This quality is usually confused with stubbornness and that fierce dominating desire to ride roughshod over every one who has opposing ideas; the desire to bulldoze, overpower, tyrannize, without regard to whether right or wrong. That kind of man is just as self-willed when shown he is in the wrong as before, and he will not be moved by reason, logic or superior wisdom. He will sacrifice money, friends, home; plunge his family into want, if by so doing he can only have his own way. This attitude of mind is one of ignorance, inelasticity intense selfishness, and one in which determination has no part. It is usually brought about by circumstances controlling the individual, and by the individual living under circumstances which produce a narrow round of duties, of thoughts, or, in other words, a narrow life. Study, travel, intermingling with all classes and kinds of people usually take a great portion of this characteristic away.
Judicial history is full of records of families broken up, children scattered, parents made miserable over some trifle, because neither would give up to the other. This is due to inability to control the passions. Those minds were not governed by determination, a quality which enables one to see the goal over a great barrier of obstacles, which makes difficulties but slight things, keeps the mind off trouble no matter how insistent, brings that condition which never knows when it has been defeated. This condition is never troubled with doubts of success, but, after careful consideration, chooses the course to be pursued and goes straight to the goal. It readily adopts any suggestion better than its own ideas which will enable it to avoid trouble. The determined mind does not rush pell-mell along, does not try to force things; but is content to wait, if waiting will sooner bring results. It avoids obstacles, makes friends, seeks the easiest possible road to the goal, but never loses sight of its purpose.
It is the determined mind which calculates, reasons, seeks ideas, uses those which seem better than its own, and at last lays its plans and cannot be diverted from them. This quality well developed produces the desired result in any line of effort, and a mind endowed with wisdom enough to first choose the best method of endeavor and the highest goal can, with determination, reach that goal.
This quality can be developed by thinking of yourself as persistent in the one aim and purpose; by not allowing others to determine what you shall do; by not mentally ceasing effort when obstacles interfere; by repeating the words either verbally or mentally: "I am determined; I have determination; I shall succeed;" until the quality is developed in the subconscious mind, when it becomes a part of your personality. Then the jaw will grow square, the flesh firm, the look steadfast, mild and even. The body expresses just what the mind holds. Indecision and a lack of vigorous life are evidenced by the loose and drooping lower jaw, the vacant stare and ambling, uncertain gait.
Some people think they art determined when they art only bullheaded.
Concentration
CONCENTRATION is a condition of mind rather than an element, and may be imposed through the thought atmosphere of the parental surroundings; or it may be developed through the action of the individual mind. This state of mind is an essential attribute of success. The biblical wording, "Give no anxious thought to the morrow," embodies in it a perfect state of concentrative power which enables the possessor to give the whole force of his intellect to whatever he may be doing at each particular moment. This enables one to do well whatever is being done, and constantly adds, through the attractive power of the mentality, to the force of personality embodied in that particular individual.
By holding the thought of concentration and by building it up through the methods already outlined, your strength of mind and force of personality will constantly be increased; and, on the contrary, if one lacks the power of holding his thought entirely focused on one subject about which he desires to think, the full power of the mind cannot be given to that subject. It is like trying to do two or three things at once, and, as the mind has ability to do only one thing at a time, it is overwhelmed by any constant strain and does none of the things well.
The Law of Attraction holds good, and, just in that degree in which we lack concentration, we draw more and more to us the elements which tend to increase this deficiency in focalizing. "To him that hath shall be given" simply means that one who has any quality of mind also has the ability to increase that quality; it will grow in him; "and to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath" is the opposite, that is, one loses whatever concentration power he possesses by the force of attraction which constantly adds to the hurrying, scattering condition of mind.
But one says, "How will concentration help me to get a better position?" or another says, "How will it bring business to my store?" Just this way. You are instructed to do a certain thing, say construct an important business letter, which you do as well as you can, but your rattled brain, slurring through it, leaves out some important sentence which afterwards involves the firm in litigation. Do you suppose that you stand as well with them thereafter, that your recommendation will have the same ring as though you had been able to give your best attention to the letter and been able to use your wisdom and foresight in its construction? Would anybody be so apt to seek you for a trusted helper in some big undertaking in the first case as the last? What is here advocated is the difference between success and failure.
Again, have you ever gone into a store to buy and found the clerk preoccupied, mind a thousand miles away, and you have been compelled to ask a question two or three times before getting an answer? Do you diligently seek that clerk the next time or do you go elsewhere? That's the how.
Every family has a thought atmosphere, i.e., qualities of mind such as courage, truth, etc., which form a mental lake, as it were, and all persons coming into its proximity can feel its action upon them. Have you ever been in a household where you felt uncomfortable and was glad to get away; where you did not like to go; felt a repulsion at the suggestion of a visit? This was because you felt the thought atmosphere or mental lake of that family, and it was not as peaceful as your own state of mind and therefore not congenial.
A practical demonstration of this power of concentration is shown by the actor who forgets his audience, his surroundings, everything, and lives in the life of the person he is representing; and not until he has this power can he ever rise to any great height in his profession. So in business. When a man has the power to give his whole mind to the particular idea which he is at that moment entertaining, he will sift it, adjust it, assimilate it, and pick out the true and reject the false, and will benefit himself through his wisdom, which is in a very great degree the product of his power of concentration.
The lack of this quality produces what a third person would call a scatter-brained man or woman. Their thought is incessantly darting here and there, uselessly exhausting the mentality. In fact, the mind can better stand the strain of continued thought on some important, (Important is here used relatively - material subjects are equally important in the thought world; the importance is only in the mind of the thinker) subject for hours at a time than even a few minutes of such exhausting misuse of its powers.
Nervousness is nothing but the lack of concentration, and concentration is only possible to courageous people. In fact, half of the ills the body is heir to are brought on by weakness due to throwing thoughts around at random, as it were; for the body is but an expression of the mind (not brain, mind or soul), and holding your thoughts to one thing at a time, then changing the character by conscious direction of the will, putting no more power into each thought than is necessary to its successful conclusion, enables the mind to gather strength constantly, and this can be plainly felt throughout the body, which becomes more vigorous, elastic, buoyant and healthy. When you are once started on this line your own mind will show the way and lead you on.
Then, again, the concentrative mind is the mind of power in so much as it carries with it the ability to take the thought, examine it, turn it over in mind, then change it from the subject in hand to some other line of thought at pleasure, interest itself in something else and recreate itself.
Constantly dwelling upon any one idea starts the mind to thinking in a circle and, as it continues in this method, it gradually loses all power to get outside of the circle, until at last it may be but one continual round of hate, revenge, jealousy and other deteriorating elements which will act as an effectual bar to success and lead to insanity. There is also the condition of haste and flurry that makes us do foolish things and feel indignant at ourselves afterwards, yet do something equally foolish a little later; wherein we imagine persons above us, in whose presence we smile and smirk and tremble. All that can be avoided by cultivating calmness, which is another name for courage and concentration.
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