Download PDF copy of book I recently published in July 2022 - Wisdom of the Ages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen. Some time in early 1980’s, I purchased the book “Public Speaking” by Dale Carnegie. At the end of the book was this excellent essay “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen. To this day, I love reading it again and again. Words, Thoughts, Ideals, Principles in this essay, are like Breakfast, we need it everyday, to feed our mind and soul. During the 1980’s I was reading some book (I forget the name), some great man was asked to list ten best books he had read. He listed this essay as one. I am so thankful to God for having placed this in my path. Please read and reflect. If we want improved health, peace of mind and happiness then we will read such articles and books, and we will live our lives by these thoughts and principles. Also here below after this essay, there is a very inspiring poem - 'IF' by Rudyard Kipling, and a very good essay by John Gardner. Also here below are links to very important, must read essays - 1. Reading for Self Development. 2. Social Responsibilities of a Human Being. https://www.facebook.com/CaptSurenderMalhan.ReadingForSelfDevelopmenthttps://www.facebook.com/CaptSurenderMalhanSocialResponsibilitiesHumanBeing Education, Experience, Self Education - Capt. Surender Malhan Carl Sagan - A Pale Blue Dot -- an incredible 5 minute youtube video. There are more useful links at end of the page. - Capt. Surender Malhan.

AS A MAN THINKETH

by James Allen
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER
The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life.
A man is literally “what he thinks”, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts .
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.
“Thought in the mind hath made us. What we areBy thought was wrought and built. If a man’s mind Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes The wheel the ox behind. *** *** If one endureIn purity of thought, joy follows himAs his own shadow - sure.”
Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continuous effort and right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with God-like thought. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character and man is their maker and master.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this -- that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.
As a being of Power, Intelligence and Love, and the Lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills.
Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state; but in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his “household”. When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience.
Only by such searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being, if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul ; and that he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even to most trivial, every-day occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. In this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that “ He that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” : for only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge.
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES
A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild ; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Just as the gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flower and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.
Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstances, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.
Every man is where he is by law of his being ; the thoughts which be has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them.
As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow ; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstances contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes him self to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification, for he would have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes .
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors ; that which it loves, and also that which it fears ; it reaches the height of it’s cherished aspirations ; it falls to the level of it’s unchastened desires, -- and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts, bad fruit.
The outer world of circumstances shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.
Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself to be dominated ( pursuing the will -o-the-wisps of impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain.
A man does not come to the pothouse or the goal by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspiration; and man therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the goalers of Fate -- they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom -- they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.
In the light of truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fighting against circumstances”? It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self crucification can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish the object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life?
Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of these principles which are the basis of true prosperity and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive and unmanly thoughts.
Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as a result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.
Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage, and in hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his work-people. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards to reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition.
I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the causer (though merely always unconsciously) of his circumstances, and that, whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end. Such cases could be multiplied and varied almost indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trade the action of the laws of thought in his own mind and life, and until this done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground of reasoning.
Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with individuals, that a man’s entire soul-condition (although it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another from the external aspects of his own life alone. A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts ; he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and happiness.
It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtues ; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the results of his good, and not of his bad qualities ; and on the way to, yet long before he has reached that supreme perfection he will have found, working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil for good. Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results ; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world ( though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating, and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it).
Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the law of his being. The sole and supreme use for suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.
The circumstances which a man encounters with sufferings are the results of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances which a man encounters with blessedness are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretchedness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his surroundings.
A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, but builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; not injustice, justice is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and during process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.
The proof of this is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease; impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances; thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence; lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanness and dishonesty; which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary ; hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution; selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances, pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace; thoughts of courage, self reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom: energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness; and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness; gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness; which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances; loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches.
A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts, which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.
Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him, and be ready to help him; let him put away his weak and sickly thoughts, and lo! opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves; let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate will bind him down to wretchedness and shame. The world is your Kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.
“You will be what you will to be;Let failure find its false contentIn that poor world, ‘environment,’But spirit scorns it, and is free.
“It masters time, it conquers space;It cows that boaster trickster, Chance,And bids the tyrant CircumstanceUncrown, and fill a servant’s place.
