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diff --git a/17334.txt b/17334.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1683cf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/17334.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1751 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Initiative Psychic Energy, by Warren Hilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Initiative Psychic Energy + Being the Sixth of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the + Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and + Business Efficiency + +Author: Warren Hilton + +Release Date: December 17, 2005 [EBook #17334] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INITIATIVE PSYCHIC ENERGY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + + + + + Applied Psychology + + INITIATIVE + PSYCHIC ENERGY + + + + + _Being the Sixth of a Series of + Twelve Volumes on the Applications + of Psychology to the Problems of + Personal and Business + Efficiency_ + + + + BY + + WARREN HILTON, A.B., L.L.B. + FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY + + + + ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF + THE LITERARY DIGEST + FOR + _The Society of Applied Psychology_ + NEW YORK AND LONDON + 1920 + + + + COPYRIGHT 1914 + BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESS + SAN FRANCISCO + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Chapter + +I. MENTAL SECOND WIND + + STICKING TO THE JOB + THE LAGGING BRAIN + RESERVE SUPPLIES OF POWER + "BLUE" MONDAYS + HOW TO STRIKE ONE'S STRIDE + THE SPUR OF DESIRE + HOW TO RELEASE STORED-UP ENERGIES + THE LAWYER WHO "OVERWORKS" + EXCITEMENT AND THE HERO + ENDURING POWER OF MIND + +II. RESERVES OF POWER + + MAN'S POTENTIAL AND KINETIC ENERGIES + HOLDING THE TOP PACE + GENIUS AND THE MASTER MAN + MENTAL EFFECTS OF CITY LIFE + NEW-FOUND ENERGIES EXPLAINED + QUICKENED MENTALITY + FAST LIVING AND LONG LIVING + PROFESSOR PATRICK'S EXPERIMENTS + RATIO BETWEEN REPAIR AND DEMAND + PYGMIES AND GIANTS + TRANSFORMING INERTNESS INTO ALERTNESS + HOW THE MIND ACCUMULATES ENERGY + THE THRESHOLD OF INHIBITION + HIDDEN STRENGTH + GIVING A MAN SCOPE + +III. THE INITIATIVE ENERGY OF SUCCESS + + SOURCES OF PERSISTENCE + IMPORTANCE OF THE MENTAL SETTING + IDEAS ALL MEN RESPOND TO + HOW TO EXALT THE PERSONALITY + "GOOD STARTERS" AND "STRONG FINISHERS" + STEPS IN SELF-DEVELOPMENT + SAVING A THOUSAND A YEAR + LOOKING FOR A "SOFT SNAP" + DRAWING POWER FROM ON HIGH + THE MAN WHO LASTS + +IV. HOW TO AVOID WASTES THAT DRAIN THE ENERGY OF SUCCESS + + SPEEDING THE BULLET WITHOUT AIMING + WHY MOST MEN FAIL + THE SUCCESSFUL PROMOTER + THE HUMAN DYNAMO + COOL BRAINS AND HOT BOXES + MARVELOUS INCREASED EFFICIENCY HANDLING "PIG" + "OVERLOADED" HUMAN ENGINES + SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT OF SELF + PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES OF WASTE + TESTS FOR SENSORY DEFECTS + MENTAL FRICTION AND INNER WHIRLWINDS + PROMINENT TRAITS OF GREAT ACHIEVERS + WHY A MAN BREAKS DOWN + HOW TO ECONOMIZE EFFORT + HOW YOUR MENTAL CAPITAL IS DISSIPATED + CONQUERING INDECISION + WHY "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" WORKS + HOW TO RELEASE PENT-UP POWER + PROPER RATIO BETWEEN WORK AND REST + DETERMINING YOUR NORM OF EFFICIENCY + +V. THE SECRET OF MENTAL EFFICIENCY + + WHERE ENERGY IS STORED + BODILY EFFECTS OF IDEAS + IMPULSES AND INHIBITIONS + TRAINING FOR MENTAL "TEAM-WORK" + RUST AND THE "DAILY GRIND" + IDEAS THAT HARMONIZE + FIVE RULES FOR CONSERVING ENERGY + BUSINESS LUCK AND "BLUE-SKY" THEORIES + DEVICES FOR COMMERCIAL EFFICIENCY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MENTAL SECOND WIND + + +[Sidenote: _Sticking to the Job_] + +Are you an unusually persevering and persistent person? Or, like most +of us, do you sometimes find it difficult to stick to the job until it +is done? What is your usual experience in this respect? + +Is it not this, that you work steadily along until of a sudden you +become conscious of a feeling of weariness, crying "Enough!" for the +time being, and that you then yield to the impulse to stop? + +[Sidenote: _The Lagging Brain_] + +Assuming that this is what generally happens, does this feeling of +fatigue, this impulse to rest, mean that your mental energy is +exhausted? + +Suppose that by a determined effort of the will you force your lagging +brain to take up the thread of work. _There will invariably come a new +supply of energy, a "second wind," enabling you to forge ahead with a +freshness and vigor that is surprising after the previous lassitude._ + +Nor is this all. The same process may be repeated a second time and a +third time, each new effort of the will being followed by a renewal of +energy. + +[Sidenote: _Reserve Supplies of Power_] + +Many a man will tell you that he does his best work in the wee watches +of the morning, after tedious hours of persevering but fruitless +effort. Instead of being exhausted by its long hours of persistent +endeavor, the mind seems now to rise to the acme of its power, to +achieve its supreme accomplishments. Difficulties melt into thin air, +profound problems find easy solution. Flights of genius manifest +themselves. Yet long before midnight such a one had perhaps felt +himself yield to fatigue and had tied a wet towel around his head or +had taken stimulants to keep himself awake. + +The existence of this reserve supply of energy is manifested in +physical as well as mental effort. + +Men who work with their heads and men who work with their hands, +scholars and Marathon runners, must alike testify to the existence of +_reserve supplies of power not ordinarily drawn upon_. + +[Sidenote: _"Blue" Mondays_] + +If we do not always or habitually utilize this reserve power, it is +simply because we have accustomed ourselves to yield at once to the +first strong feeling of fatigue. + +Evidence of this same fact appears in our feelings on different days. +How often does a man get up from his breakfast-table after a long +night's rest, when he should be feeling fresh and invigorated, and say +to himself, "I don't feel like working today." And it may take him +until afternoon to get into his workaday stride, if, indeed, he +reaches it at all. + +[Sidenote: _How to Strike One's Stride_] + +You cannot yourself be immune from the feeling on certain days that +you are not at your best. Somehow or other, your wits seem befogged. +You hesitate to undertake important interviews. Your interest lags. +And though crises arise in your business, you feel weighted down and +unable to meet them with that shrewd discernment and decisiveness of +action of which you know yourself capable. + +But you realize, in your inmost self, that _if you continue to exert +the will and persistently hold yourself to the business in hand, +sooner or later you will warm to the work, enthusiasm will come, the +clouds will be dispelled, the husks will fly. Yet you have had no +rest; on the contrary, you have, by continued conscious effort, +consumed more and more of your vital energy_. + +[Sidenote: _The Spur of Desire_] + +Obviously it was not rest that you needed. + +What you required was the impulse of some _strong desire_ that should +carry you over the threshold of that first inertia into the wide field +of reserve energy so rarely called upon and so rich in power. + +Under the lashings of necessity, or the spur of love or ambition, men +accomplish feats of mental and physical endurance of which they would +have supposed themselves incapable. Here is what a certain lawyer says +of his early struggles: + +[Sidenote: _How to Release Stored-Up Energies_] + +"When I was twenty-three years old, married, and with a family to +support, I entered the law course of a great university. Of