,applied ,psychology ,,initiative ,,psychic ,,energy ,being the ,sixth of a ,series of ,twelve ,volumes on the ,applications of ,psychology to the ,problems of ,personal and ,business ,efficiency ,,by ,,warren ,,hilton1 ,a4,b41 ,l4,l4,b4 ,,founder ,,of ,,the ,,society ,,of ,,applied ,,psychology ,,issued ,,under ,,the ,,auspices ,,of ,,the ,,literary ,,digest ,,for ,the ,society of ,applied ,psychology ,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london #aibj ,,copyright #aiad ,,by ,,the ,,applied ,,psychology ,,press ,,san ,,francisco ,,contents ,chapter ,i4 ,,mental ,,second ,,wind ,,sticking ,,to ,,the ,,job ,,the ,,lagging ,,brain ,,reserve ,,supplies ,,of ,,power ,,blue ,,mondays ,,how ,,to ,,strike ,,one',s ,,stride ,,the ,,spur ,,of ,,desire ,,how ,,to ,,release ,,stored-,,up ,,energies ,,the ,,lawyer ,,who ,,overworks ,,excitement ,,and ,,the ,,hero ,,enduring ,,power ,,of ,,mind ,,ii4 ,,reserves ,,of ,,power ,,man',s ,,potential ,,and ,,kinetic ,,energies ,,holding ,,the ,,top ,,pace ,,genius ,,and ,,the ,,master ,,man ,,mental ,,effects ,,of ,,city ,,life ,,new-,,found ,,energies ,,explained ,,quickened ,,mentality ,,fast ,,living ,,and ,,long ,,living ,,professor ,,patrick',s ,,experiments ,,ratio ,,between ,,repair ,,and ,,demand ,,pygmies ,,and ,,giants ,,transforming ,,inertness ,,into ,,alertness ,,how ,,the ,,mind ,,accumulates ,,energy ,,the ,,threshold ,,of ,,inhibition ,,hidden ,,strength ,,giving ,a ,,man ,,scope ,,iii4 ,,the ,,initiative ,,energy ,,of ,,success ,,sources ,,of ,,persistence ,,importance ,,of ,,the ,,mental ,,setting ,,ideas ,,all ,,men ,,respond ,,to ,,how ,,to ,,exalt ,,the ,,personality ,,good ,,starters ,,and ,,strong ,,finishers ,,steps ,,in ,,self-,,development ,,saving ,a ,,thousand ,a ,,year ,,looking ,,for ,a ,,soft ,,snap ,,drawing ,,power ,,from ,,on ,,high ,,the ,,man ,,who ,,lasts ,,iv4 ,,how ,,to ,,avoid ,,wastes ,,that ,,drain ,,the ,,energy ,,of ,,success ,,speeding ,,the ,,bullet ,,without ,,aiming ,,why ,,most ,,men ,,fail ,,the ,,successful ,,promoter ,,the ,,human ,,dynamo ,,cool ,,brains ,,and ,,hot ,,boxes ,,marvelous ,,increased ,,efficiency ,,handling ,,pig ,,overloaded ,,human ,,engines ,,scientific ,,management ,,of ,,self ,,physiological ,,causes ,,of ,,waste ,,tests ,,for ,,sensory ,,defects ,,mental ,,friction ,,and ,,inner ,,whirlwinds ,,prominent ,,traits ,,of ,,great ,,achievers ,,why ,a ,,man ,,breaks ,,down ,,how ,,to ,,economize ,,effort ,,how ,,your ,,mental ,,capital ,,is ,,dissipated ,,conquering ,,indecision ,,why ,,christian ,,science ,,works ,,how ,,to ,,release ,,pent-,,up ,,power ,,proper ,,ratio ,,between ,,work ,,and ,,rest ,,determining ,,your ,,norm ,,of ,,efficiency ,v4 ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,mental ,,efficiency ,,where ,,energy ,,is ,,stored ,,bodily ,,effects ,,of ,,ideas ,,impulses ,,and ,,inhibitions ,,training ,,for ,,mental ,,team-,,work ,,rust ,,and ,,the ,,daily ,,grind ,,ideas ,,that ,,harmonize ,,five ,,rules ,,for ,,conserving ,,energy ,,business ,,luck ,,and ,,blue-,,sky ,,theories ,,devices ,,for ,,commercial ,,efficiency ,,chapter ,i ,,mental ,,second ,,wind ,sidenote3 ,sticking to the ,job ,are you an unusually persevering and persistent person8 ,or1 like most of us1 do you sometimes find it difficult to stick to the job until it is done8 ,what is your usual experience in this respect8 ,is it not this1 that you work steadily along until of a sudden you become conscious of a feeling of weariness1 crying ,enough6 for the time being1 and that you then yield to the impulse to stop8 ,sidenote3 ,the ,lagging ,brain ,assuming that this is what generally happens1 does this feeling of fatigue1 this impulse to rest1 mean that your mental energy is exhausted8 ,suppose that by a determined effort of the will you force your lagging brain to take up the thread of work4 ,there will invariably come a new supply of energy1 a second wind1 enabling you to forge ahead with a freshness and vigor that is surprising after the previous lassitude4 ,nor is this all4 ,the same process may be repeated a second time and a third time1 each new effort of the will being followed by a renewal of energy4 ,sidenote3 ,reserve ,supplies of ,power ,many a man will tell you that he does his best work in the wee watches of the morning1 after tedious hours of persevering but fruitless effort4 ,instead of being exhausted by its long hours of persistent endeavor1 the mind seems now to rise to the acme of its power1 to achieve its supreme accomplishments4 ,difficulties melt into thin air1 profound problems find easy solution4 ,flights of genius manifest themselves4 ,yet long before midnight such a one had perhaps felt himself yield to fatigue and had tied a wet towel around his head or had taken stimulants to keep himself awake4 ,the existence of this reserve supply of energy is manifested in physical as well as mental effort4 ,men who work with their heads and men who work with their hands1 scholars and ,marathon runners1 must alike testify to the existence of reserve supplies of power not ordinarily drawn upon4 ,sidenote3 ,blue ,mondays ,if we do not always or habitually utilize this reserve power1 it is simply because we have accustomed ourselves to yield at once to the first strong feeling of fatigue4 ,evidence of this same fact appears in our feelings on different days4 ,how often does a man get up from his breakfast-table after a long night's rest1 when he should be feeling fresh and invigorated1 and say to himself1 ,i don't feel like working today4 ,and it may take him until afternoon to get into his workaday stride1 if1 indeed1 he reaches it at all4 ,sidenote3 ,how to ,strike ,one's ,stride ,you cannot yourself be immune from the feeling on certain days that you are not at your best4 ,somehow or other1 your wits seem befogged4 ,you hesitate to undertake important interviews4 ,your interest lags4 ,and though crises arise in your business1 you feel weighted down and unable to meet them with that shrewd discernment and decisiveness of action of which you know yourself capable4 ,but you realize1 in your inmost self1 that if you continue to exert the will and persistently hold yourself to the business in hand1 sooner or later you will warm to the work1 enthusiasm will come1 the clouds will be dispelled1 the husks will fly4 ,yet you have had no rest2 on the contrary1 you have1 by continued conscious effort1 consumed more and more of your vital energy4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,spur of ,desire ,obviously it was not rest that you needed4 ,what you required was the impulse of some strong desire that should carry you over the threshold of that first inertia into the wide field of reserve energy so rarely called upon and so rich in power4 ,under the lashings of necessity1 or the spur of love or ambition1 men accomplish feats of mental and physical endurance of which they would have supposed themselves incapable4 ,here is what a certain lawyer says of his early struggles3 ,sidenote3 ,how to ,release ,stored-,up ,energies ,when ,i was twenty-three years old1 married1 and with a family to support1 ,i entered the law course of a great university4 ,of the many students in my class1 seven1 including me1 were making a living while studying law4 ,by special arrangement1 ,i was relieved from attendance at lectures and simply required to pass examinations on the various subjects1 and was thus enabled to retain my place as principal of a large public school4 ,during the third and last year of my law course1 ,i was principal