Wisdom & Empowerment: The Orison Swett Marden Edition (18 Books in One Volume). Orison Swett Marden

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      “What wouldst thou? All is thine—

      The ways are opening for thee,

      The light of truth doth shine;

      Then halt not, question not;

      Be still, and assert the I.”

      FEW people are well-balanced, well-rounded. A great many have splendid ability in certain lines, good education, fine training, and yet have some deficiency in their make-up which cripples the whole life and dwarfs the results of their utmost industry.

      Many of us have some little, contemptible weakness which offsets our strong qualities and ruins their effectiveness.

      How humiliating it is to be conscious that one has dragged up to maturity some such weakness or deficiency without realizing it, or at least without having it remedied. The deficiency is slight, perhaps, and yet, if it cripples life, if it mars achievement, if it is a perpetual humiliation, if it submits us to a thousand embarrassments and keeps us from rising in the world, what a terrible misfortune it is!

      What a pity to see a giant in possibility tied down by some little, contemptible weakness which cripples what might have been a magnificent career! If parent or teacher would only point out to a child a weakness which, perhaps, will be fatal if not remedied, and teach it how to guard against it, how to strengthen the defective quality by mental exercise, what a tremendous help it would give to the child, perhaps preserving it from failure.

      It is pitiable to see a young man bowing to what he calls fate, which he thinks has been fixed by the contour of his brain or in his hereditary tendencies. Why should we drag our weaknesses through life when a little common-sense, a little right thinking in fixing new habits of thought, would soon remedy them?

      If you are conscious of a mental weakness, a deficient faculty, using a little concentration, thinking in the opposite direction, and dwelling upon the perfect faculties or qualities you desire would soon put you in a normal condition. It is normal thinking that makes the normal life.

      But if you leave your weak faculties alone —do not exercise them, do not try to enlarge them—how can you expect them ever to become strong? You cannot develop a symmetrical body by simply exercising the arms. The same is true of the mental faculties. Those which are not used deteriorate. If you long for a thing and strive for it with all your might persistently enough and long enough, you cannot help approximating it; you must get what you wish in some degree.

      If your call for wisdom is loud enough and persistent enough, you will become wise. If you call for idleness and mere pleasure, you will get them; but you must not expect wisdom while you are struggling for another goal.

      If you wish health, say health, think health, hold the picture of yourself in health before your mind as the sculptor holds that of the statue he is carving from the marble; hold it persistently and you will create health.

      Do you wish relief from poverty? Hold the idea of plenty to use, to enjoy not to hoard, not to oppress, but to bless, and it will as surely come to you as a rose from a bud.

      “Affirm that which you wish, and it will manifest in your life.”

      If, for example, melancholia, taking too serious a view of things, is your fatal weakness, you can entirely remedy this condition in a little while by perpetually concentrating the thought upon the bright, cheerful, sunny side of things. If you persist in this, after a while you will seldom have a depressing, gloomy thought. When you do, fling it out of your mind. Thrust it out as you would the thief from your house. Because a burglar gets into your room, is that any reason why you should let him stay there? Fling open the shutters and let in the light, and the gloom will disappear.

      It is not difficult to do this; but every time you nurse the weakness or harbor the thought that depresses you, you make friends with it and invite it to stay. When you dwell upon the dark side of things, then you are encouraging everything which is darkening your life and hampering your career.

      If you hold persistently in the mind the picture of the normal faculty which corresponds to the one you think is deficient, you will soon bring about the desired results.

      I wish it were possible to show young people what a tremendous power for good there is in forming the habit of stoutly affirming and claiming desired qualities as one’s birthright, with all the determination to possess them that can be mustered. The mere assumption of a thing with all our will power, and the determination to possess it which knows no retreat, are wonderful helps in achieving the things that we long for. Do not be afraid of claiming and repeating over and over again the qualities you long to attain or the object of your ambition. Keep your desire in the forefront of your thought. Resolve that you will possess these things and will accept nothing else, and you will be surprised to see how rapidly you will make yourself a magnet to draw the things you yearn for.

      If you long for a beautiful character, claim it, assume it, stick to it with all possible tenacity, and you will not only prepare the mind to receive it, but will also increase the power of the mind to attract it.

      We all know that in some way, somehow, most people get the things they long for and struggle for persistently. And even if they do not get all that they desire, they approximate much nearer to it, get much more of it than they would if they did not claim it stoutly and struggle for it persistently. We have the ability to change our attractive power, to increase it or diminish it, just in proportion to the intensity of our yearning for it and assuming it as our birthright.

      Many people become morbid in dwelling upon the thought that they are peculiar in some respect. Some of these people think that they have inherited certain tendencies or peculiarities from their parents, and are always looking for their appearance in themselves. Now this is just the way to make them appear; for what we encourage in the mind or hold there persistently we get. So these people continually increase the evil by worrying about it and dwelling upon its sad effects on themselves. They become sensitive about their idiosyncrasies. They never like to speak of or hear of them, and yet the very consciousness that they possess them takes away their self-confidence and mars their achievement.

      Now the great majority of these abnormalities and peculiarities are simply imaginary—or are exaggerated by imagination. They have been nursed and brooded over as possibilities so long that they become real to the sufferers. The remedy lies in doing precisely the opposite—dwelling on the perfect qualities, and ignoring any possible shortcomings.

      If you think you are peculiar, form the habit of holding the normal thought. Say to yourself: “I am not peculiar. These seeming idiosyncrasies are not real. I was made in the image of my Maker, and a Perfect Being could not make imperfections; hence my imperfections cannot be real, as the truth of my being is real. There can be no abnormalities about me unless I produce them in thought, for the Creator never gave them to me. He never gave me a discordant note, because He is harmony.”

      If by holding this thought persistently in your mind you forget what seems abnormal to you, it will soon disappear, and you will regain your confidence just by becoming convinced that you are not much unlike other people.

      Shyness sometimes becomes a disease; but it is a disease of the imagination only, and can be easily overcome by driving the thought of it out of the mind and holding the opposite thought; by just making up your mind that you are not being watched by everybody, that people are too busy about their own selfish aims and ambitions to be watching you.

      Chapter XVII.

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