the many +students in my class, seven, including me, were making a living while +studying law. + +"By special arrangement, I was relieved from attendance at lectures +and simply required to pass examinations on the various subjects, and +was thus enabled to retain my place as principal of a large public +school. During the third and last year of my law course, I was +principal of a public day school of two thousand children and an +alternate night school with an enrolment of seven hundred and fifty, +and I worked at the law three nights in the week and all day Sunday. + +[Sidenote: _The Lawyer Who "Overworks"_] + +"After eight months of this, the final examinations came around. They +consumed a full week--from nine in the morning until five or six at +night. I had no opportunity for review, so I rented a room near the +law school to save the time going and coming and reviewed each night +the subjects of examination for the following day. + +"I did not sleep more than two hours any night in that week. On +Thursday, while bolting a bit of luncheon, a fishbone stuck in my +throat. Fearful of losing the result of my year's effort, I returned +to my work, suffering much pain, and kept at it until Saturday night, +when the examinations were concluded. The next day the surgeon who +removed the fishbone said there was no reason why I should not have +had 'a bad case of gangrene.' + +"When I look back on that year's work I don't see how I stood it. I +don't see how I kept myself at it, day in, day out, month after month +without rest, recreation or relief. I am sure I could never go through +it again, even if I had the courage to undertake it. + +"I ranked second in a class of one hundred and eighty in my law +examinations, won the second prize for the best graduating thesis, +received a complimentary vote for class oratorship, and much to my +surprise was soon after offered an assistant superintendency of the +public schools by the school board, who knew nothing of my studies and +thought my work as a teacher worthy of promotion. + +"It was not only the hardest year's work but the best year's work I +ever did. _It exemplifies my invariable experience that the more we +want to do the more we can do and the better we can do it._" + +[Sidenote: _Excitement and the Hero_] + +The following is an extract from a letter quoted by Professor James as +written by Colonel Baird-Smith after the siege of Delhi in 1857, to +the success of which he largely contributed: + +"My poor wife had some reason to think that war and disease, between +them, had left very little of a husband to take under nursing when she +got him again. An attack of scurvy had filled my mouth with sores, +shaken every joint in my body and covered me all over with scars and +livid spots, so that I was unlovely to look upon. A smart knock on the +ankle joint from the splinter of a shell that burst in my face, in +itself a mere bagatelle of a wound, had been of necessity neglected +under the pressing and insistent calls upon me, and had grown worse +and worse until the whole foot below the ankle became a black mass and +seemed to threaten mortification. I insisted, however, on being +allowed to use it until the place was taken, mortification or no; and +though the pain was sometimes horrible I carried my point and kept up +to the last. + +"On the day after the assault I had an unlucky fall on some bad +ground, and it was an open question for a day or two whether I hadn't +broken my arm at the elbow. Fortunately it turned out to be only a +severe sprain, but I am still conscious of the wrench it gave me. To +crown the whole pleasant catalogue, I was worn to a shadow by a +constant diarrhoea and consumed as much opium as would have done +credit to my father-in-law (Thomas De Quincey). + +"However, thank God, I have a good share of Tapleyism in me and come +out strong under difficulties. I think I may confidently say that no +man ever saw me out of heart or ever heard a complaining word from me +even when our prospects were gloomiest. We were sadly crippled by +cholera, and it was almost appalling to me to find that out of +twenty-seven officers I could only muster fifteen for the operations +of the attack. However, it was done,--and after it was done came the +collapse. + +[Sidenote: _Enduring Power of Mind_] + +"Don't be horrified when I tell you that for the whole of the actual +siege, and in truth for some little time before, I almost lived on +brandy. Appetite for food I had none, but I forced myself to eat just +sufficient to sustain life, and I had an incessant craving for brandy, +as the strongest stimulant I could get. Strange to say, I was quite +unconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree. + +"_The excitement of the work was so great that no lesser one seemed to +have any chance against it, and I certainly never found my intellect +clearer or my nerves stronger in my life._" + +Such is the profound resourcefulness and enduring power of the human +mind. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RESERVES OF POWER + + +[Sidenote: _Man's Potential and Kinetic Energies_] + +Stored-up energy not in use has been given a name by scientific men. +They call it _potential energy_. In this way it is distinguished from +_kinetic_ or circulating energy by which is meant energy that is at +work. For example, a ton of coal in the bin contains a certain amount +of potential energy, which is capable of being converted into kinetic +energy by combustion. + +[Sidenote: _Holding the Top Pace_] + +You have a vast amount of potential energy over and above what you +actually use. You have formed the habit of giving up trying a thing as +soon as you have spent the usual amount of effort on it, and this +without regard to whether or not you have accomplished anything. + +While we all have the power of sustained mental activity, not one in +ten thousand of us holds to the top pace. + +Worse still, even such mental energy as we do consume is dispersed and +scattered over a multitude of trivial interests instead of being +focused upon some one possessing aim. + +_We intend to show you how you can lose yourself in your work with an +absorbing passion and how you can at any time make special requisition +upon your hidden stores of potential energy and draw new supplies of +power that will sweep you on to your goal._ + +[Sidenote: _Genius and the Master Man_] + +More than anything else, it is the ability to do this that lifts the +great men of the race above the common run of mortals. + +It is this that distinguishes genius from mediocrity. The master man +transforms his vast stores of reserve or potential energy into +circulating or kinetic energy. His work glows with living fire. + +Yet, for every such man there are a multitude of others, equally +gifted in some respect, but wanting that mysterious "Open Sesame" +which would discover their hidden mental riches, arouse them from +their accustomed inferiority to their best selves, and transform +potentiality into accomplishment. So it comes about that most of us +are gems that shine but to illumine the "dark unfathomed caves of +ocean," flowers born to "blush unseen." + +[Sidenote: _Mental Effect of City Life_] + +Take an illustration of the way in which this reserve or potential +energy is transformed into circulating or kinetic energy. Suppose that +you are a countryman and come to live in a large city. The speed with +which we do things, our habits of quick decision, the whirlwind of +activities of the busy man in town, appal you. You cannot see how we +live through it. A day in the business district fills you with terror. +The tumult and danger make it seem "like a permanent earthquake." + +But settle down to work here. And in a year you will