明白白地寫出來，有助于我們做出合理的決定。正如查爾斯·凱特林所說：“把問題寫清楚，就已經解決了一半問題。”

讓我用實例來告訴你這種方法的成績，中國有句古話叫“百聞不如一見”。我要告訴你，一個人是怎樣把上面所說的付諸行動的。

以格蘭·李克菲的事情為例——我認識他好幾年了，他是遠東地區最成功的美國商人之一。1942年，日軍侵入上海，李克菲先生正在中國。下面是他在我家做客時告訴我的故事：

“日軍轟炸珍珠港之后不久，”格蘭·李克菲說，“他們攻占了上海。當時我是上海亞洲人壽保險公司的經理。他們派來了一個‘軍方清算員’（他實際上是一位海軍上將），命令我協助他清算我們的財產。這種事我毫無辦法，要么合作，要么算了——而所謂算了，當然是死。

“我只好遵命行事，因為我無路可走。不過，我將一筆大約75萬美元的保險費沒有填寫在清單上。我之所以不填進去，是因為這筆錢屬于我們香港的公司，和上海公司的資產無關。但我還是擔心萬一日本人發現了這件事可能會對我不利。他們很快就發現了。

“I wasn't in the office when the discovery was made, but my head accountant was there. He told me that the Japanese admiral flew into a rage, and stamped and swore, and called me a thief and a traitor! I had defied the Japanese Army! I knew what that meant. I would be thrown into the Bridge house!

“The Bridge house! The torture chamber of the Japanese Gestapo! I had had personal friends who had killed themselves rather than be taken to that prison. I had had other friends who had died in that place after ten days of questioning and torture. Now I was slated for the Bridge house myself!

“What did I do? I heard the news on Sunday afternoon. I suppose I should have been terrified. And I would have been terrified if I hadn't had a definite technique for solving my problems. For years, whenever I was worried I had always gone to my typewriter and written down two questions—and the answers to these questions:

“1. What am I worrying about?

“2. What can I do about it?

“I used to try to answer those questions without writing them down. But I stopped that years ago. I found that writing down both the questions and the answers clarifies my thinking.

“So, that Sunday afternoon, I went directly to my room at the Shanghai YMCA, and got out my typewriter. I wrote:

“1. What am I worrying about?

“I am afraid I will be thrown into the Bridge house tomorrow morning.

“Then I typed out the second question:

“2. What can I do about it?

“他們發現的時候，我恰巧不在辦公室，但會計部主任在場。他告訴我，日本海軍上將大發脾氣，還拍桌子直罵人，說我是強盜和叛徒，我侮辱了日本皇軍。我知道這是什么意思，我可能會被關進憲兵隊。

“憲兵隊是日本秘密警察的行刑室。我有幾個朋友，他們情愿自殺也不愿被送到那個地方。我還有一些朋友在那里被審問折磨了10天之后，死在那里。而我現在也要被關進憲兵隊了。

“我該怎么辦？我星期天下午得知的這個消息，我想我當時應該嚇得要命。如果我找不到解決問題的方法，我一定會被嚇死的。多年來，每當我擔心的時候，總會坐在打字機前打出下面兩個問題，以及問題的答案：

“第一，我擔心什么？

“第二，我能做什么？

“以往我都不把答案寫下來，只是在心里回答問題。不過幾年前我就不再那樣做了。我發現把問題和答案都寫下來，會使我的思路變得清晰。

所以，在那個星期天的下午，我直接回到我在上海基督教青年會的房間，取出打字機寫道：

“第一，我擔心什么？

“我擔心明天早上會被關進憲兵隊里。

“然后我打出第二個問題：

“第二，我能做什么？

“I spent hours thinking out and writing down the four courses of action I could take—and what the probable consequence of each action would be.

1. I can try to explain to the Japanese admiral. But he “no speak English”. If I try to explain to him through an interpreter, I may stir him up again. That might mean death, for he is cruel, would rather dump me in the Bridge house than bother talking about it.

