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 HILTON, A. B. , L. L. B. 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 1920 COPYRIGHT 1914 BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESS SAN FRANCISCO CONTENTS Chapter I. 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 II. 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 III. 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 IV. 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 V. 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 [Sidenote: _Sticking to the Job_] Are you an unusually persevering and persistent person? Or, like mostof us, do you sometimes find it difficult to stick to the job until itis done? What is your usual experience in this respect? Is it not this, that you work steadily along until of a sudden youbecome conscious of a feeling of weariness, crying "Enough!" for thetime being, and that you then yield to the impulse to stop? [Sidenote: _The Lagging Brain_] Assuming that this is what generally happens, does this feeling offatigue, this impulse to rest, mean that your mental energy isexhausted? Suppose that by a determined effort of the will you force your laggingbrain to take up the thread of work. _There will invariably come a newsupply of energy, a "second wind, " enabling you to forge ahead with afreshness and vigor that is surprising after the previous lassitude. _ Nor is this all. The same process may be repeated a second time and athird time, each new effort of the will being followed by a renewal ofenergy. [Sidenote: _Reserve Supplies of Power_] Many a man will tell you that he does his best work in the wee watchesof the morning, after tedious hours of persevering but fruitlesseffort. Instead of being exhausted by its long hours of persistentendeavor, the mind seems now to rise to the acme of its power, toachieve its supreme accomplishments. Difficulties melt into thin air, profound problems find easy solution. Flights of genius manifestthemselves. Yet long before midnight such a one had perhaps felthimself yield to fatigue and had tied a wet towel around his head orhad taken stimulants to keep himself awake. The existence of this reserve supply of energy is manifested inphysical as well as mental effort. Men who work with their heads and men who work with their hands, scholars and Marathon runners, must alike testify to the existence of_reserve supplies of power not ordinarily drawn upon_. [Sidenote: _"Blue" Mondays_] If we do not always or habitually utilize this reserve power, it issimply because we have accustomed ourselves to yield at once to thefirst strong feeling of fatigue. Evidence of this same fact appears in our feelings on different days. How often does a man get up from his breakfast-table after a longnight's rest, when he should be feeling fresh and invigorated, and sayto himself, "I don't feel like working today. " And it may take himuntil afternoon to get into his workaday stride, if, indeed, hereaches it at all. [Sidenote: _How to Strike One's Stride_] You cannot yourself be immune from the feeling on certain days thatyou are not at your best. Somehow or other, your wits seem befogged. You hesitate to undertake important interviews. Your interest lags. And though crises arise in your business, you feel weighted down andunable to meet them with that shrewd discernment and decisiveness ofaction of which you know yourself capable. But you realize, in your inmost self, that _if you continue to exertthe will and persistently hold yourself to the business in hand, sooner or later you will warm to the work, enthusiasm will come, theclouds will be dispelled, the husks will fly. Yet you have had norest; on the contrary, you have, by continued conscious effort, consumed more and more of your vital energy_. [Sidenote: _The Spur of Desire_] Obviously it was not rest that you needed. What you required was the impulse of some _strong desire_ that shouldcarry you over the threshold of that first inertia into the wide fieldof reserve energy so rarely called upon and so rich in power. Under the lashings of necessity, or the spur of love or ambition, menaccomplish feats of mental and physical endurance of which they wouldhave supposed themselves incapable. Here is what a certain lawyer saysof his early struggles: [Sidenote: _How to Release Stored-Up Energies_] "When I was twenty-three years old, married, and with a family tosupport, I entered the law course of a great university. Of the manystudents in my class, seven, including me, were making a living whilestudying law. "By special arrangement, I was relieved from attendance at lecturesand simply required to pass examinations on the various subjects, andwas thus enabled to retain my place as principal of a large publicschool. During the third and last year of my law course, I wasprincipal of a public day school of two thousand children and analternate night school with an enrolment of seven hundred and fifty, and I worked at the law three nights in the week and all day Sunday. [Sidenote: _The Lawyer Who "Overworks"_] "After eight months of this, the final examinations came around. Theyconsumed a full week--from nine in the morning until five or six atnight. I had no opportunity for review, so I rented a room near thelaw school to save the time going and coming and reviewed each nightthe subjects of examination for the following day. "I did not sleep more than two hours any night in that week. OnThursday, while bolting a bit of luncheon, a fishbone stuck in mythroat. Fearful of losing the result of my year's effort, I returnedto my work, suffering much pain, and kept at it until Saturday night, when the examinations were concluded. The next day the surgeon whoremoved the fishbone said there was no reason why I should not havehad 'a bad case of gangrene. ' "When I look back on that year's work I don't see how I stood it. Idon't see how I kept myself at it, day in, day out, month after monthwithout rest, recreation or relief. I am sure I could never go throughit again, even if I had the courage to undertake it. "I ranked second in a class of one hundred and eighty in my lawexaminations, won the second prize for the best graduating thesis, received a complimentary vote for class oratorship, and much to mysurprise was soon after offered an assistant superintendency of thepublic schools by the school board, who knew nothing of my studies andthought my work as a teacher worthy of promotion. "It was not only the hardest year's work but the best year's work Iever did. _It exemplifies my invariable experience that the more wewant to do the more we can do and the better we can do it. _" [Sidenote: _Excitement and the Hero_] The following is an extract from a letter quoted by Professor James aswritten by Colonel Baird-Smith after the siege of Delhi in 1857, tothe success of which he largely contributed: "My poor wife had some reason to think that war and disease, betweenthem, had left very little of a husband to take under nursing when shegot him again. An attack of scurvy had