Activity
Fortunately, no two persons are exactly alike. If they were, the result
would be the same and the everyday acts leading to a result would be the
same. Nature, acquiescing in the Divine plan, has a different line of
action and result for every individual which she creates. We find
unlimited variety in man. The seat of activity is the mind and the first
portion of the body to be acted upon by the mind is the brain. One man
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possesses more convolutions of brain than does another, and the fibre
which extends from the gray matter to manipulate the many organs of the
body which we constantly use is finer in one organism than in another.
We recognize differences in classes of people and call one class
nervous, and another, phlegmatic. So strongly are we influenced by
public opinion that we honestly believe that a "slow" man cannot reach
so great result in a lifetime as can a "quick" man. General opinion is
usually wrong and it most certainly is in this case. Nature has a work
for each kind and each individual to do, the summing up of which, is the
result of that life, and if the gifts of each individual have been
properly used the result is success in life. It may be believed that the
usefulness of each individual, if the life of each is perfectly carried
out, will be equal to that of all others. The apparent success may not
be real success.
The active brain directs a responsive body. The more active the brain,
the more active can the body be made. To make the body useful at all,
the motion of its members must be well understood and perfectly
commanded. Herein lies the secret of success or failure. All want--not
wish--success. (A wish may be a whim.) The saying "One thing at a time,
etc.," has become obnoxious to us years ago, but in the idea contained
in that lies the path to greatest activity. The active mind spreads
itself. It schemes. All the plans which it suggests seem possible. Why
not carry them all out? Merely because life is not long enough, nor
mental and physical endurance strong enough, to do even the preliminary
work of one tenth of the schemes which can come to an active mind in one
day. Cut them all off. It might be well to say "First come, first
served," and take the first which comes and carry that to success,
concentrating all thought and force upon its accomplishment. It may be
a Higher Power which put the thought of that plan first into mind.
Yet more narrowly would we draw the line which surrounds our activity.
One must make the most of his force and strength. In the case of every
man, woman and child living there is enormous waste of power. Much more
is wasted than is used. We have in years past stood beside Niagara and
thought if that power, apparently going to waste, could be used for
moving machinery it could run the mills of the world, forgetting, or not
knowing, that, in getting to the Falls, we wasted enough mental and
physical force to run our human machinery for a week. The thought flew,
changing probably twice a second, to how many different things in the
hour before. Computation is easy. In the sixteen working hours of a day,
perhaps, we think of 2000 things. Isn't that wasteful? Before the true
plan of nature is carried out some (if not three-quarters) of this waste
must be prevented. What has the body done in the hour before reaching
Niagara? The hands have wandered aimlessly, the feet have tapped the
floor, the watch has been looked at a dozen times, the hat taken off and
put on again, the card-case opened, half-looked at, and shut, and each
act, with twenty more, has been repeated again and again. It was waste
activity. It must be overcome. Nature never intended you and me to be
wasteful. These actions of mind, brain and body, are useful in their
places, but we misuse them, using up strength and power. Night comes and
we are tired out, or think we are, which amounts to the same thing. Who
said "One thing at a time" was obnoxious to him? To gain our greatest
power we must bring ourselves down to "one thing at a time." Put your
mind on that one thing. Are you sharpening a pencil just now? Don't read
a book at the same time. Are you placing your hat on your head? Don't
brush dust off the coat. Are these things trivial? Nothing is trivial in
nature's plan. Do not, in impatience, without trial, cast aside these
suggestions. Even give one hour each day for one week as a trial to
doing what you do, perfectly, and think of it as a trial. The increased
result in mental and physical activity will demonstrate the wisdom of
the advice.
Strength is essential to successful labor. Wildly beating the air in
undirected effort is the element of greatest weakness. We smile at the
antics of two chickens in their fight in the farmyard. In a few minutes
they wear themselves out and go off to rest. Are not we much like them?
Do we not use up our strength in useless effort? Then, how often we rush
off to the gymnasium or to the drug-store in the vain hope of regaining
our strength. New strength is not to be found in either place. It is
within ourselves all the time. Stop the expenditure and permit
re-cuperation through concentration. Don't go lie down. Don't take a
nap. Stop right where you are and bring the thought down to one thing,
strength. For the moment allow the body to remain still. Think
strength, desire strength, command strength! It is yours. It belongs to
you. It is all around you. It will take possession of you if you permit
it. What say you? That it will not come at your bidding? Are you sure?
Have you cleared the mind of the cobwebs--the two different things per
second which can come into it? Have you? Until you have, don't give up
the test. Concentrate the thought upon strength, if that is what you
want, and it will come.
Impatience is waste. You cannot afford it. It is too expensive. We are
all children. We see a toy and we must have it instantly, even if it is,
as it often is, a sharp tool, which cuts our hands. If that which we
wish belongs to us, or is to be given to us, it will come in its time.
We wish to do something now. We haven't the means, or we don't see our
way clearly to do it. We bemoan our hard luck, and can't see why we
can't have it. Just so does the child about the toy. Wait patiently, and
if, in nature's plan, the thing is to come to us, it will come, and we
can't prevent it. It will seem as if it came itself. Impatience merely
wears us out and uses up strength which nature wishes us to use in some
other way. Obey nature and carry out her purposes.
Activity which is useful, comes through directed effort. There may be
seeming activity which is worse than sluggishness, and which is
certainly not desirable. Directed effort comes best through calm mind
and responsive body. Silence and quietness, self-imposed, prepare the
way to directed effort. Cease everything, even thinking, so far as it
can be stopped, and remain passive thirty seconds. Then another thirty
seconds. Who cannot take one minute out of each hour in the day for
preparing the mind and body for greater strength and activity? When
night has come and we lay the body down to rest there are a few minutes
when it can have the best preparation for the activity of the next day.
The few minutes before sleep carries us into unconsciousness are dear
and sweet minutes, if rightly used. Then can the thought, which has been
sent to thousands of things during the day, be brought back to its
proper place. It should be centred upon one thing. The estimate is that
the mind cannot be kept on one thing more than six seconds; but it can
be returned to that one thing for several periods of six seconds each.
We do not have the chance to return it many times, for sleep seizes us.
Let the thought selected be a pleasant one; of some happy spot or view;
a sunset or refreshing shower. It is better to select something from
nature rather than man, for such thought is likely to be unalloyed. The
last thing at night, if pleasant, tends to give us the calmest rest and
best prepares us for the next day. The well and strong body can be
active and the temperament of the individual makes comparatively little
difference. In this we may all take courage. Every thoughtful person has
had an occasional sad thought over his apparent impotence. No one need
use less than his normal strength and activity.