How the Thought of a Man Impacts His Purpose and Achievement in Life

It is said that those who have no central purpose in their life fall easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pitying,

All of these are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins, to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it.

He should make this purpose the central point of his thoughts.

It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being.

But whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object, which he has set before him.

He should make this purpose his supreme duty and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings.

This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.

Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix their thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear.

Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focussed, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing that may not be accomplished.

The weakest soul, knowing its weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice.

Thus believing, at once begins to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will, at last, grow divinely strong.

As the physically weak man can make himself strong through careful and patient training, so can the man with weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.

To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones;

who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.
Who make all conditions serve them,
and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.

Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left.

Doubts and fears should be rigorously eliminated.

They are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, and useless.

Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can.

They always lead to failure.

Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.

Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.

His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit, which does not fall prematurely to the ground.

Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes a creative force

He who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations

He who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.

ALL that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his thoughts.

In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute.

A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man’s.

They are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another.

His condition is also his own, and not another man’s.

His suffering and his happiness evolved from within.

As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then, the weak man must become strong himself; he must, by his efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another.

None but himself can alter his condition.

The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting themselves.

Perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor.

A perfect Love, seeing the suffering, which both states entail, condemns neither.

Perfect Compassion embraces both the oppressor and the oppressed.

He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to the oppressor nor the oppressed.

He is free.

A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting his thoughts.

He can only remain weak, abject, and miserable by refusing to lift his thoughts.

Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence.

He may not, to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, by any means; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed.

A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically

He could not find and develop his latent resources and would fail in any undertaking.

Not having commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities.

He is not fit to act independently and stand alone.

But he is limited only by the thoughts, which he chooses.

There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice,

A man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and strengthens his resolution and self-reliance.

And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, and the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.

The universe does not favour the greedy, the dishonest, or the vicious, although on the mere surface, it may sometimes appear to do so

It helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous.

All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting his thoughts.

Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature.

Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of those characteristics;

They are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort and pure and unselfish thoughts.

Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations.

Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.

By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.
A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness.
Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law, and are of the same method
The only difference lies in the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little
He who would achieve much must sacrifice much
And he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.
With the majority, the bark of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life.
Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.