filled my mouth with sores, shaken every joint in my body and covered me all over with scars andlivid spots, so that I was unlovely to look upon. A smart knock on theankle joint from the splinter of a shell that burst in my face, initself a mere bagatelle of a wound, had been of necessity neglectedunder the pressing and insistent calls upon me, and had grown worseand worse until the whole foot below the ankle became a black mass andseemed to threaten mortification. I insisted, however, on beingallowed to use it until the place was taken, mortification or no; andthough the pain was sometimes horrible I carried my point and kept upto the last. "On the day after the assault I had an unlucky fall on some badground, and it was an open question for a day or two whether I hadn'tbroken my arm at the elbow. Fortunately it turned out to be only asevere sprain, but I am still conscious of the wrench it gave me. Tocrown the whole pleasant catalogue, I was worn to a shadow by aconstant diarrhoea and consumed as much opium as would have donecredit to my father-in-law (Thomas De Quincey). "However, thank God, I have a good share of Tapleyism in me and comeout strong under difficulties. I think I may confidently say that noman ever saw me out of heart or ever heard a complaining word from meeven when our prospects were gloomiest. We were sadly crippled bycholera, and it was almost appalling to me to find that out oftwenty-seven officers I could only muster fifteen for the operationsof the attack. However, it was done, --and after it was done came thecollapse. [Sidenote: _Enduring Power of Mind_] "Don't be horrified when I tell you that for the whole of the actualsiege, and in truth for some little time before, I almost lived onbrandy. Appetite for food I had none, but I forced myself to eat justsufficient to sustain life, and I had an incessant craving for brandy, as the strongest stimulant I could get. Strange to say, I was quiteunconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree. "_The excitement of the work was so great that no lesser one seemed tohave any chance against it, and I certainly never found my intellectclearer or my nerves stronger in my life. _" Such is the profound resourcefulness and enduring power of the humanmind. CHAPTER II RESERVES OF POWER [Sidenote: _Man's Potential and Kinetic Energies_] Stored-up energy not in use has been given a name by scientific men. They call it _potential energy_. In this way it is distinguished from_kinetic_ or circulating energy by which is meant energy that is atwork. For example, a ton of coal in the bin contains a certain amountof potential energy, which is capable of being converted into kineticenergy by combustion. [Sidenote: _Holding the Top Pace_] You have a vast amount of potential energy over and above what youactually use. You have formed the habit of giving up trying a thing assoon as you have spent the usual amount of effort on it, and thiswithout regard to whether or not you have accomplished anything. While we all have the power of sustained mental activity, not one inten thousand of us holds to the top pace. Worse still, even such mental energy as we do consume is dispersed andscattered over a multitude of trivial interests instead of beingfocused upon some one possessing aim. _We intend to show you how you can lose yourself in your work with anabsorbing passion and how you can at any time make special requisitionupon your hidden stores of potential energy and draw new supplies ofpower that will sweep you on to your goal. _ [Sidenote: _Genius and the Master Man_] More than anything else, it is the ability to do this that lifts thegreat men of the race above the common run of mortals. It is this that distinguishes genius from mediocrity. The master mantransforms his vast stores of reserve or potential energy intocirculating or kinetic energy. His work glows with living fire. Yet, for every such man there are a multitude of others, equallygifted in some respect, but wanting that mysterious "Open Sesame"which would discover their hidden mental riches, arouse them fromtheir accustomed inferiority to their best selves, and transformpotentiality into accomplishment. So it comes about that most of usare gems that shine but to illumine the "dark unfathomed caves ofocean, " flowers born to "blush unseen. " [Sidenote: _Mental Effect of City Life_] Take an illustration of the way in which this reserve or potentialenergy is transformed into circulating or kinetic energy. Suppose thatyou are a countryman and come to live in a large city. The speed withwhich we do things, our habits of quick decision, the whirlwind ofactivities of the busy man in town, appal you. You cannot see how welive through it. A day in the business district fills you with terror. The tumult and danger make it seem "like a permanent earthquake. " But settle down to work here. And in a year you will have "caught thepulse beat, " you will "vibrate to the city's rhythm, " and if you only"make good" in your work, you will enjoy the strain and hurry, youwill keep pace with the best of us, and you will get more out ofyourself in a day in the city than you ever did in a week on the farm. _This change in degree of mental activity does not necessarily meanthat you are making more of a success of life. _ Your activities may be ill-directed. Your new-found powers may bemisspent and dissipated. But you are mentally more alert Your mental forces have beenstimulated by the stirring environment. [Sidenote: _New-Found Energies Explained_] And, mark this particularly, _a number of mental pictures will passacross the screen of your consciousness today in the same time thatone mental image formerly required. _ _Now, you have learned that with every idea catalogued in memory, there is wrapped up and stowed away an associated "feeling tone" andan associated impulse to some particular muscular action. _ Assuming this, you must at once see that here is an explanation ofyour new-found energy. Your quickened step, your new-found decisiveness of action, your moreobservant eye, your clear-cut speech instead of the former drawlingutterance, your livelier manner, your freshened enthusiasm andenjoyment of life--all of these are but manifestations of a quickenedintelligence. [Sidenote: _Quickened Mentality_] _They are the working out through the motor paths of mental impulsesto muscular action. _ And these impulses to muscular action come thronging intoconsciousness _because the livelier environment brings about a morerapid reproduction of memory pictures_. And here comes a particularly striking fact. One would naturallysuppose that the more energy a man consumed, and the faster he lived, the more quickly his vitality would be exhausted and the shorter hislife would be. As a matter of fact, by the divine beneficence of Providence, _yourorganism is so ordered as to adapt itself within certain wide limitsto the demands made upon it_. [Sidenote: _Fast Living and Long Living_] You may call into play all the stored-up resources of your being andstill not stake