The Law of Financial Success
	Fear and Worry <  Previous Contents Next  >

THE great negative note in the lives of most people is Fear. Fear is the mother of all the negative emotions, and her brood is found clustering very closely around her. Worry, Lack of Confidence, Bashfulness, Irresolution, Timidity, Depression, and all the rest of the negative brood of feelings and emotions are the progeny of Fear. Without Fear none of these minor emotions or feelings would exist. By killing off the parent of this possible brood of mental vampires, you escape the entire coming generations of negative thoughts, and thus keep your Mental Attitude garden free from these pests and nuisances.

Fear and the emotions that come from its being do more to paralyze useful effort, good work, and finely thought-out plans, than aught else known to man. It is the great hobgoblin of the race. It has ruined the lives of thousands of people. It has destroyed the finely budding characters of men and women, and made negative individuals of them in the place of strong, reliant, courageous doers of useful things.

Worry is the oldest child of Fear. It settles down upon one's mind, and crowds out all of the developing good things to be found there. Like the cuckoo in the sparrow's nest, it destroys the rightful occupants of the mind. Laid there as an egg by its parent, Fear, Worry soon hatches out and begins to make trouble. In place of the cheerful and positive "I Can and I Will" harmony, Worry begins to rasp out in raucous tones: "Supposin'," "What if," "But," "I can't," "I'm unlucky," "I never could do things right," "Things never turn out right with me" and so on until all the minor notes have been sounded. It makes one sick bodily, and inert mentally. It retards one's program, and is a constant stumbling block in our path upward.

The worst thing about Fear and Worry is that while they exhaust a great part of the energy of the average person, they give nothing good in return. Nobody ever accomplished a single thing by reason of Fear and Worry. Fear and Worry never helped one along a single inch on the road to Success. And they never will, because their whole tendency is to retard progress, and not to advance it. The majority of things that we fear and worry about never come to pass at all, and the few that do actually materialize are never as bad as we feared they would be. It is not the cares, trials and troubles of today that unnerve us and break us down—it is the troubles that we fear may come sometime in the future. Everyone is able to bear the burdens of today, but when he heaps on the burdens of tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that, he is doing his mind an injustice, and it is no wonder that after a bit he heaps on the last straw that breaks the back of the mental camel.

The energy, work, activity and thought that we expend on these imaginary "maybe" troubles of the future would enable us to master and conquer the troubles of each day as they arise. Nature gives each of us a reserve supply of strength and energy upon which to draw and oppose unexpected troubles and problems as they come upon us each day. But we poor, silly mortals draw upon this reserve force and dissipate it in combating the imaginary troubles of next week or next year, the majority of which never really put in an appearance—and when we have need of the force to oppose some real trouble of the day we find ourselves bankrupt of power and energy, and are apt to go down in defeat, or else be compelled to beat an inglorious retreat.

I tell you, friends, that if you once learn the secret of killing off this vampire of Fear, and thus prevent the rearing of her hateful brood of reptile emotions, life will seem a different thing to you. You will begin to realize what it is to live. You will learn what it is to have a mind cleared of weeds, and fresh to grow healthy thoughts, feelings, emotions and ambitions.

And you will find that with Fear killed out, you will cease to give out to others the suggestions of incompetence, lack of reliance on yourself, and the other impressions that hurt one's chances. You will find that when you are rid of Fear you will radiate hope, and confidence, and ability, and will impress all those with whom you come in contact.

And you will find also that the eradication of Fear will work wonders in your Mental Attitude, and the operation of it through the Law of Attraction. When one fears a thing he really attracts it to him, just as if he desired it. The reason is this—when one desires or fears a thing (in either case the principle is the same) he creates a mental picture of the thing, which mental picture has a tendency toward materialization. With this mental picture in his mind—if beholds to it long enough—he draws the things or conditions to him, and thus "thought takes form in action and being." The majority of our fears and worries are silly little things that take our thought for a moment, and then are gone. They are great wasters of energy, but we do not concentrate on any one of them long enough to put into operation the Law of Attraction.

And so you see, that unless you get rid of Fear, it will tend to draw toward you the thing you fear, or else force you toward the thing itself. Fear makes of the feared object a name around which you circle and flutter, like the moth, until at last you make plunge right into the heat of the flame and are consumed. Kill out Fear, by all means.

"But how may I kill it out?" you cry. Very easily! This is the method: Suppose you had a roomful of darkness. Would you start to shovel or sweep out the darkness? Or would you not throw open the window and admit the light? When the light pours in, the darkness disappears. And so with the darkness of Fear—throw open the windows, and "let a little sunshine in." Let the thoughts, feelings, and ideals of Courage, Confidence and Fearlessness poor into your mind, and Fear will vanish. Whenever Fear shows itself in your mind, administer the antidote of Fearlessness immediately.

Say to yourself: "I am Fearless; I Fear Nothing; I am Courageous," Let the sunshine pour in.