Lessen seven and eight of the power of concentration Lesson seven. The concentrated mental
demand. The mental demand is the potent force in achievement. The attitude of
the mind affects the expression of the face, determines action, changes our physical
condition, and regulates our lives. I will not here attempt to explain the
silent force that achieves results. You want to develop your mental power so you
can affect the thing sought, and that is what I want to teach you.
There is wonderful power and possibility in the concentrated mental demand. This,
like all other forces, is controlled by laws. It can, like other
forces, be wonderfully increased by consecutive, systematized effort. The mental demand must
be directed by every power of the mind, and every possible element should be
used to make the demand materialize. You can so intently desire a thing that
you can exclude all distracting thoughts. When you practice this singleness of concentration until
you attain the end sought, you have developed a will capable of accomplishing whatever
you wish. As long as you can only do the ordinary things, you
will be counted in the mass of mediocrity. But just as quick as you
surpass others by even comparatively small measure, you are classed as one of life's
successes. So if you wish to emerge into prominence, you must accomplish something
more than the ordinary man or woman. It is easy to do this if
you will but concentrate on what you desire and put forth your best effort.
It is not the runner with the longest legs or the strongest muscles that wins
the race, but the one that can put forth the greatest desire force.
You can best understand this by thinking of an engine. The engine starts up
slowly, the engineer gradually extending the throttle to the top notch. It is
then keyed up to its maximum speed. The same is true of two runners.
They start off together, and gradually they increase their desire to go faster.
The one that has the greatest intensity of desire will win. He may
out distance the other by only a fraction of an inch, yet he gets
the laurels. The men that are looked upon as the world's successes have not
always been men of great physical power, nor at the start did they seem
very well adapted to the conditions which encompass them. In the beginning. They
were not considered men of superior genius. But they won their success by their
resolution to achieve results in their undertakings. By permitting no setback to dishearten them,
no difficulties to daunt them, nothing could turn them or influence them against
their determination, they never lost sight of their goal. In all of us
there is this silent force of wonderful power. If developed, it can overcome
conditions that would seem insurmountable. It is constantly urging us on to greater achievement.
The more we become acquainted with it, the better strategists we become,
the more courage we develop, and the greater the desire within us for self
expression in activity along many lines. No one will ever be a failure if
he becomes conscious of this silent force within that controls his destiny. But without
the consciousness of this inner force, you will not have a clear vision,
and external conditions will not yield to the power of your mind. It is
the mental resolve that makes achievements possible. Once this has been formed, it
should never be allowed to cease to press its claim until its object is attained.
To make plans work out, it will at times be necessary to use
every power of your mind. Patience, perseverance, and all the indomitable forces
within one will have to be mustered and used with the greatest effectiveness. Perseverance
is the first element of success. In order to persevere, you must be
ceaseless in your application. It requires you to concentrate your thoughts upon your undertaking
and bring every energy to bear upon, keeping them focused upon it until you
have accomplished your aim. To quit short of this is to weaken all future
efforts. The mental demand seems an unreal power because it is intangible, but
it is the mightiest power in the world. It is a power that is
free for you to to use. No one can use it for you.
The mental demand is not a visionary one. It is a potent force which
you can use freely without cost. When you are in doubt, it will
counsel you. It will guide you when you are uncertain, when you are
in fear, it will give you courage. It is the motive power which
supplies the energies necessary to the achievement of the purpose. You have a large
storehouse of possibilities. The mental demand makes possibilities realities. It supplies everything necessary
for the accomplishment. It selects the tools and instructs how to use them.
It makes you understand the situation. Every time you make a mental demand,
you strengthen the brain centers by drawing to you external forces. Few realize the
power of a mental demand. It is possible to make your demand so strong
that you can impart what you have to say to another without speaking to him.
Have you, ever, after planning to discuss a certain matter with a
friend, had the experience of having him broached the subject before you had a
chance to speak of it. Have you ever, in a letter, made
a suggestion to a friend that he carried out before your letter reached him.
Have you ever wanted to speak to a person who just then walked in or
telephoned. I have had many such responses to thought, and you and your
friends have doubtless experienced them too. These two things are neither coincidences nor accidents,
but are the results of mental demand launched by strong concentration. The person
that never wants anything gets little To demand resolutely is the first step toward getting
what you want. The power of the mental demand seems absolute, the supply
illimitable. The mental demand and projects itself and causes to materialize the conditions and
opportunities needed to accomplish the purpose. Do not think I overestimate the value of
the mental demand. It brings the fuller life if used for only righteous purposes.