everything upon a single throw. For the supply ofmental energy is as inexhaustible as the reservoir of all pastexperience, while the supply of physical energy involved in brain andnerve activity is, like the immortal liver of Prometheus, renewed asfast as depleted. Two sets of facts that have been established by elaborate scientificexperiment will convince you of the truth of these propositions. [Sidenote: _Professor Patrick's Experiments_] Professor Patrick, of the State University of Iowa, conducted some ofthese experiments. He caused three young men to remain awake for foursuccessive days and nights. They were then allowed to go to sleep, thepurpose of the experiment being to determine just how much time Naturerequired to recuperate from the long vigil. They were allowed to sleepthemselves out, and all woke up thoroughly rested. _Yet the one whoslept the longest slept only one-third longer than his customarynight's sleep. _ You have doubtless had the same experience yourself many times. It allgoes to show that if we are awake four times as long as usual, we donot make up for it by sleeping four times as _long_, but four times as_soundly_, as customary. The hard-working mechanic requires no morehours of sleep than the corner loafer, the active man of affairs nomore than the dawdler. [Sidenote: _Ratio Between Repair and Demand_] _The time of tissue repair is about the same with all men under allconditions. It is the rate of repair that varies with the demand thathas been put upon the body. _ Again, look at the same subject from the standpoint of food supply. Onwhat you now eat and drink you have a certain average weight. Eat, digest and assimilate a larger quantity of food and your weight willincrease. This increase will be greatest at the start and willgradually slow up until you shall have reached the point beyond whichyou can gain no more. Given the same hygienic conditions that you havebeen accustomed to, you will maintain yourself at the increased weighton the increased supply of food. [Sidenote: _Pygmies and Giants_] Now, all this involves clearly enough a greatly increased rate ofactivity on the part of the bodily organs of assimilation and repair. It is a situation on all fours with that of the countryman whose rateof brain activity has been stimulated by an increased mental demand. No man will maintain that better, more nourishing and more liberalfood rations, transformed into increased bodily tissue, with aconsequent greater weight and greater muscular strength, would resultin a loss of vitality or the shortening of a man's life. [Sidenote: _Transforming Inertness into Alertness_] Pygmies cannot become giants physically or intellectually. But as thepuny youth can by systematic exercise broaden his frame and develophis muscles into at least a semblance of the athlete, and can thenthrough his healthier appetite _and his faster rate of repair_maintain himself without effort at the new standard; _so can thementally inert call forth their reserves of energy and maintain ahigher standard of activity and fruitfulness_. Few men live on the plane of their highest efficiency. Few search therecesses of the well-springs of power. The lives of most of us arepassed among the shallows of the mind without thought of thepossibilities that lurk within the deeper pools. [Sidenote: _How the Mind Accumulates Energy_] This accumulation of potential subconscious reserve energy is a resultof the evolution of man and the growing complexity of his life. No man could, if he would, respond to all the impulses to muscularaction aroused in him by sense-impressions. It would be still lesspossible for him to respond to every impulse to muscular actionawakened from the past with the remembered thought with which it isassociated. Desire, interest, attention and the selective will must pick andchoose among these multitudinous tendencies to action. Here, then, is another fact that has immediate bearing upon yourability to carry out any ambition you may have. Your every action isthe net result of selection among a number of impulses and inhibitoryforces or tendencies. [Sidenote: _The Threshold of Inhibition_] As a general thing, consciousness is made up of a number ofconflicting ideas, each with its associated feeling and its impulse toaction. Just what you do in any particular case depends upon whatmental picture is strongest, is most vivid in consciousness, and thusable to overcome all contrary tendencies. As life becomes more and more complex, the number and variety of oursensory experiences increase correspondingly. And so it comes about, that _we have untold millions of sensory experiences, carrying withthem the impulses to muscular response, none of which, on account ofthe multiplicity of conflicting ideas, is ever allowed to find releaseand actually take form in muscular activity_. [Sidenote: _Hidden Strength_] The consequence is that only an exceedingly small proportion of themental energy that is developed within us is ever actually displayed. _The rest is somehow and somewhere locked up behind the inhibitorythreshold. _ It is stored away in _subconsciousness_ with the sensoryexperiences of the past with which it is associated. [Sidenote: _Giving a Man Scope_] Quoting Mr. Waldo P. Warren: "Much of the strength within men ishidden, awaiting an occasion to reveal it. The head of a department ina great manufacturing concern severed his connection with the firm, his work falling upon a young man of twenty-five years. The young manrose to the occasion, and in a very short time was conceded to be thestronger executive of the two. He had been with the concern forseveral years, and was regarded as a bright fellow, but his markedsuccess was a surprise to all who knew him--even to himself. "The fact is, the young man had that ability all the time and didn'tknow it; and his employers didn't know it. He might have been doinggreater things all along if there had been the occasion to reveal hisstrength. "Do you employers and superior officers in business realize how muchof this hidden strength there is in your men? Perhaps a word from you, giving certain men more scope, would liberate that ability for thedevelopment of both your business and your men. "Do you workers know your own strength? Are you working up to yourcapacity? Or are you accepting the limits which the circumstancesplace about you?" CHAPTER III THE INITIATIVE ENERGY OF SUCCESS [Sidenote: _Sources of Persistence_] In such instances as we have recounted, men have found that persistenteffort along certain lines has had the effect of making presentlyavailable what would otherwise be simply unused storage batteries ofreserve power. What was the source and inspiration for this persistenteffort? You will say that it was ambition or patriotism or some similarsemi-emotional influence. And so it was. But what is ambition, what ispatriotism, _what is any desire but a picturing to the mind's eye ofthe things desired, an awakening of a mental image_ of the result tobe attained, the reward that is to follow certain