Fear depresses normal mental action, and renders one incapable of
acting wisely in an emergency, for no one can think clearly and act
wisely when paralyzed by fear.

When a man becomes melancholy and discouraged about his affairs, when
he is filled with fear that he is going to fail, and is haunted by the
specter of poverty and a suffering family, before he realizes it, he
attracts the very thing he dreads, and the prosperity is crushed out of
his business. But he is a _mental_ failure first.

If, instead of giving up to his fear, a man would _persist in keeping
prosperity in his mind_, assume a hopeful, optimistic attitude, and
would conduct his business in a systematic, economical, far-sighted
manner, actual failure would be comparatively rare. But when a man
becomes discouraged, when he loses heart and grip, and becomes
panic-stricken and a victim of worry, he is not in a position to make
the effort which is absolutely necessary to bring victory, and there is
a shrinkage all along the line.

There is not a single redeeming feature about worry or any of its
numerous progeny. It is always, everywhere, an unmitigated curse.
Although there is no reality in fear, no truth behind it, yet
everywhere we see people who are slaves to this monster of the
imagination.

CHAPTER LV

TAKE A PLEASANT THOUGHT TO BED WITH YOU

Shut off your mental steam when you quit work. Lock up your business
when you lock up your office or factory at night. Don't drag it into
your home to mar your evening or to distress your sleep.

You can not afford to allow the enemies of your peace and happiness to
etch their black pictures deeper and deeper into your consciousness.

Many people lie down to sleep as the camels lie down in the desert,
with their packs still on their backs. They do not seem to know how to
lay down their burdens, and their minds go on working a large part of
the night. If you are inclined to worry during the night, to keep your
mental faculties on the strain, taut, it will be a good plan for you to
have a bow in your bedroom and unstring it every night as a reminder
that you should also unstring your mind so that it will not lose its
springing power. The Indian knows enough to unstring his bow just as
soon as he uses it so that it will not lose its resilience.

If a man who works hard all day uses his brain a large part of the
night, doing his work over and over again, he gets up in the morning
weary, j