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LESSON XX. CONCENTRATION REVIEWED

Books: The Power of Concentration

New Method. You will find in this chapter a most effective and

most practical method of developing the will. You can develop a

strong one if you want to. You can make your Will a dynamo to

draw to you untold power. Exercises are given which will, if

practiced, strengthen your will, just as you would strengthen

your muscles by athletic exercises.



In starting to do anything, we must first commence with

elementary principles. Simple exercises will be given. It is

impossible to estimate the ultimate good to be derived from the

mental cultivation that comes through these attempts at

concentration. Even the simple exercises are not to be thought

useless. "In no respect," writes Doctor Oppenheim, "can a man

show a finer quality of will-power than in his own private,

intimate life." We are all subjected to certain temptations. The

Will decides whether we will be just, or unjust; pure of thought;

charitable in opinion; forbearing in overlooking other's

shortcomings; whether we live up to our highest standard. Since

these are all controlled by the Will, we should find time for

plenty of exercises for training of the will in our daily life.



You, of course, realize that your will should be trained. You

must also realize that to do this requires effort that you alone

can command. No one can call it forth for you.



To be successful in these exercises you must practice them in a

spirit of seriousness and earnestness. I can show you how to

train your will, but your success depends upon your mastery and

application of these methods.



New Methods of Will-Training. Select a quiet room where you will

not be interrupted; have a watch to determine the time, and a

note-book in which to enter observations. Start each exercise

with date and time of day.





Exercise 1



Time decided on. Select some time of the day when most

convenient. Sit in a chair and look at the door-knob for ten

minutes. Then write down what you experienced. At first it will

seem strange and unnatural. You will find it hard to hold one

position for ten minutes. But keep as still as you can. The time

will seem long for it will probably be the first time you ever

sat and did nothing for ten minutes. You will find your thoughts

wandering from the door-knob, and you will wonder what there can

be in this exercise. Repeat this exercise for six days.



10 P. M. 2nd Day.



Notes. You should be able to sit quieter, and the time should

pass more quickly. You will probably feel a little stronger

because of gaining a better control of your will. It will brace

you up, as you have kept your resolution. 10 P. M. 3rd Day.



Notes. It may be a little harder for you to concentrate on the

door-knob as perhaps you had a very busy day and your mind kept

trying to revert to what you had been doing during the day. Keep

on trying and you will finally succeed in banishing all foreign

thoughts. Then you should feel a desire to gain still more

control. There is a feeling of power that comes over you when you

are able to carry out your will. This exercise will make you feel

bigger and it awakens a sense of nobility and manliness. You will

say, "I find that I can actually do what I want to and can drive

foreign thoughts out. The exercise, I can now see, is valuable."



10 P. M. 4th Day.



Notes. "I found that I could look at the door-knob and

concentrate my attention on it at once. Have overcome the

tendency to move my legs. No other thoughts try to enter as I

have established the fact that I can do what I want to do and do

not have to be directed. I feel that I am gaining in mental

strength, I can now see the wonderful value of being the master

of my own will-force. I know now if I make a resolution I will

keep it. I have more self-confidence and can feel my self-control

increasing.



10 P. M. 5th Day.



Notes. "Each day I seem to increase the intensity of my

concentration. I feel that I can center my attention on anything

I wish.



10 P. M. 6th Day.



Notes. "I can instantly center my whole attention on the

door-knob. Feel that I have thoroughly mastered this exercise and

that I am ready for another."



You have practiced this exercise enough, but before you start

another I want you to write a summary of just how successful you

were in controlling the flitting impulses of the mind and will.

You will find this an excellent practice. There is nothing more

beneficial to the mind than to pay close attention to its own

wonderful, subtle activities.





Exercise 2



Secure a package of playing cards. Select some time to do the

exercise. Each day at the appointed time, take the pack in one

hand and then start laying them down on top of each other just as

slowly as you can, with an even motion. Try to get them as even

as possible. Each card laid down should completely cover the

under one. Do this exercise for six days.



