Weekly Readings
Articles
Online Books & More!
Donate to Ananda
Feature
Articles and Excerpts
The Attributes of Success,
Part I
by Paramhansa Yogananda, first published in book form in 1944
Is
there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover
treasures of which we never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call
upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The saints
and sages of India taught that there is such a power. They uncovered
truths that we have overlooked or forgotten, and these truths will work
for you, too, if you give them a fair trial.
Your success in life does not altogether depend upon natural ability; it also depends upon determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. They are either created now, or were created at some time in the recent past, or the distant past, by yourself. Since you have earned them, use them to the best advantage. You can make your life much more worth while now and in the future if you focus your attention upon your immediate needs and then use all available information, as well as your abilities, to full them. You must develop all the powers that God gave you, the unlimited powers that come from innermost forces of your being.
If you think correctly, you will find your goal even if you are enveloped in darkness. For your thoughts will inevitably bring you either to failure or to success—according to which thought is the strongest. Therefore, you must first thoroughly believe in your own plans, then use your talents to carry them out—be receptive so that God will work through you. His laws work at all times, and you are always demonstrating success or failure, according to the kind of thoughts that you habitually entertain. That is, if your trend of thought is ordinarily negative, an occasional positive thought is not enough to change the vibration to one of success.
Don’t run after your problem constantly. Let it rest at times and it may work itself out—but see that you do not rest so long that the whole proposition eludes you. Rather, use these periods when your mental and physical efforts are in abeyance to go deep into the calm region where your inner Self reigns. As soon as you are attuned with your soul, you will be able to think correctly regarding everything you do, and if your thoughts or actions have gone astray they can be realigned.
The Dynamic Power of Will
Along with positive thinking, you must use will power and continuous activity in order to be successful. Everything that you see is the result of will, but this power is not always used consciously. There is mechanical will as well as conscious will. The dynamo of all our powers consists in volition, or will power. Without volition, we cannot walk, talk, work, think, or feel. Therefore, volition, or will power, is the spring of all our actions. In order to not use this energy, you would have to lie down and not move at all. Even when you move your hand, you are using will power. It is impossible to live without using this force and so it must be wisely directed.
To create dynamic will power, determine to do some of the things in life that you thought you could not do. Attempt simple tasks first. Then, as your confidence strengthens and your will becomes more dynamic, you can undertake more difficult accomplishments. Be sure that you have made a good selection, then refuse to submit to failure. Devote your entire will power to accomplishing one thing at a time, do not scatter your energies or leave something half done to begin a new venture. Use your will power to perfect yourself. You must depend more and more upon the mind because it is the creator of your body and your circumstances. Carrying a thought with dynamic will power means entertaining that thought until it assumes an outward form. When your will power develops that way, and when you can control your destiny by your will power, then you can do tremendous things.
I have just given you three important rules to use in making your will power dynamic: 1. Choose a simple task, or accomplishment, you have never mastered and determine to succeed with it. 2. Be sure you have chosen something constructive and feasible, then refuse to consider failure. 3. Concentrate on a single purpose, using all abilities and opportunities to forward it.
You must train yourself to use conscious, not mechanical, will and you must be sure that your will power is used constructively, not for harmful purposes or trifling things. Always be sure that what you want is right for you to have, then use all the force of your will power to accomplish your object, all the time keeping your mind on God—the Source of all.
Life Energy and Will Power
The human brain is the storehouse of life energy. This energy is constantly being used up in muscular movements, the working of the heart, lungs, diaphragm, cellular metabolism, chemicalization of blood, and in carrying on the telephonic sensory motor system of the nerves. Besides this, in thinking, feeling, and willing, a tremendous amount of this energy is required.
Life energy is used by the mind, the emotions and the body, for it is involved in all processes of thought, feeling, and physical activity. All limbs and muscles are moved by the exercise of will and life energy. The greater the will, the greater the amount of energy and tension in any body part. A “wish” means desire plus energy. After “wish” comes “intention”—the intention to do a thing, to fulfill a wish or desire—but “will” means: “I act until that is fulfilled.” In order to release this energy you must exercise your will power, and not just passively “wish” that you were able to attain your objective.
One of the greatest enemies of will power is fear. Avoid it both in thought and in action. The life force that is flowing steadily through your nerves is squeezed out when the nerves become paralyzed by fear, and thus the whole vitality of the body is lowered. Fear doesn’t help you to get away from the object of fear, it only paralyzes your will power. You must be cautious but never afraid. When fear comes the brain discharges the message to all the organs. It paralyzes the heart, disturbs the digestive forces, and causes many physical disturbances.
