Thinking for Results, Chapter Six
by Christian D. Larson
The next question that will naturally arise is that of knowing what to think about our work and the objects we have in view. Every mental state becomes the mother of ideas; every idea can produce a tendency of mind, and every tendency tends to draw mental actions in its own direction. A false conception will produce false ideas, false ideas will originate false tendencies and false tendencies will lead the mind into mistakes. To promote any purpose, however, mistakes must be avoided as far as possible. Everything must be done correctly, and whatever is done should be done better and better every time. The way we think therefore of what we are to do or the objects we have in view will directly determine the results that are to be attained.
When you think about your work as being difficult you form a wrong mental conception; for the fact is that no work is more difficult than we make it, and we can relate ourselves to our work in such a way that we shall always be equal to the occasion. When you think about your work as difficult you will usually approach it in the attitude of doubt and fear, and no mind can do its best while in such states. Nor can you relate yourself to your work under such conditions because the false mental tendencies that follow such false conceptions will mislead many or all of your faculties. To think of your work as being completely under your personal control is correct because the possibilities within us are unlimited and we can make ourselves equal to any occasion. From this we are not to infer, however, that we can do now whatever our personal opinions may conclude that we can do now; for such opinions are not always based upon the whole truth in the matter. But the idea is that you can succeed in that work which your best judgment has decided upon, and that you can increase your success in that line more and more for an indefinite period.
To think of your work as trivial, mean or burdensome is wrong because such an attitude of mind will tend to make you inferior, and there is no success for you while you are on the downgrade towards inferiority. To think of your work as ordinary or trivial is to think ordinary thoughts, and as such thoughts will decrease the power of your mind they will naturally interfere with your work and therefore be directly against you in their actions. To think of your work as drudgery, or as something disagreeable that is to be gone through with is in like manner a mistake; the reason being that such thinking prevents the mind from being its best and giving expression to its best. You cannot give your heart and soul to that which you despise, and you cannot do your best in any kind of work unless you give it your whole heart and soul.
If you want to think and work for results you must love your work, and you can, though such love is not to be sentimental, but rather the feeling of intense admiration for those lines of action that you know will lead to greater things. Think therefore of your work as a channel through which you are to reach the higher places of life because that is what your work really is if you approach it in the right way and apply its possibilities on the largest scale. To find fault with what you have accomplished is wrong as it tends to turn attention upon defects and inferiority. Every mind should constantly expect to do better and should with every effort try to improve upon what was done before, but no actual or chronic fault finding must be permitted. To find fault with what you have done is to belittle yourself; in brief, to place a wet blanket, so to speak, over your hopes and aspirations. Instead, you should think of your work as very good considering your present development, but you should set your whole heart and soul upon the attainment of something far superior. Think constantly of your work as being susceptible to perpetual improvement. Then proceed to make that thought come true, and you will positively succeed.
Every mental process that you turn into your work must be constructive. Your object is progress towards the goal you have in view. Therefore, every process that you place in action whether in mind or personality must be a building process. But your desire to make those processes constructive will not alone make them so. The idea of constant enlargement must be the very soul of every thought, and the whole of your mentality must live and act in a state of expanding consciousness. In the growing mind there is an interior ever increasing feeling of the consciousness of enlargement and expansion which we should cultivate extensively, and in this feeling every process of thinking should move.
The thought that you put into your work will increase or decrease your capacity, and will consequently either promote or retard your progress. And here we should remember that the thought you put into your work is the thought you think while you work. While you work you are actually giving a part of yourself to that which you are doing, but if you are giving your life and power correctly you will receive more than you give; that is, the reaction will be greater than the action. In order to give correctly of your life and power in this manner, or rather to think correctly while at work, every mental action in expression at the time should be permeated with the spirit of expansion, improvement and advancement. In brief, you should feel that the effort you put into your work is actually developing yourself. And this is precisely what is taking place in every mind that thinks scientifically, constructively and according to a definite purpose while at work.
