6. Imagination
Imagination is the key to mastering
all of the other lessons in the course (i.e., Definite Chief Aim,
Self-confidence, Leadership, etc.)
Imagination is the workshop of the
human mind wherein old ideas and established facts may be reassembled into new
combinations and put to new uses. The modern dictionary defines imagination as
follows:
“The
act of constructive intellect in grouping the materials of knowledge or thought
into new, original and rational systems; the constructive or creative faculty;
embracing the poetic, artistic, philosophic, scientific and ethical
imagination”
The major trouble with this world
today lies in our lack of understanding of the power of imagination, for if we
understood this great power we could use it as a weapon with which to wipe out
poverty and misery and injustice and persecution, and this could be done in a
single generation
Just as the oak tree develops from
the germ that lies in the acorn, and the bird develops from the germ so will
your material achievements grow out of the organized plans that you create in
your imagination.
Virtually all great accomplishments
began in someone's imagination-imagination can do the impossible. The key idea
of this lesson is this-use your imagination to rearrange old ideas into new
combinations. For maximum achievement, you must mix effort with imagination.
This is an area where your master mind group is especially helpful.
7. Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is a state of mind that
inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand. It does more than
this- it is contagious, and vitally affects not only the enthusiast, but all
with whom he comes in contact.
How it will affect you
Mix enthusiasm with your work and it
will not seem hard or monotonous. Enthusiasm will so energize your entire body
that you can get along with less than half the usual amount of sleep and at the
same time it will enable you to perform from two to three times as much work as
you usually perform in a given period.
The procedure through which it may be
developed is as follows; it begins by the doing of the work or rendering of the
service which one likes best. If you should be so situated that you cannot or
conveniently engage in the work which you like best, for the time being, then
you can proceed along another line very effectively by adopting a definite
chief aim that contemplates your engaging in that particular work at some
future time.
How it will affect others
Your enthusiasm will affect others
through the method of suggestion; this
is the principle through which your
words and your acts and even
your state of mind influence others.
Your thoughts constitute the most
important of the three ways in which you apply the principle of suggestion, for
the reason that they control the tone of your words and, to some extent at
least, your actions. If your thoughts and your actions and your words
harmonize, you are bound to influence those with whom you come in contact, more
or less toward your way of thinking. Suggestion
differs from Auto-suggestion only in one way—we may use it, consciously or
unconsciously, when we influence others, while we use Auto-suggestion as a
means influencing ourselves.
To Master Enthusiasm
1st: Read remaining
chapters because they are all co-ordinated
2nd: Write out your
definite chief aim in clear, simple language, and follow this by writing out a
plan through which the plan through which you intend to transform your aim into
reality.
3rd: Read over the
description of your definite chief aim each night, just before retiring, and as
you read, see yourself (in your imagination) in full possession of the object
of your aim. Do this with FULL FAITH in your ability to transform your definite
chief aim into reality. Read aloud, with all the ENTHUSIASM at your command,
emphasising every word. Repeat this reading until the small voice within you
tells you that your purpose will be realized. If you prefer to do so you may read your definite chief aim as a
prayer.
8. Self-Control
“Don’t say, “It can’t be done,” or
that you are different from these and thousands of others who have achieved
note-worthy success in every worthy calling. If you are “different,” it is only
in this respect: THEY DESIRED THE OBJECT OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENT WITH MORE DEPTH
AND INTENSITY THAN YOU DESIRE YOURS.”
Enthusiasm is the vital quality that
arouses you to action, while self-control is the balance wheel that directs
your action so that it will build and not destroy. To be a person who is well
“balanced” you must be a person in whom enthusiasm and self-control are
equalized. The author took a survey of 160,00 prison inmates and found that 92%
lacked the necessary self-control to direct their energies constructively, no
doubt all people who refuse or neglect to exercise self-control are literally
turning away opportunity after opportunity without knowing it.
Self-Control is a matter of thought
control!
You have within your control the
power to select the material that constitutes the dominating thoughts of your
mind, and just as surely as you are reading these lines, those thoughts which
dominate your mind will bring to you success or failure, according to their
nature. THEREFORE you should place in your mind, through the method of
auto-suggestion, the positive, constructive thoughts which harmonize with your
definite chief aim in life, and that mind will transform those thoughts into
physical reality and hand them back to you, as a finished product.