of a public day school of two thousand children and an alternate night school with an enrolment of seven hundred and fifty1 and ,i worked at the law three nights in the week and all day ,sunday4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,lawyer ,who ,overworks ,after eight months of this1 the final examinations came around4 ,they consumed a full week--from nine in the morning until five or six at night4 ,i had no opportunity for review1 so ,i rented a room near the law school to save the time going and coming and reviewed each night the subjects of examination for the following day4 ,i did not sleep more than two hours any night in that week4 ,on ,thursday1 while bolting a bit of luncheon1 a fishbone stuck in my throat4 ,fearful of losing the result of my year's effort1 ,i returned to my work1 suffering much pain1 and kept at it until ,saturday night1 when the examinations were concluded4 ,the next day the surgeon who removed the fishbone said there was no reason why ,i should not have had 'a bad case of gangrene4' ,when ,i look back on that year's work ,i don't see how ,i stood it4 ,i don't see how ,i kept myself at it1 day in1 day out1 month after month without rest1 recreation or relief4 ,i am sure ,i could never go through it again1 even if ,i had the courage to undertake it4 ,i ranked second in a class of one hundred and eighty in my law examinations1 won the second prize for the best graduating thesis1 received a complimentary vote for class oratorship1 and much to my surprise was soon after offered an assistant superintendency of the public schools by the school board1 who knew nothing of my studies and thought my work as a teacher worthy of promotion4 ,it was not only the hardest year's work but the best year's work ,i ever did4 ,it exemplifies my invariable experience that the more we want to do the more we can do and the better we can do it4 ,sidenote3 ,excitement and the ,hero ,the following is an extract from a letter quoted by ,professor ,james as written by ,colonel ,baird-,smith after the siege of ,delhi in #aheg1 to the success of which he largely contributed3 ,my poor wife had some reason to think that war and disease1 between them1 had left very little of a husband to take under nursing when she got him again4 ,an attack of scurvy had filled my mouth with sores1 shaken every joint in my body and covered me all over with scars and livid spots1 so that ,i was unlovely to look upon4 ,a smart knock on the ankle joint from the splinter of a shell that burst in my face1 in itself a mere bagatelle of a wound1 had been of necessity neglected under the pressing and insistent calls upon me1 and had grown worse and worse until the whole foot below the ankle became a black mass and seemed to threaten mortification4 ,i insisted1 however1 on being allowed to use it until the place was taken1 mortification or no2 and though the pain was sometimes horrible ,i carried my point and kept up to the last4 ,on the day after the assault ,i had an unlucky fall on some bad ground1 and it was an open question for a day or two whether ,i hadn't broken my arm at the elbow4 ,fortunately it turned out to be only a severe sprain1 but ,i am still conscious of the wrench it gave me4 ,to crown the whole pleasant catalogue1 ,i was worn to a shadow by a constant diarrhoea and consumed as much opium as would have done credit to my father-in-law 7,thomas ,de ,quincey74 ,however1 thank ,god1 ,i have a good share of ,tapleyism in me and come out strong under difficulties4 ,i think ,i may confidently say that no man ever saw me out of heart or ever heard a complaining word from me even when our prospects were gloomiest4 ,we were sadly crippled by cholera1 and it was almost appalling to me to find that out of twenty-seven officers ,i could only muster fifteen for the operations of the attack4 ,however1 it was done1--and after it was done came the collapse4 ,sidenote3 ,enduring ,power of ,mind ,don't be horrified when ,i tell you that for the whole of the actual siege1 and in truth for some little time before1 ,i almost lived on brandy4 ,appetite for food ,i had none1 but ,i forced myself to eat just sufficient to sustain life1 and ,i had an incessant craving for brandy1 as the strongest stimulant ,i could get4 ,strange to say1 ,i was quite unconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree4 ,the excitement of the work was so great that no lesser one seemed to have any chance against it1 and ,i certainly never found my intellect clearer or my nerves stronger in my life4 ,such is the profound resourcefulness and enduring power of the human mind4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,reserves ,,of ,,power ,sidenote3 ,man's ,potential and ,kinetic ,energies ,stored-up energy not in use has been given a name by scientific men4 ,they call it potential energy4 ,in this way it is distinguished from kinetic or circulating energy by which is meant energy that is at work4 ,for example1 a ton of coal in the bin contains a certain amount of potential energy1 which is capable of being converted into kinetic energy by combustion4 ,sidenote3 ,holding the ,top ,pace ,you have a vast amount of potential energy over and above what you actually use4 ,you have formed the habit of giving up trying a thing as soon as you have spent the usual amount of effort on it1 and this without regard to whether or not you have accomplished anything4 ,while we all have the power of sustained mental activity1 not one in ten thousand of us holds to the top pace4 ,worse still1 even such mental energy as we do consume is dispersed and scattered over a multitude of trivial interests instead of being focused upon some one possessing aim4 ,we intend to show you how you can lose yourself in your work with an absorbing passion and how you can at any time make special requisition upon your hidden stores of potential energy and draw new supplies of power that will sweep you on to your goal4 ,sidenote3 ,genius and the ,master ,man ,more than anything else1 it is the ability to do this that lifts the great men of the race above the common run of mortals4 ,it is this that distinguishes genius from mediocrity4 ,the master man transforms his vast stores of reserve or potential energy into circulating or kinetic energy4 ,his work glows with living fire4 ,yet1 for every such man there are a multitude of others1 equally gifted in some respect1 but wanting that mysterious ,open ,sesame which would discover their hidden mental riches1 arouse them from their accustomed inferiority to their best selves1 and transform potentiality into accomplishment4 ,so it comes about that most of us are gems that shine but to illumine the dark unfathomed caves of ocean1 flowers born to blush unseen4 ,sidenote3 ,mental ,effect of ,city ,life ,take an illustration of the way in which this reserve or potential energy is transformed into circulating or kinetic energy4 ,suppose that you are a countryman and come to live in a large city4 ,the speed with which we do things1 our habits of quick decision1 the whirlwind of activities of the busy man in town1 appal you4 ,you cannot see how we live through it4 ,a day in the business district fills you with terror4 ,the tumult and danger make it seem like a permanent earthquake4 ,but settle down to work here4 ,and in a year you will have caught the pulse beat1 you will vibrate to the city's rhythm1 and if you only make good in your work1 you will enjoy the strain and hurry1 you will keep pace with the best of us1 and you will get more out of yourself