JORGE RODRIGUES SIMÃO

Worrying about the trivial - and occasionally the important - is one of the more popular activities in North America today. Worry is so rampant that many people spend several hours a day in this dubious activity. A substantial number of Americans - 15 percent, in fact - spend at least 50 percent of each day worrying about their lives, says a study from Pennsylvania State University. On this note, you should give serious consideration to the number of hours that you spend worrying each day. One hour a day means that you are spending 365 hours a year having worrisome thoughts. Yet spending only one hour a week in this activity is probably too much. You may have already realized that most worry is self-inflicted and a great deal of it is useless.

Do you take many of the things others say about you or do to you personally?  Assuming that you are like most people, I would venture to say that the answer is a resounding yes.  As a matter of course we all have a natural tendency to overreact to certain actions of other human beings.  Taking things personally is more proof of our selfishness. Each and every one of us who takes things personally believes on some level or another that "this world is all about me." To be sure, it's all too easy to take things personally. But you must learn how not to take what others think, say or do personally if happiness is one of your goals. Whether it's getting overlooked for an invitation to an important event, being cut off in traffic, or receiving bad service in a restaurant, don't look at any of these events as an attack or personal slight on you by others. Truth be known, they are doing it to everyone else.

Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?" asked Friedrich Nietzsche. The obvious answer is: "Yes!" Boredom, even so, is a condition that affects millions of North Americans. Boredom deprives people of the meaning of life and undermines their zest for living. Although it would seem to specifically affect those who are idle and jobless, people with high-status and well-paying careers can be just as affected.

Think of some of the great difficulties that you have experienced over the years - ones that you invited into your life on some level or another. This applies to financial dilemmas, dysfunctional relationships, speeding tickets, lawsuits, time-wasting arguments, health problems, and family feuds. For good measure, you can add any other predicament that you could have bypassed in some way or form. Wouldn't it have been easier to avoid these situations than trying to get out of them later?