“The human Will, that force unseenThe offspring of a deathless Soul,Can hew a way to any goal,Though walls of granite intervene.
“Be not impatient in delay,But wait as one who understands;When spirit rises and commands,The Gods are ready to obey.”
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND BODY
The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operation of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into decease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.
Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.
Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it.
Men will continue to have impure and poison blood, so long as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is the front of action, life, and manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all will be pure.
Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.
Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not wash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to consider the malevolent microbe.
If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts . Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, pride.
I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into inharmonious contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition ; the other is the outcome of passion and discontent.
As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and good will and serenity.
On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others by strong and pure thought and others are carved by passion: who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have recently have seen a philosopher on his death-bed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived.
There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrows. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all -- such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace towards every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.
Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the barque of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to pretty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just a surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a wordily object, according to his nature at the time being ; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thoughts forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new stating-point for the future power and triumph.
Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose, should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be develop, which being done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished.
The weakest soul, knowing its own weakest, and believing this truth -- that strength can only be delivered by effort and practice, will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.
As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterly.
Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally make out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fear should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements which brake up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.
The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His very thought is alive with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground.
Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations: he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.
THE THOUGHT FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man’s; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only can be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not another man’s . His sufferings and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains. A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition. It has been usual for men to think and to say, “Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.” Now, however, there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reserve this judgment, and to say, “One man is an oppressor because many are slaves: let us despise the slaves.” The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance, and while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting themselves. A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering which both states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed.
He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free.
A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift his thoughts.
Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things he must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, by any mean; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by the thoughts which he chooses.
There can be no progress; no achievement, without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.
The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so, it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great teachers of ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition but they are not the outcome of those characteristics; they are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.
Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.
A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are by the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish a little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
VISION AND IDEALS
The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocation, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them ; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring humanity would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
Cherished your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Shall man’s basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the law: such a condition of things can never obtain: “Ask and Receive”.
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. Here is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labor; confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; un-schooled, and lacking all the arts of refinement. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means, small though they are to the development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the work shop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities which fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of mind which he wields with world-wide influence and almost unequaled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo! Lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters, and sunlike, he becomes the fixed and luminous center round which innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the vision ( not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn ; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your Vision your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration; in the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, “You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience---the pen still behind your ear, the inkstains on your fingers---and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city---bucolic and open-mouthed ; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, ‘I have nothing more to teach you’. And now you have become the master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.”
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!” They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience ; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck” ; do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune” ; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it “chance.”
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of effort is the measure of the result . Chance is not. “ Gifts,” powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart---this will build your life by, this you will become.
SERENITY
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being, for such knowledge necessities the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss and fume, and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.
The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find his business prosperity increase as he develops a greater self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equable.
The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. “Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom. More to be desired than gold---yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money-seeking looks in comparison with a serene life---a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests in the Eternal Calm.
“How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by explosives tempers, who destroy their poise of character, and make bad blood ! It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristics of the finished character.
Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.
Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this---in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the barque of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery ; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, “Peace, be still !” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem - 'If' has inspired men and women for several decades.Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay. On a winter’s day in 1910, Kipling began to pen his thoughts for his 12 year old son. He called the poem “If-,” and included it in a book of children’s tales published later that year.The critics did not consider it one of his greatest works. Yet within a few short years, the four stanza poem became a classic the world over, translated into 27 languages. Schoolchildren memorized it. Young men marching off to battle, recited it. Its simple inspirational code of conduct defined for millions of people a set of values to live by.The poem 'If' is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for 'grown-up' living. Kipling's 'If' contains mottos and maxims for life, and the poem is also a blueprint for personal integrity, behaviour and self-development. 'If' is perhaps even more relevant today than when Kipling wrote it, as an ethos and a personal philosophy. When I joined the National Defense Academy at Pune, this was on the wall in every cadet's cabin. Over the years several times I have drawn inspiration from this. Rudyard Kipling wrote this for his son and it inspires men and women of all ages. I encourage my son and daughter to read it and they enjoy it.[ IF ] - poem by Rudyard Kipling. If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youBut make allowance for their doubting too,If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;If all men count with you, but none too much,If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! --Rudyard Kipling----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “This is an excellent article I picked up from SPAN Magazine in Aug 1993. I love reading it again and again every few months, years.” – Capt. Surender Malhan. THE DANGERS OF BOREDOMJohn W. Gardner. SPAN Magazine. Aug 1993.“In this world those alone live, who live for others.” -- Pope John XXIII.“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” -- Norman Cousins.“You have to build meaning into your life, and you build it through your commitments—whether to your religion, to an ethical order as you conceive it, to your life’s work, to loved ones, to your fellow human beings.”“Unlike Animals we human beings worry and puzzle over the meaning of life. Along the way many of us lose our bearings and settle into patterns of boredom and resentment, imprisoned by our own complacency. How do we overcome it and renew ourselves?”
