Prosperity Through Thought-Force: Concerning Elements, Concentration
Prosperity Through Thought-Force: Concerning Elements, 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.