have "caught the +pulse beat," you will "vibrate to the city's rhythm," and if you only +"make good" in your work, you will enjoy the strain and hurry, you +will keep pace with the best of us, and you will get more out of +yourself in a day in the city than you ever did in a week on the farm. + +_This change in degree of mental activity does not necessarily mean +that you are making more of a success of life._ + +Your activities may be ill-directed. Your new-found powers may be +misspent and dissipated. + +But you are mentally more alert Your mental forces have been +stimulated by the stirring environment. + +[Sidenote: _New-Found Energies Explained_] + +And, mark this particularly, _a number of mental pictures will pass +across the screen of your consciousness today in the same time that +one mental image formerly required._ + +_Now, you have learned that with every idea catalogued in memory, +there is wrapped up and stowed away an associated "feeling tone" and +an associated impulse to some particular muscular action._ + +Assuming this, you must at once see that here is an explanation of +your new-found energy. + +Your quickened step, your new-found decisiveness of action, your more +observant eye, your clear-cut speech instead of the former drawling +utterance, your livelier manner, your freshened enthusiasm and +enjoyment of life--all of these are but manifestations of a quickened +intelligence. + +[Sidenote: _Quickened Mentality_] + +_They are the working out through the motor paths of mental impulses +to muscular action._ + +And these impulses to muscular action come thronging into +consciousness _because the livelier environment brings about a more +rapid reproduction of memory pictures_. + +And here comes a particularly striking fact. One would naturally +suppose that the more energy a man consumed, and the faster he lived, +the more quickly his vitality would be exhausted and the shorter his +life would be. + +As a matter of fact, by the divine beneficence of Providence, _your +organism is so ordered as to adapt itself within certain wide limits +to the demands made upon it_. + +[Sidenote: _Fast Living and Long Living_] + +You may call into play all the stored-up resources of your being and +still not stake everything upon a single throw. For the supply of +mental energy is as inexhaustible as the reservoir of all past +experience, while the supply of physical energy involved in brain and +nerve activity is, like the immortal liver of Prometheus, renewed as +fast as depleted. + +Two sets of facts that have been established by elaborate scientific +experiment will convince you of the truth of these propositions. + +[Sidenote: _Professor Patrick's Experiments_] + +Professor Patrick, of the State University of Iowa, conducted some of +these experiments. He caused three young men to remain awake for four +successive days and nights. They were then allowed to go to sleep, the +purpose of the experiment being to determine just how much time Nature +required to recuperate from the long vigil. They were allowed to sleep +themselves out, and all woke up thoroughly rested. _Yet the one who +slept the longest slept only one-third longer than his customary +night's sleep._ + +You have doubtless had the same experience yourself many times. It all +goes to show that if we are awake four times as long as usual, we do +not make up for it by sleeping four times as _long_, but four times as +_soundly_, as customary. The hard-working mechanic requires no more +hours of sleep than the corner loafer, the active man of affairs no +more than the dawdler. + +[Sidenote: _Ratio Between Repair and Demand_] + +_The time of tissue repair is about the same with all men under all +conditions. It is the rate of repair that varies with the demand that +has been put upon the body._ + +Again, look at the same subject from the standpoint of food supply. On +what you now eat and drink you have a certain average weight. Eat, +digest and assimilate a larger quantity of food and your weight will +increase. This increase will be greatest at the start and will +gradually slow up until you shall have reached the point beyond which +you can gain no more. Given the same hygienic conditions that you have +been accustomed to, you will maintain yourself at the increased weight +on the increased supply of food. + +[Sidenote: _Pygmies and Giants_] + +Now, all this involves clearly enough a greatly increased rate of +activity on the part of the bodily organs of assimilation and repair. +It is a situation on all fours with that of the countryman whose rate +of brain activity has been stimulated by an increased mental demand. + +No man will maintain that better, more nourishing and more liberal +food rations, transformed into increased bodily tissue, with a +consequent greater weight and greater muscular strength, would result +in a loss of vitality or the shortening of a man's life. + +[Sidenote: _Transforming Inertness into Alertness_] + +Pygmies cannot become giants physically or intellectually. But as the +puny youth can by systematic exercise broaden his frame and develop +his muscles into at least a semblance of the athlete, and can then +through his healthier appetite _and his faster rate of repair_ +maintain himself without effort at the new standard; _so can the +mentally inert call forth their reserves of energy and maintain a +higher standard of activity and fruitfulness_. + +Few men live on the plane of their highest efficiency. Few search the +recesses of the well-springs of power. The lives of most of us are +passed among the shallows of the mind without thought of the +possibilities that lurk within the deeper pools. + +[Sidenote: _How the Mind Accumulates Energy_] + +This accumulation of potential subconscious reserve energy is a result +of the evolution of man and the growing complexity of his life. + +No man could, if he would, respond to all the impulses to muscular +action aroused in him by sense-impressions. It would be still less +possible for him to respond to every impulse to muscular action +awakened from the past with the remembered thought with which it is +associated. + +Desire, interest, attention and the selective will must pick and +choose among these multitudinous tendencies to action. + +Here, then, is another fact that has immediate bearing upon your +ability to carry out any ambition you may have. Your every action is +the net result of selection among a number of impulses and inhibitory +forces or tendencies. + +[Sidenote: _The Threshold of Inhibition_] + +As a general thing, consciousness is made up of a number of +conflicting ideas, each with its associated feeling and its impulse to +action. Just what you do in any particular case depends upon what +mental picture is strongest, is most vivid in consciousness, and thus +able to overcome all contrary tendencies. + +As life becomes more and more complex, the number and variety of our +sensory experiences increase correspondingly. And so it comes about, +that _we have untold millions of sensory experiences, carrying with +them the impulses to muscular response, none of which, on account of +the multiplicity of conflicting ideas, is ever allowed to find release +and actually take form in muscular activity_. + +[Sidenote: _Hidden Strength_] + +The consequence is that only an exceedingly small proportion of the +mental energy that is developed within us is ever actually displayed. +_The rest is somehow and somewhere locked up behind the inhibitory +threshold._ It is stored away in _subconsciousness_ with the sensory +experiences of the past with which it is associated. + +[Sidenote: _Giving a Man Scope_] + +Quoting Mr. Waldo P. Warren: "Much of the strength within men is +hidden, awaiting an occasion to reveal it. The head of a department in +a great manufacturing concern severed his connection with the firm, +his work falling upon a young man of twenty-five years. The young man +rose to the occasion, and in a very short time was conceded to be the +stronger executive of the two. He had been with the concern for +several years, and was regarded as a bright fellow, but his marked +success was a surprise to all who knew him--even to himself. + +"The fact is, the young man had that ability all the time and didn't +know it; and his employers didn't know it. He might have been doing +greater things all along if there had been the occasion to reveal his +strength. + +"Do you employers and superior officers in business realize how much +of this hidden strength there is in your men? Perhaps a word from you, +giving certain men more scope, would liberate that ability for the +development of both your business and your men. + +"Do you workers know your own strength? Are you working up to your +capacity? Or are you accepting the limits which the circumstances +place about you?