in a day in the city than you ever did in a week on the farm4 ,this change in degree of mental activity does not necessarily mean that you are making more of a success of life4 ,your activities may be ill-directed4 ,your new-found powers may be misspent and dissipated4 ,but you are mentally more alert ,your mental forces have been stimulated by the stirring environment4 ,sidenote3 ,new-,found ,energies ,explained ,and1 mark this particularly1 a number of mental pictures will pass across the screen of your consciousness today in the same time that one mental image formerly required4 ,now1 you have learned that with every idea catalogued in memory1 there is wrapped up and stowed away an associated feeling tone and an associated impulse to some particular muscular action4 ,assuming this1 you must at once see that here is an explanation of your new-found energy4 ,your quickened step1 your new-found decisiveness of action1 your more observant eye1 your clear-cut speech instead of the former drawling utterance1 your livelier manner1 your freshened enthusiasm and enjoyment of life--all of these are but manifestations of a quickened intelligence4 ,sidenote3 ,quickened ,mentality ,they are the working out through the motor paths of mental impulses to muscular action4 ,and these impulses to muscular action come thronging into consciousness because the livelier environment brings about a more rapid reproduction of memory pictures4 ,and here comes a particularly striking fact4 ,one would naturally suppose that the more energy a man consumed1 and the faster he lived1 the more quickly his vitality would be exhausted and the shorter his life would be4 ,as a matter of fact1 by the divine beneficence of ,providence1 your organism is so ordered as to adapt itself within certain wide limits to the demands made upon it4 ,sidenote3 ,fast ,living and ,long ,living ,you may call into play all the stored-up resources of your being and still not stake everything upon a single throw4 ,for the supply of mental energy is as inexhaustible as the reservoir of all past experience1 while the supply of physical energy involved in brain and nerve activity is1 like the immortal liver of ,prometheus1 renewed as fast as depleted4 ,two sets of facts that have been established by elaborate scientific experiment will convince you of the truth of these propositions4 ,sidenote3 ,professor ,patrick's ,experiments ,professor ,patrick1 of the ,state ,university of ,iowa1 conducted some of these experiments4 ,he caused three young men to remain awake for four successive days and nights4 ,they were then allowed to go to sleep1 the purpose of the experiment being to determine just how much time ,nature required to recuperate from the long vigil4 ,they were allowed to sleep themselves out1 and all woke up thoroughly rested4 ,yet the one who slept the longest slept only one-third longer than his customary night's sleep4 ,you have doubtless had the same experience yourself many times4 ,it all goes to show that if we are awake four times as long as usual1 we do not make up for it by sleeping four times as long1 but four times as soundly1 as customary4 ,the hard-working mechanic requires no more hours of sleep than the corner loafer1 the active man of affairs no more than the dawdler4 ,sidenote3 ,ratio ,between ,repair and ,demand ,the time of tissue repair is about the same with all men under all conditions4 ,it is the rate of repair that varies with the demand that has been put upon the body4 ,again1 look at the same subject from the standpoint of food supply4 ,on what you now eat and drink you have a certain average weight4 ,eat1 digest and assimilate a larger quantity of food and your weight will increase4 ,this increase will be greatest at the start and will gradually slow up until you shall have reached the point beyond which you can gain no more4 ,given the same hygienic conditions that you have been accustomed to1 you will maintain yourself at the increased weight on the increased supply of food4 ,sidenote3 ,pygmies and ,giants ,now1 all this involves clearly enough a greatly increased rate of activity on the part of the bodily organs of assimilation and repair4 ,it is a situation on all fours with that of the countryman whose rate of brain activity has been stimulated by an increased mental demand4 ,no man will maintain that better1 more nourishing and more liberal food rations1 transformed into increased bodily tissue1 with a consequent greater weight and greater muscular strength1 would result in a loss of vitality or the shortening of a man's life4 ,sidenote3 ,transforming ,inertness into ,alertness ,pygmies cannot become giants physically or intellectually4 ,but as the puny youth can by systematic exercise broaden his frame and develop his muscles into at least a semblance of the athlete1 and can then through his healthier appetite and his faster rate of repair maintain himself without effort at the new standard2 so can the mentally inert call forth their reserves of energy and maintain a higher standard of activity and fruitfulness4 ,few men live on the plane of their highest efficiency4 ,few search the recesses of the well-springs of power4 ,the lives of most of us are passed among the shallows of the mind without thought of the possibilities that lurk within the deeper pools4 ,sidenote3 ,how the ,mind ,accumulates ,energy ,this accumulation of potential subconscious reserve energy is a result of the evolution of man and the growing complexity of his life4 ,no man could1 if he would1 respond to all the impulses to muscular action aroused in him by sense-impressions4 ,it would be still less possible for him to respond to every impulse to muscular action awakened from the past with the remembered thought with which it is associated4 ,desire1 interest1 attention and the selective will must pick and choose among these multitudinous tendencies to action4 ,here1 then1 is another fact that has immediate bearing upon your ability to carry out any ambition you may have4 ,your every action is the net result of selection among a number of impulses and inhibitory forces or tendencies4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,threshold of ,inhibition ,as a general thing1 consciousness is made up of a number of conflicting ideas1 each with its associated feeling and its impulse to action4 ,just what you do in any particular case depends upon what mental picture is strongest1 is most vivid in consciousness1 and thus able to overcome all contrary tendencies4 ,as life becomes more and more complex1 the number and variety of our sensory experiences increase correspondingly4 ,and so it comes about1 that we have untold millions of sensory experiences1 carrying with them the impulses to muscular response1 none of which1 on account of the multiplicity of conflicting ideas1 is ever allowed to find release and actually take form in muscular activity4 ,sidenote3 ,hidden ,strength ,the consequence is that only an exceedingly small proportion of the mental energy that is developed within us is ever actually displayed4 ,the rest is somehow and somewhere locked up behind the inhibitory threshold4 ,it is stored away in subconsciousness with the sensory experiences of the past with which it is associated4 ,sidenote3 ,giving a ,man ,scope ,quoting ,mr4 ,waldo ,p4 ,warren3 ,much of the strength within men is hidden1 awaiting an occasion to reveal it4 ,the head of a department in a great manufacturing concern severed his connection with the firm1 his work falling upon a young man of