inds the enemy of this very success and happiness? Is it not strange
that they should form this habit of anticipating evils that will
probably never come, when they know that anxiety and fretting will not
only rob them of peace of mind and strength and ability to do their
work, but also of precious years of life?

No man can utilize his normal power who dissipates his nervous energy
in useless anxiety. Nothing will sap one's vitality and blight one's
ambition or detract from one's real power in the world more than the
worrying habit.

Work kills no one, but worry has killed vast multitudes. It is not the
doing things which injures us so much as the dreading to do them--not
only performing them mentally over and over again, but anticipating
something disagreeable in their performance.

Many of us approach an unpleasant task in much the same condition as a
runner who begins his start such a long distance away that by the time
he reaches his objective point--the ditch or the stream which is to
test his agility--he is too exhausted to jump across. Worry not only
saps vitality and wastes energy, but it also seriously affects the
quality of one's work. It cuts down ability. A man can not get the
highest quality of efficiency into his work when his mind is troubled.
The mental faculties must have perfect freedom before they will give
out their best. A troubled brain can not think clearly, vigorously,
and logically. The attention can not be concentrated with anything
like the same force when the brain cells are poisoned with anxiety as
when they are fed by pure blood and are clean and unclouded. The blood
of chronic worriers is vitiated with poisonous chemical substances and
broken-down tissues, according to Professor Elmer Gates and other noted
scientists, who have shown that the passions and the harmful emotions
cause actual chemical changes in the secretions and generate poisonous
substances in the body which are fatal to healthy growth and action.

One of the worst forms of worry is the brooding over failure. It
blights the ambition, deadens the purpose and defeats the very object
the worrier has in view.

Some people have the unfortunate habit of brooding over their past
lives, castigating themselves for their shortcomings and mistakes,
until their whole vision is turned backward instead of forward, and
they see everything in a distorted light, because they are looking only
on the shadow side.

The longer