Not long ago, I read a splendid article on barnacles. I don’t want to give a wrong impression of the focus of my reading interests. Sometimes days go by without my reading about barnacles, much less remembering what I read. “The barnacle,” the author explained, “is confronted with an existential decision about where it’s going to live. Once it decides…it spends the rest of its life with its head cemented to the rock…” For a good many of us it comes to that.
We’ve all seen men and women, even ones in fortunate circumstances with responsible positions, who seem to run out of steam in mid- career. One must be compassionate in assessing the reasons. Perhaps life just presented them with tougher problems than they could solve. It happens. Perhaps something inflicted a major wound on their confidence or their self esteem. Perhaps they were pulled down by the hidden resentments and grievances that grow in adult life, sometimes so luxuriantly that, like tangled vines, they immobilize the victim. We’ve all known such people- people who feel secretly defeated, maybe somewhat sour and cynical, or perhaps just vaguely dispirited. Or maybe they just ran so hard for so long that somewhere along the line they forgot what it was they were running for.
I’m not talking about people who fail to get to the top in achievement. We can’t all get to the top, and that isn’t the point of life anyway. I’m talking about people who-no matter how busy they seem to be-have stopped learning or growing. Many of them are just going through the motions. I don’t deride that. Life is hard. Just to keep on keeping on is sometimes an act of courage. But I do worry about people functioning far below the level of their potential.
We have to face the fact that most people out there in the world of work are more stale than they know and more bored than they would care to admit. Boredom is the secret ailment of large-scale organizations. Someone said to me the other day, “ How can I be so bored when I’m so busy ?’’ And I said, “Let me count the ways.’’ Logan Pearshall Smith said that boredom can rise to the level of a mystical experience; if that’s true I know some very busy executives who are among the great mystiques of all time .
We can’t write off the danger of complacency, growing rigidity, imprisonment by our own comfortable habits and opinions. Look around you. How many people whom you know well-people even younger than you - are already trapped in fixed attitudes and habits? A famous French writer said, “There are people whose clocks stop at a certain point in their lives.’’ I could without problem name a half dozen national figures resident in Washington D.C., Whom you would recognize, and could tell you roughly the year their clock stopped. I Won’t do it because I still have to deal with them periodically.
I’ve watched a lot of mid-career people, and I’ve concluded that most people enjoy learning and growing. And many are truly troubled by the self assessment of mid-career. When you reach middle age, when your energies aren’t what they used to be, you begin to wonder what it all added up to. I have some simple advice for you when you begin that process. Don’t be to hard on yourself. Look ahead, Someone said that “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.’’ Above all, don’t imagine that the story is over. Life has a lot of chapters.
If we are conscious of the danger of going to seed, we can resort to countervailing measures. You don’t need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wound it up again. You can stay alive in every sense of the word until you fail physically. I know some pretty successful people who feel like that that just isn’t possible for them, that life has trapped them. But they don’t really know that. Life takes unexpected turns.I once wrote a book called self - Renewal that deals with the decay and renewal of societies, organizations, and individuals. I explored the question of why civilization die and how they sometimes renew themselves, and the puzzle of why some men and women go to seed while others remain vital all their lives. I said in the book that we build our own prisons.
