What Did Bill Thompson's Mother Teach Him About Worry?

Bill Thompson says his mother taught him the serenity prayer, and he does not worry about what he cannot change.

He says that if he cannot affect something, he does not worry about it, and he calls that a superpower. As a nine-year-old he heard a story about a seven-day bender from Missouri that ended in Las Vegas, and that lesson stuck. Last night his daughter was worried about teenager things. He told her the serenity prayer his mother used to tell him and told her to try to live by it.

Bill Thompson says the same idea is a heuristic the military taught him: focus on the things he can control.