As you can imagine, Tom, with the enthusiasm of youth, is off like a flash. He cannot
wait to get to point B. He knows exactly what he wants; houses, cars, boats, planes,
clothes, fine happy friends, and every good thing he can imagine. As you can see, he is
still using his imagination at this point. He can just cheerfully see himself at point B.
Being in good physical condition, Tom runs every day. He is alive with enthusiasm.
However, one day as he is running, a tree falls in front of him and almost hits him. Tom
is not too alarmed, but now along with thinking about point B, he also has a little note to
himself to watch out for falling trees. He continues on his way, but as time goes on, more
and more trees fall and a few even hit him. By now, he has begun watching for falling
trees and unfortunately does not see the hole directly in his path and falls into it. Now, he
not only has in his imagination, falling trees, but also holes in the path. In fact, he
becomes quite concerned, wondering how many more trees there are to fall on him and
how many more holes there are to fall into. Then, one day as he is going along, a wild
animal chases him and tries to bite him. A few days later, an animal succeeds in biting
him, causing much pain. By now, Tom is wondering why no one warned him about the
dangers of this forest he is in.

Fear has been introduced into his life that serves to paralyze his actions. Point B now
takes up only a small part of his thinking. The majority of his imagination is taken up
with wondering what new trees will fall, what holes there are to fall into, and what
strange and new breed of wild vicious animal waits ahead. Tom has also stopped running
because only by walking slowly is he able to spot the dangers in advance and thus avoid
them. Also, instead of getting up at six in the morning and quitting at midnight, Tom
now arises by 12 noon and quits by six in the evening. He reasons to himself that he
must conserve his energy. Goodness only knows how terrible it would be to fall in a hole
in the dark, or be felled by a tree, or even worse yet, to be stalked by some wild animal
that he can’t even see. Yes, Tom can very clearly imagine himself injured or even killed
by any one of a number of terrible things that lurk ahead. He can just imagine the
terrible pain that he will have to go through if he makes the fatal mistake. He doesn’t
seem to notice that because he is walking slower, he seems to get hit by more trees; he
falls into holes that he would have leaped over while running, and even the slowest wild
animals are able to attack him.

Point B is all but forgotten and Tom begins to feel that it was all just a trick to lure him
into the forest where he now feels trapped. Tom will now never reach point B because
he is no longer motivated to get there. As you can see, he hasn’t stopped using his
imagination at all. He is using it more than ever! But, he is using it to see all the things he
doesn’t want, instead of all the things he does want. He is using it as a destructive tool
against himself, instead of the most powerful element that he could possess to propel him
toward Point B.

We can look at Tom and his predicament, but is he any different than the thousands like
him? People who went into life with great enthusiasm and now crawl along like whipped
puppies. Yes, my friend, the imagination is the key to life, but it must be controlled by
you, or it will turn on you and become your worst enemy. The imagination, by the way,
when it is out of control, has a name you will be familiar with. It is called worry. How
did this happen? Well, it is very simple. Tom did not understand the mind, and went on
automatic. It was his mind that was feeding him all of those things that were
discouraging him on a day to day basis. He didn’t have a chance, and neither does
anyone who tries to go against his or her mind, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly.

The Elpruhzlein Foundation of Forever Being
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