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE INITIATIVE ENERGY OF SUCCESS + + +[Sidenote: _Sources of Persistence_] + +In such instances as we have recounted, men have found that persistent +effort along certain lines has had the effect of making presently +available what would otherwise be simply unused storage batteries of +reserve power. What was the source and inspiration for this persistent +effort? + +You will say that it was ambition or patriotism or some similar +semi-emotional influence. And so it was. But what is ambition, what is +patriotism, _what is any desire but a picturing to the mind's eye of +the things desired, an awakening of a mental image_ of the result to +be attained, the reward that is to follow certain efforts? And these +mental pictures coming into consciousness have brought with them their +associated emotions and their associated impulses to muscular action, +impulses appropriate to the picture _and automatically tending to work +its realization_. + +These impulses constitute the whole of man's achieving power. They are +the Initiative Energy of all Success. + +[Sidenote: _Importance of the Mental Setting_] + +When you are afflicted with doubt and fear, timidity and lack of +confidence, this means that your mental inhibitions are too numerous, +too high or too strong. Remove them and access is had to the latent +energy of accumulated and creative thought complexes. You will then +become buoyant, cheerful, overflowing with enthusiasm, and ready for a +fresh, definite, active part in life. + +_Ideas, then, when latent, may be considered as possessing an +energizing influence_. + +The same idea does not necessarily have the same effect upon the same +persons at different times. What its effect may be at any time or with +any individual depends upon the make-up of the consciousness in which +it finds itself. + +[Sidenote: _Ideas All Men Respond to_] + +The setting of consciousness may be entirely different upon the +present appearance of the particular idea from what it was on the +occasion when this same idea last appeared. Yesterday there may have +been present no conflicting tendencies, and this particular idea may +therefore have been allowed free and joyous expression. Today other +thoughts may be in the ascendency so that we look upon the idea of +yesterday with a feeling of revulsion. + +The thought that aroused new energy in you yesterday may then sicken +you at your task today. The thought that stirs the soul of a vigorous +man may shock the sensibilities of a delicate woman. + +[Sidenote: _How to Exalt the Personality_] + +Yet there are some ideas to which all men in varying degrees seem +alike to respond. How often in battle have the failing spirits of an +army been revived by the appearance of the leader shouting his +battle-cry and waving his shining sword! How often have men been +roused to heights of heroic achievement by the strains of martial +music! How often have troops spent with exhaustion responded to the +call of such simple phrases as "The Flag," "Our Country," "Liberty," +or such songs as "The Marseillaise," "God Save the King," "Dixie"! +These phrases are but the signs of ideas, yet the sounding of these +phrases has summoned these ideas into consciousness, and the summoning +of these ideas into consciousness has placed undreamed-of and +immeasurable foot-pounds of energy on the hair-trigger of action. + +[Sidenote: _"Good Starters" and "Strong Finishers"_] + +And so it is with you. Down deep in the inmost chambers of your soul +are untouched stores of energy that properly applied will exalt your +personality and illumine your career. + +But to find and claim these hidden riches you must persevere. You must +endure. + +In a Marathon race it is endurance that wins. The graceful sprinter +who is off with a leap at the bark of the pistol soon falls by the +wayside. + +Life is a Marathon in which persistence triumphs. + +There are many "good starters," but few "strong finishers." That is +why the failures so outnumber the successes. + +[Sidenote: _Steps in Self-Development_] + +The man who travels fastest does more than he is told to do. To merely +comply with a fixed routine is to fall short of one's duty. The +progressive man adds to the work of today his preparation for the work +of tomorrow. He delights in attempting more and more difficult tasks, +because in every task he sets himself he sees a step forward in the +development of his own abilities. He loves his work more than he loves +his pay, and he delves deeper than the exigencies of the moment +require, because he craves the power to do more. + +Most men start with enthusiasm. No hours are too long, no task too +difficult. But soon they tire. And lacking will-power to persist, they +succumb to the lure of distracting interests. They become disheartened +and indifferent. And so they fail. + +[Sidenote: _Saving a Thousand a Year_] + +A young man married. He was proprietor of a flourishing "general" +store in Princeton, Indiana. He and his bride forthwith resolved that +they could and would lay aside out of their income a thousand dollars +a year for ten years, by which time they would have ten thousand +dollars and accumulated interest and could go into business in a big +city. At the end of the first year, when they took stock of their +savings, they decided that thereafter, instead of trying to save a +thousand dollars a year for ten years, they would undertake to save +ten dollars a year for a thousand years and would be more apt to +succeed. Today they are just where they began. + +You all know such men--men who are always starting and never +finishing. + +[Sidenote: _Looking for a "Soft Snap"_] + +Ninety-five per cent of the men who go into business are "quitters." +The very first disappointment sends them scurrying to cover. They +begin to look for a "soft snap" away from the firing line. Is it any +wonder that so few reach any great success? + +That there is an enormous lack of appropriation of energy in most +men's lives is an undoubted fact. Just where this energy is stored, +and just what its eternal significance may be, is immaterial to our +purpose. + +It may be that this reserve is Nature's safeguard against our +extravagance. + +It may be, as some philosophers contend, that the subconscious, with +its vast stores of energy, is a higher, more spiritual phase of man. + +[Sidenote: _Drawing Power from on High_] + +It may be that the subconscious is for each one of us his individual +segment of the Divine Essence--that it marks our "at-one-ment" with +God. + +It may be that to evoke these latent energies is to call upon those +resources of our being which are the