1st Day.



Notes. Task will seem tedious and tiresome. Requires the closest

concentration to make each card completely cover the preceding

one. You will probably want to lay them down faster. It requires

patience to lay them down so slowly, but benefit is lost if not

so placed. You will find that at first your motions will be jerky

and impetuous. It will require a little practice before you gain

an easy control over your hands and arms. You probably have never

tried to do anything in such a calm way. It will require the

closest attention of your will. But you will find that you are

acquiring a calmness you never had before. You are gradually

acquiring new powers. You recognize how impulsive and impetuous

you have been, and how, by using your will, you can control your

temperament.



2nd Day.



Notes. You start laying the cards down slowly. You will find that

by practice you can lay them down much faster. But you want to

lay them down slowly and therefore you have to watch yourself.

The slow, steady movement is wearisome. You have to conquer the

desire of wanting to hurry up. Soon you will find that you can go

slowly or fast at will.



3rd Day.



Notes. You still find it hard to go slowly. Your will urges you

to go faster. This is especially true if you are impulsive, as

the impulsive character finds it very difficult to do anything

slowly and deliberately. It goes against the "grain." This

exercise still is tiresome. But when you do it, it braces you up

mentally. You are accomplishing something you do not like to do.

It teaches you how to concentrate on disagreeable tasks. Writing

these notes down you will find very helpful.



4th Day.



Notes. I find that I am beginning to place the cards in a

mathematical way. I find one card is not completely covering

another. I am getting a little careless and must be more careful.

I command my will to concentrate more. It does not seem so hard

to bring it under control.



5th Day.



Notes. I find that I am overcoming my jerky movements, that I can

lay the cards down slowly and steadily. I feel that I am rapidly

gaining more poise. I am getting better control over my will each

day, and my will completely controls my movements. I begin to

look on my will as a great governing power. I would not think of

parting with the knowledge of will I have gained. I find it is a

good exercise and know it will help me to accomplish my tasks.



6th Day.



Notes. I begin to feel the wonderful possibilities of the will.

It gives me strength to think of the power of will. I am able to

do so much more and better work now, that I realize that I can

control my will action. Whatever my task, my will is concentrated

on it. I am to keep my will centered there until the task is

finished. The more closely and definitely I determine what I

shall do, the more easily the will carries it out. Determination

imparts compelling force to the will. It exerts itself more. The

will and the end act and react on each other.



7th Day.



Notes. Now try to do everything you do today faster. Don't hurry

or become nervous. Just try to do everything faster, but in a

steady manner.



You will find that the exercises you have practiced in

retardation have steadied your nerves, and thereby made it

possible to increase your speed. The will is under your command.

Make it carry out resolutions rapidly. This is how you build up

your self-control and your self-command. It is then that the

human machine acts as its author dictates.



You certainly should now be able to judge of the great benefit

that comes from writing out your introspections each day. Of

course you will not have the exact experiences given in these

examples, but some of these will fit your case. Be careful to

study your experiences carefully and make as true a report as you

can. Describe your feelings just as they seem to you. Allow your

fancies to color your report and it will be worthless. You have

pictured conditions as you see them. In a few months, if you

again try the same exercises, you will find your report very much

better. By these introspections, we learn to know ourselves

better and with this knowledge can wonderfully increase our

efficiency. As you become used to writing out your report, it

will be more accurate. You thus learn how to govern your

impulses, activities and weaknesses.



Each person should try to plan exercises that will best fit his

needs. If not convenient for you to practice exercises every day,

take them twice or three times a week. But carry out any plan you

decide to try. If you cannot devote ten minutes a day to the

experiments start with five minutes and gradually increase the

time. The exercises given are only intended for examples.



Will Training Without Exercise. There are many people that do not

want to take the time to practice exercises, so the following

instructions for training the will are given to them.



