Speaker 1: Lesson seventeen and eighteen of the power of concentration Lesson seventeen.
Ideals developed by concentration through our paltry, stir and strife
close the wished ideal and longing molds in clay what
life carves in the marble. Reel Lowell. We often hear
people spoken of as idealists. The fact is we are
all idealists to a certain extent, and upon the ideals
we picture depends our ultimate success. You must have the
mental image if you are to produce the material thing.
Everything is first created in the mind. When you control
your thoughts, you become a creator. You receive divine ideas
and shapen to your individual needs. All things of this
world are to you just what you think they are.
Your happiness and success depend upon your ideals. You are
responsible for every can you go through, either consciously or unconsciously.
The next step you take determines the succeeding step. Remember
this it is a valuable lesson. By concentrating on each
step as you go along, you can save a lot
of waste steps and will be able to choose a
straight path instead of a roundabout road. Concentrate your ideals
and they will become material actualities. Through concentration, we work
out our ideals in physical life. Your future depends upon
the ideals you are forming now. Your past ideals are
determining your present. Therefore, if you want a bright future,
you must begin to prepare for it today. If persons
could only realize that they can only injure themselves, that
when they are apparently injuring others, they are really injuring themselves,
what a different world this would be. We say a
man is as changeable as the weather. What is meant
is his ideal change. Every time you change your ideal,
you think differently. You become like a rudderless boat on
an ocean. Therefore, realize the importance of holding to your
ideal until it becomes a reality. You get up in
the morning, determine that nothing will make you lose your temper.
This is your ideal of a person of real strength
and poise. Something takes place that upsets you completely, and
you lose your temper for the time being. You forget
your ideal. If you had just thought a second of
what a well poised person implies, you would not have
become angry. You lose your poise when you forget your ideal.
Each time we allow our ideals to be shattered, we
also weaken our will power. Holding to your ideals develops
will power. Don't forget this. Why do so many men fail?
Because they don't hold to their ideal until it becomes
a mental habit. When they concentrate on it to the
exclusion of all other things, it becomes a reality. I
am that which I think myself to be. Ideals are
reflected to us from the unseen spirit. The laws of
matter and spirit are not the same. One can be broken,
but not the other. To the extent that ideals are kept,
is your future assured. It was never intended that man
should suffer. He has brought it upon himself by disobeying
the laws of nature. He knows them, so cannot plead ignorance.
Why does he break them? Because he does not pay
attention to those ideals flash to him from the infinite spirit.
Life is but one continuous unfoldment, and you can be
happy every step of the way or miserable as you please.
It all depends upon how we entertain those silent whisperings
that come from we know not where. We cannot hear
them with mortal ear, but from the silence they as
if they were dreams. Not to you or me alone,
but to everyone. In this way, the grandest thoughts come
to us to use or abuse. So search not in
treasured volumes for noble thoughts, but within, and bright and
glowing vision will come to be realized. Now and hereafter.
You must give some hours to concentrated, consistent, persistent thought.
You must study yourself and your weaknesses. No man gets
over a fence by wishing himself on the other side.
He must climb. No man gets out of the rut
of dull, tiresome, monotonous life by merely wishing himself out
of the rut. He must climb. If you are standing
still or going backward, there is something wrong. You are
the man to find out what is wrong. Don't think
that you are neglected, or not understood, or not appreciated.
Such thoughts are the thoughts of failure. Think hard about
the fact that men who have got what you envy
got it by working for it. Don't pity yourself criticize yourself.
You know that the only thing in the world that
you have got to count upon is yourself Lesson eighteen.
Mental control through creation. I attended a banquet of inventors recently.
Each inventor gave a short talk on something he thought
would be accomplished in the future. Many very much needed
things were spoken of. One inventor spoke of the possibilities
of wireless telephone distance he said would shortly be annihilated.
He thought we would soon be able to talk to
the man in the submarine forty fathoms below the surface
and a thousand miles away. When he got through, he
asked if there were any that doubted what he said.
No one spoke up. This was not a case of
tactful politeness, as inventors like to argue, but a case
where no one present really doubted that the inventor's vision
would in the future materialize. These shrewd men, some real geniuses,
all thought we would in time be able to talk
to those a thousand miles away without media. Now, if
we can make an instrument so wonderful that we can
send wireless messages a thousand miles, is there any reason
why we should not, through mental control, transmit messages from
one person to another. The wireless message should not be
as easy to send as the projected thought. The day
will come when all business will employ highly developed persons
to send out influences. These influences will be so dominating
that employees will be partly controlled by them, and so
you will profit more and more by your mental powers
and depend on them to draw you to all fours
of a helping nature. You will be constantly sending out
suggestions to your employees and friends. They will receive these unconsciously,
but in case yours is the stronger personality, they will
carry them out the same as if you had spoken them.
This is being done even today. A finely organized company
secures the combined effort of all its men. They may
be each doing a different kind of work, but all
work to bring about the very best results. The whole
atmosphere is impregnated with a high standard of workmanship. Everyone
feels he must do his best. He could not be
in such surroundings and be satisfied to do anything but
his best work. A business will exceed only to the
extent that the efforts of all are coordinated toward one result.
At least one person is needed to direct all toward
the desired end. The person at the head does not
have to exactly outline to the others what steps to take,
But he must possess the mental power of control over others.
An up to date business letter is not written in
a casual, commonplace way. Today, the writer tries to convey
something he thinks the receiver will be interested to know.