embodiment within us of the +spirit of the Creator of all things. + +It may be that this Divine Essence, if adequately aroused, may exert +an absolute transcendence over material things and lift humanity to a +God-like plane. + +"What we call man," wrote Emerson, "the eating, drinking, planting, +counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but +misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect; but the real soul whose +organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our +knees bend." "I said, ye are gods," quoth the Psalmist. "Be ye +perfect, even as your Father," was the injunction of the Master. + +Whatever the eternal significance of your latent energy may be, the +fact remains that it is yours, and yours to use. + +If you are to succeed, if you are to do big things, you must be a man +of "doggedness." You must keep your eyes trained everlastingly upon +the vision of the thing you want. You must stay in the race until you +get your "second wind." You must be master of yourself and draw freely +on your stored-up powers. + +[Sidenote: _The Man Who Lasts_] + +Do as we shall tell you in this _Course_ and you will become a master +man, the kind of man who "lasts," the kind of man who works his +imagination overtime, the kind of man who can strain his energies to +the utmost and then, finding himself still a failure, can rise "like +the glow of the sun" to do bolder and bigger things--the kind of man +who wins. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW TO AVOID WASTES THAT DRAIN THE ENERGY OF SUCCESS + + +[Sidenote: _Speeding the Bullet Without Aiming_] + +We have shown you that you have within you the potentialities of +success in the form of latent mental energy. We have shown you that +your ability to achieve depends upon your ability to utilize to the +full your underground mental resources. + +But success demands that you do more than merely use all your mental +energies. You must use them intelligently. + +[Sidenote: _Why Most Men Fail_] + +Most men fail because they speed the bullet without aiming. They fire +at random, and so bag no game. + +Your pent-up mental energy is the powder in the cartridge. Its +usefulness depends upon the man behind the gun. + +_To succeed in business you must intelligently control and direct_ +(1) _your own mental energies_, (2) _the mental energies of others._ + +The course of the average man through life is an aimless zigzag. It +has neither direction nor purpose. It represents wasted energy +capriciously expended. + +Mental energy is like water: it has a tendency to scatter. It is +diffusive. It seeks release in a thousand different directions at the +same time. + +As a boy, first learning to write, you were unable to prevent the +simultaneous squirming of tongue and legs, all ludicrously irrelevant +to your purpose of writing. So now, as a business man, unless you have +learned the secret of self-mastery, you are unable to concentrate your +efforts, your attention is easily distracted, you exhaust yourself in +displays of passion, you are forever doing things during business +hours that have no relation to your business, you are forever doing +things in connection with your business that do not contribute to its +progress, you expend just as much energy as the accomplished executive +or the successful "hustler," but you fritter it away in unprofitable +activities. + +[Sidenote: _The Successful Promoter_] + +To correct this is to gain mastery and power. + +Concentrate your mental energies on one thing at a time. Stop +spreading them around. The promoter may have a dozen big enterprises +under way at once, but he takes them up one at a time. He transfers +his whole mind and thought from one to the next. You cannot of course +be eternally doing the same thing; but make no mistake about it, the +only way to succeed at anything is to consciously control your mental +energies. You may throw them now into this attack, now into another; +but you must always have a tight grip on yourself, or you cannot +succeed. + +[Sidenote: _The Human Dynamo_] + +You will often hear some "live-wire" business man spoken of as a +"human dynamo." He has the faculty of turning out a stupendous amount +of work in a comparatively short time. How he can carry in his mind +the details of so many large projects, how he can accomplish so much +in actual, tangible results in many directions, how he can pull the +strings of so many enterprises without getting lost in the maze of +detail, is the marvel of his associates. And yet this man is never +"hurried, nor flurried, nor worried." But every word and every act is +straight to the point and productive of results worth while. + +[Sidenote: _Cool Brains and Hot Boxes_] + +"A cool brain is the reverse of a hot box. It carries the business of +the day along with a steady drive, and is invariably the mark of the +big man. The man who dispatches his work quietly, promptly and +efficiently, with no trace of fuss and flurry, is a big man. It is not +the hurrying, clattering and chattering individual who turns off the +most work. He may imagine he is getting over a lot of track, but he +wastes far more than the necessary amount of steam in doing it. The +fable of the hare and the tortoise would not be a bad primer for a +number of us, and the lesson relearned would not only be beneficial in +a business-producing way, but it would help us in the full enjoyment +of our work." + +[Sidenote: _Marvelous Increased Efficiency Handling "Pig"_] + +Progress in mental efficiency must result from the application of +knowledge of the mental machine. Just as we watch the steam-engine and +the electric motor to see that they are not "overloaded," so we must +watch the mental machine, that no more power be turned on than can be +profitably employed. + +This principle has already been applied to physical labor by Mr. +Frederick W. Taylor in his ground-breaking studies in "scientific +management." Mr. Taylor's celebrated experiments in the handling of +pig-iron, by which the quantity handled in a day by one man was +increased from twelve and one-half tons to forty-seven and one-half +tons, "showed that a man engaged in such extremely heavy work could +only be under load forty-three per cent of the working day, and must +be entirely free from load for fifty-seven per cent, to attain the +maximum efficiency." + +[Sidenote: _"Overloaded" Human Engines_] + +There is no reason why efficiency in mental effort should not be +gauged just as accurately as in muscular activity. If there are times +when your wits are not as keen, when you have not the same grasp of +fundamentals, as at other times, it is because you are mentally +"overloaded." It may be the result of a great variety of causes. It +may be from too many hours of continuous mental effort. But the +probabilities are that it is the result of vexation, worry, +dissipation, or allowing the mind to be burdened with the strain of +vicious, or at least irrelevant and distracting, impulses and desires. +And so efficiency is lost. + +[Sidenote: _Scientific Management of Self_] + +The "human dynamo" is a man who long ago learned the lesson of +scientific management of his own mental forces. He does one thing at a +time, and does it the best he knows how. He directs the whole power of +his mentality to the one problem and solves it with accuracy and +dispatch. There is no more of a "load" on his "gray matter" than there +is on that of the fretting, fuming, finger-biting fritterer, but every +pound of steam is spent in useful work. + +Look at the victim of St. Vitus' dance. There you have an illustration +of wasted energy. And it is mental energy, for every muscular movement +represents the release of thought power. The mental lives of