efforts? And thesemental pictures coming into consciousness have brought with them theirassociated emotions and their associated impulses to muscular action, impulses appropriate to the picture _and automatically tending to workits realization_. These impulses constitute the whole of man's achieving power. They arethe Initiative Energy of all Success. [Sidenote: _Importance of the Mental Setting_] When you are afflicted with doubt and fear, timidity and lack ofconfidence, this means that your mental inhibitions are too numerous, too high or too strong. Remove them and access is had to the latentenergy of accumulated and creative thought complexes. You will thenbecome buoyant, cheerful, overflowing with enthusiasm, and ready for afresh, definite, active part in life. _Ideas, then, when latent, may be considered as possessing anenergizing influence_. The same idea does not necessarily have the same effect upon the samepersons at different times. What its effect may be at any time or withany individual depends upon the make-up of the consciousness in whichit finds itself. [Sidenote: _Ideas All Men Respond to_] The setting of consciousness may be entirely different upon thepresent appearance of the particular idea from what it was on theoccasion when this same idea last appeared. Yesterday there may havebeen present no conflicting tendencies, and this particular idea maytherefore have been allowed free and joyous expression. Today otherthoughts may be in the ascendency so that we look upon the idea ofyesterday with a feeling of revulsion. The thought that aroused new energy in you yesterday may then sickenyou at your task today. The thought that stirs the soul of a vigorousman may shock the sensibilities of a delicate woman. [Sidenote: _How to Exalt the Personality_] Yet there are some ideas to which all men in varying degrees seemalike to respond. How often in battle have the failing spirits of anarmy been revived by the appearance of the leader shouting hisbattle-cry and waving his shining sword! How often have men beenroused to heights of heroic achievement by the strains of martialmusic! How often have troops spent with exhaustion responded to thecall of such simple phrases as "The Flag, " "Our Country, " "Liberty, "or such songs as "The Marseillaise, " "God Save the King, " "Dixie"!These phrases are but the signs of ideas, yet the sounding of thesephrases has summoned these ideas into consciousness, and the summoningof these ideas into consciousness has placed undreamed-of andimmeasurable foot-pounds of energy on the hair-trigger of action. [Sidenote: _"Good Starters" and "Strong Finishers"_] And so it is with you. Down deep in the inmost chambers of your soulare untouched stores of energy that properly applied will exalt yourpersonality and illumine your career. But to find and claim these hidden riches you must persevere. You mustendure. In a Marathon race it is endurance that wins. The graceful sprinterwho is off with a leap at the bark of the pistol soon falls by thewayside. Life is a Marathon in which persistence triumphs. There are many "good starters, " but few "strong finishers. " That iswhy the failures so outnumber the successes. [Sidenote: _Steps in Self-Development_] The man who travels fastest does more than he is told to do. To merelycomply with a fixed routine is to fall short of one's duty. Theprogressive man adds to the work of today his preparation for the workof tomorrow. He delights in attempting more and more difficult tasks, because in every task he sets himself he sees a step forward in thedevelopment of his own abilities. He loves his work more than he loveshis pay, and he delves deeper than the exigencies of the momentrequire, because he craves the power to do more. Most men start with enthusiasm. No hours are too long, no task toodifficult. But soon they tire. And lacking will-power to persist, theysuccumb to the lure of distracting interests. They become disheartenedand indifferent. And so they fail. [Sidenote: _Saving a Thousand a Year_] A young man married. He was proprietor of a flourishing "general"store in Princeton, Indiana. He and his bride forthwith resolved thatthey could and would lay aside out of their income a thousand dollarsa year for ten years, by which time they would have ten thousanddollars and accumulated interest and could go into business in a bigcity. At the end of the first year, when they took stock of theirsavings, they decided that thereafter, instead of trying to save athousand dollars a year for ten years, they would undertake to saveten dollars a year for a thousand years and would be more apt tosucceed. Today they are just where they began. You all know such men--men who are always starting and neverfinishing. [Sidenote: _Looking for a "Soft Snap"_] Ninety-five per cent of the men who go into business are "quitters. "The very first disappointment sends them scurrying to cover. Theybegin to look for a "soft snap" away from the firing line. Is it anywonder that so few reach any great success? That there is an enormous lack of appropriation of energy in mostmen's lives is an undoubted fact. Just where this energy is stored, and just what its eternal significance may be, is immaterial to ourpurpose. It may be that this reserve is Nature's safeguard against ourextravagance. It may be, as some philosophers contend, that the subconscious, withits vast stores of energy, is a higher, more spiritual phase of man. [Sidenote: _Drawing Power from on High_] It may be that the subconscious is for each one of us his individualsegment of the Divine Essence--that it marks our "at-one-ment" withGod. It may be that to evoke these latent energies is to call upon thoseresources of our being which are the embodiment within us of thespirit of the Creator of all things. It may be that this Divine Essence, if adequately aroused, may exertan absolute transcendence over material things and lift humanity to aGod-like plane. "What we call man, " wrote Emerson, "the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, butmisrepresents himself. Him we do not respect; but the real soul whoseorgan he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make ourknees bend. " "I said, ye are gods, " quoth the Psalmist. "Be yeperfect, even as your Father, " was the injunction of the Master. Whatever the eternal significance of your latent energy may be, thefact remains that it is yours, and yours to use. If you are to succeed, if you are to do big things, you must be a manof "doggedness. " You must keep your eyes trained everlastingly uponthe vision of the thing you want. You must stay in the race until youget your "second wind. " You must be master of yourself and draw freelyon your stored-up powers. [Sidenote: _The Man Who Lasts_] Do as we shall tell you in this _Course_ and you will become a masterman, the kind of man who "lasts, " the kind of man who works hisimagination overtime, the kind of man who can strain his energies tothe utmost and then, finding himself still a failure, can rise "likethe glow of the sun" to