In 1933, author F. Scott Fitzgerald ended a letter to his 11-year-old daughter, Scottie, with a list of things to worry about, not worry about, and simply think about.
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It read as follows:
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanshipThings not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactionsWhat am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?With dearest love,
Daddy
Shared from Where Excuses Go to Die
Photo: Public Domain Image/Wikimedia
Horsemanship?
Scott Fitzgerald on a website called The Good Men Project? Who’s next? Papa Hemingway?
Didn’t F. Scott Fitzgerald worry about nearly half of the things he told his daughter not to?