most men +are equally aimless. They are lives of ceaseless activity producing +nothing. + +[Sidenote: _Psychological Causes of Waste_] + +Sometimes it happens that a man is not working to advantage because of +some defect in his physical make-up. He may have defective vision or +some peculiarity of hearing that renders him unable to respond as +quickly as he should to the demands made upon him. If these defects +are ascertained, it is usually a simple matter to correct the defects +by mechanical means or readjust the relative duties of different +persons so that the defects will be minimized. + +[Sidenote: _Tests for Sensory Defects_] + +Where large numbers of people are employed, it is comparatively easy +to use tests for discovering defects of sight or hearing by simple +apparatus without requiring the services of a high-priced expert. By +adopting these test methods any manager of a large industrial +establishment can satisfy himself whether his employees are up to +certain normal standards. He can even apply the tests to himself. + +Optical tests can be conducted by securing an ordinary letter chart +such as is used by oculists and opticians. Seat the subject twenty +feet away. If he can read all the lines of letters from the largest +down to the smallest his eyesight is practically perfect. In a large +percentage of cases the smaller lines of type are blurred and +invisible. To detect the cause and degree of defects of the eyes it is +necessary to try out the eyes by using a trial spectacle frame and +inserting detached lenses before the right eye and the left eye +alternately. One of the most common forms of defective vision is +astigmatism. A chart has been designed with a series of circles and +straight lines radiating from the center. If the subject is astigmatic +he will see some of the straight lines distinctly while others will be +blurred. For instance, one or two of the vertical lines may appear +very black and strong while all others will look like a hazy network. +This defect, due to unevenness of the spherical surface of the +eyeball, is easily corrected with properly ground glasses. + +Defects in hearing can be easily determined by means of an +"acoumeter." This little instrument measures the acuteness of the +hearing very accurately by means of shot dropped from varying heights +upon strips of glass, copper and cardboard. Tests with this device +indicate whether the subject's hearing is above or below normal. + +[Sidenote: _Mental Friction and Inner Whirlwinds_] + +_Stop wasting your energy._ + +Heretofore you have used your powers in a more or less haphazard way, +with a vast amount of waste and no efficient direction. From now on +you are to exercise more intelligence in this respect and make all +your energies contribute to your business progress and your personal +success. + +You are losing power in fruitless outward activities. + +You are losing power in the thinking of useless thoughts. You cannot +stop the ceaseless activity of the mind. But you can conserve its +forces by directing them into channels that are worth while. + +You are losing power in a turmoil of inward mental strains and +inharmonies. Catch yourself at some moment when you are forging ahead +in a crowded day's work. You will then see what an inner whirlwind of +excitement is in progress, what stresses and strains are at work, what +contrary impulses, what frictions and obstacles are being overcome. + +Now, to the engineer every one of these words--friction, obstacle, +strain--spells loss of efficiency, and in this _Course_ we shall teach +you how you may do away with antagonistic impulses, may bring your +combined mental forces to bear upon the common enemy, and may hurl +yourself into the struggles of business and practical life with a +joyful and headlong impetuosity that no obstacle can withstand. + +[Sidenote: _Prominent Traits of Great Achievers_] + +Professor Walter Dill Scott, of Northwestern University, has said: "In +studying the lives of contemporary business men, two facts stand out +pre-eminently. The first is that their labors have brought about +results that to most of us would have seemed impossible. Such men +appear as giants in comparison with whom ordinary men sink to the size +of pygmies. The second fact, which a study of successful business men +(or any class of successful men) reveals, is that they never seem +rushed for time. + +"Such men have time to devote to objects in no way connected with +their business. It cannot be regarded as accidental that this +characteristic of mind is found so commonly among successful men +during the years of their most fruitful labor. According to the +American ideal, the man who is sure to succeed is the one who is +continuously 'keyed up to concert pitch'--who is ever alert and is +always giving attention to his business or profession." + +And again: "It is not necessarily true that the greatest and most +constant display of energy accompanies the greatest presence of +energy. The tug-boat on the river is constantly blowing off steam and +making a tremendous display of energy, while the ocean liner proceeds +on its way without noise and without commotion. The man who frets and +fumes, who is nervous and excited, is strung up to such a pitch that +energy is being dissipated in all directions." + +Many business men know they are going at a pace that kills, and at the +same time they feel that they are accomplishing too little. For such +the pertinent question is, How may I reduce the expenditure of energy +without reducing the efficiency of my labor? + +One of the busiest and most efficient men in England is quoted as +having explained his own accomplishment of big results with the least +expenditure of effort: "By organizing myself to run smoothly, as well +as my business; by schooling myself to keep cool, and to do what I +have to do without expending more nervous energy on the task than is +necessary; by avoiding all needless friction. In consequence, when I +finish my day's work, I feel nearly as fresh as when I started." + +[Sidenote: _Why a Man Breaks Down_] + +The late Professor James, of Harvard University, often referred to as +the founder of modern psychology, spoke thus disparagingly of +untrained effort: "Your convulsive worker breaks down and has bad +moods so often that you never know where he may be when you most need +his help,--he may be having one of his 'bad days.' We say that so many +of our fellow-countrymen collapse and have to be sent abroad to rest +their nerves, because they work so hard. I suspect that this is an +immense mistake, I suspect that neither the nature nor the amount of +our work is accountable for the frequency and the severity of our +breakdowns, but that their cause lies rather in those absurd feelings +of hurry and having no time, in the breathlessness and tension, that +anxiety of feature and solicitude for results, that lack of inner +harmony and ease, in short, by which with us the work is apt to be +accompanied." + +[Sidenote: _How to Economize Effort_] + +The fact is that to be a truly busy man you must be never in a hurry. +You must work systematically. You must economize effort. You must +permit no distractions and do your work leisurely. You must take time +to think things over in a natural way. You must waste no thoughts in +business hours on social or pleasurable pursuits that would dissipate +your mental capital. You must work when you work, and you may play +when you play, but your business must be the most fascinating of games +and the only one you play during business hours. + +[Sidenote: _How Your Mental Capital is Dissipated_] + +Another thing you need is _poise_. One trouble with you now is that +you waste your priceless powers in useless