twenty-five years4 ,the young man rose to the occasion1 and in a very short time was conceded to be the stronger executive of the two4 ,he had been with the concern for several years1 and was regarded as a bright fellow1 but his marked success was a surprise to all who knew him--even to himself4 ,the fact is1 the young man had that ability all the time and didn't know it2 and his employers didn't know it4 ,he might have been doing greater things all along if there had been the occasion to reveal his strength4 ,do you employers and superior officers in business realize how much of this hidden strength there is in your men8 ,perhaps a word from you1 giving certain men more scope1 would liberate that ability for the development of both your business and your men4 ,do you workers know your own strength8 ,are you working up to your capacity8 ,or are you accepting the limits which the circumstances place about you8 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,initiative ,,energy ,,of ,,success ,sidenote3 ,sources of ,persistence ,in such instances as we have recounted1 men have found that persistent effort along certain lines has had the effect of making presently available what would otherwise be simply unused storage batteries of reserve power4 ,what was the source and inspiration for this persistent effort8 ,you will say that it was ambition or patriotism or some similar semi-emotional influence4 ,and so it was4 ,but what is ambition1 what is patriotism1 what is any desire but a picturing to the mind's eye of the things desired1 an awakening of a mental image of the result to be attained1 the reward that is to follow certain efforts8 ,and these mental pictures coming into consciousness have brought with them their associated emotions and their associated impulses to muscular action1 impulses appropriate to the picture and automatically tending to work its realization4 ,these impulses constitute the whole of man's achieving power4 ,they are the ,initiative ,energy of all ,success4 ,sidenote3 ,importance of the ,mental ,setting ,when you are afflicted with doubt and fear1 timidity and lack of confidence1 this means that your mental inhibitions are too numerous1 too high or too strong4 ,remove them and access is had to the latent energy of accumulated and creative thought complexes4 ,you will then become buoyant1 cheerful1 overflowing with enthusiasm1 and ready for a fresh1 definite1 active part in life4 ,ideas1 then1 when latent1 may be considered as possessing an energizing influence4 ,the same idea does not necessarily have the same effect upon the same persons at different times4 ,what its effect may be at any time or with any individual depends upon the make-up of the consciousness in which it finds itself4 ,sidenote3 ,ideas ,all ,men ,respond to ,the setting of consciousness may be entirely different upon the present appearance of the particular idea from what it was on the occasion when this same idea last appeared4 ,yesterday there may have been present no conflicting tendencies1 and this particular idea may therefore have been allowed free and joyous expression4 ,today other thoughts may be in the ascendency so that we look upon the idea of yesterday with a feeling of revulsion4 ,the thought that aroused new energy in you yesterday may then sicken you at your task today4 ,the thought that stirs the soul of a vigorous man may shock the sensibilities of a delicate woman4 ,sidenote3 ,how to ,exalt the ,personality ,yet there are some ideas to which all men in varying degrees seem alike to respond4 ,how often in battle have the failing spirits of an army been revived by the appearance of the leader shouting his battle-cry and waving his shining sword6 ,how often have men been roused to heights of heroic achievement by the strains of martial music6 ,how often have troops spent with exhaustion responded to the call of such simple phrases as ,the ,flag1 ,our ,country1 ,liberty1 or such songs as ,the ,marseillaise1 ,god ,save the ,king1 ,dixie6 ,these phrases are but the signs of ideas1 yet the sounding of these phrases has summoned these ideas into consciousness1 and the summoning of these ideas into consciousness has placed undreamed-of and immeasurable foot-pounds of energy on the hair-trigger of action4 ,sidenote3 ,good ,starters and ,strong ,finishers ,and so it is with you4 ,down deep in the inmost chambers of your soul are untouched stores of energy that properly applied will exalt your personality and illumine your career4 ,but to find and claim these hidden riches you must persevere4 ,you must endure4 ,in a ,marathon race it is endurance that wins4 ,the graceful sprinter who is off with a leap at the bark of the pistol soon falls by the wayside4 ,life is a ,marathon in which persistence triumphs4 ,there are many good starters1 but few strong finishers4 ,that is why the failures so outnumber the successes4 ,sidenote3 ,steps in ,self-,development ,the man who travels fastest does more than he is told to do4 ,to merely comply with a fixed routine is to fall short of one's duty4 ,the progressive man adds to the work of today his preparation for the work of tomorrow4 ,he delights in attempting more and more difficult tasks1 because in every task he sets himself he sees a step forward in the development of his own abilities4 ,he loves his work more than he loves his pay1 and he delves deeper than the exigencies of the moment require1 because he craves the power to do more4 ,most men start with enthusiasm4 ,no hours are too long1 no task too difficult4 ,but soon they tire4 ,and lacking will-power to persist1 they succumb to the lure of distracting interests4 ,they become disheartened and indifferent4 ,and so they fail4 ,sidenote3 ,saving a ,thousand a ,year ,a young man married4 ,he was proprietor of a flourishing general store in ,princeton1 ,indiana4 ,he and his bride forthwith resolved that they could and would lay aside out of their income a thousand dollars a year for ten years1 by which time they would have ten thousand dollars and accumulated interest and could go into business in a big city4 ,at the end of the first year1 when they took stock of their savings1 they decided that thereafter1 instead of trying to save a thousand dollars a year for ten years1 they would undertake to save ten dollars a year for a thousand years and would be more apt to succeed4 ,today they are just where they began4 ,you all know such men--men who are always starting and never finishing4 ,sidenote3 ,looking for a ,soft ,snap ,ninety-five per cent of the men who go into business are quitters4 ,the very first disappointment sends them scurrying to cover4 ,they begin to look for a soft snap away from the firing line4 ,is it any wonder that so few reach any great success8 ,that there is an enormous lack of appropriation of energy in most men's lives is an undoubted fact4 ,just where this energy is stored1 and just what its eternal significance may be1 is immaterial to our purpose4 ,it may be that this reserve is ,nature's safeguard against our extravagance4 ,it may be1 as some philosophers contend1 that the subconscious1 with its vast stores of energy1 is a higher1 more spiritual phase of man4 ,sidenote3 ,drawing ,power from on ,high ,it may be that the subconscious is for each one of us his individual segment of the ,divine ,essence--that it marks our at-one-ment with ,god4 ,it may be that to evoke these latent energies is to call upon those resources of our being which are the embodiment within us of the spirit of the ,creator of all things4 ,it may be that this ,divine ,essence1 if adequately aroused1 may exert an absolute transcendence over material things and lift humanity to a ,god-like plane4 ,what we call man1 wrote ,emerson1 the eating1 drinking1 planting1 counting man1 does not1 as we know him1 represent himself1 but misrepresents himself4 ,him we do not respect2 but the real soul whose organ he is1 would he let it appear through his action1 would make our knees bend4 ,i said1 ye are gods1 quoth the ,psalmist4 ,be ye perfect1 even as your ,father1 was the injunction of the ,master4 ,whatever the eternal significance of your latent energy may be1 the fact remains that it is yours1 and yours to use4 ,if you are to succeed1 if you are to do big things1 you must be a man of doggedness4 ,you must keep your eyes trained everlastingly upon the vision of the thing you want4 ,you must stay in the race until you get your second wind4 ,you must be master of yourself and draw freely on your stored-up powers4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,man ,who ,lasts ,do as we shall tell you in this ,course and you will become a master man1 the kind of man who lasts1 the kind of man who works his imagination overtime1 the kind of man who can strain his energies to the utmost and then1 finding himself still a failure1 can rise like the glow of the sun to do bolder and bigger things--the kind of man who wins4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,how ,,to ,,avoid ,,wastes ,,that ,,drain ,,the ,,energy ,,of ,,success ,sidenote3 ,speeding the ,bullet ,without ,aiming ,we have shown you that you have within you the potentialities of success in the form of latent mental energy4 ,we have shown you that your ability to achieve depends upon your ability to utilize to the full your underground mental resources4 ,but success demands that you do more than merely use all your mental energies4 ,you must use them intelligently4 ,sidenote3 ,why ,most ,men ,fail ,most men fail because they speed the bullet without aiming4 ,they fire at random1 and so bag no game4 ,your pent-up mental energy is the powder in the cartridge4 ,its usefulness depends upon the man behind the gun4 ,to succeed in business you must intelligently control and direct 7#a7 your own mental energies1 7#b7 the mental energies of others4 ,the course of the average man through life is an aimless zigzag4 ,it has neither direction nor purpose4 ,it represents wasted energy capriciously expended4 ,mental energy is like water3 it has a tendency to scatter4 ,it is diffusive4 ,it seeks release in a thousand different directions at the same time4 ,as a boy1 first learning to write1 you were unable to prevent the simultaneous squirming of tongue and legs1 all ludicrously irrelevant to your purpose of writing4 ,so now1 as a business man1 unless you have learned the secret of self-mastery1 you are unable to concentrate your efforts1 your attention is easily distracted1 you exhaust yourself in displays of passion1 you are forever doing things during business hours that have no relation to your business1 you are forever doing things in connection with your business that do not contribute to its progress1 you expend just as much energy as the accomplished executive or the successful hustler1 but you fritter it away in unprofitable activities4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,successful ,promoter ,to correct this is to gain mastery and power4 ,concentrate your mental energies on one thing at a time4 ,stop spreading them around4 ,the promoter may have a dozen big enterprises under way at once1 but he takes them up one at a time4 ,he transfers his whole mind and thought from one to the next4 ,you cannot of course be eternally doing the same thing2 but make no mistake about it1 the only way to succeed at anything is to consciously control your mental energies4 ,you may throw them now into this attack1 now into another2 but you must always have a tight grip on yourself1 or you cannot succeed4 ,sidenote3 ,the ,human ,dynamo ,you will often hear some live-wire business man spoken of as a human dynamo4 ,he has the faculty of turning out a stupendous amount of work in a comparatively short time4 ,how he can carry in his mind the details of so many large projects1 how he can accomplish so much in actual1 tangible results in many directions1 how he can pull the strings of so many enterprises without getting lost in the maze of detail1 is the marvel of his associates4 ,and yet this man is never hurried1 nor flurried1 nor worried4 ,but every word and every act is straight to the point and productive of results worth while4 ,sidenote3 ,cool ,brains and ,hot ,boxes ,a cool brain is the reverse of a hot box4 ,it carries the business of the day along with a steady drive1 and is invariably the mark of the big man4 ,the man who dispatches his work quietly1 promptly and efficiently1 with no trace of fuss and flurry1 is a big man4 ,it is not the hurrying1 clattering and chattering individual who turns off the most work4 ,he may imagine he is getting over a lot of track1 but he wastes far more than the necessary amount of steam in doing it4 ,the fable of the hare and the tortoise would not be a bad primer for a number of us1 and the lesson relearned would not only be beneficial in a business-producing way1 but it would help us in the full enjoyment of our work4 ,sidenote3 ,marvelous ,increased ,efficiency ,handling ,pig ,progress in mental efficiency must result from the application of knowledge of the mental machine4 ,just as we watch the steam-engine and the electric motor to see that they are not overloaded1 so we must watch the mental machine1 that no more power be turned on than can be profitably employed4 ,this principle has already been applied to physical labor by ,mr4 ,frederick ,w4 ,taylor in his ground-breaking studies in scientific management4 ,mr4 ,taylor's celebrated experiments in the handling of pig-iron1 by which the quantity handled in a day by one man was increased from twelve and one-half tons to forty-seven and one-half tons1 showed that a man engaged in such extremely heavy work could only be under load forty-three per cent of the working day1 and must be entirely free from load for fifty-seven per cent1 to attain the maximum efficiency4 ,sidenote3 ,overloaded ,human ,engines ,there is no reason why efficiency in mental effort should not be gauged just as accurately as in muscular activity4 ,if there are times when your wits are not as keen1 when you have not the same grasp of fundamentals1 as at other times1 it is because you are mentally overloaded4 ,it may be the result of a great variety of causes4 ,it may be from too many hours of continuous mental effort4 ,but the probabilities are that it is the result of vexation1 worry1 dissipation1 or allowing the mind to be burdened with the strain of vicious1 or at least irrelevant and distracting1 impulses and desires4 ,and so efficiency is lost4 ,sidenote3 ,scientific ,management of ,self ,the human dynamo is a man who long ago learned the lesson of scientific management of his own mental forces4 ,he does one thing at a time1 and does it the best he knows how4 ,he directs the whole power of his mentality to the one problem and solves it with accuracy and dispatch4 ,there is no more of a load on his gray matter than there is on that of the fretting1 fuming1 finger-biting fritterer1 but every pound of steam is spent in useful work4 ,look at the victim of ,st4 ,vitus' dance4 ,there you have an illustration of wasted energy4 ,and it is mental energy1 