do bolder and bigger things--the kind of manwho wins. CHAPTER IV HOW TO AVOID WASTES THAT DRAIN THE ENERGY OF SUCCESS [Sidenote: _Speeding the Bullet Without Aiming_] We have shown you that you have within you the potentialities ofsuccess in the form of latent mental energy. We have shown you thatyour ability to achieve depends upon your ability to utilize to thefull your underground mental resources. But success demands that you do more than merely use all your mentalenergies. You must use them intelligently. [Sidenote: _Why Most Men Fail_] Most men fail because they speed the bullet without aiming. They fireat random, and so bag no game. Your pent-up mental energy is the powder in the cartridge. Itsusefulness depends upon the man behind the gun. _To succeed in business you must intelligently control and direct_(1) _your own mental energies_, (2) _the mental energies of others. _ The course of the average man through life is an aimless zigzag. Ithas neither direction nor purpose. It represents wasted energycapriciously expended. Mental energy is like water: it has a tendency to scatter. It isdiffusive. It seeks release in a thousand different directions at thesame time. As a boy, first learning to write, you were unable to prevent thesimultaneous squirming of tongue and legs, all ludicrously irrelevantto your purpose of writing. So now, as a business man, unless you havelearned the secret of self-mastery, you are unable to concentrate yourefforts, your attention is easily distracted, you exhaust yourself indisplays of passion, you are forever doing things during businesshours that have no relation to your business, you are forever doingthings in connection with your business that do not contribute to itsprogress, you expend just as much energy as the accomplished executiveor the successful "hustler, " but you fritter it away in unprofitableactivities. [Sidenote: _The Successful Promoter_] To correct this is to gain mastery and power. Concentrate your mental energies on one thing at a time. Stopspreading them around. The promoter may have a dozen big enterprisesunder way at once, but he takes them up one at a time. He transfershis whole mind and thought from one to the next. You cannot of coursebe eternally doing the same thing; but make no mistake about it, theonly way to succeed at anything is to consciously control your mentalenergies. You may throw them now into this attack, now into another;but you must always have a tight grip on yourself, or you cannotsucceed. [Sidenote: _The Human Dynamo_] You will often hear some "live-wire" business man spoken of as a"human dynamo. " He has the faculty of turning out a stupendous amountof work in a comparatively short time. How he can carry in his mindthe details of so many large projects, how he can accomplish so muchin actual, tangible results in many directions, how he can pull thestrings of so many enterprises without getting lost in the maze ofdetail, is the marvel of his associates. And yet this man is never"hurried, nor flurried, nor worried. " But every word and every act isstraight to the point and productive of results worth while. [Sidenote: _Cool Brains and Hot Boxes_] "A cool brain is the reverse of a hot box. It carries the business ofthe day along with a steady drive, and is invariably the mark of thebig man. The man who dispatches his work quietly, promptly andefficiently, with no trace of fuss and flurry, is a big man. It is notthe hurrying, clattering and chattering individual who turns off themost work. He may imagine he is getting over a lot of track, but hewastes far more than the necessary amount of steam in doing it. Thefable of the hare and the tortoise would not be a bad primer for anumber of us, and the lesson relearned would not only be beneficial ina business-producing way, but it would help us in the full enjoymentof our work. " [Sidenote: _Marvelous Increased Efficiency Handling "Pig"_] Progress in mental efficiency must result from the application ofknowledge of the mental machine. Just as we watch the steam-engine andthe electric motor to see that they are not "overloaded, " so we mustwatch the mental machine, that no more power be turned on than can beprofitably employed. This principle has already been applied to physical labor by Mr. Frederick W. Taylor in his ground-breaking studies in "scientificmanagement. " Mr. Taylor's celebrated experiments in the handling ofpig-iron, by which the quantity handled in a day by one man wasincreased from twelve and one-half tons to forty-seven and one-halftons, "showed that a man engaged in such extremely heavy work couldonly be under load forty-three per cent of the working day, and mustbe entirely free from load for fifty-seven per cent, to attain themaximum efficiency. " [Sidenote: _"Overloaded" Human Engines_] There is no reason why efficiency in mental effort should not begauged just as accurately as in muscular activity. If there are timeswhen your wits are not as keen, when you have not the same grasp offundamentals, as at other times, it is because you are mentally"overloaded. " It may be the result of a great variety of causes. Itmay be from too many hours of continuous mental effort. But theprobabilities are that it is the result of vexation, worry, dissipation, or allowing the mind to be burdened with the strain ofvicious, or at least irrelevant and distracting, impulses and desires. And so efficiency is lost. [Sidenote: _Scientific Management of Self_] The "human dynamo" is a man who long ago learned the lesson ofscientific management of his own mental forces. He does one thing at atime, and does it the best he knows how. He directs the whole power ofhis mentality to the one problem and solves it with accuracy anddispatch. There is no more of a "load" on his "gray matter" than thereis on that of the fretting, fuming, finger-biting fritterer, but everypound of steam is spent in useful work. Look at the victim of St. Vitus' dance. There you have an illustrationof wasted energy. And it is mental energy, for every muscular movementrepresents the release of thought power. The mental lives of most menare equally aimless. They are lives of ceaseless activity producingnothing. [Sidenote: _Psychological Causes of Waste_] Sometimes it happens that a man is not working to advantage because ofsome defect in his physical make-up. He may have defective vision orsome peculiarity of hearing that renders him unable to respond asquickly as he should to the demands made upon him. If these defectsare ascertained, it is usually a simple matter to correct the defectsby mechanical means or readjust the relative duties of differentpersons so that the defects will be minimized. [Sidenote: _Tests for Sensory Defects_] Where large numbers of people are employed, it is comparatively easyto use tests for discovering defects of sight or hearing by simpleapparatus without requiring the services of a high-priced expert. Byadopting these test methods any manager of a large industrialestablishment can satisfy himself whether his employees are up