anxiety. + +The minute business falls off you begin to worry. You fritter your +mental energies in fretting until you are incapable of real thought, +and being unable to think your way out you get excited. + +Remember it is all just a game, and you are in it only for the fun of +the thing. You will never win out if you persist in tearing your hair. + +Before he crossed the Rubicon Julius Caesar was staggered at the +greatness of the undertaking before him. The more he reflected and +took counsel of his friends, the greater loomed the difficulties of +the attempt and the more appalling the calamities his passage of that +river would bring upon the Roman world. But when at last with the cry, +"The die is cast!" he plunged into the river, there was an end for him +to mental dissension, a freedom to plan and execute, an expansion of +courage and power. + +[Sidenote: _Conquering Indecision_] + +So it will be with you. With doubt and uncertainty the pressure may be +high in the gauge, but the engine does not move. Make up your mind, +and you release energies previously wasted in conflicts between +opposing thought complexes struggling for supremacy. + +[Sidenote: _Why "Christian Science" Works_] + +A fine illustration of this is shown in the religious experience known +as conversion. To the convert, conversion means the profound +acceptance of a mighty spiritual truth. It means positive knowledge +taking the place of doubt or indifference. Conflicting ideas are no +longer present in his consciousness. Pent-up energies are released. He +wants to do things. His soul is fired with overmastering impulses to +action. He wants to go forth and preach the gospel of his faith. He is +lifted to a high plane of exhilaration. He experiences the "peace that +passeth understanding." + +"Christian Science," "Truth," "The New Thought," and similar movements +all achieve their really marvelous results in much the same way. All +proclaim doctrines of exuberant optimism, having a tendency to banish +fear-thoughts and self-consciousness and self-depreciation, and to set +up in their stead ideas of courage and of achievement and of +individual power. If these teachings are successful--that is to say, +if they inherently possess the right appeal for the particular +individual--they have the happy effect of begetting a stoical +indifference to petty physical disorders and social vexations and +bringing about a concentration upon the main business of life of the +mental energies thus previously wasted. + +[Sidenote: _How to Release Pent-Up Power_] + +Decide the matter that is troubling you. Make an end of hesitation and +uncertainty and fear. Your very act of decision will release large +stores of pent-up mental power and add immeasurably to your +effectiveness. + +So long as you are in doubt and perplexity conflicting ideas and +impulses balance each other. You are not then a man of action; you are +a wavering coward. You are afflicted with paralysis of will and mental +stagnation. + +_Decide_ the matter--that is to say, _let one mental picture assume a +greater vividness than the other until it possesses your soul--and +forthwith the banked fires of your mental energy will burst into +flame_. + +Another thing: _Stop wasting your time_. + +How much time do you spend in rest and relaxation? How much should +you spend? Can you answer these questions accurately? + +[Sidenote: _Proper Ratio Between Work and Rest_] + +Thomas A. Edison has contended for years that four hours' sleep a day +was sufficient for any man. He has conducted experiments with a large +number of men, giving careful attention to matters of diet and +exercise, and the results have seemed in a measure to support his +theory. + +Dr. Fred W. Eastman reports that owing to pressure of work he was +recently unable to get more than three or four hours' sleep out of the +twenty-four during a period of many months, and that so far from being +hurt by it he gained five pounds. He says: "If restoration during +sleep is a task so relatively small, the question arises whether, in +order to complete restoration, it is necessary for us to spend so much +time in sleep as we do. Perhaps on account of popular opinion and +personal habit, we waste much time in this jelly-fish condition that +could more profitably be spent in active pursuit of our ambitions. The +answer, of course, depends upon the nature of our occupations. If +there is muscular effort involved, with a correspondingly large amount +of waste in the cells and blood, eight hours or more are probably +necessary. But if the work is of a sedentary nature, and mainly of the +brain, there is naturally a smaller quantity of accumulated waste, and +less time is required for removal. Many are the instances of great +men, past and present, who have lived healthily and worked +unceasingly and strenuously on only four or five hours of sleep, or +half the laborer's portion. Surely we do not suppose that these men +were or are physically different from others, but rather that by +inclination or necessity they have developed a habit of sleeping +intensely for a short period, with resulting gain of time and +efficiency." + +[Sidenote: _Determining Your Norm of Efficiency_] + +So far as this matter of relaxation, rest and sleep is concerned, the +rule to follow is obviously this: _Determine accurately by experiment +the proper relation between periods of work and periods of rest in +your own case, then increase your efficiency by maintaining this +relation_. + +In Denmark they feed cows scientifically. Day by day they increase +the allowance of milk-producing food. Day by day the yield of milk +increases. At last there comes a day when measurement shows that there +is no longer any increase in the production of milk. They then +decrease the food till the output of milk diminishes. So they +determine the normal. + +So with you and your hours of work and leisure. Give more and more +time to your business each day until there comes an impairment in the +quality of your work. Stop short of this. You have found your norm of +efficiency. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SECRET OF MENTAL EFFICIENCY + + +[Sidenote: Where Energy Is Stored] + +You are called upon to master and conserve the innate energies of your +mind. This means that you must (1) find out where these energies are +stored, and (2) learn the conditions that determine their activity. + +_All past experiences are conserved within us in the form of +complexes. These complexes consist of ideas, emotions and impulses to +muscular activity. By the primary law of association the recall to +consciousness of any one of these component elements of a complex +brings with it all the rest_. + +[Sidenote: _Bodily Effects of Ideas_] + +For example, the ideas pertaining to any terrifying experience, when +recalled to consciousness, bring with them the trembling, the wildly +beating heart, the shaking knees, with which they were originally +accompanied. The victim of stage-fright feels his knees give way and +that he is sinking to the floor; his heart beats tumultuously, cold +perspiration covers his body, he blushes, his mouth is dry, and his +voice sticks in his throat. Afterwards, alone in his own room, the +memory of that dreadful moment, the thought of another appearance +before that audience, will be accompanied by the same physiological +effects. + +[Sidenote: _Impulses and Inhibitions_] + +Every such bodily movement is an expression of energy. The recall to +consciousness of the terrifying experience, the recall of the picture +of the assembled audience, these things automatically produce bodily +activities. So we must conclude that _Every idea in memory has +associated with it the potential energy necessary for the