CHAPTER 7 – Will Power – Self Discipline

Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is the ability to control or reject unnecessary or harmful impulses. It is the ability to arrive to a decision and follow it with perseverance until its successful accomplishment. It is the inner power that overcomes the desire to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance for taking action. It is one of the corner stones of success.

Self Discipline is the companion of will power. It endows with the stamina to persevere in whatever one does. It bestows the ability to withstand hardships and difficulties, whether physical, emotional or mental. It grants the ability to reject immediate satisfaction, in order to gain something better, but which requires effort and time.
Everyone has inner, unconscious, or partly conscious impulses; making them do things they later regret saying or doing. On many occasions people do not think before they talk or act. By developing these two powers, one becomes conscious of the inner, subconscious impulses, and gains the ability to reject them when they are not for his/her own good.

You need both Will-Power and Self Discipline in order to rule your thoughts and to be the boss of your mind. The stronger they are, the more control you have over your thoughts, and consequently your powers of concentration get stronger.

When you are the master of your mind you enjoy inner peace and happiness. Outer events do not sway you, and circumstances have no power over your peace of mind. This might sound too unreal for you, but experience will prove to you that all the above is true.

The mind plays an important role in achieving every kind of success, one usually knows what he wants to do or get, but when it comes to major goals, most people don't know what they really desire. They desire to do something big, but they don't know what. You may have a vague idea, but this is not enough. To accomplish anything, and to use your mind power, you have to know exactly what it is you want to do. To focus your mind power on a goal, you need to have a clear and well-defined Goal

After discovering what you really want to accomplish, you need to come up with a plan for action. You need to know what you have to do first and how to proceed. All of this requires planning, which means using the control of the mind and will power.

After deciding on a goal and coming up with a plan, you need to hold in your mind a clear mental image of your goal. You need to see it accomplished. This step requires that you use your imagination, which is another power of the mind. Not everyone can visualize clear mental images, but regular training of the imagination can do wonders. You may, for example, look at photos of what you want to achieve, and then close your eyes, and try to see it in your imagination. This will enhance your ability to visualize.

Another important part of will power is thought transference. You have no need to transmit your thoughts to other people, who would aid you with your plans. You need to be able to reject bad thought transference coming your way. To be able to do so, you need concentration, and control over your thoughts, willpower, self-discipline and patience. All these are mental tools and skills. To set about becoming wealthy and rich in this most scientific way, you do not need to apply your will power to anything outside of yourself. It is wrong to apply your will to other men and women, in order to get them to do what you wish done. 

It is as unashamedly wrong to coerce people by mental power, as it is to compel them by physical power. If compelling people by physical force to do things for you reduces them to slavery, compelling them by mental means accomplishes exactly the same thing; the only difference is in methods. If taking things from people by physical force is robbery, then taking thing by mental force is robbery also; there is no difference in principle. You have no right to use your will power upon another person, even "for his own good"; for you do not know what is for his good. 

The science of becoming wealthy and rich does not require you to apply power or force to any other person, in any way whatsoever. There is not the slightest necessity for doing so; indeed, any attempt to use your will upon others will only tend to defeat your purpose. You do not need to apply your will to things, in order to compel them to come to you.

That would simply be trying to coerce God or the universal consciousness, and would be foolish and useless, as well as irreverent. You do not have to compel to give you good things, any more than you have to use your will power to stop the tide from coming to the shore side.
 
You do not have to use your will power to conquer an unfriendly deity, or to make stubborn and rebellious forces do your bidding. Do not try to project your will, or your thoughts, or your mind out into space, to "act" on things or people. Keep your mind at home; it can accomplish more there than elsewhere.

The universal consciousness is friendly to you, and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are to get it. To become rich, you need only to use your will power upon yourself. When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and do the right things. That is the legitimate use of the will in getting what you want-to use it in holding yourself to the right course. Use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in the Certain Way.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

No name stands out more prominently in the history of the New Thought movement than that of the Dressers. Horatio W. Dresser, son of Julius A. and Annetta Seabury Dresser, was perhaps the most prolific writer yet developed within the movement. In 1884, at the age of 18, he began to practice mental healing along with his parents. He had European trips in 1888 and 1889, and prepared under a private tutor for entrance into Harvard, entering as a special student in 1891 Read his Power of Silence eBook Now

Power Points

  • Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is the ability to control or reject unnecessary or harmful impulses.
  • It is the inner power that overcomes the desire to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance for taking action
  • It is one of the corner stones of success.
  • Self-discipline is the companion of will power. It endows with the stamina to persevere in whatever one does.

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