Lesson Two - Definite Chief Aim / Your Desire

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Nowhere is the lack of a definite chief aim more noticeable or more detrimental than it is in the relationship between parent and child. Children sense very quickly the wavering attitude of their parents and take advantage of that attitude quite freely.

 

It is the same all through life - men with a definite chief aim command respect and attention at all times.

 

So much for the psychological viewpoint of a definite purpose. Let us now turn to the economic side of the question.

 

If a steamship lost its rudder, in mid-ocean, and began circling around, it would soon exhaust its fuel supply without reaching shore despite the fact that it would use up enough energy to carry it to shore and back several times.

 

The man who labors without a definite purpose that is backed up by a definite plan for its attainment resembles the ship that has lost its rudder. Hard labor and good intentions are not sufficient to carry a man through to succes.

 

For how may a man be sure that he has attained success unless he has established in his mind some definite object that he wishes?

 

Every well built house started in the form of a definite purpose plus a definite plan in the nature of a set of blueprints. Imagine what would happen if one tried to build a house by the haphazard method without plans. Workmen would be in each other's way, building material would be piled all over the lot before the foundation was completed and everybody on the job would have a different notion as to how the house ought to be built. Result - chaos and misunderstandings and cost that would be prohibitive.

 

Yet had you ever stopped to think that most people finish school take up employment or enter a trade or profession without the slightest conception of anything that even remotely resembles a definite purpose or a definite plan?

 

In view of the fact that science has provided reasonably accurate ways and means of analyzing character and determining the lifework for which people are best fitted, does it not seem a modern tragedy that ninety-five per cent of the adult population of the world is made up of men and women who are failures because they have not found their proper niches in the world's work?

 

If success depends upon power and if power is organized effort and if the first step in the direction of organization is a definite purpose then one may easily see why such a purpose is essential.

 

Until a man selects a definite purpose in life he dissipates his energies and spreads his thoughts over so many subjects and in so many different directions that they lead not to power but to indecision and weakness.

 

A thousand electric dry batteries when properly organized and connected together with wires will produce enough power to run a good sized piece of machinery. But take those same cells singly and not one of them would exert enough energy to turn the machinery over once.

 

The faculties of your mind might properly be likened to those dry cells. When you organize your faculties according to the plan laid down in the sixteen lessons of this Course and direct them toward the attainment of a definite purpose in life. You then take advantage of the cooperative or accumulative principle out of which power is developed, which is called Organized Effort.

 

A man who had no legs once met a man who was blind. To prove conclusively that the lame man was a man of vision he proposed to the blind man that they form an alliance that would be of great benefit to both. "You let me climb upon your back" said he to the blind man, then I will use your legs and you may use my eyes and between the two of us we will get along more rapidly."

 

Out of allied effort comes greater power. This is a point that is worthy of much repetition because it forms one of the most important parts of the foundation of this Course.

 

The great fortunes of the world have been accumulated through the use of this principle of allied effort.

 

That which one man can accomplish single handedly during an entire life-time is but minimal at best, no matter how well organized that man may be, but that which one man may accomplish through the principle of alliance with other men is practically without limitation.

 

That "master mind" to which Carnegie referred during my interview with him was made up of more than a score of minds. In that group were men of practically every temperament and inclination. Each man was there to play a certain part and he did nothing else. There was perfect understanding and teamwork between these men.

 

It was Carnegie's business to keep harmony among them. And he did it wonderfully well.

 

If you are familiar with the game of football, basketball or baseball you know, of course, that the winning team is the one that best co-ordinates the efforts of its players.

 

Team-work is the thing that wins.

 

It is the same in the great game of life. In your struggle for success you should keep constantly in mind the necessity of knowing what it is that you want-of knowing precisely what is your definite purpose and the value of the principle of organized effort in the attainment of that which constitutes your definite purpose.

 

In a vague sort of way nearly everyone has a definite purpose - namely, the desire for money! But this is not a definite purpose within the meaning of the term as it is used in this lesson.

 

Before your purpose could be considered definite even though that purpose were the accumulation of money. You would have to reach a decision as to the precise method through which you intend to accumulate that money.

 

It would be insufficient for you to say that you would make money by going into some sort of business. You would have to decide just what line of business. You would also have to decide just where you would locate. You would also have to decide the business policies under which you would conduct your business.

 

In answering the question, "What Is Your Definite Purpose In Life," that appears in the questionnaire which I have used for the analysis of more than 110,000 people, many answered about as follows: "My definite purpose in life is to be of as much service to the world as possible and earn a good living.” That answer is about as definite as a frog's conception of the size of the universe is accurate!

 

The object of this lesson is not to inform you as to what your life-work should be, for indeed this could be done with accuracy only after you have been completely analyzed, but it is intended as a means of impressing upon your mind a clear conception of the value of a definite purpose of some nature, and of the value of understanding the principle of organized effort as a means of attaining the necessary power with which to materialize your definite purpose.

