Little Beetles of Worry

I read this story in Dale Carnegie’s fabulous book, How to Stop Worry and Start Living.

On the slope of Long’s Peak in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree. Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years. It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador, and half-grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. During the course of its long life, it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all. In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and leveled it to the ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.

Isn’t it so true?!

Do you worry? Are you anxious? Is much of life a “pre-play” of negative outcomes? If you could download and categorize your thoughts, what percentage would be a form of worry? Yikes!

Worry is a negative use of imagination. And the beetles are the classic metaphor for worry in our lives. It eats away at our joy, our fulfillment, our attitude and our progress. It invites negative narratives and so often sets the course of our days, weeks and years.

If we need help we should get help. Otherwise, let’s take control. Let’s be conscious of the little beetles and how to defeat them.

It’s said that the enemy of success is not negativity – that’s too obvious; it’s mediocrity. Now that’s sneaky. Just like a beetle.