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"You do not want to become a slave to habits of a trivial nature.
For instance, Wagner required a certain costume before he could
compose corresponding parts of his operas. Schiller could never
write with ease unless there were rotten apples in the drawer of
his desk from which he could now and then obtain an odor which
seemed to him sweet. Gladstone had different desks for his
different activities, so that when he worked on Homer he never
sat among habitual accompaniments of his legislative labors."
In order to overcome undesirable habits, two things are
necessary. You must have trained your will to do what you want it
to do, and the stronger the will the easier it will be to break a
habit. Then you must make a resolution to do just the opposite of
what the habit is. Therefore one habit must replace another. If
you have a strong will, you can tenaciously and persistently
concentrate on removing the bad habit and in a very short time
the good habit will gain the upper hand. I will bring this
chapter to a close by giving Doctor Oppenheim's instructions for
overcoming a habit:
"If you want to abolish a habit, and its accumulated
circumstances as well, you must grapple with the matter as
earnestly as you would with a physical enemy. You must go into
the encounter with all tenacity of determination, with all
fierceness of resolve--yea, even with a passion for success that
may be called vindictive. No human enemy can be as insidious, so
persevering, as unrelenting as an unfavorable habit. It never
sleeps, it needs no rest.
"It is like a parasite that grows with the growth of the
supporting body, and, like a parasite, it can best be killed by
violent separation and crushing.
When life is stormy and all seems against us, that is when we
often acquire wrong habits, and it is then, that we have to make
a gigantic effort to think and speak as we should; and even
though we may feel the very reverse at that moment the tiniest
effort will be backed up by a tremendous Power and will lift us
to a realization never felt before. It is not in the easy,
contented moments of our life that we make our greatest progress,
for then it requires, no special effort to keep in tune. But it
is when we are in the midst of trials and misfortunes, when we
think we are sinking, being overwhelmed, then it is important for
us to realize that we are linked to a great Power and if we live
as we should, there is nothing that can occur in life, which
could permanently injure us, nothing can happen that should
disturb us. So always remember you have within you unlimited
power, ready to manifest itself in the form which fills our need
at the moment. If, when we have something difficult to solve, we
would be silent like the child, we can get the inspiration when
it comes; we will know how to act, we will find there is no need
to hurry or disturb ourselves, that it is always wiser to wait
for guidance from within, than to act on impulse from Without.
LESSON X. BUSINESS RESULTS THROUGH CONCENTRATION
A successful business is not usually the result of chance.
Neither is a failure the result of luck. Most failures could be
determined in advance if the founders had been studied. It is not
always possible to start a money-making business at the start.
Usually a number of changes have to be made. Plans do not work
out as their creators thought they would. They may have to be
changed a little, broadened it may be, here and there, and as you
broaden your business you broaden your power to achieve. You gain
an intense and sustained desire to make your business a success.
When you start a business you may have but a vague notion of the
way you will conduct it. You must fill in the details as you go
along. You must concentrate on these details. As you straighten
out one after another, others will require attention. In this way
you cover the field of "the first endeavor" and new opportunities
open up for you.
When you realize one desire, another comes. But if you do not
fulfill the first desire, you will not the second. The person
that does not carry his desires into action is only a dreamer.
Desire is a great creative force, if it is pure, intense and
sustained. It is our desires that keep stirring us up to action
and they will strengthen and broaden you if you make them
materialize.
Every man who achieves success deserves it. When he first started
out he did not understand how to solve the problems that
afterwards presented themselves, but he did each thing as it came
up in the very best way that he could, and this developed his
power of doing bigger things. We become masters of business by
learning to do well whatever we attempt. The man that has a
thorough knowledge of his business can of course direct it much
more easily and skillfully than the man who lacks that knowledge.
The skilled business director can sit in his private office and
still know accurately what is actually being done. He knows what
should be done in any given time and if it is not accomplished he
knows that his employees are not turning out the work that they
should. It is then easy to apply the remedy.
Business success depends on well-concentrated efforts. You must
use every mental force you can master. The more these are used
the more they increase. Therefore the more you accomplish today
the more force you will have at your disposal with which to solve
your problems tomorrow.
If you are working for someone else today and wish to start in a
business for yourself, think over carefully what you would like
to do. Then when you have resolved what you want to do, you will
be drawn towards it. There is a law that opens the way to the
fulfillment of your desires. Of course back of your desire you
must put forward the necessary effort to carry out your purpose;
you must use your power to put your desires into force. Once they
are created and you keep up your determination to have them
fulfilled you both consciously and unconsciously work toward
their materialization. Set your heart on your purpose,
concentrate your thought upon it, direct your efforts with all
your intelligence and in due time you will realize your ambition.