Once the mental demand is made, however, never let it falter.
If you do, the current that connects you with your desire is broken.
Take all the necessary time to build a firm foundation so that there need not
be even an element of doubt to creep in. Just the moment you entertain
doubt, you lose some of the demand force, and force, once lost
is hard to regain. So whenever you make a mental demand, hold steadfastly
to it until your need is supplied. I want to repeat again that power
of mental demand is not a visionary one. It is concentrated power only and
can be used by you. It is not supernatural power, but requires a
development of the brain centers. The outcome is sure when it is given with
a strong, resolute determination. No person will advance to any great extent unless
he recognizes this force within him. If you have not become aware of it,
you have not made very much of a success of your life. It
is this something that distinguishes that man from other men. It is this subtle
power that develops strong personality. If you want a great deal, you must
demand a great deal. Once you make your demand, anticipate its fulfillment.
It depends upon us. We are rewarded according to our efforts. The power
of mental demand can bring us what we want. We become what we determine
to be. We control our destiny. Get the right mental attitude. Then,
in accordance with your your ability, you can gain success. And every
man of average ability, the ordinary man that you see about you, can
be really successful, independent, free of worry, his own master, if
he can manage to do just two things. First, remain forever dissatisfied with
what he is doing and what he has accomplished. Second, develop in his
mind a belief that the word impossible was not intended for him. Build up
in his mind the confidence that enables the mind to use its power. Many,
especially the older men, will ask, how can I build up that
self confidence in my brain? How can I, after months and years of
discouragement of dull plotting, suddenly conceive and carry out a plan for doing something
that will make life worth while and change the monotonous routine? How can a
man get out of a rut after he has been in it for years and
has settled down to the slow jog trot that leads to the grave. The
answer is the thing can be done, and millions have done it. One
of the names most honored among the great men of France is that of Letree,
who wrote and compiled the Great French Dictionary, a monument of learning.
He is the man whose place among the forty immortals of France was taken by
the Great Pasture when the latter was elected to the Academy. Letree began the
work that makes him famous when he was more than sixty years old. Lesson
eight. Concentration gives mental poise. You will find that the man that concentrates
is well poised, whereas the man that allows his mind to wander is easily
upset. When in this state, wisdom does not pass from the subconscious storehouse
into the consciousness. There must be mental quiet before the two consciousnesses can work
in harmony. When you are able to concentrate, you have peace of mind.
If you are in the habit of losing your poise, form the habit
of reading literature that has a quieting power. Just the second you feel your
poise slipping, say peace, and then hold this thought in mind, and
you will never lose your self control. There cannot be perfect concentration until there
is peace of mind. So keep thinking peace, acting peace until you are
at peace with all the world. For when once you have reached this state,
there will be no trouble to concentrate on anything you wish. When you
have peace of mind, you are not timid or anxious, or fearful or
rigid, and you will not allow any disturbing thought to influence you. You
cast aside all fears and think of yourself as a spark of the divine being,
as a manifestation of the one universal principle that fills all space and time.
Think of yourself thus as a child of the infinite, possessing infinite possibilities.
Write on a piece of paper, I have the power to do and
to be whatever I wish to do and be. Keep this mentally before you,
and you will find the thought will be of great help to you.
The mistake of concentrating on your business while away. In order to be successful
today, you must concentrate, but don't become a slave to concentration, and
carry your business cares home. Just as sure as you do, you will
be burning the life forces at both ends, and the fire will go out
much sooner than was intended. Many men become so absorbed in their business that
when they go to church they do not hear the preacher because their minds are
on their business. If they go to the theater, they do not enjoy
it because their business is on their minds. When they go to bed,
they think about business instead of sleep, and wonder why they don't sleep.
This is the wrong kind of concentration and is dangerous. It is involuntary.
When you are unable to get anything out of your mind, it becomes unwholesome,
as any thought held continuously causes weariness of the flesh. It is a
big mistake to let a thought rule you instead of ruling it. He who
does not rule himself is not a success. If you cannot control your concentration,
your health will suffer. So never becomes so absorbed with anything that you
cannot lay it aside and take up another. This is self control. Concentration
is paying attention to a chosen thought. Everything that passes before the eye makes
an impression on the subconscious mind. But unless you pay attention to some certain
thing, you will not remember what you saw. For instance, if you
walk down a busy street without seeing anything that attracted your particular attention, you
could not recall anything you saw. So you see only what attracts your attention.
If you work, you only see and remember what you think about.
When you concentrate on something, it absorbs your whole thought self study valuable.
