Achieving Prosperity - Ultimate Collection - Thorstein Veblen

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      Character Building By Mental Control

       Table of Content

      Man can make of himself what he will - Regeneration no idle dream - A living truth -Strong faculties made stronger, weak faculties developed - The new "Regenerator" - The Law of Mental Control - The new path through the woods - Making yourself over - To break up old thought habits and form new ones - The four great methods - Force of Will -Hypnotic Suggestion - Auto Suggestion - Thought Absorption - Ideal treatment - Full instruction in the theory of each of the four methods, showing their respective advantages and disadvantages, with illustrations of each - How to acquire a desired quality of mind - The practice of Thought Absorption - Practical exercises and directions - Exercises 1 to 6 - You are your own master - Make of yourself what you will.

      The student who has read the preceding lessons has doubtlessly said, after reading some of the statements contained therein, "yes, that is all true enough, and I could accomplish these results if I but possessed the necessary qualities of mind and character."

      This seems to be the great stumbling block to many. They know just what is necessary to produce Success, but because they do not possess the characteristics of the successful man they fancy, that the prize is beyond their reach. There is no greater mistake in the work that this false belief, this kind of fear thought, this lack of recognition of the power of the I AM.

      Man can so mold his mind by the power of the will that can make of himself practically what he will. He can "make over" himself, without a doubt. A man is just what he wills himself to be. This is a bold statement, but it is absolutely true and we have hundreds of instances of it in every city in this land. Hundreds of men can testify to its correctness, and many hundreds of others are on the road. Regeneration is no idle dream. It is a living truth. You will realize just what this means, if you will stop to consider that every effect has its cause. Business success is due to certain qualities of mind, character or temperament. Of these three qualities, the first is the only real one, as the last two are but the results of the first. Those who have the given qualities, produce the given result; those lacking the said qualities, fail to obtain the result. When once you realize that these qualities are within your grasp - that you can make them a part of yourself, you will readily see that wonderful possibilities are open to you. The acquirement of these qualities is key to the situation.

      You know just what these necessary qualities are: Energy, Ambition, Determination, Courage, Confidence, Perseverance, Patience, Prudence, and the rest of the list.

      All persons possess some of these qualities, and lack others. Some are strong in some of these qualities, and weak in others. And every man instinctively knows in just what respect he falls short. He may not admit it to his friends, or even to his wife, but deep down in his inner consciousness lurks the knowledge of the truth. If he could acquire the missing qualities by a mere wish, he would know just what to wish for. No doubt about that.

      But he lacks the confidence and perseverance thought to be necessary for the acquirement of that which he knows he needs. He is not willing to pay the price of attainment. If some great scientist would announce to the world that he had discovered some wonderful chemical combination, or some new "serum," that would develop the shrunken and atrophied faculties of the mind, and which would render a man stronger in the qualities wherein he had been weak, what a rush there would be for the new "regenerator." Thousands would want it, and every man would be able to tell just what brand of serum he needed. He would need the diagnosis or prescription for that. Every man would be able to diagnose his own case and order the serum indicated by his symptom. One would want triple extract of Energy; another, the "Stick-to-it" brand; another, the vial bearing the confident "I CAN" label; and so on. They would be able to round out their characters, and command success. Now, there is no drug that will produce this result. And there never will be. But the desired result can be obtained by the operation of the law of Mental Control.

      I can give you but a general idea of the workings of this great law, but if you will pay attention to what I have to say on the subject, you will grasp the principle, and will be able to work out your own salvation. The first point to remember is that we are all creatures of habit, bodily and mentally. Our characteristics are largely the result of habits of thought. We may have inherited impulses which made it easier to form certain habits, and more difficult to form certain habits of thought, and more difficult to form others, and we consequently move along the lines of the least resistance; but the character is, after all, the result of certain acquired habits. We follow well worn mental paths, in preference to making new paths through the woods, even though we know that the new path would be the better, by far, and that is would be as easy to travel over as the present one, when it was finally formed. We know all this. It is an old story. Then why do we not start in to make the new path? Simply because "it is too much trouble." We lack the will power, determination and persistency to do it. I admit that it is no easy task, but think of the reward.

      These things are "ancient history" to you, of course, but I have something else to say to you on the subject that is not so "antiquated." I propose to make you a present of a labor saving "path maker," which is guaranteed to clear away the underbrush and rubbish in but a fraction of the time, and with much less labor, that the old plodding clearing away process.

      This new plan is very simple, but very effective, and will enable you to "make yourself over" without the ripping apart process dependent upon the other method. I will tell you about it in as few words as possible. I have already explained to you that your mind possess two planes of effort, two functions, the Active and the Passive. The Active function does the volitional, original thinking, whilst the Passive function does only what it is told to do by the Active function (or by others). The Passive function is the easygoing partner of the firm, to whom I introduced you in a previous lesson. It is this part of the mind upon which hypnotists operate, after lulling to sleep the Active function, the critical partner. The Passive function, although in a sense the inferior, really rules us, unless we know how to manage it. It is the habit-function, the beaten-track function, of whose existence we are all conscious. It is easily influenced, but nevertheless is "set" in its ways. Tell it a thing over and over - something, which you wish it to believe - and it will end up accepting the new thought and being as "set" in the new notion as it was in the former one. This is the secret of breaking up the habits of thought; action; disposition; and character. The suggestion upon which the Passive function acts may come from your own Active mind, or from the mind of another. This is the explanation of the beginning of a habit, good or bad. To break up old thought habits, and to replace them with new habits of thinking, one or more of several plans may be used. One may accomplish the results by sheer force of will; another by hypnotic suggestion from an experienced qualified operator; to your Passive mind, a fourth by that which I will term Thought Absorption. Breaking up thought-habits by sheer force of will is a most difficult task, as most of us know, for we have all tired it. It is a plan by which only the strongest succeed whilst the weaker are defeated and relinquish the effort, experiencing additional discouragement and despair. We accomplish this result by the "strengthening of the will," or more correctly by the strengthening of the Active Function of the mind by the will, enabling it to step in and simply command the Passive function to drop the old thought-habit and adopt the new in its place. It is a magnificent feat, but very difficult of performance. The same result can be obtained by an easier plan. The very habit of making the Passive mind more amendable to the commands of the Active function can be acquired by the easier plan of which I will speak in this lesson.

      The second plan, the changing of the thought-habit by Hypnotic Suggestion, has been followed by many, with excellent results, provided, always, that the operator was a proper person, thoroughly understanding his profession, and being fully acquainted with the latest methods of eradicating undesirable thought-habits. In this connection, I would say that one should be very careful in whose hands they place themselves for treatment of this sort. One should not trust their case to a person just because that person could give hypnotic suggestion; one would not employ a man as cashier of a bank just because the applicant could keep books, and count money rapidly.

      The third plan, which of producing the result by autosuggestion is good, especially when accompanied by Thought Absorption.

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