for every muscular movement represents the release of thought power4 ,the mental lives of most men are equally aimless4 ,they are lives of ceaseless activity producing nothing4 ,sidenote3 ,psychological ,causes of ,waste ,sometimes it happens that a man is not working to advantage because of some defect in his physical make-up4 ,he may have defective vision or some peculiarity of hearing that renders him unable to respond as quickly as he should to the demands made upon him4 ,if these defects are ascertained1 it is usually a simple matter to correct the defects by mechanical means or readjust the relative duties of different persons so that the defects will be minimized4 ,sidenote3 ,tests for ,sensory ,defects ,where large numbers of people are employed1 it is comparatively easy to use tests for discovering defects of sight or hearing by simple apparatus without requiring the services of a high-priced expert4 ,by adopting these test methods any manager of a large industrial establishment can satisfy himself whether his employees are up to certain normal standards4 ,he can even apply the tests to himself4 ,optical tests can be conducted by securing an ordinary letter chart such as is used by oculists and opticians4 ,seat the subject twenty feet away4 ,if he can read all the lines of letters from the largest down to the smallest his eyesight is practically perfect4 ,in a large percentage of cases the smaller lines of type are blurred and invisible4 ,to detect the cause and degree of defects of the eyes it is necessary to try out the eyes by using a trial spectacle frame and inserting detached lenses before the right eye and the left eye alternately4 ,one of the most common forms of defective vision is astigmatism4 ,a chart has been designed with a series of circles and straight lines radiating from the center4 ,if the subject is astigmatic he will see some of the straight lines distinctly while others will be blurred4 ,for instance1 one or two of the vertical lines may appear very black and strong while all others will look like a hazy network4 ,this defect1 due to unevenness of the spherical surface of the eyeball1 is easily corrected with properly ground glasses4 ,defects in hearing can be easily determined by means of an acoumeter4 ,this little instrument measures the acuteness of the hearing very accurately by means of shot dropped from varying heights upon strips of glass1 copper and cardboard4 ,tests with this device indicate whether the subject's hearing is above or below normal4 ,sidenote3 ,mental ,friction and ,inner ,whirlwinds ,stop wasting your energy4 ,heretofore you have used your powers in a more or less haphazard way1 with a vast amount of waste and no efficient direction4 ,from now on you are to exercise more intelligence in this respect and make all your energies contribute to your business progress and your personal success4 ,you are losing power in fruitless outward activities4 ,you are losing power in the thinking of useless thoughts4 ,you cannot stop the ceaseless activity of the mind4 ,but you can conserve its forces by directing them into channels that are worth while4 ,you are losing power in a turmoil of inward mental strains and inharmonies4 ,catch yourself at some moment when you are forging ahead in a crowded day's work4 ,you will then see what an inner whirlwind of excitement is in progress1 what stresses and strains are at work1 what contrary impulses1 what frictions and obstacles are being overcome4 ,now1 to the engineer every one of these words--friction1 obstacle1 strain--spells loss of efficiency1 and in this ,course we shall teach you how you may do away with antagonistic impulses1 may bring your combined mental forces to bear upon the common enemy1 and may hurl yourself into the struggles of business and practical life with a joyful and headlong impetuosity that no obstacle can withstand4 ,sidenote3 ,prominent ,traits of ,great ,achievers ,professor ,walter ,dill ,scott1 of ,northwestern ,university1 has said3 ,in studying the lives of contemporary business men1 two facts stand out pre-eminently4 ,the first is that their labors have brought about results that to most of us would have seemed impossible4 ,such men appear as giants in comparison with whom ordinary men sink to the size of pygmies4 ,the second fact1 which a study of successful business men 7or any class of successful men7 reveals1 is that they never seem rushed for time4 ,such men have time to devote to objects in no way connected with their business4 ,it cannot be regarded as accidental that this characteristic of mind is found so commonly among successful men during the years of their most fruitful labor4 ,according to the ,american ideal1 the man who is sure to succeed is the one who is continuously 'keyed up to concert pitch'--who is ever alert and is always giving attention to his business or profession4 ,and again3 ,it is not necessarily true that the greatest and most constant display of energy accompanies the greatest presence of energy4 ,the tug-boat on the river is constantly blowing off steam and making a tremendous display of energy1 while the ocean liner proceeds on its way without noise and without commotion4 ,the man who frets and fumes1 who is nervous and excited1 is strung up to such a pitch that energy is being dissipated in all directions4 ,many business men know they are going at a pace that kills1 and at the same time they feel that they are accomplishing too little4 ,for such the pertinent question is1 ,how may ,i reduce the expenditure of energy without reducing the efficiency of my labor8 ,one of the busiest and most efficient men in ,england is quoted as having explained his own accomplishment of big results with the least expenditure of effort3 ,by organizing myself to run smoothly1 as well as my business2 by schooling myself to keep cool1 and to do what ,i have to do without expending more nervous energy on the task than is necessary2 by avoiding all needless friction4 ,in consequence1 when ,i finish my day's work1 ,i feel nearly as fresh as when ,i started4 ,sidenote3 ,why a ,man ,breaks ,down ,the late ,professor ,james1 of ,harvard ,university1 often referred to as the founder of modern psychology1 spoke thus disparagingly of untrained effort3 ,your convulsive worker breaks down and has bad moods so often that you never know where he may be when you most need his help1--he may be having one of his 'bad days4' ,we say that so many of our fellow-countrymen collapse and have to be sent abroad to rest their nerves1 because they work so hard4 ,i suspect that this is an immense mistake1 ,i suspect that neither the nature nor the amount of our work is accountable for the frequency and the severity of our breakdowns1 but that their cause lies rather in those absurd feelings of hurry and having no time1 in the breathlessness and tension1 that anxiety of feature and solicitude for results1 that lack of inner harmony and ease1 in short1 by which with us the work is apt to be accompanied4 ,sidenote3 ,how to ,economize ,effort ,the fact is that to be a truly busy man you must be never in a hurry4 ,you must work systematically4 ,you must economize effort4 ,you must permit no distractions and do your work leisurely4 ,you must take time to think things over in a natural way4 ,you must waste no thoughts in business hours on social or pleasurable pursuits that would dissipate your mental capital4 ,you must work when you work1 and you may play when you play1 but your business must be the most fascinating of games and the