Your thought about the progress of your work is very important and such thought should always be that of success. If you are determined to succeed your work is already a success, and it is strictly scientific to think of it as such. When the seed is good and has been placed in good soil we can truthfully say that a good harvest will be forthcoming. In like manner, you can truthfully say that you are a success when all the elements needed to produce success have been placed in action in your own mind and personality. Too many minds, however, do not recognize success until they see the physical results and for this very reason the physical results are frequently limited or of inferior worth; the reason being that the real spirit of success was absent during the actions of that process through which the physical results were being produced. But the cause of success has the same right to recognition as the effect of success, and if the cause is recognized in the beginning the effects will become much larger because the process will contain a much larger measure of the spirit of success. When we give conscious recognition to a cause we increase its power.
When you have selected a work and have resolved to put your whole life into it you are already a success in that work, and it is perfectly right for you to think of yourself as a success. The cause of that success has been created; therefore that success already does exist. And by giving it faith, encouragement and mental power it will continue to grow, and will finally produce all kinds of rich harvests or tangible results in the external world.
When a powerful cause has been created the effect is inevitable, provided it is not destroyed during its process of expression. Wrong thought, however, has a tendency to destroy every constructive cause that may have been placed in action in the mind. Therefore we must think correctly, harmoniously and constructively of every process of thought or action all along the line; that is, we should give every good cause definite recognition as an individual power and give it full right of way in our world. To create a good cause and then ignore it is to deprive it of life during its infancy, but this is the very thing we do when we proceed in the belief that we may succeed some day. Say instead, and say it with all the power of mind and soul, I AM SUCCESS NOW. Every true effort is successful because it not only has the power to produce success, but is actually working out successful results; and if it is encouraged, pushed and promoted it will positively express the success desired in real life. To push or promote a true effort we should think of it as being already an individual power for success, because that is what it is, and by dealing with it as such we turn our creative powers into its sphere of action which means that the desired results will invariably follow.
The progress of anything will necessarily depend upon the methods employed. Therefore, the way we plan for greater achievements and the methods we employ in promoting our advancement, are matters of extreme importance. Every plan should be directly related to the purpose which it is intended to promote, and every method we employ should be based upon the laws required to carry it out. It is also important to increase the capacity of every new plan as much as possible. In formulating the best plans and methods, however, the laws of life should be thoroughly understood especially those laws that act in the metaphysical field because all physical action to be effective must be preceded by effective mental actions.
But in addition to having the right methods, the right plans and the knowledge of constructive action, physical and mental, we must also have a powerful faith if we wish to work and think for results. When we plan for greater things and have faith in greater things we shall certainly see those greater things realized. In fact, the power of faith in the promotion of any plan or purpose is so great that no one can afford to give it otherwise than the most thorough attention. Though faith in one of its phases is what may be termed a mental attitude, an attitude with an upward look, still it is in its most important phase a positive mental force. The mental force or action of faith is always elevating, expanding and constructive. Therefore, to have faith in yourself and in your work is to cause all the powers of your mind to become elevating, expanding and constructive in all their actions. Faith always tends to build and it buifds the loftier, the perfect and the more worthy. Doubt, however, retards and retreats; it is a depressing mental state that we cannot afford to entertain for a moment. But such a state can be removed at once by cultivating faith; and as we proceed to get faith we should by all means get an abundance of faith for in all efforts that aim for great results we cannot have too much faith.
It has been said that faith and science can never harmonize, because according to some they are antagonistic, and according to others they act in domains that are wholly dissimilar. But no matter what the views of the past may be on the subject the fact is that there is nothing more scientific than faith, and also that there is nothing that will aid the mind more in becoming scientific and constructive than a thorough realization, as well as expression, of the spirit of faith. The more familiar we become with real faith the more convinced we become that faith is indispensable in every effort we make, physical or mental, if the best results are to be secured. In fact, faith must be made the very soul of every thought, and the living spirit of every mental action. For this reason we realize that no greater step forward can be taken than to give faith the first place in life if our purpose in life is to think and work for results.