You can't drop behind in the parade of life.You must keep going，for your own sake，at any age.Nature abhors anything that surrenders its usefulness.The buzzards are always waiting to do a clean-up job on forms of life that give up the struggle.Sounds pretty grim？ It's not meant to be.Something has been provided to take care of everything，in all the various stages of life activity and what is called death.In your body，millions of old cells are dying and new cells are being born，all the time.You are unconscious of it.
The same is true of ideas.As you grow in experience，you are killing off old ideas in your mind and giving birth to new ones.If you don't do this，the old，out-moded ideas clog up your mind，slow up your thinking，rust your brain，retard your progress and eventually bog you down.
If you are finding that you can't make decisions the way you used to do，it's probably because you are wrestling with old ideas，old thought patterns，old habits and desires which you can't let go of，even when your "voice within" tells you to throw them overboard，get out of the rut and get to doing what you inwardly know you should be doing.
"Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life，
Where，in spite of all you can do，
There is no way out，there is no way back，
There is no other way but through？"
Annie Johnson Flint
If this is your state of mind and situation in life at the moment，it is good！ If your back is against the wall，if you've been pushed by indecision and circumstances of your own conscious or unconscious creation，as far as you can go，then there is "no other way but through."
So face reality.Reorient yourself，reorganize your scattered forces，make up your mind，and move straight ahead！
Decide—then act！
Many men and women have reached the seeming limit of their endurance only to find new strength awaiting them in their hours of desperate need，once they reached a positive decision—once they said to themselves，and meant it，"I'll face it.I'll see this thing through！"
There is no eleventh hour too late wherein "that something，" the creative power within，cannot be magnetized by right thought and right decision and give you the strength and wisdom to pull out.
"God spoke to me in my great moment of need，" thousands of grateful men and women have testified.They mean that they finally were driven to call upon their God-given inner resources after trying everything else and failing...and the inner power which they might have used all along answered their summons！
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can ever succeed by using your conscious mind alone.The egotist likes to pretend he's done it all himself，through sheer will power and physical force.He pats himself on the back and says，"Look at me.I'm a self-made man！" But let this egotist suffer a setback in business or his private life and watch his ego deflate.He goes around with his hat pulled down around his ears，his chin stuck down in his coat collar，his eyes staring at the ground，mumbling to himself，"I can't understand how this could have happened to me！"
Oh，yes，you can get somewhere on your own physical drive，by conscious connivance，manipulation，a cleverness of wit，deceit and a "it's-who-you-know" philosophy.But what you gain by force，you eventually lose by force.You have no staying power.Someone else，using the same dog-eat-dog tactics，kicks you off the road or steamrollers you.Then，because you have misused your real powers within—if you have used them at all—you are lost！ For the first time in your life，perhaps，you are scared.You have no more faith in the methods you employed to get where you were ...and you have little or no faith in your fellow man or in God.The world is a pretty barren place and you are the most barren creature in it.Worst of all，your confidence in self and in everything else has been so shattered that you can't decide what to do about it.
Stop bemoaning your fate—get wise to yourself！
You have only two choices.You can either go higher or lower.You may take to drink or help yourself to a first-class nervous breakdown or wander around through the rest of your life，moaning about "what might have been" if you had only lived your life differently—but telling yourself，"it's too late now."
But if you belong to that smaller percentage of men and women who have "gotten wise to themselves，" you discover that it is never too late to get on the right track.You discover that you have been passing up the most wonderful force in your life，the creative power within，which has been ready and willing，at all times，to serve you.
A deep feeling of humility steals over you，and you lose your falsely assumed attitudes of egotism and self-importance forever.Once you are down to bedrock，you find that you have a foundation on which to build，that you can pick up your life again and make something of it，something finer than ever before，perhaps not so flashy or so gaudy，but so much more worthwhile，self-satisfying，healthful and enjoyable.Now，at last，you can decide what is best for you，without worrying what the other fellow is going to do to you unless，perhaps，you do it to him first.There has come to you the inner assurance that whatever you really need can and will be supplied to you by your creative power，if you keep in attunement with it，and direct it by right mental picturing.Not only this but you realize that you have been missing out on many things in life of far greater value than many of the things you thought you had to have a short time ago.
Perhaps，in a radical sense，you do not fit into this category just depicted.But in a lesser sense，we all fit.It is human to make mistakes，human to permit certain emotional desires to get the better of us，to carry us far afield from our real purposes and potentialities in life.
"I knew better but I did it anyway，" many sadder and wiser people say，after they have gotten a new hold on themselves and snapped out of their departure from sane，happy，healthful living.