|
Lesson XIX - A
Concentrated Will Development
By Theron
Q. Dumont
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 PM. 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 PM. 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 PM. 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 PM. 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 PM. 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 employees, 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.
For
More Information And Help With Concentration
|