 

Careful observation of the business philosophy of more than one hundred thousand  men and women who have attained outstanding success in their respective callings disclosed the fact that each was a person of prompt and definite decision.

 

The habit of working with a definite chief aim will breed in you the habit of prompt decision, and this habit will come to your aid in all that you do. Moreover, the habit of working with a definite chief aim will help you to concentrate all your attention on any given task until you have mastered it.

 

Concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite chief aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together. One leads to the other.

 

The best known successful business men were all men of prompt decision who worked always with one main, outstanding purpose as their chief aim. Some notable examples are as follows: Woolworth chose, as his definite chief aim, the belting of America with a chain of Five and Ten Cent Stores and concentrated his mind upon this one task until he "made it and it made him."

 

Wrigley concentrated his mind on the production and sale of a five-cent package of chewing gum and turned this one idea into millions of dollars.

 

Edison concentrated upon the work of harmonizing natural laws and made his efforts uncover more useful inventions than any other man who ever lived.

 

Rockefeller concentrated on oil and became the richest man of his generation.

 

Ford concentrated on "flivvers" and made himself the richest and most powerful man who ever lived.

 

Carnegie concentrated on steel and made his efforts build a great fortune and plastered his name on public libraries throughout America.

 

Gillette concentrated on a safety razor then gave the entire world a "close shave" and made himself a multimillionaire.

 

Millions of people are concentrating, daily on POVERTY and FAILURE and getting both in overabundance.

 

Thus it will be seen that all who succeed work with some definite outstanding aim as the object of their labors.

 

There is some one thing that you can do better than anyone else in the world could do it. Search until you find out what this particular line of endeavor is, make it the object of your definite chief aim and then organize all of your forces and attack it with the belief that you are going to win.

 

In your search for the work for which you are best fitted it will be well if you bear in mind the fact that you will most likely attain the greatest success by finding out what work you like best. For it is a well known fact that a man generally best succeeds in the particular line of endeavor into which he can throw his whole heart and soul.

 

Let us go back, for the sake of clarity and emphasis, to the psychological principles upon which this lesson is founded because it will mean a loss that you can ill afford if you fail to grasp the real reason for establishing a definite chief aim in your mind. These principles are as follows:

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• First - every voluntary movement of the human body is caused, controlled and directed by thought through the operation of the mind.

• Second- the presence of any thought or idea in your consciousness tends to produce an associated feeling and to urge you to transform that feeling into appropriate muscular action that is in perfect harmony with the nature of the thought.

 

You choose, for example, a definite purpose as your lifework and make up your mind that you will carry out that purpose. From the very moment that you make this choice this purpose becomes the dominating thought in your consciousness and you are constantly on the alert for facts, information and knowledge with which to achieve that purpose.

 

From the time that you plant a definite purpose in your mind, your mind begins, both consciously and unconsciously gathering and storing away the material with which you are to accomplish that purpose. Desire is the factor which determines what your definite purpose in life shall be.

 

No one can select your dominating desire for you, but once you select it yourself it becomes your definite chief aim and occupies the spotlight of your mind until it is satisfied by transformation into reality unless you permit it to be pushed aside by conflicting desires.

 

To emphasize the principle that I am trying to make clear, I believe it not unreasonable to suggest that to be sure of successful achievement, one's definite chief aim in life should be backed up with a burning desire for its achievement.

 

I have noticed that boys and girls who enter college and pay their way through by working seem to get more out of their schooling than do those whose expenses are paid for them.

 

The secret of this may be found in the fact that those who are willing to work their way through are blessed with a burning desire for education and such a desire, if the object of the desire is within reason, is practically sure of realization.

 

Science has established, beyond the slightest room for doubt, that through the principle of Autosuggestion any deeply rooted desire saturates the entire body and mind with the nature of the desire and literally transforms the mind into a powerful magnet that will attract the object of the desire, if it be within reason.

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To state this principle in another way. For example, merely desiring an automobile will not cause that automobile to come rolling in, but, if there is a burning desire for an automobile, that desire will lead to the appropriate action through which an automobile may be paid for.

 

Merely desiring freedom would never release a man who was confined in prison if it were not sufficiently strong to cause him to do something to entitle himself to freedom.

 

These are the 3 steps leading from desire to fulfillment:

1. First the burning desire,

2. then the crystallization of that desire into a definite purpose,

3. then sufficient appropriate action to achieve that purpose.

 

Remember that these three steps are always necessary to insure success.

 

I once knew a very poor girl who had a burning desire for a wealthy husband and she finally got him, but not without having transformed that desire into the development of a very attractive personality which, in turn, attracted the desired husband.

 

 

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Lesson Two - Definite Chief Aim / Your Desire

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