Feel yourself a success, believe you are a success and thus put
yourself in the attitude that demands recognition and the thought
current draws to you what you need to make you a success. Don't
be afraid of big undertakings. Go at them with grit, and pursue
methods that you think will accomplish your purpose. You may not
at first meet with entire success, but aim so high that if you
fall a little short you will still have accomplished much.
What others have done you can do. You may even do what others
have been unable to do. Always keep a strong desire to succeed in
your mind. Be in love with your aim and work, and make them, as
far as possible, square with the rule of the greatest good to the
greatest number and your life cannot be a failure.
The successful business attitude must be cultivated to make the
most out of your life, the attitude of expecting great things
from both yourself and others. It alone will often cause men to
make good; to measure up to the best that is in them.
It is not the spasmodic spurts that count on a long journey, but
the steady efforts. Spurts fatigue and make it hard for you to
continue.
Rely on your own opinion. It should be as good as anyone's else.
When once you reach a conclusion abide by it. Let there be no
doubt, or wavering in your judgment. If you are uncertain about
every decision you make, you will be subject to harassing doubts
and fears which will render your judgment of little value. The
man that decides according to what he thinks right and who learns
from every mistake acquires a well balanced mind that gets the
best results. He gains the confidence of others. He is known as
the man that knows what he wants, and not as one that is as
changeable as the weather. The man of today wants to do business
with the man that he can depend upon. Uncertainties in the
business world are meeting with more disfavor. Reliable firms
want to do business with men of known qualities, with men of
firmness, judgment and reliability.
So if you wish to start in business for yourself your greatest
asset, with the single exception of a sound physique, is that of
a good reputation.
A successful business is not hard to build if we can concentrate
all our mental forces upon it. It is the man that is unsettled
because he does not know what he wants that goes to the wall. We
hear persons say that business is trying on the nerves, but it is
the unsettling elements of fret and worry and suspense that are
nerve-exhausting and not the business. Executing one's plans may
cause fatigue, enjoyment comes with rest. If there has not been
any unnatural strain, the recuperative powers replace what energy
has been lost.
By attending to each day's work properly you develop the capacity
to do a greater work tomorrow. It is this gradual development
that makes possible the carrying out of big plans. The man that
figures out doing something each hour of the day gets somewhere.
At the end of each day you should be a step nearer your aim. Keep
the idea in mind, that you mean to go forward, that each day must
mark an advance and forward you will go. You do not even have to
know the exact direction so long as you are determined to find
the way. But you must not turn back once you have started.
Even brilliant men's conceptions of the possibilities of their
mental forces are so limited and below their real worth that they
are far more likely to belittle their possibilities than they are
to exaggerate them. You don't want to think that an aim is
impossible because it has never been realized in the past. Every
day someone is doing something that was never done before. We are
pushing ahead faster. Formerly it took decades to build up a big
business, but today it is only but a matter of years, sometimes
of months.
Plan each day's activities carefully and you can reach any height
you aim at. If each thing you do is done with concise and
concentrated thought you will be able to turn out an excellent
quality and a large quantity of work. Plan to do so much work
during the day and you will be astonished to see how much more
you will do, than on other days, when you had not decided on any
certain amount. I have demonstrated that the average business
working force could do the same amount of work in six hours that
they now do in eight, without using up any more energy. Never
start to accomplish anything in an indecisive, indefinite,
uncertain way. Tackle everything with a positiveness and an
earnestness that will concentrate your mind and attract the very
best associated thoughts. You will in a short time find that you
will have extra time for planning bigger things.
The natural leader always draws to himself, by the law of mental
attraction, ideas in his chosen subject that have ever been
conceived by others. This is of the greatest importance and help.
If you are properly trained you benefit much by others' thoughts,
and, providing you generate from within yourself something of
value, they will benefit from yours. "We are heirs of all the
ages," but we must know how to use our inheritance.
The confident, pushing, hopeful, determined man influences all
with whom he associates, and inspires the same qualities in them.
You feel that his is a safe example to follow and he rouses the
same force within you that is pushing him onward and upward.
One seldom makes a success of anything that he goes at in a
listless, spiritless way. To build up a business you must see it
expanding in your mind before it actually takes tangible shape.
Every great task that has ever been accomplished has first been
merely a vision in the mind of its creator. Detail after detail
has had to be worked out in his mind from his first faint idea of
the enterprise. Finally a clear idea was formed and then the
accomplishment, which was only the material result of the mental
concept, followed.
The up-to-date business man is not content to build only for the
present, but is planning ahead. If he does not he will fall
behind his competitor, who is. What we are actually doing today
was carefully thought out and planned by others in the past. All
progressive businesses are conducted this way. That is why the
young business man of today is likely to accomplish more in a few
years than his father did in all his life. There is no reason why
your work or business should fag you out. When it does there is
something wrong. You are attracting forces and influence that you
should not, because you are not in harmony with what you are
doing. There is nothing so tiring as to try to do the work for
which we are unfitted, both by temperament and training.