tocertain normal standards. He can even apply the tests to himself. Optical tests can be conducted by securing an ordinary letter chartsuch as is used by oculists and opticians. Seat the subject twentyfeet away. If he can read all the lines of letters from the largestdown to the smallest his eyesight is practically perfect. In a largepercentage of cases the smaller lines of type are blurred andinvisible. To detect the cause and degree of defects of the eyes it isnecessary to try out the eyes by using a trial spectacle frame andinserting detached lenses before the right eye and the left eyealternately. One of the most common forms of defective vision isastigmatism. A chart has been designed with a series of circles andstraight lines radiating from the center. If the subject is astigmatiche will see some of the straight lines distinctly while others will beblurred. For instance, one or two of the vertical lines may appearvery black and strong while all others will look like a hazy network. This defect, due to unevenness of the spherical surface of theeyeball, is easily corrected with properly ground glasses. Defects in hearing can be easily determined by means of an"acoumeter. " This little instrument measures the acuteness of thehearing very accurately by means of shot dropped from varying heightsupon strips of glass, copper and cardboard. Tests with this deviceindicate whether the subject's hearing is above or below normal. [Sidenote: _Mental Friction and Inner Whirlwinds_] _Stop wasting your energy. _ Heretofore you have used your powers in a more or less haphazard way, with a vast amount of waste and no efficient direction. From now onyou are to exercise more intelligence in this respect and make allyour energies contribute to your business progress and your personalsuccess. You are losing power in fruitless outward activities. You are losing power in the thinking of useless thoughts. You cannotstop the ceaseless activity of the mind. But you can conserve itsforces by directing them into channels that are worth while. You are losing power in a turmoil of inward mental strains andinharmonies. Catch yourself at some moment when you are forging aheadin a crowded day's work. You will then see what an inner whirlwind ofexcitement is in progress, what stresses and strains are at work, whatcontrary impulses, what frictions and obstacles are being overcome. Now, to the engineer every one of these words--friction, obstacle, strain--spells loss of efficiency, and in this _Course_ we shall teachyou how you may do away with antagonistic impulses, may bring yourcombined mental forces to bear upon the common enemy, and may hurlyourself into the struggles of business and practical life with ajoyful and headlong impetuosity that no obstacle can withstand. [Sidenote: _Prominent Traits of Great Achievers_] Professor Walter Dill Scott, of Northwestern University, has said: "Instudying the lives of contemporary business men, two facts stand outpre-eminently. The first is that their labors have brought aboutresults that to most of us would have seemed impossible. Such menappear as giants in comparison with whom ordinary men sink to the sizeof pygmies. The second fact, which a study of successful business men(or any class of successful men) reveals, is that they never seemrushed for time. "Such men have time to devote to objects in no way connected withtheir business. It cannot be regarded as accidental that thischaracteristic of mind is found so commonly among successful menduring the years of their most fruitful labor. According to theAmerican ideal, the man who is sure to succeed is the one who iscontinuously 'keyed up to concert pitch'--who is ever alert and isalways giving attention to his business or profession. " And again: "It is not necessarily true that the greatest and mostconstant display of energy accompanies the greatest presence ofenergy. The tug-boat on the river is constantly blowing off steam andmaking a tremendous display of energy, while the ocean liner proceedson its way without noise and without commotion. The man who frets andfumes, who is nervous and excited, is strung up to such a pitch thatenergy is being dissipated in all directions. " Many business men know they are going at a pace that kills, and at thesame time they feel that they are accomplishing too little. For suchthe pertinent question is, How may I reduce the expenditure of energywithout reducing the efficiency of my labor? One of the busiest and most efficient men in England is quoted ashaving explained his own accomplishment of big results with the leastexpenditure of effort: "By organizing myself to run smoothly, as wellas my business; by schooling myself to keep cool, and to do what Ihave to do without expending more nervous energy on the task than isnecessary; by avoiding all needless friction. In consequence, when Ifinish my day's work, I feel nearly as fresh as when I started. " [Sidenote: _Why a Man Breaks Down_] The late Professor James, of Harvard University, often referred to asthe founder of modern psychology, spoke thus disparagingly ofuntrained effort: "Your convulsive worker breaks down and has badmoods so often that you never know where he may be when you most needhis help, --he may be having one of his 'bad days. ' We say that so manyof our fellow-countrymen collapse and have to be sent abroad to resttheir nerves, because they work so hard. I suspect that this is animmense mistake, I suspect that neither the nature nor the amount ofour work is accountable for the frequency and the severity of ourbreakdowns, but that their cause lies rather in those absurd feelingsof hurry and having no time, in the breathlessness and tension, thatanxiety of feature and solicitude for results, that lack of innerharmony and ease, in short, by which with us the work is apt to beaccompanied. " [Sidenote: _How to Economize Effort_] The fact is that to be a truly busy man you must be never in a hurry. You must work systematically. You must economize effort. You mustpermit no distractions and do your work leisurely. You must take timeto think things over in a natural way. You must waste no thoughts inbusiness hours on social or pleasurable pursuits that would dissipateyour mental capital. You must work when you work, and you may playwhen you play, but your business must be the most fascinating of gamesand the only one you play during business hours. [Sidenote: _How Your Mental Capital is Dissipated_] Another thing you need is _poise_. One trouble with you now is thatyou waste your priceless powers in useless anxiety. The minute business falls off you begin to worry. You fritter yourmental energies in fretting until you are incapable of real thought, and being unable to think your way out you get excited. Remember it is all just a game, and you are in it only for the fun ofthe thing. You will never win out if you persist in tearing your hair. Before he crossed the Rubicon Julius Cæsar was staggered at thegreatness of the undertaking before him. The more he reflected andtook counsel