production +of muscular movement_. + +It does not necessarily follow that the recall to consciousness of a +given idea will be invariably followed by an outwardly visible +muscular activity expressive of its energy. Just as the mere presence +of an idea in consciousness tends to bring about a movement, so _the +presence of a contrary idea will tend to inhibit it_. + +Try to imagine that you are bending your forefinger. At the same time +hold it straight. Your finger will actually tremble with the dammed-up +energy of the repressed impulse. But the finger will not actually +move, because the idea of its not moving is just as much a part of +your consciousness as the idea of its moving. Put out of your +consciousness this thought of the finger's not moving, and forthwith +the finger will bend. + +Your conduct during your waking hours is thus always the result of +opposing forces, _some tending in one direction, others tending to +counteract the first._ Thus there comes about a great waste of mental +power and an appalling loss of individual efficiency. + +[Sidenote: _Training for Mental "Team-Work"_] + +In the language of sport, you are suffering from a lack of mental +"team work." The effect is the same as if the members of a football +team, instead of combining their forces against the opposing side, +should spend their time in restraining one another. + +It requires but one step, and not a difficult one at that, to lead you +to the conclusion that the solution of this problem lies in having in +consciousness at any one moment only such ideas as harmonize. Let that +condition prevail, and the potential energies of all ideas in +consciousness must flow together in a broad stream of useful and +exhilarating activity. + +[Sidenote: _Rust and the "Daily Grind"_] + +Your work should be a source of pleasure to you. If it is simply a +disagreeable task that has to be performed, if it is a "daily grind," +if you have to hold yourself to it by unremitting effort of the will, +you are no better than a rusty engine, and all your workings will be +accompanied by jars, frictions, and complaining squeaks that bespeak a +positively wicked loss of power. + +Hold the right thoughts persistently in mind, and you cannot help +working steadily on toward the goal you are thinking of. Keep steadily +at work with the right thoughts persistently in mind and success is +sure to come. + +_Success, then, lies in the concentration of mental energies. And this +concentration is to be brought about by holding in consciousness only +those ideas that harmonize_. + +[Sidenote: _Ideas That Harmonize_] + +There must be the greatest discrimination and care used in the +selection of these ideas that are to constitute such a co-ordinating +consciousness. There must be a "re-imaging" or imagination in a +literal and practical sense of those ideas only that carry with them +impulses to motion in the same general direction. You must have a set +purpose in life, and you must yield your powers without hindrance and +without reservation to the accomplishment of that set purpose. + +[Sidenote: _Five Rules for Conserving Energy_] + +I. _You must exercise deliberate, patient and persistent watchfulness +to detect and repress all useless bodily movements_. You have all +sorts of silly habits, twitchings, jerkings, itchings, winkings, +shrugs, frowns, coughs, snifflings and odd and meaningless gestures. +Watch yourself. Do these things no more. Save your eyes and ears and +hands and nerves, all your mental energy, for useful effort. + +II. _You must give yourself, mind and body, to one thing at a time, +disregarding all that would lure you from your chosen task_. + +III. _You must acquire a self-conscious sense of your own +self-mastery._ It will help you to acquire this feeling if you will +continually assert, "I can and will accomplish anything that I am +determined upon! I have the power of will! I will accomplish this +thing! I will!" Make these assertions with all the force and intensity +of your whole being until you are pervaded with a sense of your own +power. Do this faithfully, and in time this courageous and manly +attitude will become an inherent part of your personality. + +IV. _You must have confidence._ And when we say confidence we do not +mean a purely intellectual conviction. We mean a profoundly emotional +faith. It will help you to cultivate this feeling of confidence if you +will affirm many times a day, "I have implicit confidence in myself! I +have perfect faith in my own powers! I am absolute master of myself +and of my career!" Practice affirmations of this kind persistently, +and in time your mind will have permanently acquired the habit of +facing the facts of life in the way essential to success. + +V. _You must exert a favorable influence upon the mental attitude of +those about you_. This is not so difficult as it would appear. You +cannot yourself acquire will-power, confidence and courage without +impressing others with your possession of these qualities. +Personalities are revealed one to another by faint and suggestive +activities all unconsciously perceived. Your concentration of energy +will inspire others. You will radiate an "atmosphere" of success. You +will subtly influence your associates. You will be a force to reckon +with, and the world will know it. Your air of success will draw others +to you, will bring business and goodwill, and men and money will seek +a share in your enterprises. + +Master your mental energies, train them, concentrate them,--thus only +may you win riches with honor. + +Thus broadly put, there is, or perhaps it would be more accurate to +say there seems to be, nothing startlingly new about this proposition. + +The world has always realized that singleness of purpose, +concentration of effort, is essential to success. + +_But in the past the world has possessed no formula by which these +qualities might be acquired_. + +Men have endeavored to create in themselves the necessary qualities +for success, having no knowledge of the mental elements that went into +their composition. + +_They have tried to run the mental engine knowing nothing of its +mechanism_. + +[Sidenote: _Business Luck and "Blue-Sky" Theories_] + +Some few have been lucky, but the path has been strewn with a thousand +failures to one that passed on to success. + +There are some business men who look upon psychology as "blue-sky" +theorizing or "new thought." There are others who have a hazy idea +that it is a sort of unfathomable mystery intended to amuse +long-haired scientists. The truth is that every one of these same +business men, if he is getting ahead, is unconsciously using +psychological principles to the profit of his own business every day +in the year. + +[Sidenote: _Devices for Commercial Efficiency_] + +In the books that are to follow we shall show you the immense +practical value of a truly scientific psychology. You shall come into +the psychological laboratory with us and work out rational, scientific +and exact methods by which, without possibility of failure and with +but reasonable effort, you can at any moment completely concentrate +your mental powers. You shall be instructed in simple devices for +mastering scattered energies, repressing wasteful habits, banishing +depressive moods and raising yourself to a far higher level of +commercial efficiency. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Initiative Psychic Energy, by Warren Hilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INITIATIVE PSYCHIC ENERGY *** + +***** This file should be named 17334.txt or 17334.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/3/17334/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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