Everyone has some habits that can be overcome by concentration. We will say,
for instance, you are in the habit of complaining or finding fault with yourself
or others, or imagining that you do not possess the ability of others,
or feeling that you are not as good as some one else, or that
you cannot rely on yourself, or harboring any similar thoughts or thoughts of weakness.
These should be cast aside, and instead thoughts of strength should be put
in their place. Just remember, every time you think of yourself as being
weak in some way, you are making yourself so by thinking you are.
Our mental conditions make us what we are. Just watch yourself and see how
much time you waste in worrying, fretting and complaining. The more of it
you do the worse off you are. Just the minute you are aware of
thinking a negative thought immediately changed to a positive one. If you start to
think of failure, change to thinking of success. You have the germ of
success within you. Care for it the same as the setting hen broods over
the eggs, and you can make it a reality. You can make those
that you come in contact with feel as you do because you radiate vibrations of
the way you feel, and your vibrations are felt by others. When you
concentrate on a certain thing, you turn all the rays of your vibrations on.
This thought is the directing power of all life's vibrations. If a person
should enter a room with a lot of people and feel as if he were
a person of no consequence, no one would know he was there unless they
saw him, and even if they did, they would not remember seeing him
because they were not attracted towards him. But let him enter the room feeling
he was magnetic and concentrating on this thought, others would feel his vibration.
So remember the way you feel, you can make others feel. This is
the law. Make yourself a concentrated dynamo from which your thoughts vibrate to others.
Then you are a power in the world. Cultivate the art of feeling,
For as I said before, you can only make others feel what you
feel. If you will study all of the great characters of history, you
will find that they were enthusiastic. First they were enthusiastic themselves, and then
they could arouse others enthusiasm. It is latent in it one. It is
a wonderful force. When once aroused. All public men to be a success
have to possess it. Cultivate it by concentration. Set aside some hour of
the day wherein to hold rapt, converse with the soul, meditate with sincere
desire, and contrite heart, and you will be able to accomplish that which
you have meditated on. This is the keynote of success. Think, speak,
and act just as you wish to be, and you will be that
which you wish to be. You are just what you think you are,
and not what you may appear to be. You may fool others, but
not yourself. You may control your life and actions just as you can control
your hands. If you want to raise your hand, you must first think
of raising it. If you want to control your life. You must first
control your thinking. Easy to do, is it not? Yes, it
is if you will, but concentrate on what you think about, For he
only can that says he will. How can we secure concentration to this question?
The first and last answer must be by interest and strong motive. The
stronger the motive, the greater the concentration Eustace Miller, MD. The successful
lives are the concentrated lives. The utterly helpless multitude that sooner or later have
to be cared for by charity are those that were never able to concentrate and
who have become the victims of negative ideas. Train yourself so you will be
able to concentrate your thought and develop your brain power and increase your mental energy.
Or you can be a slacker, a drifter, a quitter, or
a sleeper. It all depends on how you concentrate or centralize your thoughts.
Your thinking then becomes a fixed power, and you do not waste time thinking
about something that would not be good for you. You pick out the thoughts
that will be the means of bringing you what you desire, and they become
a material reality. Whatever we create in the thought world will some day materialize.
That is the law. Don't forget this. In the old days,
men drifted without concentration. But this is a day of efficiency, and therefore
all our efforts must be concentrated if we are to win any success worth the
name. Why people often do not get what they concentrate on because they sit
down in hopeless despair and expect it to come to them. But if they
will just reach out for it with their biggest effort, they will find it
is within their reach. No one limits us but ourselves. We are what
we are today as the result of internal conditions. We can control the external
conditions. They are subject to our will. Through our concentration, we can
attract what we want because we become in rapport with the universal forces from which
we can get what we want. You have watched races, no doubt,
they all line up together. Each has his mind set on getting to the
goal before the others. This is one kind of concentration. A man starts
to think on a certain subject, he has all kinds of thoughts come to
him, but by concentration he shuts out all these but the one he has
chosen. Concentration is just a case of willing to do a certain thing and
doing it. If you want to accomplish anything, first put yourself in a
concentrating, reposeful, receptive, acquiring frame of mind in tackling unfamiliar work,
make haste, slowly and deliberately, and then you will secure that interior activity,
which is never possible when you are in a hurry or under a strain.
When you think hard or try to hurry results too quickly, you generally
shut off the interior flow of thoughts and ideas. You have, often,
no doubt, tried hard to think of something but could not. But just
as soon as you stopped trying to think of it, it came to you.