They create roles for us - and self images- that held us captive for a long time. Self- renewal involves dealing with ghosts of the past - the memory of early failures, the remnants of childhood dramas and rebellions, and the accumulated grievances and resentments that have longed lived out their cause. Sometimes people cling to the ghosts with something almost approaching pleasure ; But the hampering effect on growth is inescapable.As Jim Whitaker, Who climbed Mount Everest, said “you never conquer the mountain. You only conquer yourself”.
The more I see of human lives, The more I believe that the business of growing up is drawn out much longer than we pretend. If we achieve it in our thirties, even our forties, we’re doing well. There’s a Myth that learning is for young people. But as the proverb says, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’’ The middle years are great learning years. And so are the years past the middle years took on a new job after my 77th birthday ; and I’m still learning.
Learn all your life. Learn from your failures. Learn from your successes. When you hit a spell of trouble, ask “what is it trying to teach me?‘’ The lessons aren’t always happy ones, but they keep coming. It isn’t a bad idea to pause Occasionally for an inward look. By mid-life most of us are accomplished fugitives from our selves.
We learn from our jobs and from our friends and families. We learn by accepting the commitments of life and by playing the roles that life hands us ( not necessarily the roles we would have chosen ). We learn by growing older, by suffering, by loving, by bearing with the things we cannot change and by taking risks.
The things you learn in maturity aren’t simple things such as acquiring information and skills. You learn not to engage in self -destructive behavior. You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety. You discover how to manage your tensions. You that self pity and resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent, but pays off on character. You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you, they are thinking about themselves. You learn that no matter how hard you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you- a lesson that is at first troubling and than quite relaxing.
Those are things that are hard to learn early in life. As a rule, you have to have picked up some mileage and some dents in your fenders before you understand. As Norman Douglas said “There are some things you can’t learn from others. You have to pass through the fire.’’
You come to terms with yourself. You finally grasp what S.N. Behrman meant when he said, “At the end of every road you meet yourself .’’ You may not get rid of all your hang-ups, but you learn to control them to the point that you can function productively and not hurt others .
You learn the art of mutual dependence, meeting the needs of loved ones and letting yourself need them. You can even be unaffected - a quality that often takes years to acquire. You can achieve the simplicity that lies beyond sophistication.
You come to understand your impact on others. It’s interesting that even in your first year of life you learn the impact that a variety of others have on you, but as late as middle age many people have a very imperfect understanding of the impact they have on others. The hostile person keeps asking, “ why are people so hard to get along with ?’’. In some measures we create our own environment. You may not yet grasp the power of the truth to change your life.
Of course, Failures a part of the story, too. Everyone fails. Boxer Joe Louis said, “Everyone has to figure to get beat some time.” The question isn’t did you fail, but did you pick yourself up and move ahead ? And there is one other little question: “Did you collaborate in your own defeat ?’’ A lot of people do. Learn not to.
One of the enemies of sound, lifelong motivation is a rather childish conception we have of the kind of concrete, describable goal toward which all of our efforts drive us. We want to believe that their is a point at which we can feel we have arrived. We want a scoring system that tells us when we’ve piled up enough points to count ourselves successful.
So you scramble and sweat and climb to reach what you thought was the goal. When you get to the top, you stand up and look around and chances are you feel a little empty. Maybe more than a little empty. You wonder whether you climbed the wrong mountain.
But life isn’t a mountain that has a summit. Nor is it, as some suppose, a riddle that has an answer. Nor a game that has a final score. Life is an ending unfolding and if we wish it be an endless process of self-discovery, an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentials and the life situations in which we find ourselves. I mean not just intellectual gifts but the full range of one’s capacities for learning, sensing, wondering, understanding, loving and aspiring.
Perhaps you imagine that by age 35 or 45, or even 55, you have explored those potentialities pretty fully. Don’t kid yourself ! The thing you have to understand is that the capacities you actually develop to the full are the result of an interplay between you and life’s challenges - and the challenges keep changing. Life pulls things out of you.