2. I can try to escape. Impossible. They keep track of me all the time. I have to check in and out of my room at the YMCA. If I try to escape, I'll probably be captured and shot.

3. I can stay here in my room and not go near the office again. If I do, the Japanese admiral will be suspicious, will probably send soldiers to get me and throw me into the Bridge house without giving me a chance to say a word.

4. I can go down to the office as usual on Monday morning. If I do, there is a chance that the Japanese admiral may be so busy that he will not think of what I did. Even if he does think of it, he may have cooled off and may not bother me. If this happens, I am all right. Even if he does bother me, I'll still have a chance to try to explain to him. So, going down to the office as usual on Monday morning, and acting as if nothing had gone wrong gives me two chances to escape the Bridge house.

“As soon as I thought it all out and decided to accept the fourth plan—to go down to the office as usual on Monday morning—I felt immensely relieved.

“When I entered the office the next morning, the Japanese admiral sat there with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He glared at me as he always did; and said nothing. Six weeks later—thank God—he went back to Tokyo and my worries were ended.

“As I have already said, I probably saved my life by sitting down that Sunday afternoon

“我思考了幾個小時，寫下了我能采取的四種行動，以及每一種行動可能帶來的后果。

“第一，我可以試著向日本海軍上將解釋。可是他不會說英文，若是我找翻譯對他解釋，可能會讓他再次生氣，那可能是死路一條，因為他是個兇殘的人，寧愿把我關進憲兵隊，也不愿費神和我講理。

“第二，我可以逃走。但這不可能，因為他們一直都在監視我。我從基督教青年會進進出出都要登記，如果我想逃走，可能被抓住槍斃。

“第三，我也可以留在房間不再上班。如果這樣做，那位日本海軍上將就會懷疑，也許會派人來抓我，根本不給我任何說話的機會，直接把我關進憲兵隊。

“第四，我可以星期一早上照常上班。如果我這樣做，那位日本海軍上將很可能正在忙著，忘掉了我的事情。而且即使他想到了，也可能已經冷靜下來，不再找我的麻煩。如果是這樣，我就萬事大吉了。甚至即使他還來找我，我仍然有機會向他解釋。所以我應該和平常一樣在星期一早上去辦公室，就像什么事也沒有發生過，可以給我兩個逃避憲兵隊的機會。

“等我通盤考慮之后，我決定采取第四個計劃——和平常一樣，在星期一早上去上班——我大大地松了一口氣。

“我第二天早上走進辦公室時，那位日本海軍上將坐在那里，嘴里叼著香煙，像平常一樣看了我一眼，但什么話也沒說。六個星期之后——謝天謝地——他調回東京去了，我的憂慮也就此告終！

and writing out all the various steps I could take and then writing down the probable consequences of each step and calmly coming to a decision. If I hadn't done that, I might have floundered and hesitated and done the wrong thing on the spur of the moment. If I hadn't thought out my problem and come to a decision, I would have been frantic with worry all Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't have slept that night. I would have gone down to the office Monday morning with a harassed and worried look; and that alone might have aroused the suspicion of the Japanese admiral and spurred him to act.

“Experience has proved to me, time after time, the enormous value of arriving at a decision. It is the failure to arrive at a fixed purpose, the inability to stop going round and round in maddening circles, that drives men to nervous breakdowns and living hells. I find that fifty per cent of my worries vanishes once I arrive at a clear, definite decision; and another forty per cent usually vanishes once I start to carry out that decision.

“So I banish about ninety per cent of my worries by taking these four steps:

“1.Writing down precisely what I am worrying about.

“2.Writing down what I can do about it.

“3.Deciding what to do.

“4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.”

Galen Litchfield is now the Far Eastern Director for Starr, Park and Freeman, Inc., III John Street, New York, representing large insurance and financial interests. In fact, as I said before, Galen Litchfield today is one of the most important American businessmen in Asia; and he confesses to me that he owes a large part of his success to this method of analyzing worry and meeting it head-on.