Failure as a Stimulant
Even failures should act as stimulants to your will power, and to your material and spiritual growth. Weed out the causes of failure and with double vigor launch what you wish to accomplish. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. The bludgeon of circumstances may bruise you, but keep your head erect. Always try once more, no matter how many times you have failed. Fight when you think that you can fight no longer, or when you think that you have done your best, or until your efforts are crowned with success. Every new effort after failure must be well planned and charged with increasing intensity of attention and with dynamic will power.
A and B were fighting. After a long time, A said: “I cannot fight any longer.” But B said to himself: “Just one more punch,” and he gave it, and down went A. You must be like that. Give that last punch. Use your will power.
The successful person may have had more difficulties than the one who has failed, but he doesn’t mention them. He rejects the thought of failure at all times. Unless you know how to transfer your attention from failure to success, from worry to calmness, from mental wanderings to concentration, from restlessness to peace, from peace to conscious divine bliss within—then all life’s labors will have been in vain. If you have attained this control, then the purpose of life will have been gloriously fulfilled.
Suppose you have failed so far? It would be foolish to give up the struggle, accepting failure as the decree of “fate.” It is better to die struggling than to give up the struggle while there is still the possibility of accomplishing something more; for even when death comes, your struggles will soon be renewed in another life. Success or failure comes only by acquirement—only as the result of what you have done in the past, plus what you do now. So you must stimulate all the success thoughts of past lives until they are revitalized and overrule the influence of predominant failure-tendencies.
Analyze Yourself
Another secret of progress lies in self-analysis. Introspection is a mirror in which to see the portions of your mind which otherwise would remain hidden from you. It is never too late to diagnose your failures and sort out your good and bad tendencies. Analyze what you are, what you wish to become, and what tendencies or shortcomings are impeding you. Decide what your deep and secret task is—your mission in life—so that you can make yourself what you should be and what you want to be. In working toward that end, use initiative as well as will power.
What is initiative? It is the creative faculty within you, a spark of the Infinite Creator. It may give you the power to create something no one else has ever created. It urges you to do things in new ways. The accomplishments of a person of initiative are as spectacular as a shooting star. Apparently creating something from nothing, he makes the seemingly impossible become possible by utilizing the great inventive power of the Spirit.
You alone are responsible for yourself. Your friends and the world of activity will not answer for your deeds when the final reckoning comes. No one has any power to add to your happiness or detract from it unless you are so weak that you allow the adverse thoughts and actions of others to affect you. Yet, you have duties in the world, in the sphere where your karma (action) has placed you. Help to work out your salvation by serving your fellow man. Like the impartial spreading of the vital rays of the sun, you must spread the rays of hope upon the hearts of the poor and the forsaken, kindle courage in the hearts of the despondent, and light a new strength in the hearts of those who think that they are failures.
Learn to see God in all persons, of whatever race or religion. When you begin to feel your oneness with every human being, then you will know what Divine love is; not before. When in mutual service we forget the little self, then only will we see the one measureless Self of the Spirit running through us.
Most of us are inclined to assist ourselves, and to analyze others coldly, guided by our prejudices rather than by facts. We should reverse this by assisting others and coldly analyzing ourselves. When you do analyze someone else the most important thing to remember is to keep your mind unbiased and unprejudiced. Your unbiased mind must act like a clear mirror, held steady, and not oscillating with hasty judgment; then any person who is reflected within you will give you an undistorted image.
Control Your Habits
Until you are master of yourself, able to command yourself to do the things that you should do but do not want to do, you are not a free soul. That freedom is not a small thing to acquire because in that freedom lies the germ of eternal freedom.
It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas as much as your every-day plain habits that control your life. Habits of thought are mental magnets which draw to themselves specific objects relative to the kind and quality of their magnetism. Material habits attract material things. Bad habits are temporary, misery-making grafts upon the soul. The law of nature is that if you are a little less evil than good, your evil will be taken away by the greater power of good, and if you have a little less good than evil, your little good will gradually be absorbed by the greater number of evil tendencies.
If a bad habit bothers you, weaken it by avoiding everything that occasioned or stimulated it, without concentrating upon it in your zeal to avoid it. Then divert your mind to some good habit and keep it furiously engaged in cultivating that until it becomes a part of yourself.
There are always two forces warring against each other within us. One tells us to do the things we should not do and the other urges us to do the things we should do, and to do the things which seem difficult. One voice is the voice of evil, and the other is the voice of God.
If you are able to free yourself from all kinds of bad habits, and if you are able to do good because you want to do good and not because doing evil will bring you sorrow, then you are truly progressing. It is only when you discard your bad habits that you really are a free individual.
Home | Site Index | Contact Us | Donate
©2006 Ananda Sangha of Portland