CONCENTRATION IS MY MOTTO
FIRST HONESTY, THEN INDUSTRY,
THEN CONCENTRATION.
-Andrew Carnegie
until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and
successfully put into operation.
Two important laws enter into the act of concentrating the mind
on a given desire. One is the law of autosuggestion and the other is the law of habit.
Habit grows out of environment-the sum total of all sources by
which you are influenced through the aid of the five senses of seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling-and out of doing the same
thing in the same way over and over again, out of repetition, out of
thinking the same thoughts over and over.
Except on rare occasions when it rises above environment, the
human mind draws from its surroundings the material out of which
thought is created. Habit crystallizes this thought into a permanent
fixture, storing it away in the subconscious mind where it becomes
a vital part of our personality and silently influences our actions, forms
our prejudices and our biases, and controls our opinions.
Environment is the mental
feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is
extracted.
THE FORCES OF HABIT
habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day and it becomes so
strong that we cannot break it.
A habit is a "mental path" over which our actions have traveled
for some time, each passing making the path a little deeper and a little
wider. If you have had to walk over a field or through a forest, you know
how natural it is to choose the dearest path. The line of mental action is precisely
the same. It is movement along the lines of least
resistance-passage over the well-worn path.
Habits are created by repetition and are formed in accordance to a natural law, observable in all animate things and some would say
in inanimate things as well. For instance, a piece of paper once folded
in a certain way will fold along the same lines the next time.Clothing
forms into creases according to the person wearing it and these creases
once formed will remain. All users of any kind of machinery know that as a machine is first "broken in;" so it will tend to run thereafter.
Rivers and streams cut their courses through the land along the lines
of least resistance. The law is in operation everywhere.
The best, and one might say the only, way that old habits may be
broken is to form new habits to counteract and replace the undesirable ones.
Form new mental paths over which to travel, and soon the old ones will become less distinct.
Every time you travel over the path
of the desirable mental habit, you make that new path deeper and
wider-and so much easier to travel thereafter.
The following are the rules through which you may form the habits
you desire:
1. At the beginning of the formation of a new habit, put force and
Enthusiasm into your expression. Feel what you think. Remember
that you are taking the first steps toward making your new mental paths, and it is much harder at first than it will be afterward. At the beginning make each path as dear and as deep as you can, so that you can readily see it the next time you wish to follow it.
EXCELLENCE IS AN ART WON
BY TRAINING AND HABITUATION.
WE DO NOT ACT RIGHTLY BECAUSE
WE HAVE VIRTUE OR EXCELLENCE,
BUT WE RATHER HAVE THOSE BECAUSE
WE HAVE ACTED RIGHTLY.
WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO.
EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT
BUT A HABIT.
-Aristotle
building, and forget all about the old paths. Concern yourself only
with the new ones that you are building to order.
3. Travel over your newly made paths as often as possible. Create
opportunities for doing so, without waiting for them to arise
through luck or chance. The more often you go over the new paths,
the sooner they will become well worn and easily traveled.
4. Resist the temptation to travel over the older, easier paths you
have been using in the past. Every time you resist a temptation, the
stronger you become and the easier it will be for you to do so the
next time. But every time you yield to the temptation, the easier it
becomes to yield again and the more difficult it becomes to resist
the next time. This is the critical time. Prove your determination,
persistence, and willpower now, at the very beginning.
5. Be sure you have mapped out the right path as your Definite
Chief Aim, then go ahead without fear and without allowing your
self to doubt. Select your goal and make good, deep, wide mental
paths leading straight to it.
As you will have observed, there is a close relationship between
habit and autosuggestion. Through habit, an act repeatedly performed
in the same manner has a tendency to become permanent, and eventually
we come to perform the act automatically or unconsciously. In
playing a piano, for example, the artist can play a familiar piece while
his or her conscious mind is on some other subject.
Autosuggestion is the tool with which we dig a mental path,
Concentration is the hand that holds that tool, and habit is the map
or blueprint that the mental path follows. An idea or desire, to be
transformed into terms of action or physical reality, must be held in
the conscious mind faithfully and persistently until habit begins to
give it permanent form.
YOU ARE A PRODUCT OF
YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
SO CHOOSE THE ENVIRONMENT
THAT WILL BEST DEVELOP YOU
TOWARD YOUR OBJECTIVE ....
ARE THE THINGS AROUND YOU
HELPING YOU TOWARD SUCCESS
OR ARE THEY HOLDING YOU BACK?
-W. Clement Stone
The term environment covers a very broad field. It consists of
the books we read, the people with whom we associate, the country
and community in which we live, the nature of the work we do,
the clothes we wear, the songs we sing, and, most important of all,
the religious and intellectual training we receive prior to the age of
fourteen years.
The mind feeds upon that which we supply it, or that which is
forced upon it, through our environment. Therefore, let us select our
environment, as much as possible, with the object of supplying the
mind with suitable material out of which to carry on its work. If your
environment is not to your liking, change it!
The first step is to create in your own mind a clear, well-defined
picture of the environment in which you believe you could best attain
your Definite Chief Aim. Then concentrate your mind on this picture
until you transform it into reality.
A Definite Chief Aim, the first step you must take in the accomplishment of any desire is to have in
your mind an exact picture of what it is that you intend to accomplish.
This is also the first principle to be observed in your plans for the
achievement of success, and if you fail to observe it you cannot succeed except by chance.
Your daily associates constitute one of the most important and influential parts of your environment, and they may work for your progress or against it. As much as possible, you should select as your closest daily associates those who are in sympathy with your aims and ideals-especially those represented by your Definite Chief Aim.
You should make it a point to associate with people whose mental
attitudes inspire you with Enthusiasm, Self-Confidence, determination, and ambition.
Remember that every word spoken within your hearing, every
sight that reaches your eyes, and every sense impression that you
receive through any of the five senses, will influence your thoughts.
This being true, can you not see the importance of controlling, as
far as possible, the environment in which you live and work? Can
you not see the importance of reading books which deal with subjects
that are directly related to your Definite Chief Aim? Can you
not see the importance of talking with people who are in sympathy
with your aims, and who will encourage you and spur you on toward
their attainment?
An observant person could accurately analyze someone by seeing
their work environment. A well-organized desk will usually indicate
a well-organized mind. Show me the shelves in a store and I will tell
you whether the manager of that store has an organized or disorganized mind.
There is a close relationship between one's mental attitude
and one's physical environment.
The effects of environment so vitally influence those who work in
factories, stores, and offices, that most employers have become well
aware of the importance of creating an environment that inspires and
encourages their workers.
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