only one you play during business hours4 ,sidenote3 ,how ,your ,mental ,capital is ,dissipated ,another thing you need is poise4 ,one trouble with you now is that you waste your priceless powers in useless anxiety4 ,the minute business falls off you begin to worry4 ,you fritter your mental energies in fretting until you are incapable of real thought1 and being unable to think your way out you get excited4 ,remember it is all just a game1 and you are in it only for the fun of the thing4 ,you will never win out if you persist in tearing your hair4 ,before he crossed the ,rubicon ,julius ,csar was staggered at the greatness of the undertaking before him4 ,the more he reflected and took counsel of his friends1 the greater loomed the difficulties of the attempt and the more appalling the calamities his passage of that river would bring upon the ,roman world4 ,but when at last with the cry1 ,the die is cast6 he plunged into the river1 there was an end for him to mental dissension1 a freedom to plan and execute1 an expansion of courage and power4 ,sidenote3 ,conquering ,indecision ,so it will be with you4 ,with doubt and uncertainty the pressure may be high in the gauge1 but the engine does not move4 ,make up your mind1 and you release energies previously wasted in conflicts between opposing thought complexes struggling for supremacy4 ,sidenote3 ,why ,christian ,science ,works ,a fine illustration of this is shown in the religious experience known as conversion4 ,to the convert1 conversion means the profound acceptance of a mighty spiritual truth4 ,it means positive knowledge taking the place of doubt or indifference4 ,conflicting ideas are no longer present in his consciousness4 ,pent-up energies are released4 ,he wants to do things4 ,his soul is fired with overmastering impulses to action4 ,he wants to go forth and preach the gospel of his faith4 ,he is lifted to a high plane of exhilaration4 ,he experiences the peace that passeth understanding4 ,christian ,science1 ,truth1 ,the ,new ,thought1 and similar movements all achieve their really marvelous results in much the same way4 ,all proclaim doctrines of exuberant optimism1 having a tendency to banish fear-thoughts and self-consciousness and self-depreciation1 and to set up in their stead ideas of courage and of achievement and of individual power4 ,if these teachings are successful--that is to say1 if they inherently possess the right appeal for the particular individual--they have the happy effect of begetting a stoical indifference to petty physical disorders and social vexations and bringing about a concentration upon the main business of life of the mental energies thus previously wasted4 ,sidenote3 ,how to ,release ,pent-,up ,power ,decide the matter that is troubling you4 ,make an end of hesitation and uncertainty and fear4 ,your very act of decision will release large stores of pent-up mental power and add immeasurably to your effectiveness4 ,so long as you are in doubt and perplexity conflicting ideas and impulses balance each other4 ,you are not then a man of action2 you are a wavering coward4 ,you are afflicted with paralysis of will and mental stagnation4 ,decide the matter--that is to say1 let one mental picture assume a greater vividness than the other until it possesses your soul--and forthwith the banked fires of your mental energy will burst into flame4 ,another thing3 ,stop wasting your time4 ,how much time do you spend in rest and relaxation8 ,how much should you spend8 ,can you answer these questions accurately8 ,sidenote3 ,proper ,ratio ,between ,work and ,rest ,thomas ,a4 ,edison has contended for years that four hours' sleep a day was sufficient for any man4 ,he has conducted experiments with a large number of men1 giving careful attention to matters of diet and exercise1 and the results have seemed in a measure to support his theory4 ,dr4 ,fred ,w4 ,eastman reports that owing to pressure of work he was recently unable to get more than three or four hours' sleep out of the twenty-four during a period of many months1 and that so far from being hurt by it he gained five pounds4 ,he says3 ,if restoration during sleep is a task so relatively small1 the question arises whether1 in order to complete restoration1 it is necessary for us to spend so much time in sleep as we do4 ,perhaps on account of popular opinion and personal habit1 we waste much time in this jelly-fish condition that could more profitably be spent in active pursuit of our ambitions4 ,the answer1 of course1 depends upon the nature of our occupations4 ,if there is muscular effort involved1 with a correspondingly large amount of waste in the cells and blood1 eight hours or more are probably necessary4 ,but if the work is of a sedentary nature1 and mainly of the brain1 there is naturally a smaller quantity of accumulated waste1 and less time is required for removal4 ,many are the instances of great men1 past and present1 who have lived healthily and worked unceasingly and strenuously on only four or five hours of sleep1 or half the laborer's portion4 ,surely we do not suppose that these men were or are physically different from others1 but rather that by inclination or necessity they have developed a habit of sleeping intensely for a short period1 with resulting gain of time and efficiency4 ,sidenote3 ,determining ,your ,norm of ,efficiency ,so far as this matter of relaxation1 rest and sleep is concerned1 the rule to follow is obviously this3 ,determine accurately by experiment the proper relation between periods of work and periods of rest in your own case1 then increase your efficiency by maintaining this relation4 ,in ,denmark they feed cows scientifically4 ,day by day they increase the allowance of milk-producing food4 ,day by day the yield of milk increases4 ,at last there comes a day when measurement shows that there is no longer any increase in the production of milk4 ,they then decrease the food till the output of milk diminishes4 ,so they determine the normal4 ,so with you and your hours of work and leisure4 ,give more and more time to your business each day until there comes an impairment in the quality of your work4 ,stop short of this4 ,you have found your norm of efficiency4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,mental ,,efficiency ,sidenote3 ,where ,energy ,is ,stored ,you are called upon to master and conserve the innate energies of your mind4 ,this means that you must 7#a7 find out where these energies are stored1 and 7#b7 learn the conditions that determine their activity4 ,all past experiences are conserved within us in the form of complexes4 ,these complexes consist of ideas1 emotions and impulses to muscular activity4 ,by the primary law of association the recall to consciousness of any one of these component elements of a complex brings with it all the rest4 ,sidenote3 ,bodily ,effects of ,ideas ,for example1 the ideas pertaining to any terrifying experience1 when recalled to consciousness1 bring with them the trembling1 the wildly beating heart1 the shaking knees1 with which they were originally accompanied4 ,the victim of stage-fright feels his knees give way and that he is sinking to the floor2 his heart beats tumultuously1 cold perspiration covers his body1 he blushes1 his mouth is dry1 and his voice sticks in his throat4 ,afterwards1 alone in his own room1 the memory of that dreadful moment1 the thought of another appearance before that audience1 will be accompanied by the same physiological effects4 ,sidenote3 ,impulses and ,inhibitions ,every such bodily