I do not care what you concentrate on,so long as you concentrate.It is the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts.But still,you may as well kill two birds with one stone,and concentrate on something useful.Isuggest--it is only a suggestion--a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus.
Do not,I beg,shy at their names.For myself,I know nothing more "actual,"more bursting with plain common-sense,applicable to the daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs,pose,and nonsense)than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus.Read a chapter--and so short they are,the chapters!
--in the evening and concentrate on it the next morning.You will see.
Yes,my friend,it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact.I can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear.You are saying to yourself:"This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh chapter.He had begun to interest me faintly.But what he says about thinking in trains,and concen-tration,and so on,is not for me.It may be well enough for some folks,but it isn't in my line."It is for you,I passionately repeat;it is for you.Indeed,you are the very man I am aiming at.
Throw away the suggestion,and you throw away the most precious suggestion that was ever offered to you.It is not my suggestion.It is the suggestion of the most sensible,practical,hard-headed men who have walked the earth.I only give it you at second-hand.Try it.Get your mind in hand.And see how the process cures half the evils of life --especially worry,that miserable,avoidable,shameful disease--worry!