In this way, he awakens a responsive spirit. Sometimes just
the addition of a word or two will change a
letter of the matter of fact style to one that
compels a response. It is not always what is actually
in a letter, but the spirit which it breathes that
brings the results. That intangible something that defies analysis is
the projected thought of the matter that brings back the
harvest that it claims. But we should not always claim
success for ourselves. Only if you are anxious that some
friend or relative should succeed, think of this person as
becoming successful in the position you would like to see
him in. If he has a weakness, desire and command
that it be strengthened. Think of his shortcomings, which belong
to his negative nature, as being replaced by positive qualities.
Take a certain part of the day to send him
thoughts of upbuilding nature. You can, in this way arouse
his mental powers into activity, and once aroused, they will
assert themselves and claim their own We can accomplish a
great deal more than many of us are ready to
believe by sending to another our direct, positive and controlling
suggestions of leadership. But whether a man is a success
or not is greatly determined by the way he acts
on the suggestions he receives. We either advance or decline.
We never stand still. Every time we accomplish something, it
gives us ability to do greater things. The bigger the
attempt undertaken, the greater the things accomplished in the future.
As a business grows, the head of the business also
has to grow. He must advance and be ever the
guiding influence. By his power to control, he inspires confidence
and those associated with him. Often employees are superior to
their employers in some qualities, and if they had studied
instead of neglected their development, they could have been employers
of more commanding influence than those whom they serve. Through
your mental power, you can generate in another enthusiasm and
the spirit of success, which somehow furnishes an impetus to
do something worth while. In concentrated mental control, there is
a latent power more potent than physical force. The person
becomes aware that the attitude of the mind has a
power of controlling, directing, and governing other forces. He has
been placed in an attitude case capable of acquiring that
which he desires. All of us, no matter how strong
we are, are affected by the mental forces of our environment.
There is no one that can remain neutral to influences.
The mind cannot be freed from the forces of a place.
If the environment of your place of business is not helpful,
it will be harmful. That is why a change of
position will often do a person a great deal of good.
No person was ever intended to live alone. If you
are shut up with only your own thoughts, you suffer
from mental starvation. The mind becomes narrow, the mental powers weaken.
Living alone often causes some of the milder forms of insanity.
If children do not play with those their own age,
but associate with only older people, they will take on
the actions of the older people. The same is true
of older persons. If they associate with people younger than
they are, they will take on the spirit of youth.
If you wish to retain your youth, you need the
influences of youth, like attracts like all over the world.
The thought element plays a great part in our lives.
Every business must not only command physical effort, but it
must also command thought effort. There must be coordination of thought.
All employers should aim to secure employees that think along
similar lines. They will work in fuller sympathy with each other.
They will better understand each other. This enables them to
help each other, which would be utterly impossible if they
were not in sympathy with each other. It is this
that goes to make up a perfect organization, which directs
and influences them toward the one end. Instead of each
person being a separate unit, each one is like a
spoke in a big wheel. Each member carries his own looks,
and he would not think of shirking. Any One working
in such an atmosphere could not help turning out his
best work. All great leaders must be able to inspire
this co operative spirit. They first secure assistance through their
mental control. Then they make their assistance realize the value
of mental control. Soon there is a close bond between them.
They are working toward a single purpose. They profit by
their combined effort. The result is that they accomplish much.
If your business is conducted in the right spirit, you
can instill your thoughts and your ideas into your employees.
Your methods and ideas become theirs. They don't know it,
but your mental forces are shaping their work. They are
just as certain to produce results as any physical force
in nature. The up to date business man of the
future is going to take pains to get his employees
to think and reason better. He will not want them
to become depressed or discouraged. There is time that, instead
of being wasted, he will endeavor to have them use
in concentrated effort that will be profitable to both employer
and employed. There must be more of the spirit of
justice entering into the business of the future. There is
a firm I know that will not hire an employee
until he has filled out an application blank. No doubt,
those that fill it out think it is a foolishness,
but it is not. A capable manager can look over
this application blank and pretty nearly tell if this person
will fit into his management. The main thing he wants
to know is the applicant's capacity for efficient, co operative effort.
He wants persons that have faith in themselves. He wants
them to realize that when they talk of misfortunes and
become blue, they are likely to communicate the same depressing
influence to others. The up to date manager wants to
guard against hiring employees who obstruct his success. You must
realize that every moment spent in thinking of your difficulties
of the past, every moment spent in bad company, is
attracting to you. All that is bad is attracting influences
that must be shaken off before you can advance. Many
firms prefer to hire employees that never worked before so
that they have nothing to unlearn. They are then not trained,
but have had no bad business habits to overcome. They
are more easily guided and grafts the new materials more
effectively because they are not contrary to what they have
already learned. They are at once started on the right road,
and as they cooperate readily, they receive the mental support
of the management and learning the methods that have been perfected.
This inspires confidence in themselves and they soon become efficient
and finally skilled workers. Most big business firms today employ
efficiency experts. Each day or week they are in a
different department. They earn their money because they familiarize persons
with very little business experience with plans that have taken
the expert years of training and much money to perfect.
The attitude we take has a great deal more to
do with our success than most of us realize. We
must be able to generate those forces that are helpful.
There is a wonderful power in the thought rightly controlled
and projected, and we must, through concentration, develop this power
to the fullest possible extent. We are surrounded by many
forces of which we know but little at present. Our
knowledge of these is to be wonderfully increased each year
we learn more about these psychic forces, which are full
of possibilities of which we are not even dimly comt
We must believe in mental control, learn more about it,
and use it if we want to command these higher
powers and forces which will unquestionably direct the lives of
countless future generations.