movement is an expression of energy4 ,the recall to consciousness of the terrifying experience1 the recall of the picture of the assembled audience1 these things automatically produce bodily activities4 ,so we must conclude that ,every idea in memory has associated with it the potential energy necessary for the production of muscular movement4 ,it does not necessarily follow that the recall to consciousness of a given idea will be invariably followed by an outwardly visible muscular activity expressive of its energy4 ,just as the mere presence of an idea in consciousness tends to bring about a movement1 so the presence of a contrary idea will tend to inhibit it4 ,try to imagine that you are bending your forefinger4 ,at the same time hold it straight4 ,your finger will actually tremble with the dammed-up energy of the repressed impulse4 ,but the finger will not actually move1 because the idea of its not moving is just as much a part of your consciousness as the idea of its moving4 ,put out of your consciousness this thought of the finger's not moving1 and forthwith the finger will bend4 ,your conduct during your waking hours is thus always the result of opposing forces1 some tending in one direction1 others tending to counteract the first4 ,thus there comes about a great waste of mental power and an appalling loss of individual efficiency4 ,sidenote3 ,training for ,mental ,team-,work ,in the language of sport1 you are suffering from a lack of mental team work4 ,the effect is the same as if the members of a football team1 instead of combining their forces against the opposing side1 should spend their time in restraining one another4 ,it requires but one step1 and not a difficult one at that1 to lead you to the conclusion that the solution of this problem lies in having in consciousness at any one moment only such ideas as harmonize4 ,let that condition prevail1 and the potential energies of all ideas in consciousness must flow together in a broad stream of useful and exhilarating activity4 ,sidenote3 ,rust and the ,daily ,grind ,your work should be a source of pleasure to you4 ,if it is simply a disagreeable task that has to be performed1 if it is a daily grind1 if you have to hold yourself to it by unremitting effort of the will1 you are no better than a rusty engine1 and all your workings will be accompanied by jars1 frictions1 and complaining squeaks that bespeak a positively wicked loss of power4 ,hold the right thoughts persistently in mind1 and you cannot help working steadily on toward the goal you are thinking of4 ,keep steadily at work with the right thoughts persistently in mind and success is sure to come4 ,success1 then1 lies in the concentration of mental energies4 ,and this concentration is to be brought about by holding in consciousness only those ideas that harmonize4 ,sidenote3 ,ideas ,that ,harmonize ,there must be the greatest discrimination and care used in the selection of these ideas that are to constitute such a co-ordinating consciousness4 ,there must be a re-imaging or imagination in a literal and practical sense of those ideas only that carry with them impulses to motion in the same general direction4 ,you must have a set purpose in life1 and you must yield your powers without hindrance and without reservation to the accomplishment of that set purpose4 ,sidenote3 ,five ,rules for ,conserving ,energy ,i4 ,you must exercise deliberate1 patient and persistent watchfulness to detect and repress all useless bodily movements4 ,you have all sorts of silly habits1 twitchings1 jerkings1 itchings1 winkings1 shrugs1 frowns1 coughs1 snifflings and odd and meaningless gestures4 ,watch yourself4 ,do these things no more4 ,save your eyes and ears and hands and nerves1 all your mental energy1 for useful effort4 ,,ii4 ,you must give yourself1 mind and body1 to one thing at a time1 disregarding all that would lure you from your chosen task4 ,,iii4 ,you must acquire a self-conscious sense of your own self-mastery4 ,it will help you to acquire this feeling if you will continually assert1 ,i can and will accomplish anything that ,i am determined upon6 ,i have the power of will6 ,i will accomplish this thing6 ,i will6 ,make these assertions with all the force and intensity of your whole being until you are pervaded with a sense of your own power4 ,do this faithfully1 and in time this courageous and manly attitude will become an inherent part of your personality4 ,,iv4 ,you must have confidence4 ,and when we say confidence we do not mean a purely intellectual conviction4 ,we mean a profoundly emotional faith4 ,it will help you to cultivate this feeling of confidence if you will affirm many times a day1 ,i have implicit confidence in myself6 ,i have perfect faith in my own powers6 ,i am absolute master of myself and of my career6 ,practice affirmations of this kind persistently1 and in time your mind will have permanently acquired the habit of facing the facts of life in the way essential to success4 ,v4 ,you must exert a favorable influence upon the mental attitude of those about you4 ,this is not so difficult as it would appear4 ,you cannot yourself acquire will-power1 confidence and courage without impressing others with your possession of these qualities4 ,personalities are revealed one to another by faint and suggestive activities all unconsciously perceived4 ,your concentration of energy will inspire others4 ,you will radiate an atmosphere of success4 ,you will subtly influence your associates4 ,you will be a force to reckon with1 and the world will know it4 ,your air of success will draw others to you1 will bring business and goodwill1 and men and money will seek a share in your enterprises4 ,master your mental energies1 train them1 concentrate them1--thus only may you win riches with honor4 ,thus broadly put1 there is1 or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there seems to be1 nothing startlingly new about this proposition4 ,the world has always realized that singleness of purpose1 concentration of effort1 is essential to success4 ,but in the past the world has possessed no formula by which these qualities might be acquired4 ,men have endeavored to create in themselves the necessary qualities for success1 having no knowledge of the mental elements that went into their composition4 ,they have tried to run the mental engine knowing nothing of its mechanism4 ,sidenote3 ,business ,luck and ,blue-,sky ,theories ,some few have been lucky1 but the path has been strewn with a thousand failures to one that passed on to success4 ,there are some business men who look upon psychology as blue-sky theorizing or new thought4 ,there are others who have a hazy idea that it is a sort of unfathomable mystery intended to amuse long-haired scientists4 ,the truth is that every one of these same business men1 if he is getting ahead1 is unconsciously using psychological principles to the profit of his own business every day in the year4 ,sidenote3 ,devices for ,commercial ,efficiency ,in the books that are to follow we shall show you the immense practical value of a truly scientific psychology4 ,you shall come into the psychological laboratory with us and work out rational1 scientific and exact methods by which1 without possibility of failure and with but reasonable effort1 you can at any moment completely concentrate your mental powers4 ,you shall be instructed in simple devices for mastering scattered energies1 repressing wasteful habits1 banishing depressive moods and raising yourself to a far higher level of commercial efficiency4