Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Development of Will Power
Only those of us with a strong will that do not surrender or compromise can experience success. Once a person’s will is brought into action every hindrance will be swept aside.
This force called will is indeed mighty when aroused. However one can be easily deceived about their will. You are likely to think that your will is much stronger than it really is. You may say to yourself, “I would go through anything for the sake of the higher life and spiritual illumination.” Yet that is no guarantee, after a few months of monotonous work you may abandon your goal unless you adopt the wise plan of strengthening your will as you move forward.
Let us begin by testing your present strength of will, but don’t be discouraged by the result. Remember that whatever you lack in will power he can be developed by proper effort. To find out whether you really have strength of will you begin by observing to what extent you permit your daily plans to be modified, or changed, by the things that run counter to your will.
Do you hold to your purpose or do you weakly surrender to small obstacles? Do you have the will power to even begin the day as planned? Let us use the example of waking up; the evening before you decide that you will get up at six o’clock the next morning. You know there are certain excellent reasons why you should, and you go to bed. It is positively settled that at exactly six o’clock the day’s program shall begin. Then when the alarm clock rings the next morning you disobey the summons. This will thing involves some bodily discomfort to rise at that hour and you decide that, after all, perhaps you were a bit hasty. So you reconsider the matter and hit the snooze button repeatedly until it is seven.
The hour, of course, is unimportant, but whatever may have been the hour that was previously determined upon; the keeping of that determination is of the greatest importance, and the failure to keep that resolution is evidence of a weak will. Now all this proves that you have very little real will power, for you permit the desire for trifling bodily comfort to set your plans aside. This means you are still a slave to the physical body and weakly permit it to upset your plans.
Real success can come only to those who have steadfast strength of purpose. People who fail to assert the will and bring the body into complete subjection probably don’t realize what a price they pay. Until we voluntarily take the right course we have not escaped the evolutionary necessity of compulsion and may expect sooner rather than later to be thrown into an environment that will apply the stimulus we need to develop our will.
It will be unpleasant while it is occurring, but what better fortune could happen to you than to find yourself in circumstances where poverty or other necessity compels you to subordinate bodily comfort to the reign of the will? Nature provides the lessons we require. We may wisely co-operate with her and escape the sting, but so long as we need the lesson we may be quite sure that it awaits us.
If you are at a lower point in evolution where you do not have the ambition for intellect, culture, fame or wealth, but only the desire for food and shelter, still that primitive desire forces you into action; and while this will power will be evolved only in proportion to the strength of the desire, it must nevertheless grow. Instead of rising at a certain hour because the will decrees it, you may rise only because you know you have to go to work, but you are learning the same lesson; namely the overcoming of the inertia of the physical body, although it is compulsory instead of voluntary.
This is unconscious evolution. It is a long, slow, painful process. It is the only way possible for those who are not wise enough to collaborate with nature in her evolutionary work, and therefore rise above the necessity of compulsion.
So endeavor to be conscious of the need to grow your will. Cheerfully and willingly decide on a thing and then do it, take small steps at first to build up your will to greater levels, and soon you will be experiencing success at all you choose to put your hand to.
You can be; what you will to be.
Be Blessed
This force called will is indeed mighty when aroused. However one can be easily deceived about their will. You are likely to think that your will is much stronger than it really is. You may say to yourself, “I would go through anything for the sake of the higher life and spiritual illumination.” Yet that is no guarantee, after a few months of monotonous work you may abandon your goal unless you adopt the wise plan of strengthening your will as you move forward.
Let us begin by testing your present strength of will, but don’t be discouraged by the result. Remember that whatever you lack in will power he can be developed by proper effort. To find out whether you really have strength of will you begin by observing to what extent you permit your daily plans to be modified, or changed, by the things that run counter to your will.
Do you hold to your purpose or do you weakly surrender to small obstacles? Do you have the will power to even begin the day as planned? Let us use the example of waking up; the evening before you decide that you will get up at six o’clock the next morning. You know there are certain excellent reasons why you should, and you go to bed. It is positively settled that at exactly six o’clock the day’s program shall begin. Then when the alarm clock rings the next morning you disobey the summons. This will thing involves some bodily discomfort to rise at that hour and you decide that, after all, perhaps you were a bit hasty. So you reconsider the matter and hit the snooze button repeatedly until it is seven.
The hour, of course, is unimportant, but whatever may have been the hour that was previously determined upon; the keeping of that determination is of the greatest importance, and the failure to keep that resolution is evidence of a weak will. Now all this proves that you have very little real will power, for you permit the desire for trifling bodily comfort to set your plans aside. This means you are still a slave to the physical body and weakly permit it to upset your plans.
Real success can come only to those who have steadfast strength of purpose. People who fail to assert the will and bring the body into complete subjection probably don’t realize what a price they pay. Until we voluntarily take the right course we have not escaped the evolutionary necessity of compulsion and may expect sooner rather than later to be thrown into an environment that will apply the stimulus we need to develop our will.
It will be unpleasant while it is occurring, but what better fortune could happen to you than to find yourself in circumstances where poverty or other necessity compels you to subordinate bodily comfort to the reign of the will? Nature provides the lessons we require. We may wisely co-operate with her and escape the sting, but so long as we need the lesson we may be quite sure that it awaits us.
If you are at a lower point in evolution where you do not have the ambition for intellect, culture, fame or wealth, but only the desire for food and shelter, still that primitive desire forces you into action; and while this will power will be evolved only in proportion to the strength of the desire, it must nevertheless grow. Instead of rising at a certain hour because the will decrees it, you may rise only because you know you have to go to work, but you are learning the same lesson; namely the overcoming of the inertia of the physical body, although it is compulsory instead of voluntary.
This is unconscious evolution. It is a long, slow, painful process. It is the only way possible for those who are not wise enough to collaborate with nature in her evolutionary work, and therefore rise above the necessity of compulsion.
So endeavor to be conscious of the need to grow your will. Cheerfully and willingly decide on a thing and then do it, take small steps at first to build up your will to greater levels, and soon you will be experiencing success at all you choose to put your hand to.
You can be; what you will to be.
Be Blessed
http://www.staffofpower.com
