Loving: Things to Worry About

via ListsofNote.com

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his 11 year old daughter Scottie.  I love that this sage advice is as true for an 11 year old as it is for a 30 year old.  I also love the thread of self reliance he weaves throughout the list.  Quite progressive for a father in his time, no?

Left to Right: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scottie, Zelda in 1927 via telegraph.co.uk

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship

Things 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 satisfactions

Things to think about: 

What 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

Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters