Clocks usually are calm, regular creatures, but one litter ticker worked himself into a frenzy thinking about his responsibilities for the coming year.

“I have to tick two times per second,” he said. “That’s 120 ticks per minute, 7,200 per hour, 172,800 per day.”

Continuing his calculations, the clock worried that he’d never be able to complete the necessary 1,209,600 ticks every week. And he despaired of ticking regularly nearly 63 million times in the coming year.

The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. Finally, his anxiety made his ticker go on the blink, and he consulted a psychiatrist.

“I’m afraid I just don’t have what it takes to manage all those ticks,” the clock lamented.

The doctor smiled and asked him, “How many ticks must you tick at a time?”

The clock responded, “Well, just one,”

“Then, focus your energy on just one tick at a time,” suggested the doctor, “and I think you will be just fine.”

So the little clock wound himself up, concerned himself with only one tick at a time and went on ticking happily ever after.

SOURCE: Glenn Van Ekeren. SPEAKER’S SOURCEBOOK II: QUOTES, STORIES, & ANECDOTES FOR EVERY OCCASION