There’s something I know about you that you may or not may not know about yourself. You have within you more resources of energy than have ever been tapped, more talent than has ever been exploited, more strength than has ever been tested, and more to give than you have ever given. You know about some of the gifts that you have left undeveloped. Would you believe that you have gifts and possibilities you don’t even know about ? It’s true. We are just beginning to recognize how even those who have had every advantage and opportunity unconsciously put a ceiling in there own growth, underestimate their potentialities, or hide from the risk that growth involves . It isn’t possible to talk about renewal without touching on the subject of motivation. Someone defined horse sense as the good judgement horses have that prevents them from betting on people- and I place my bets more often on high motivation than on any other quality except judgment. There is no perfection of techniques that will substitute for the lift of spirit and heightened performance that comes from high motivation. The world is moved by highly motivated people, by enthusiasts, by men and women who want something very much or believe very much.
I’m not talking about anything as narrow as ambition. After all, ambition eventually wear out and probably should. But you can keep your zest until the day you die. If I may Offer you a simple maxims : “Be interested,” Everyone wants to be interesting - but the vitalizing thing is to be interested. Keep a sense of curiosity, discover new things, care, risk failure, reach out .
I once lived in a house where I could look out of a window as I worked at my desk and observe a small herd of cattle browsing in neighboring field. I was struck with a thought that must have occurred to the earliest herdsmen tens of thousands of years ago. You never get the impression that a cow is about to have a nervous breakdown or is puzzling about the meaning of complacency. We are worriers and puzzlers, and we want meaning in our lives. I’m not speaking idealistically ; I’m stating a plainly observable fact about men and women. It’s a rare person who can go through life like an homeless alley cat, living from day to day, taking it’s pleasures where it can, and dying unnoticed.That isn’t to say that we haven’t all known a few alley cats. But it isn’t the norm. It just isn’t the way we’re built. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Old or young, We’re on our last cruise .” We want it to mean something .
For many, this life is a vale of tears ; for no one is it free of pain. But we are so designed that we can cope with it if we can live in some context of meaning. Given that powerful help, we can draw on the deep springs of the human spirit to see our suffering in the framework of all human suffering, to accept the gifts of life with thanks, and to endure life’s indignities with dignity.
In the stable periods of history, meaning was supplied in the context of a coherent community and traditionally prescribed patterns of culture. Today, you can’t count on any such heritage. You have to build meaning into your life, and you build it through your commitments - whether to your religion, to an ethical order as you conceive it, to your life’s work, to loved ones, or to your fellow human beings. Young people run around searching for identity, but it isn’t handed out free anymore - not in this transient, rootless, pluralistic society. Your identity is what you have committed yourself to.
It may just mean doing a better job at what your doing. There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are -and that too is a kind of commitment. They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity. It matters very little whether they’re behind the wheel of a truck or running a country store or bringing up a family.
We tend to think about youth and the active middle years as the years of commitment. As you get a little older, you’re told you’ve earned the right to think about yourself. But that’s a deadly prescription. People of every age need commitments beyond the self, need the meaning that commitments provide. Self-preoccupation is a prison, as every self absorbed person finally knows. Commitments to larger purposes can get you out of prison.
Another significant ingredient in motivations is ones attitude toward the future. Optimism is unfashionable today, particularly among intellectuals. Everyone makes fun of it. Someone Said, “Pessimists got that way by financing optimists.” But I am not pessimistic and I advise you not to be. As the fellow said, “I’d be a pessimist but it will never work.”
I can tell you that, for renewal, a tough minded optimism is best. The future is not shaped by people who don’t really believe in the future, Men and women of vitality have always been prepared to bet their lives, on ventures of unknown outcome. If they had all looked before they leaped, we would still be crouched in caves sketching animals pictures on the wall.
But I do Mean tough minded optimism. High hopes that are dashed by the first failures are precisely what we don’t need. We have to believe in our selves, but we mustn’t suppose the path will be easy. It’s tough. Life is painful, and rain falls on the just. Winston Churchill was not being a pessimist when he said, “ I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” He had a great more deal to offer, but as a good leader he was saying it wasn’t going to be easy, and he was also saying something that all great leaders say constantly-that failure is simply a reason to strengthen resolve.