Each one should be engaged in a business that he loves; be should
be furthering movements with which he is in sympathy. He will
then only do his best work and take intense pleasure in his
business. In this way, while constantly growing and developing
his powers, he is at the same time rendering through his work,
genuine and devoted service to humanity.
Business success is not the result of chance, but of scientific
ideas and plans carried out by an aggressive and progressive
management. Use your mental forces so that they will grow and
develop. Remember that everything you do is the result of mental
action, therefore you can completely control your every action.
Nothing is impossible for you. Don't be afraid to tackle a
difficult proposition. Your success will depend upon the use you
make of your mind. This is capable of wonderful development. See
that you make full use of it, and not only develop yourself but
your associates. Try to broaden the visions of those with whom
you come in contact and you will broaden your own outlook of
life.
Are You Afraid of Responsibilities? In order for the individual
soul to develop, you must have responsibilities. You must
manifest the omnipotence of the law of supply. The whole world is
your legitimate sphere of activity. How much of a conqueror are
you? What have you done? Are you afraid of responsibility, or are
you ever dodging, flinching, or side stepping it. If you are, you
are not a Real Man. Your higher self never winces, so be a man
and allow the powers of the higher self to manifest and you will
find you have plenty of strength and you will feel better when
you are tackling difficult propositions.
LESSON XI. CONCENTRATE ON COURAGE
Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage has
persistence. He states what he believes and puts it into
execution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himself
all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a
strong man. Whereas, the man without courage draws to himself all
the qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy, and
unsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value of
concentration on courage. It is a most vital element of success.
The lack of courage creates financial, as well as mental and
moral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of looking
upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without
courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure is
naturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject well
worthy of your study. Look upon everything within your power as a
possibility instead of as merely a probability and you will
accomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing as
impossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elements
that contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys your
confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute
attitude so important to success.
The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all that
is contemptible, weakening, demoralizing and destructive. He then
blames his luck when he does not secure the things he weakly
desires. We must first have the courage to strongly desire
something. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by the
strength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enough
commanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The man
with courage commands, whether be is on the battlefield or in
business life.
What is courage? It is the Will To Do. It takes no more energy to
be courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the right
training in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forces
on the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily,
deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success, toward
the desired end. Cowardice on the other hand, dissipates both our
mental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure.
As we are creatures of habits, we should avoid persons that lack
courage. They are easy to discover because of their habits of
fear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is never
afraid.
Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why you
should not be courageous. If any fear-thoughts come to you cast
them off as you would the deadly viper. Form the habit of never
thinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. In
dealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, "I
am courageous." Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of your
mind, banish it. Remember, you as master of your mind control its
every thought, and here is a good one to often affirm, "I have
courage because I desire it; because I need it; because I use it
and because I refuse to become such a weakling as cowardice
produces."
There is no justification for the loss of courage. The evils by
which you will almost certainly be overwhelmed without it are far
greater than those which courage will help you to meet and
overcome. Right, then, must be the moralist who says that the
only thing to fear is fear.
Never let another's opinion affect you; he cannot tell what you
are able to do; he does not know what you can do with your
forces. The truth is you do not know yourself until you put
yourself to the test. Therefore, how can someone else know? Never
let anyone else put a valuation on you.
Almost all wonderful achievements have been accomplished after it
had been "thoroughly" demonstrated that they were
impossibilities. Once we understand the law, all things are
possible. If they were impossibilities we could not conceive
them.
Just the moment you allow someone to influence you against what
you think is right, you lose that confidence in yourself that
inspires courage and carries with it all the forces which courage
creates. Just the moment you begin to swerve in your plan you
begin to carry out another's thought and not your own. You become
the directed and not the director. You forsake the courage and
resolution of your own mind, and you therefore lack the very
forces that you need to sustain and carry out your work. Instead
of being self-reliant you become timid and this invites failure.
When you permit yourself to be influenced from your plan by
another, you are unable to judge as you should, because you have
allowed another's influence to deprive you of your courage and
determination without absorbing any of his in return so you are
in much the same predicament, as you would be in if you turned
over all your worldly possessions to another without getting
"value received."
Concentrate on just the opposite of fear, want, poverty,
sickness, etc. Never doubt your own ability. You have plenty, if
you will just use it. A great many men are failures because they
doubt their own capacity. Instead of building up strong mental
forces which would be of the greatest use to them their fear
thoughts tear them down. Fear paralyzes energy. It keeps us from
attracting the forces that go to make up success. Fear is the
worst enemy we have.
