Is a publishing professional with more than twenty years of

4. push the Worry to the Max
They won’t just laugh at you. The laughter will turn to jeers. 
They’ll start throwing things at you! They’ll chase you from the 
room and out of the building! You’ll lose your job, your spouse 
will leave you, and you’ll wind up at the homeless shelter.
Naw. That isn’t really going to happen.
Now, stop worrying, which accomplishes nothing, and prepare 
thoroughly for that presentation.
5. Figure Out What, If any, action You Will take
You’ve got three choices:
•  You can do something now,
•  You can do something later, or
•  You can do nothing.
Play  with  possibilities.  You  could  eat  the  cheeseburger  and 
fries now and fast for the rest of the month. You could compro-
mise—single  cheeseburger,  with  tomatoes  and  onions,  no  fries. 
You could eat the salad and steal bites of your friend’s burger.
Actions  you  might  take  regarding  the  business  presentation 
include: hitting the Internet to gather data; practicing in front of a 
sympathetic audience; faking a sore throat and going home “sick”; 
asking someone to make the presentation for you.
You may decide to do nothing because you feel that nothing 
you  can  do  will  help  the  situation  or  because  the  costs  of  any 
action you might take outweigh the potential benefits. Deciding 

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to do nothing is quite different from failing or refusing to decide 
at all. If you examine the situation and decide there’s nothing you 
can do, you’ll remove the ambiguity and thus relieve a great deal 
of anxiety. If you evade the decision, you’ll go right on worrying.
Perhaps you’re worrying about a decision you can’t make yet. If 
you’re losing sleep over tomorrow’s decision, tell yourself, “I don’t 
have to decide that now.” Repeat as often as you need to.
Now tell yourself, “Whatever I decide will be fine.” Tell your-
self often enough and you’ll begin to believe it, not because you’ve 
brainwashed yourself but your intuition will recognize the truth 
of the statement. Whatever you decide really will be fine, because 
you’ll  act  on  it  and,  having  acted,  move  on  to  whatever  comes 
next.