“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."*
Golfer Arnold Palmer has won hundreds of
trophies, but he never flaunts them. In his office is only one trophy on
display. It is a small cup he received at his first professional win at the
Canadian Open in 1955.
On his office wall is a lone framed plaque that
reads:
If you think you are beaten,
you are.
If you think you dare not,
you don't.
If you'd like to win but
think you can't,
it's almost certain
you won't.
But sooner or later, the man
who wins
is the man who
thinks he can.
Life's battles, challenges, successes and/or
failures are all fought, won or lost in the mind.
"Keep your heart with all diligence,"
said Solomon, "for out of it are the issues of life."* The heart in the Bible refers to the total mind: the intellect, the will, and
the emotions. And that's the mind we need to guard with all diligence and daily
commit and trust to God.
For what the mind dwells on, the body acts on.
If you don't believe this, think how temptation works. First a thought, then we
dwell on it and keep thinking about it, rationalize it in our mind, and act on
it. It is all too true: What the mind dwells on the body acts on.” ~ Richard
(Dick) Innes www.actsweb.org/articles/article.php?i=741&d=2&c=6
“Bruce Lee, the world renown martial artist, said, “As you think, so
shall you become.” Bruce was acknowledging the power of the human mind to
affect behavior. He was just as enthusiastic about training the
mind as was about training the body.” ~ Edward A. Dreyfus, Ph.D.
My dad—who adopted my
brother and me when I was eleven—once told me I could do anything I put my mind
to. This was a man who left school at age sixteen to help his father build
houses. He probably had never heard of mind control, but somehow he had learned
to use his mind to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was to learn the
carpenter trade.
He once described his
process of learning. At night before falling asleep, he pictured in his mind
every single detail of what he would do the next day; how the boards were
measured and cut, where the studs went for the walls, even how he nailed
something together. He would see himself doing these activities in his mind; he
practiced them as though he were actually doing them.
Dad tried to help me with
my math homework in high school. But he figured the problems out in his mind
and could not explain how he arrived at the answers, which left me more often
puzzled as to how those numbers worked.
I suspect he may not have
heard of a subconscious mind at all. But what he was doing was turning his job
over to his subconscious to work on while he slept. Writers often do the same
thing—when they reach a sticky spot in their plot, they “sleep on it,” and very
often the solution is clear the next day.
The subconscious never
sleeps. I imagine my brain as a computer and my unconscious mind the operating
system that searches everywhere for answers to bring back to the sleeping
physical mind.
After I married, I came
upon the book Think and Grow Rich and
quickly became involved in the principles set forth in the book. Other than my
dad, I didn’t know anyone else who used their mind to imagine how their lives
must go. My husband was always complaining about not getting the raises or
promotions he thought he deserved at work. So one day, I handed him my copy of
Napoleon Hill’s book. I don’t know what his thoughts were as he read the book,
but within a month, he received his first promotion, and his company
transferred us to another state.
Good things began
happening in our lives. Hubby got one promotion after another, and we were
transferred five times in less than five years, each time to a higher-ranking,
better-paying position. He once told me that when he was a zone manager, while
traveling somewhere for a meeting with his employees, he held an image of
someone in his mind and gave that person instructions to complete a task. He
said that by the time he reached his destination, his instructions had already been
fulfilled.
So he and I both were
using our subconscious minds for the benefit of our marriage and family. But
there’s a catch to the positive thinking. If you begin to think negatively, it can
reverse everything you once did so easily.
After moving to Wisconsin
While the company struggled,
the employees became disheartened and bitter. Then one day, my husband told me
that thinking about growing rich didn’t
work, that it was just a bunch of nonsense. Shortly after saying that, he no
longer had a job. His employer wasn’t able to promote or transfer anyone and,
after twenty-five years, my husband was let go.
A bunch of nonsense? I
think not! I had watched my spouse advance within his company. But when he no
longer believed in the mental magic of his subconscious mind, it stopped
working for him until he became unemployed.
If you’re daring enough to
investigate, I suggest reading:
Think
and Grow Rich, by Napoleon
Hill
The
Magic of Believing, by Claude
M. Bristol
A word of caution: If you
use these techniques to harm or cheat anyone, it’s going to backfire. Guaranteed.
Namaste!
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