There are few people that really know that they can accomplish
much. They desire the full extent of their powers, but alas, it
is only occasionally that you find a man that is aware of the
great possibilities within him. When you believe with all your
mind and heart and soul that you can do something, you thereby
develop the courage to steadily and confidently live up to that
belief. You have now gone a long way towards accomplishing it.
The chances are that there will be obstacles, big and little, in
your way, but resolute courage will overcome them and nothing
else will. Strong courage eliminates the injurious and opposing
forces by summoning their masters, the yet stronger forces that
will serve you.
Courage is yours for the asking. All you have to do is to believe
in it, claim it and use it. To succeed in business believe that
it will be successful, assert that it is successful, and work
like a beaver to make it so. Difficulties soon melt away before
the courageous. One man of courage can fire with his spirit a
whole army of men, whether it be military or industrial, because
courage, like cowardice, is contagious.
The man of courage overcomes the trials and temptations of life;
he commands success; he renders sound judgment; he develops
personal influence and a forceful character and often becomes the
mentor of the community which he serves.
How to Overcome Depression and Melancholia. Both of the former
are harmful and make you unhappy. These are states that can be
quickly overcome through concentrating more closely on the higher
self, for when you do you cut off the connection with the harmful
force currents. You can also drive away moods by simply choosing
and fully concentrating on an agreeable subject. Through will
power and thought control we can accomplish anything we want to
do. There is wonderful inherent power within us all, and there is
never any sufficient cause for fear, except ignorance.
Every evil is but the product of ignorance, and everyone that
possesses the power to think has the power to overcome ignorance
and evil. The pain that we suffer from doing evil are but the
lessons of experience, and the object of the pain is to make us
realize our ignorance. When we become depressed It is evidence
that our thought faculties are combining improperly and thereby
attracting the wrong force-currents.
All that it is necessary to do is to exercise the will and
concentrate upon happy subjects. I will only think of subjects
worthy of my higher self and its powers.
LESSON XII. CONCENTRATE ON WEALTH
It was never intended that man should be poor. When wealth is
obtained under the proper conditions it broadens the life.
Everything has its value. Everything has a good use and a bad
use. The forces of mind like wealth can be directed either for
good or evil. A little rest will re-create forces. Too much rest
degenerates into laziness, and brainless, dreamy longings.
If you acquire wealth unjustly from others, you are misusing your
forces; but if your wealth comes through the right sources you
will be blessed. Through wealth we can do things to uplift
ourselves and humanity.
Wealth is many persons' goal. It therefore stimulates their
endeavor. They long for it in order to dress and live in such a
way as to attract friends. Without friends they would not be so
particular of their surroundings. The fact is the more attractive
we make ourselves and our surroundings the more inspiring are
their influences. It is not conducive to proper thought to be
surrounded by conditions that are uncongenial and unpleasant.
So the first step toward acquiring wealth is to surround yourself
with helpful influences; to claim for yourself an environment of
culture, place yourself in it and be molded by its influences.
Most great men of all ages have been comparatively rich. They
have made or inherited money. Without money they could not have
accomplished what they did. The man engaged in physical drudgery
is not likely to have the same high ideals as the man that can
command comparative leisure.
Wealth is usually the fruit of achievement. It is not, however,
altogether the result of being industrious. Thousands of persons
work hard who never grow wealthy. Others with much less effort
acquire wealth. Seeing possibilities is another step toward
acquiring wealth. A man may be as industrious as he can possibly
be, but if he does not use his mental forces he will be a
laborer, to be directed by the man that uses to good advantage
his mental forces.
No one can become wealthy in an ordinary lifetime, by mere
savings from earnings. Many scrimp and economize all their lives;
but by so doing waste all their vitality and energy. For example,
I know a man that used to walk to work. It took him an hour to go
and an hour to return. He could have taken a car and gone in
twenty minutes. He saved ten cents a day but wasted an hour and a
half. It was not a very profitable investment unless the time
spent in physical exercise yielded him large returns in the way
of health.
The same amount of time spent in concentrated effort to overcome
his unfavorable business environment might have firmly planted
his feet in the path of prosperity.
One of the big mistakes made by many persons of the present
generation is that they associate with those who fail to call out
or develop the best that is in them. When the social side of life
is developed too exclusively, as it often is, and recreation or
entertainment becomes the leading motive of a person's life, he
acquires habits of extravagance instead of economy; habits of
wasting his resources, physical, mental, moral and spiritual,
instead of conserving them. He is, in consequence, lacking in
proper motivation, his God-given powers and forces are
undeveloped and he inevitably brings poor judgment to bear upon
all the higher relationships of life, while, as to his financial
fortunes, he is ever the leaner; often a parasite, and always, if
opportunity affords, as heavy a consumer as he is a poor
producer.
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