We cannot dream of a utopia in Which all arrangements are ideal and everyone is flawless. Life is tumultuous-an endless losing and regaining of balance, a continuos struggle, never an assured victory. Nothing is ever finally safe. Every important battle is fought and refought. We need to develop a resilient, indomitable morale that enables us to face those realities and still strive with every ounce of energy to prevail. You may wonder if such a struggle-endless and of uncertain outcome-isn’t more than human beings can bear. But all of history suggest that the human spirit is well-fitted to cope with just that kind of world.
In a piece I wrote for Readers Digest not long ago I gave what seemed to me a particularly interesting true example of renewal. The man in question was 53 years old. Most of his adult life had been a losing struggle against debt and misfortune. In Military forces he received a battlefield injury that denied him the use of his left arm. And he was seized and held in captivity for five years. Later, He held two government jobs. Succeeding at neither. At 53 he was in prison, he decided to write a book, driven by heaven knows what motive-boredom, the hope of gain, emotional release, or perhaps even creative impulse. The book turned out to be one of the greatest written, A book that has enthralled the world for more than 350 years. The prisoner was Cervantes; the book Don Quixote.
Another example was Pope John XX111, a serious man who found a lot to laugh about. The son of peasants farmers, he once said, “In Italy they are three roads to poverty-drinking, gambling and farming. My family chose the slowest of the three.” When someone asked him how many people worked in the Vatican he said, “oh about half” He was 76 years old when he was elected pope. Through a life time in the bureaucracy, the spark of spirit and imagination had remained undimmed, and when he reached the top he launched the most vigorous renewal that the Roman Catholic Church has known in this century.
Still another example was Winston Churchill. At age 25, as a corespondent in the boer, he became a prisoner of war and his dramatic escape made him a national hero. Elected to parliament at 26, he performed brilliantly, held high cabinet posts with distinction, and at 37 became First lord of the admiralty. Then he was discredited, unjustly, I believe, by the Dardanelles expedition-the defeat at Gallipoli-and lost his Admiralty post. There followed 25 years of ups and downs.
All to often the verdict on him was, “Brilliant but erratic… not steady, not dependable.” He had only himself to blame. A friend describe him as a man who jaywalked through life. He was 66 before his moment of flowering came. Someone said, “It’s all right to be a late bloomer if you don’t miss the flower show.” Churchill didn’t miss it .
I hope it’s clear that the door to opportunity doesn’t really close as long as you are reasonably healthy. And I just don’t mean opportunity for high status, but opportunity to grow and enrich your life in every dimension. Remember the words, “There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are.” To be that kind of person would be worth all the years of living and learning.Many years ago, I concluded a speech with a paragraph on the meaning of life. The speech was reprinted over the years, and 15 years later the final paragraph came back to me in the dramatic, heartbreaking way. A man wrote to from Colorado saying that his 20 years old daughter had been killed in a auto accident some weeks before and that she was carrying in her billfold a paragraph of a speech of mine. He said he was grateful because the paragraph -but here it is: Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or a prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An Incredible Song, I first heard a coursemate sing during campfire in November 1981, at IMA Dehradun. (Indian Military Academy)Aaj Jawani par itrane wale Ek Din Dhoka khayega Chadta Suraj Dheere Dhalta - Aziz NazanAziz Nazan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr_4Kgu9JM The two line essence in the song is -- "we come empty handed, we leave empty handed, we have few years on earth, for heavens sake, let us be nice to each other." Carl Sagan - A Pale Blue Dot -- an incredible 5 minute youtube video. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.MeTooChildrensRights.org/selfeducationcaptsurendermalhan https://www.facebook.com/CaptSurenderMalhan.ReadingForSelfDevelopment https://www.facebook.com/CaptSurenderMalhanSocialResponsibilitiesHumanBeing Time Management. Communication Skills. Effective Communication. www.SpaceAgeGroup.com -- follow the link on left to Life On Earth. www.MeTooChildrensRights.org Letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garlandhttp://www.MeTooChildrensRights.org/lettertopresidentjoebiden Time Management. Communication Skills. Effective Communication. https://www.facebook.com/surender.malhan.33https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/Capt-Surender-Malhanhttps://www.facebook.com/SpaceAge1 A 90+, Retired Naval Officer, COVID Positive Grand Father's Appeal to President Joe Biden Even in India's COVID Tragedy U.S. Judges and Attorneys find ways to make "MONEY"!

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