of his friends, the greater loomed the difficulties ofthe attempt and the more appalling the calamities his passage of thatriver would bring upon the Roman world. But when at last with the cry, "The die is cast!" he plunged into the river, there was an end for himto mental dissension, a freedom to plan and execute, an expansion ofcourage and power. [Sidenote: _Conquering Indecision_] So it will be with you. With doubt and uncertainty the pressure may behigh in the gauge, but the engine does not move. Make up your mind, and you release energies previously wasted in conflicts betweenopposing thought complexes struggling for supremacy. [Sidenote: _Why "Christian Science" Works_] A fine illustration of this is shown in the religious experience knownas conversion. To the convert, conversion means the profoundacceptance of a mighty spiritual truth. It means positive knowledgetaking the place of doubt or indifference. Conflicting ideas are nolonger present in his consciousness. Pent-up energies are released. Hewants to do things. His soul is fired with overmastering impulses toaction. He wants to go forth and preach the gospel of his faith. He islifted to a high plane of exhilaration. He experiences the "peace thatpasseth understanding. " "Christian Science, " "Truth, " "The New Thought, " and similar movementsall achieve their really marvelous results in much the same way. Allproclaim doctrines of exuberant optimism, having a tendency to banishfear-thoughts and self-consciousness and self-depreciation, and to setup in their stead ideas of courage and of achievement and ofindividual power. If these teachings are successful--that is to say, if they inherently possess the right appeal for the particularindividual--they have the happy effect of begetting a stoicalindifference to petty physical disorders and social vexations andbringing about a concentration upon the main business of life of themental energies thus previously wasted. [Sidenote: _How to Release Pent-Up Power_] Decide the matter that is troubling you. Make an end of hesitation anduncertainty and fear. Your very act of decision will release largestores of pent-up mental power and add immeasurably to youreffectiveness. So long as you are in doubt and perplexity conflicting ideas andimpulses balance each other. You are not then a man of action; you area wavering coward. You are afflicted with paralysis of will and mentalstagnation. _Decide_ the matter--that is to say, _let one mental picture assume agreater vividness than the other until it possesses your soul--andforthwith the banked fires of your mental energy will burst intoflame_. Another thing: _Stop wasting your time_. How much time do you spend in rest and relaxation? How much shouldyou spend? Can you answer these questions accurately? [Sidenote: _Proper Ratio Between Work and Rest_] Thomas A. Edison has contended for years that four hours' sleep a daywas sufficient for any man. He has conducted experiments with a largenumber of men, giving careful attention to matters of diet andexercise, and the results have seemed in a measure to support histheory. Dr. Fred W. Eastman reports that owing to pressure of work he wasrecently unable to get more than three or four hours' sleep out of thetwenty-four during a period of many months, and that so far from beinghurt by it he gained five pounds. He says: "If restoration duringsleep is a task so relatively small, the question arises whether, inorder to complete restoration, it is necessary for us to spend so muchtime in sleep as we do. Perhaps on account of popular opinion andpersonal habit, we waste much time in this jelly-fish condition thatcould more profitably be spent in active pursuit of our ambitions. Theanswer, of course, depends upon the nature of our occupations. Ifthere is muscular effort involved, with a correspondingly large amountof waste in the cells and blood, eight hours or more are probablynecessary. But if the work is of a sedentary nature, and mainly of thebrain, there is naturally a smaller quantity of accumulated waste, andless time is required for removal. Many are the instances of greatmen, past and present, who have lived healthily and workedunceasingly and strenuously on only four or five hours of sleep, orhalf the laborer's portion. Surely we do not suppose that these menwere or are physically different from others, but rather that byinclination or necessity they have developed a habit of sleepingintensely for a short period, with resulting gain of time andefficiency. " [Sidenote: _Determining Your Norm of Efficiency_] So far as this matter of relaxation, rest and sleep is concerned, therule to follow is obviously this: _Determine accurately by experimentthe proper relation between periods of work and periods of rest inyour own case, then increase your efficiency by maintaining thisrelation_. In Denmark they feed cows scientifically. Day by day they increasethe allowance of milk-producing food. Day by day the yield of milkincreases. At last there comes a day when measurement shows that thereis no longer any increase in the production of milk. They thendecrease the food till the output of milk diminishes. So theydetermine the normal. So with you and your hours of work and leisure. Give more and moretime to your business each day until there comes an impairment in thequality of your work. Stop short of this. You have found your norm ofefficiency. CHAPTER V THE SECRET OF MENTAL EFFICIENCY [Sidenote: Where Energy Is Stored] You are called upon to master and conserve the innate energies of yourmind. This means that you must (1) find out where these energies arestored, and (2) learn the conditions that determine their activity. _All past experiences are conserved within us in the form ofcomplexes. These complexes consist of ideas, emotions and impulses tomuscular activity. By the primary law of association the recall toconsciousness of any one of these component elements of a complexbrings with it all the rest_. [Sidenote: _Bodily Effects of Ideas_] For example, the ideas pertaining to any terrifying experience, whenrecalled to consciousness, bring with them the trembling, the wildlybeating heart, the shaking knees, with which they were originallyaccompanied. The victim of stage-fright feels his knees give way andthat he is sinking to the floor; his heart beats tumultuously, coldperspiration covers his body, he blushes, his mouth is dry, and hisvoice sticks in his throat. Afterwards, alone in his own room, thememory of that dreadful moment, the thought of another appearancebefore that audience, will be accompanied by the same physiologicaleffects. [Sidenote: _Impulses and Inhibitions_] Every such bodily movement is an expression of energy. The recall toconsciousness of the terrifying experience, the recall of the pictureof the assembled audience, these things automatically produce bodilyactivities. So we must conclude that _Every idea in memory hasassociated with it the potential energy necessary for the productionof muscular movement_. It does not necessarily follow that