Why is his method so superb? Because it is efficient, concrete, and goes directly to the

“就像我前面所說的，我之所以能撿回這條命，大概就因為我在那個星期天下午寫出了可以采取的各種不同步驟，以及每一個步驟可能產生的后果，然后鎮定地做出了決定。如果我不那樣做，我可能會思想混亂或者猶豫不決，以至于在緊要關頭出錯。如果我沒有分析我的問題并做出決定，整個星期天下午我就會心急如焚，那天晚上也睡不著覺，星期一早上上班時可能滿面驚慌和愁容——僅此一點，就會使那位日本海軍上將起疑心，從而使他采取行動。

“以后一次又一次的經驗證明，達成決定的確大有價值。人們正是因為不能實現既定的目的，而且不能控制自己，總是局限在一個令人難以忍受的小圈子里，才會精神崩潰和生活窘迫。我發現一旦做出清楚而明確的決定之后，一半的憂慮會立即消失，而另外的40%通常會在我按照決定去做之后消失。

“采取以下四個步驟，通常就能消除90%的憂慮：

“第一，清楚地寫下我所擔心的是什么。

“第二，寫下我可以怎么辦。

“第三，決定該怎么辦。

“第四，馬上就照決定去做。”

格蘭·李克菲已經成了紐約市第三約翰大街斯塔爾-帕克-弗里曼公司的遠東區總經理，代表大保險和金融集團的利益。事實上，他現在是亞洲最重要的幾位美國商人之一，他誠懇地告訴我：他的成功很大程度歸功于這種分析并敢于正視憂慮的方法。

heart of the problem. On top of all that, it is climaxed by the third and indispensable rule: Do something about it.

Unless we carry out our action, all our fact-finding and analysis is whistling upwind—it's a sheer waste of energy.

William James said this, “When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.”（In this case, William James undoubtedly used the word “care” as a synonym for “anxiety”.）He meant—once you have made a careful decision based on facts, go into action.Don't stop to reconsider.Don't begin to hesitate, worry and retrace your steps.Don't lose yourself in self-doubting which begets other doubts.Don't keep looking back over your shoulder.

I once asked Waite Phillips, one of Oklahoma's most prominent oil men, how he carried out decisions.

He replied, “I find that to keep thinking about our problems beyond a certain point is bound to create confusion and worry. There comes a time when any more investigation and thinking are harmful. There comes a time when we must decide and act and never look back.”

Why don't you employ Galen Litchfield's technique to one of your worries right now?

Here is:

Question No.1—What am I worrying about?（Please pencil the answer to that question in the space below.）

Question No.2—What can I do about it?（Please write your answer to that question in the space below.）

Question No.3—Here is what I am going to do about it.

Question No.4—When am I going to start doing it?

為什么他的方法這么管用？因為它有效、具體，直抵問題核心。最重要的是，它遵循了第三項且是不可或缺的原則：采取行動。

除非我們采取行動，否則我們尋找并分析事實的做法都將化為泡影——那真是在白費精力。

威廉·詹姆斯這樣說：“一旦做出決定，當天就要付諸實踐，同時不要理會責任問題，也不要關心后果。”（在這里威廉·詹姆斯無疑是用“關心”指代“憂慮”）他的意思是說，一旦你以事實為基礎做出了謹慎的決定之后，就要付諸實行，而不是停下來再重新考慮，要毫不遲疑、毫不擔憂和猶豫，不要懷疑自己。不要不停地回頭張望。

我曾問俄克拉荷馬州最成功的石油商人之一懷特·菲利浦斯，他是如何把決心付諸行動的。他回答說：“我發現，如果在超過某種限度之后還一直思考問題的話，一定會導致混亂和憂慮。當調查和思考過度對我們有害的時候，也就是我們必須下定決心、付諸行動、不再猶豫的時候。”

何不馬上運用格蘭·李克菲的方法來解決你的憂慮？下面就是：

第一個問題——我擔憂什么？（請寫下你的答案）

第二個問題——我能做什么？（請寫下你的答案）

第三個問題——我決定怎么做？

第四個問題——我什么時候開始做？