At any given moment, regardless of appearance or any emotional certainty to the contrary, it is not the demand of those already-overdue, hundred and one tasks that have you feeling so overwhelmed and under prepared. What you’re really experiencing is the overwhelming presence of one thought: One thought that calls itself “one hundred and one things to do.” Impossible you say? Please, read on.
The power this one thought has to deceive, and to ultimately freeze you in your tracks, is born partly out of its invisible alliance with anxiety-laden emotions. Here’s how these two terrible tricksters team up to keep you off track and forever running for the train.

Thoughts have the power to present themselves to your mind in picture form. These thoughts are known to us and experienced as imagination. In this instance, as it concerns our study, one thought assumes the image, or mental picture, of one hundred and one tasks yet to be completed. To illustrate to you how this kind of mental picture is possible, imagine a photograph of a terribly cluttered desk. This mental picture is, in fact, one image with a thousand loose ends!

What happens next is that this same, single mental picture, consisting of multiple superimposed images, becomes animated with the aforementioned anxious and pressure-filled feelings. Now, in your mind’s eye, that picture of your impossible situation not only looks real . . . it feels that way too! But this show has just begun.

In the wink of an eye, a second thought pops up. And unbeknownst to you, it’s in league with the initial imaginary scene projected by the first thought. Its task is to confirm your worst suspicions; which it does when it announces in a small, but defeated voice that sounds a lot like your own: “It’s hopeless. There’s just too much to do. How can I get out of this?”

The next time you “hear” this inner voice of imminent doom, listen instead to this Higher Instruction: Never again look for a way out of any anxious condition. Look instead for a way to see through it.
Now learn the Higher techniques that will show you how to be a self-starting individual instead of a self-stalling one… [to be continued]

More from Beliefnet and our partners