action aroused in him by sense-impressions. It would be still less
possible for him to respond to every impulse to muscular action
awakened from the past with the remembered thought with which it is
associated.

Desire, interest, attention and the selective will must pick and
choose among these multitudinous tendencies to action.

Here, then, is another fact that has immediate bearing upon your
ability to carry out any ambition you may have. Your every action is
the net result of selection among a number of impulses and inhibitory
forces or tendencies.

[Sidenote: _The Threshold of Inhibition_]

As a general thing, consciousness is made up of a number of
conflicting ideas, each with its associated feeling and its impulse to
action. Just what you do in any particular case depends upon what
mental picture is strongest, is most vivid in consciousness, and thus
able to overcome all contrary tendencies.

As life becomes more and more complex, the number and variety of our
sensory experiences increase correspondingly. And so it comes about,
that _we have untold millions of sensory experiences, carrying with
them the impulses to muscular response, none of which, on account of
the multiplicity of conflicting ideas, is ever allowed to find release
and actually take form in muscular activity_.

[Sidenote: _Hidden Strength_]