the recall to consciousness of agiven idea will be invariably followed by an outwardly visiblemuscular activity expressive of its energy. Just as the mere presenceof an idea in consciousness tends to bring about a movement, so _thepresence of a contrary idea will tend to inhibit it_. Try to imagine that you are bending your forefinger. At the same timehold it straight. Your finger will actually tremble with the dammed-upenergy of the repressed impulse. But the finger will not actuallymove, because the idea of its not moving is just as much a part ofyour consciousness as the idea of its moving. Put out of yourconsciousness this thought of the finger's not moving, and forthwiththe finger will bend. Your conduct during your waking hours is thus always the result ofopposing forces, _some tending in one direction, others tending tocounteract the first. _ Thus there comes about a great waste of mentalpower and an appalling loss of individual efficiency. [Sidenote: _Training for Mental "Team-Work"_] In the language of sport, you are suffering from a lack of mental"team work. " The effect is the same as if the members of a footballteam, instead of combining their forces against the opposing side, should spend their time in restraining one another. It requires but one step, and not a difficult one at that, to lead youto the conclusion that the solution of this problem lies in having inconsciousness at any one moment only such ideas as harmonize. Let thatcondition prevail, and the potential energies of all ideas inconsciousness must flow together in a broad stream of useful andexhilarating activity. [Sidenote: _Rust and the "Daily Grind"_] Your work should be a source of pleasure to you. If it is simply adisagreeable task that has to be performed, if it is a "daily grind, "if you have to hold yourself to it by unremitting effort of the will, you are no better than a rusty engine, and all your workings will beaccompanied by jars, frictions, and complaining squeaks that bespeak apositively wicked loss of power. Hold the right thoughts persistently in mind, and you cannot helpworking steadily on toward the goal you are thinking of. Keep steadilyat work with the right thoughts persistently in mind and success issure to come. _Success, then, lies in the concentration of mental energies. And thisconcentration is to be brought about by holding in consciousness onlythose ideas that harmonize_. [Sidenote: _Ideas That Harmonize_] There must be the greatest discrimination and care used in theselection of these ideas that are to constitute such a co-ordinatingconsciousness. There must be a "re-imaging" or imagination in aliteral and practical sense of those ideas only that carry with themimpulses to motion in the same general direction. You must have a setpurpose in life, and you must yield your powers without hindrance andwithout reservation to the accomplishment of that set purpose. [Sidenote: _Five Rules for Conserving Energy_] I. _You must exercise deliberate, patient and persistent watchfulnessto detect and repress all useless bodily movements_. You have allsorts of silly habits, twitchings, jerkings, itchings, winkings, shrugs, frowns, coughs, snifflings and odd and meaningless gestures. Watch yourself. Do these things no more. Save your eyes and ears andhands and nerves, all your mental energy, for useful effort. II. _You must give yourself, mind and body, to one thing at a time, disregarding all that would lure you from your chosen task_. III. _You must acquire a self-conscious sense of your ownself-mastery. _ It will help you to acquire this feeling if you willcontinually assert, "I can and will accomplish anything that I amdetermined upon! I have the power of will! I will accomplish thisthing! I will!" Make these assertions with all the force and intensityof your whole being until you are pervaded with a sense of your ownpower. Do this faithfully, and in time this courageous and manlyattitude will become an inherent part of your personality. IV. _You must have confidence. _ And when we say confidence we do notmean a purely intellectual conviction. We mean a profoundly emotionalfaith. It will help you to cultivate this feeling of confidence if youwill affirm many times a day, "I have implicit confidence in myself! Ihave perfect faith in my own powers! I am absolute master of myselfand of my career!" Practice affirmations of this kind persistently, and in time your mind will have permanently acquired the habit offacing the facts of life in the way essential to success. V. _You must exert a favorable influence upon the mental attitude ofthose about you_. This is not so difficult as it would appear. Youcannot yourself acquire will-power, confidence and courage withoutimpressing others with your possession of these qualities. Personalities are revealed one to another by faint and suggestiveactivities all unconsciously perceived. Your concentration of energywill inspire others. You will radiate an "atmosphere" of success. Youwill subtly influence your associates. You will be a force to reckonwith, and the world will know it. Your air of success will draw othersto you, will bring business and goodwill, and men and money will seeka share in your enterprises. Master your mental energies, train them, concentrate them, --thus onlymay you win riches with honor. Thus broadly put, there is, or perhaps it would be more accurate tosay there seems to be, nothing startlingly new about this proposition. The world has always realized that singleness of purpose, concentration of effort, is essential to success. _But in the past the world has possessed no formula by which thesequalities might be acquired_. Men have endeavored to create in themselves the necessary qualitiesfor success, having no knowledge of the mental elements that went intotheir composition. _They have tried to run the mental engine knowing nothing of itsmechanism_. [Sidenote: _Business Luck and "Blue-Sky" Theories_] Some few have been lucky, but the path has been strewn with a thousandfailures to one that passed on to success. There are some business men who look upon psychology as "blue-sky"theorizing or "new thought. " There are others who have a hazy ideathat it is a sort of unfathomable mystery intended to amuselong-haired scientists. The truth is that every one of these samebusiness men, if he is getting ahead, is unconsciously usingpsychological principles to the profit of his own business every dayin the year. [Sidenote: _Devices for Commercial Efficiency_] In the books that are to follow we shall show you the immensepractical value of a truly scientific psychology. You shall come intothe psychological laboratory with us and work out rational, scientificand exact methods by which, without possibility of failure and withbut reasonable effort, you can at any moment completely concentrateyour mental powers. You shall be instructed in simple devices formastering scattered energies, repressing wasteful habits, banishingdepressive moods and raising yourself to a far higher level ofcommercial efficiency.