What Rational Thought Can and Cannot Do

Remember that your automatic mechanism can as easily function as a "Failure Mechansim" as a "Success Mech­anism," depending upon the data you give it to process, and the goals you set for it. It is basically a goal-striving mechanism. The goals it works upon are up to you. Many of us unconsciously and unwittingly, by holding negative attitudes and habitually picturing failure to ourselves in our imagination—set up goals of failure.
Also remember that your automatic mechanism does not reason about, nor question, the data you feed it. It merely processes it and reacts appropriately to it.
It is very important that the automatic mechanism be given true facts concerning the environment. This is the job of conscious rational thought: to know the truth, to form correct evaluations, estimations, opinions. In this connection most of us are prone to under-estimate our­selves and over-estimate the nature of the difficulty facing us. "Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will become so," said Emile Coué. "I have made exten­sive experiments to discover the common causes of that conscious effort which freezes the thinking mind," says psychologist Daniel W. Josselyn. "Practically always it seems to be due to the tendency to exaggerate the diffi­culty and importance of your mental labors, to take them too seriously and fear they will find you incapable. People who are eloquent in casual conversation become imbeciles when they mount the speaker's platform. You simply must learn that if you can interest the neighbor you can interest all the neighbors, or the world, and not be frozen by mag­nitudes." (Daniel W. Josselyn: Why Be Tired? New York, Longmans, Green & Co., Inc.)