This is the reason why it is advisable to teach co-ordination, prompt response to the command of the brain over the muscles, and the general sense of self-control which comes to a man when he has only to think in order to turn that thought into quick action.  One of the penalties of the executive position is that, although the man begins as a disciplined private, when he goes up higher and gradually reaches the point where he gives commands only, and never has any practice in obeying them, he gets the habit of pushing buttons to make other people jump, while there are no buttons pushed to make him jump.

WORRY AND FEAR

Now as to worry.  It has been said, and not untruly, that one of the very largest causes of worry is bodily weakness.  And in more than a majority of cases this weakness comes from poor physical condition.  A good digestion and proper elimination seem to make the organism move smoothly, not alone with muscles, but with nerves.  Hence if we get the engine right, the lungs doing their duty, the skin acting as it should, and the bowels and kidneys taking off the waste products, we generally find a robust man, little given to that most expensive habit, “worry.”

Fear is the forerunner of illness.

There is nothing quite so effective in producing a bad condition of the human system as fear, and this fear is what worry develops into; later it becomes pure, downright cowardice.

Worry makes cowards.  If a man has enough worry and anxiety, fear follows in its wake, and then the man becomes a mental and moral and often a physical coward.

THE FATAL MISTAKE

The average man, when he is pressed to overwork, thinks that by cutting out some of his exercise and devoting that extra time to his work he can accomplish more.  There never was a greater mistake; in the long run this method is the most expensive of all.  No factory manager would think of running his automatic machines twice as long with half the amount of oil, and yet that is just what the man is trying to do in this case.  The result is that he gradually piles up the various toxic products within himself until self-poisoning is inevitable.  All his organs struggle to eliminate these poisons, but, being given no assistance, they gradually become less and less efficient, and then begins the payment of the penalty, for Nature never forgives this kind of treatment.  From a practical, useful running machine he retrogrades into something fit only for the scrap-heap.  The history is the same in all cases, although it may be more or less prolonged.  The discomfort, occasional slight illnesses, the gradual loss of effective thought and power to concentrate, lack of appetite, unreasonable temper, insomnia, nerve diseases, and perhaps a complete nervous and physical breakdown if the conditions are not recognized in time, are the varying punishments inflicted by Nature.