LESSON XI. CONCENTRATE ON COURAGE

Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage haspersistence. He states what he believes and puts it intoexecution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himselfall the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up astrong man. Whereas, the man without courage draws to himself allthe qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy, andunsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value ofconcentration on courage. It is a most vital element of success.

The lack of courage creates financial, as well as mental andmoral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of lookingupon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman withoutcourage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure isnaturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject wellworthy of your study. Look upon everything within your power as apossibility instead of as merely a probability and you willaccomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing asimpossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elementsthat contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys yourconfidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resoluteattitude so important to success.

The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all thatis contemptible, weakening, demoralizing and destructive. He thenblames his luck when he does not secure the things he weaklydesires. We must first have the courage to strongly desiresomething. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by thestrength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enoughcommanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The manwith courage commands, whether be is on the battlefield or inbusiness life.

What is courage? It is the Will To Do. It takes no more energy tobe courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the righttraining in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forceson the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily,deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success, towardthe desired end. Cowardice on the other hand, dissipates both ourmental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure.

As we are creatures of habits, we should avoid persons that lackcourage. They are easy to discover because of their habits offear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is neverafraid.

Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why youshould not be courageous. If any fear-thoughts come to you castthem off as you would the deadly viper. Form the habit of neverthinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. Indealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, "Iam courageous." Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of yourmind, banish it. Remember, you as master of your mind control itsevery thought, and here is a good one to often affirm, "I havecourage because I desire it; because I need it; because I use itand because I refuse to become such a weakling as cowardiceproduces."

There is no justification for the loss of courage. The evils bywhich you will almost certainly be overwhelmed without it are fargreater than those which courage will help you to meet andovercome. Right, then, must be the moralist who says that theonly thing to fear is fear.

Never let another's opinion affect you; he cannot tell what youare able to do; he does not know what you can do with yourforces. The truth is you do not know yourself until you putyourself to the test. Therefore, how can someone else know? Neverlet anyone else put a valuation on you.

Almost all wonderful achievements have been accomplished after ithad been "thoroughly" demonstrated that they wereimpossibilities. Once we understand the law, all things arepossible. If they were impossibilities we could not conceivethem.

Just the moment you allow someone to influence you against whatyou think is right, you lose that confidence in yourself thatinspires courage and carries with it all the forces which couragecreates. Just the moment you begin to swerve in your plan youbegin to carry out another's thought and not your own. You becomethe directed and not the director. You forsake the courage andresolution of your own mind, and you therefore lack the veryforces that you need to sustain and carry out your work. Insteadof being self-reliant you become timid and this invites failure.When you permit yourself to be influenced from your plan byanother, you are unable to judge as you should, because you haveallowed another's influence to deprive you of your courage anddetermination without absorbing any of his in return so you arein much the same predicament, as you would be in if you turnedover all your worldly possessions to another without getting"value received."

Concentrate on just the opposite of fear, want, poverty,sickness, etc. Never doubt your own ability. You have plenty, ifyou will just use it. A great many men are failures because theydoubt their own capacity. Instead of building up strong mentalforces which would be of the greatest use to them their fearthoughts tear them down. Fear paralyzes energy. It keeps us fromattracting the forces that go to make up success. Fear is theworst enemy we have.

There are few people that really know that they can accomplishmuch. They desire the full extent of their powers, but alas, itis only occasionally that you find a man that is aware of thegreat possibilities within him. When you believe with all yourmind and heart and soul that you can do something, you therebydevelop the courage to steadily and confidently live up to thatbelief. You have now gone a long way towards accomplishing it.The chances are that there will be obstacles, big and little, inyour way, but resolute courage will overcome them and nothingelse will. Strong courage eliminates the injurious and opposingforces by summoning their masters, the yet stronger forces thatwill serve you.

Courage is yours for the asking. All you have to do is to believein it, claim it and use it. To succeed in business believe thatit will be successful, assert that it is successful, and worklike a beaver to make it so. Difficulties soon melt away beforethe courageous. One man of courage can fire with his spirit awhole army of men, whether it be military or industrial, becausecourage, like cowardice, is contagious.

The man of courage overcomes the trials and temptations of life;he commands success; he renders sound judgment; he developspersonal influence and a forceful character and often becomes thementor of the community which he serves.

How to Overcome Depression and Melancholia. Both of the formerare harmful and make you unhappy. These are states that can bequickly overcome through concentrating more closely on the higherself, for when you do you cut off the connection with the harmfulforce currents. You can also drive away moods by simply choosingand fully concentrating on an agreeable subject. Through willpower and thought control we can accomplish anything we want todo. There is wonderful inherent power within us all, and there isnever any sufficient cause for fear, except ignorance.

Every evil is but the product of ignorance, and everyone thatpossesses the power to think has the power to overcome ignoranceand evil. The pain that we suffer from doing evil are but thelessons of experience, and the object of the pain is to make usrealize our ignorance. When we become depressed It is evidencethat our thought faculties are combining improperly and therebyattracting the wrong force-currents.

All that it is necessary to do is to exercise the will andconcentrate upon happy subjects. I will only think of subjectsworthy of my higher self and its powers.