By willing and realizing, the will grows. Therefore the more you

will, the more it grows, and builds up power. No matter whether

your task is big or small, make it a rule to accomplish it in

order to fortify your will. Form the habit of focusing your will

in all its strength upon the subject to be achieved. You form in

this way the habit of getting a thing done, of carrying out some

plan. You acquire the feeling of being able to accomplish that

which lies before you, no matter what it is. This gives you

confidence and a sense of power that you get in no other way. You

know when you make a resolution that you will keep it. You do not

tackle new tasks in a half-hearted way, but with a bold, brave

spirit. We know that the will is able to carry us over big

obstacles. Knowing this despair never claims us for a victim. We

have wills and are going to use them with more and more

intensity, thus giving us the power to make our resolutions

stronger, our actions freer and our lives finer and better.



The education of the will should not be left to chance. It is

only definite tasks that will render it energetic, ready,

persevering and consistent. The only way it can be done is by

self-study and self-discipline. The cost is effort, time and

patience, but the returns are valuable. There are no magical

processes leading to will development, but the development of

your will works wonders for you because it gives you

self-mastery, personal power and energy of character.



Concentration of the Will to Win. The adaptability of persons to

their business environment is more a matter of determination than

anything else. In this age we hear a good deal of talk about a

man's aptitudes. Some of his aptitudes, some of his powers, may

be developed to a wonderful extent, but he is really an unknown

quality until all his latent powers are developed to their

highest possible extent. He may be a failure in one line and a

big success in another. There are many successful men, that did

not succeed well at what they first undertook, but they profited

by their efforts in different directions, and this fitted them

for higher things, whereas had they refused to adjust themselves

to their environment, the tide of progress would have swept them

into oblivion.



My one aim in all my works is to try and arouse in the individual

the effort and determination to develop his full capacities, his

highest possibilities. One thing I want you to realize at the

start, that it is not so much ability, as it is the will to do

that counts. Ability is very plentiful, but organizing initiative

and creative power are not plentiful. It is easy to get employes,

but to get someone to train them is harder. Their abilities must

be directed to the work they can do. They must be shown how,

while at this work, to conserve their energy and they must be

taught to work in harmony with others, for most business concerns

are dominated by a single personality.



Concentrating on Driving Force Within. We are all conscious, at

times, that we have somewhere within us an active driving force

that is ever trying to push us onward to better deeds. It is that

"force" that makes us feel determined at times to do something

worth while. It is not thought, emotion or feeling. This driving

force is something distinct from thought or emotion. It is a

quality of the soul and therefore it has a consciousness all its

own. It is the "I will do" of the will. It is the force that

makes the will concentrate. Many have felt this force working

within them, driving them on to accomplish their tasks. All great

men and women become conscious that this supreme and powerful

force is their ally in carrying out great resolutions.



This driving force is within all, but until you reach a certain

stage you do not become aware of it. It is most useful to the

worthy. It springs up naturally without any thought of training.

It comes unprovoked and leaves unnoticed. Just what this force is

we do not know, but we do know that it is what intensifies the

will in demanding just and harmonious action.





The ordinary human being, merely as merchandise, if he could be

sold as a slave, would be worth ten thousand dollars. If somebody

gave you a five thousand dollar automobile you would take very

good care of it. You wouldn't put sand in the carburetor, or mix

water with the gasoline, or drive it furiously over rough roads,

or leave it out to freeze at night.



Are you quite sure that you take care of your own body, your own

health, your only real property, as well as you would take care

of a five thousand dollar automobile if it were given to you?



The man who mixes whiskey with his blood is more foolish than a

man would be if he mixed water with gasoline in his car.



You can get another car; you cannot get another body.



The man who misses sleep lives irregularly--bolts his food so

that his blood supply is imperfect. That is a foolish man

treating himself as he would not treat any other valuable piece

of property.



Do you try to talk with men and women who know more than you do,

and do you LISTEN rather than try to tell them what you know?



There are a hundred thousand men of fifty, and men of sixty,

running along in the old rut, any one of whom could get out of it

and be counted among the successful men if only the spark could

be found to explode the energy within them now going to waste.



Each man must study and solve his own problem.



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