The Power of Concentration

enough to compel close concentration.

Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish
for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of
consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed; make up your
mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and
you can rise above any environment.

You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world
which are all powerful.

A great aid in the development of concentration is to write out
your thoughts on that which lies nearest your heart and to
continue, little by little, to add to it until you have as nearly
as possible exhausted the subject.

You will find that each day as you focus your forces on this
thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans,
ideas and methods will flash into your mind. There is a law of
attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose. An
advertiser, for instance, gets to thinking along a certain line.
He has formed his own ideas, but he wants to know what others
think. He starts out to seek ideas and he soon finds plenty of
books, plans, designs, etc., on the subject, although when he
started he was not aware of their existence.

The same thing is true in all lines. We can attract those things
that will help us. Very often we seem to receive help in a
miraculous way. It may be slow in coming, but once the silent
unseen forces are put into operation, they will bring results so
long as we do our part. They are ever present and ready to aid
those who care to use them. By forming a strong mental image of
your desire, you plant the thought-seed which begins working in
your interest and, in time, that desire, if in harmony with your
higher nature, will materialize.

It may seem that it would be unnecessary to caution you to
concentrate only upon achievement that will be good for you and
work no harm to another, but there are many who forget others and
their rights, in their anxiety to achieve success. All good
things are possible for you to have, but only as you bring your
forces into harmony with that law that requires that we mete out
justice to fellow travelers as we journey along life's road. So
first think over the thing wanted and if it would be good for you
to have; say, "I want to do this; I am going to work to secure
it. The way will be open for me."

If you fully grasp mentally the thought of success and hold it in
mind each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold which in time
will materialize. But by all means keep free from doubt and fear,
the destructive forces. Never allow these to become associated
with your thoughts.

At last you will create the desired conditions and receive help
in many unlooked-for ways that will lift you out of the undesired
environment. Life will then seem very different to you, for you
will have found happiness through awakening within yourself the
power to become the master of circumstances instead of their
slave.

To the beginner in this line of thought some of the things stated
in this book may sound strange, even absurd, but, instead of
condemning them, give them a trial. You will find they will work
out.

The inventor has to work out his idea mentally before he produces
it materially. The architect first sees the mental picture of the
house he is to plan and from this works out the one we see. Every
object, every enterprise, must first be mentally created.

I know a man that started in business with thirteen cents and not
a dollar's worth of credit. In ten years he has built up a large
and profitable business. He attributes his success to two
things--belief that he would succeed and hard work. There were
times when it did not look like he could weather the storm. He
was being pressed by his creditors who considered him bankrupt.
They would have taken fifty cents on the dollar for his notes and
considered themselves lucky. But by keeping up a bold front he
got an extension of time when needed. When absolutely necessary
for him to raise a certain sum at a certain time he always did
it. When he had heavy bills to meet he would make up his mind
that certain people that owed him would pay by a certain date and
they always did. Sometimes he would not receive their check until
the last mail of the day of the extension, and I have known him
to send out a check with the prospect of receiving a check from
one of his customers the following day. He would have no reason
other than his belief in the power of affecting the mind of
another by concentration of thought for expecting that check, but
rarely has he been disappointed.

Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort and you will be
wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you.

Remember the mystical words of Jesus, the Master: "Whatsoever
thing ye desire when ye pray, pray as if ye had already received