Let us first device the word concentration:
“Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have worked out and successfully put into operation.”
There are two important laws that coordinate with the act of concentrating the mind on an objective: auto-suggestion and the law of habit.
What is habit? I’ve preached this so many times and you guys have to really understand what it is to have it work to your advantage. For example, just two days ago I fell completely out of sync with my purpose in life, feeling absolutely miserable. However, there was a post that ignited that fire within me just yesterday and this morning, at 6:20am, I’ve accomplished more in the past hour than most people have done in a day – out of habit!
Habit can grow out of the environment – doing the same thing you do over and over and over again. If you look at people who are poor, people who are rich; people who are in line with goals and people who aren’t….it’s all predicated on habit. Repetition – out of thinking the same thoughts and doing the same things over and over. It kind of resembles a cement block that has hardened in the mood.
“Except on rare occasions when the mind rises above environment, the human mind draws the material out of which thought is created, from the surrounding environment, and habit crystallizes this though into a permanent fixture and stores it away in the subconscious mind where it becomes a vital part of our personality which silently influences our actions, forms our prejudices and our biases, and controls out opinions.” – Dale Carnegie
So frankly put, environment very large supplies the food and materials out of which we create thought.
You want to know how to can create good habits right now? How to use all of what I’m telling you to your advantage? Well, I’ll be jotting down an excerpt from Napoleon Hill’s book and also will include a PDF at the bottom of the page so you can read this over twice a day. Be sure to print it and hang it anywhere in your home….a place where you’re going to see it and read it everyday.
First: At the beginning of the formation of a new habit put force and enthusiasm into expression. Feel what you think. Remember that you are taking the first steps toward making the new mental path; that it is much harder at first than it will be afterwards. Make the path as clear and as deep as you can, at the beginning, so that you can readily see it the next time you wish to follow it.
Second: Keep your attention firmly concentrated on the new path-building, and keep your mind away from the old paths, lest you incline toward them. Forget all about the old paths, and concern y ourself with the new ones that you are building to order.
Third: Travel over your newly made paths as often as possible. Make opportunities for doing iso, without waiting for them to arise through luck or chance. The oftener you go over the new paths the sooner will the become well worn and easily traveled. Create plans for passing over these new habit-paths, at the very start.
Fourth: Resist the temptation to travel over the older, easier paths that you have been using in the past. Every time you resist the temptation, the strong do you become, and the easier will it be for you to do so the next time. But overtime you yield to the temptation, the easier does it become to yield again, and the more difficult it becomes to resist the next time. You will have a fight on at the start, and this is the critical time. Prove your determination, persistency and will-power now at the very beginning.
Fifth: Be sure that you have mapped out the right path, as your definite chief aim, and then go ahead without fear and without allowing yourself to doubt. “Place your hand upon the plow, and look not backward.” Select your goal, then make good, deep, wide mental paths leading straight to it.
PDF of The Rules Above (printable): Rules of Concentration
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