This is thought control!
By developing self-control you
develop, also, other qualities that will add to your personal power. Among
other laws which are available to the person who exercises self-control is the
Law of Retaliation. In the sense that we are using here it means “return like
for like”.
If I do you an injury you retaliate
at first opportunity. If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate in
kind, even in greater measure! On the other hand, if I do you a favour you will
reciprocate even in greater measure if possible.
Through the proper use of this law I
can get you to do whatever I wish you to do. If I wish you to dislike me and to
lend your influence toward damaging me, I can accomplish this by inflicting
upon you the sort of treatment that I want you to inflict upon me through
retaliation. If I wish your respect, your friendship and your co-operation I
can get these by extending to you my friendship and co-operation.
9. Habit of Doing More Than Paid For
“You have the good judgement to make
yourself so useful that the person to whom you sell your services cannot get
along without you”
There are two reasons for rendering
such as service which transcend in importance all the others; namely.
1st: By establishing a
reputation as being a person who always renders more service and better service
than that for which you are paid, you will benefit by comparison with those
around you who do not render such service, and the contrast will be so
noticeable that there will be keen competition for your services, no matter what
your life-work may be. Whether you are preaching sermons, practicing law or
otherwise you will become more valuable and you will be able to command greater
pay the minute you gain recognition as a person who does more than that for
which he is paid.
2nd: By far the most
important reason why you should render more service than that in this way:
Suppose that you wished to develop a strong right arm, and suppose that you
tried to do so by tying the arm to your side with a rope, thus taking it out of
use and giving it a long rest. Would disuse bring strength, or would it bring
atrophy and weakness, resulting, finally in your being compelled to have the
arm removed? You know that if you wished a strong right arm you could develop
such an arm only by giving it the hardest sort of use. Out of resistance comes strength!
The author suggest to readers to do
the following experiment:
During the next 6 months make it your
business to render such useful service to at least one person every day for
which you neither expect nor accept monetary pay. Read Emerson’s essay on
compensation for it will go a long way in helping you understand why you are
conducting the experiment.
Make it your business to render more
service and better service than that for which you are paid and lo! Before you
realize what had happened, you will find that THE WORLD IS WORLD IS WILLINGLY
PAYING YOU FOR MORE THAN YOU DO!
10. Pleasing Personality
Take a keen interest in other people
and in their work, business or profession. Make it your business to study other
people closely enough to find something about them or their work that you really admire, only in this way can you
develop a personality that will be irresistibly attractive.
To have a pleasing personality you
must have good character and the way to
build good character is by doing the following:
1st: Select those whose
characteristics were made up of the qualities which you wish to build into your
own character (your idols eg- Henry Ford, Bob Marley, Steve Jobs etc), and then
proceed, in the manner described in Lesson One, to appropriate these qualities,
through the aid of Auto-suggestion. Create, in your imagination, a council
table and gather your characters around it each night, first having written out
a clear, concise statement of the particular qualities that you wish to
appropriate from each. Then proceed to affirm or suggest to yourself, in
outspoken, audible words, that you are developing the desired qualities in
yourself.
2nd: At least a dozen
times a day, when you have a few minutes to yourself, shut your eyes and direct
your thoughts to the figures which you have selected to sit at your imaginary
council table; and feel, with a faith that knows NO LIMITATION, that you ARE
actually growing to resemble in character those figures of your choice.
3rd: Find at least one
person each day, and more if possible, in whom you see some good quality that
is worthy of praise and praise it. Remember however that this praise must not
be in the nature of cheap, insincere flattery; it must be genuine.
Let us now summarize the chief
factors which enter into the development of an attractive personality:
1st: Form the habit of
interesting yourself in other people; and make it your business to find their
good qualities and speak of them in terms of praise.
2nd: Develop the ability
to speak with force and conviction, both in your ordinary conversational tones
and before public gatherings, where you must use more volume.
3rd: Cloth yourself in a
style that is becoming to your physical build and the work in which you are
engaged.
4th: Develop a positive
character, through the aid of the formula outlined
above.
5th: Learn how to shake
hands so that you express warmth of feeling and enthusiasm through this form of
greeting.
6th: Attract other people
to you by first “attracting yourself” to them.
7th: Remember that your
only limitation, within reason, is the one which YOU set up in YOUR OWN MIND.
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