THE EGO, THE MASTER MIND, AND COSMIC HABIT FORCE

Habits are inseparably related to the human ego, which is a greatly misunderstood subject. The word ego is of Latin origin and it means I, but it is a common error to believe the ego to be only a medium for expression of vanity.

The ego is the driving force behind all forms of human action, and it is the medium for translating desire into faith. Therefore we must know something of its nature and possibilities in order that we may guide it to the attainment of definite ends.

The power of the ego is fixed entirely by the application of autosuggestion, or self-suggestion, and the starting point of all individual achievements is to inspire one's ego with a "success consciousness." The person who succeeds must do so by impressing on their ego the object of their desires, and removing from it all forms of limitation, fear, and doubt which lead to the dissipation of the power of the ego. A person's ego is the sum total of their thought habits that have been affixed through the automatic operation of the law of Cosmic Habit-force. It determines the manner in which they relate to all other people. It is one's greatest asset or greatest liability, according to the way they relate them-self to it.

The egoist who makes themselves offensive through the expression of their ego is one who has not discovered how to relate themselves to their ego in a constructive manner. Constructive application of the ego is made through the expressions of one's hopes, desires, aims, ambitions, and plans, and not by boastfulness or self-love. The motto of the person who has their ego under control is "Deeds, not words:''

The desire to be great, to be recognized, and to have personal power, is a healthy desire. But an open expression of one's belief in their own greatness is an indication that he or she has not taken possession of their ego, that they have allowed it to take possession of them. You can be sure that their proclamations of greatness are only to shield some fear or inferiority complex.

Understand the real nature of your ego and you will understand the real significance of the Master Mind principle. Moreover, you will recognize that to be of the greatest service to you, the members of your Master Mind alliance must be in complete sympathy with your hopes, aims, and purposes. They must not be in competition with you in any manner whatsoever.

They must have confidence in you and your integrity, and they must respect you. They must be willing to accentuate your virtues and make allowances for your faults. They must be willing to permit you to be yourself and live your own life in your own way at all times. Lastly, they must receive from you some form of benefit that will make you as beneficial to them as they are to you.

The people of great achievement are, and have always been, those who deliberately feed and shape their own ego, leaving nothing to luck or chance, or to the fluctuations of life.

Every person may control the shaping of their own ego, but from that point on he or she has no more to do with what happens than does the farmer have anything to do with what happens to the seed he sows in the soil of the earth. The inexorable law of Cosmic Habit-force causes every living thing to perpetuate itself after its kind, and it translates the picture that a person paints of their ego into its physical equivalent as definitely as it develops an acorn into an oak tree. And no outside aid whatsoever is required, except time. From these statements it is obvious that I am not only advocating the deliberate development and control of the ego but I am also warning that no one can hope to succeed in any calling without such control over their ego. A properly developed ego is the product of several factors, which I will outline for you here.
First you must ally yourself with one or more persons who will coordinate their minds with yours in a spirit of perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose, and that alliance must be continuous and active. Moreover, the alliance must consist of people whose spiritual and mental qualities, education, and age are suited for aiding in the attainment of the purpose of the alliance.  

KEEP AWAY FROM PEOPLE WHO TRY TO BELITTLE YOUR AMBITIONS. SMALL PEOPLE ALWAYS DO THAT, BUT THE REALLY GREAT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOU, TOO, CAN BECOME GREAT. 

-Mark Twain 

Once you have placed yourself under the influence of the proper associates, you must adopt some definite plan by which to attain the object of the alliance and proceed to put that plan into action. The plan may be a composite plan created by the joint efforts of all the members of the Master Mind group. 

If one plan proves to be unsound or inadequate, it must be revised or replaced by others until a plan is found that will work. But there must be no change in the purpose of the alliance. 

Then you must remove yourself from the range of influence of every person and every circumstance that has even a slight tendency to cause you to feel inferior or incapable of attaining the object of your purpose. Positive egos do not grow in negative environments. On this point there can be no excuse for a compromise, and failure to observe it will prove fatal to your chances of success. 

The line must be so clearly drawn between you and those who exercise any form of negative influence over you that you close the door tightly against every such person, no matter what previous ties of friendship, obligation, or relationship may have existed between you. You must close the door tightly against every thought of any past experience or circumstance that tends to make you feel inferior or unhappy. A strong, vital ego cannot be developed by dwelling on thoughts of past unpleasant experiences. Vital egos thrive on the hopes and desires of yet unattained objectives.

Thoughts are the building blocks from which the human ego is constructed, and Cosmic Habit-force is the cement that binds these blocks together in permanency, through fixed habits. When the job is finished it represents, right down to the smallest detail, the nature of the thoughts that went into the building. 

You must surround yourself with every possible physical means of impressing your mind with the nature and the purpose of the ego you are developing. For example, if you are or aspire to be an author, you should decorate your work environment with pictures and the works of other authors whom you most admire. You should fill your bookshelves with books related to your own field of work. You should surround yourself with every possible means of conveying to your ego the exact picture of yourself that you expect to express, because that picture is the pattern that the law of Cosmic Habit-force will pick up-the picture that it translates into its physical equivalent.  

The properly developed ego is at all times under the control of the individual. There must be no over inflation of the ego tending toward "egomania;' by which some people destroy themselves. Egomania reveals itself by a mad desire to control others by force. 

In the development of the ego, one's motto might well be "Not too much, not too little, of anything:' When people begin to thirst for control over others, or begin to accumulate large sums of money that they cannot or do not use constructively, they are treading on dangerous ground. Power of this nature grows of its own accord and it soon gets out of control. Nature has provided us all with a safety valve through which she deflates the ego and relieves the pressure of its influence when an individual goes beyond certain limits in the development of the ego.

People who quit work and retire from all forms of activity, after having led active lives, generally atrophy and die soon thereafter. If they live they are usually miserable and unhappy. A healthy ego is one that is always in use and under complete control. 

The ego is constantly undergoing changes, for better or for worse, because of the nature of one's thought habits. The two factors that force these changes upon one are time-and the law of Cosmic Habit-force.

Just as seeds planted in the soil require definite periods of time to germinate, develop, and grow, so do the ideas, thought impulses, and desires that are planted in the mind require definite periods of time for the law of Cosmic Habit-force to give them life and action.   

There is no adequate means of describing or predetermining the exact period of time that is required for the transformation of a desire into its physical equivalent. The nature of the desire, the circumstances related to it, and the intensity of the desire, are all determining factors in the time required for transformation from the thought stage to the physical stage.

The state of mind known as faith is so favorable for the quick change of desire into its physical equivalent that it has been known to make the change almost instantaneously. 

Human beings tend to mature physically in about twenty years, but mentally-which means the ego-we require from thirty-five to sixty years for maturity. This explains why people seldom begin to accumulate material riches in great abundance, or to attain outstanding records of achievement in other areas, until they are about fifty years of age. It is a necessity that the ego undergo self-discipline-through which one acquires Self-Confidence, definiteness of purpose, personal Initiative, Imagination, accuracy of judgment, and other qualities before it has the power to acquire and hold wealth in abundance. These qualities come through the proper use of time. Observe that I did not say they come through the lapse of time. Through the operation of Cosmic Habit-force, every individual's thought habits, whether negative or positive, whether of wealth or of poverty, are woven into the pattern of their ego, and there they are given permanent form which determines the nature and the extent of that person's spiritual and physical status.

UNTIL YOU VALUE YOURSELF, YOU WON'T VALUE YOUR TIME. UNTIL YOU VALUE YOUR TIME, YOU WILL NOT DO ANYTHING WITH IT. 

-M. Scott Peck