Thought, and Achievement

The Thought-Factor In Achievement

This tremendous chapter describes in a very blunt way how James Allen viewed and might have viewed in the present what we might often refer to as “”accountability”, “holding management accountable”, “holding elected officers accountable,” “holding one’s own feet to the fire” or whatever similar new term you might coin. He in a rather straight forward and figurative way using various analogies and / or metaphors illustrates how each of us as an individual must exercise individual responsibility which begins in our own individual personal thought process and actual thoughts. We might well say this can be a “First-Class” way of thinking or as John Sullivan, PhD, and well known local and international Human Resources speaker and chairman of the Human Resources Department at San Francisco State University’s College of Business, might say “World-Class” thought-process.

Before we begin pointing fingers at others for whatever we are unhappy with or have not achieved, we might want to begin with reviewing our individual thought process, actual thoughts and habits. The chapter on this written by James Allen is, I think, highly useful in that it is a straight forward talk from him to us who always would like to keep record of our activities and results at an individual and / or organizational level(s). Sometimes we may get frustrated about not reaching our goals and objectives and having to reset them or just throw them away. Often the minor adjustment might just be something as subjective as, yet real and which turns into tangible matter or act, our individual thoughts.

James Allen was one of the original founders of the Behavioral and Social Science of Psychology I believe.

You are able to replace the word he for she if you would like to. “He” is just the way the author wrote more than 100 years ago I think.

Sincerely,

Rom Antony Day, B.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with Marketing Minor, Class of 1994, San Francisco State University (SFSU), San Francisco, California, U S A

An Individual American (Citizen of The United States of America), Thinker, do-er past-Founder of PAC BAC.

PAC BAC is A Volunteer Club of Career Minded SFSU Alumni from the Psychology and Business programs

rev. 2020 0811 04:02 A.M. PST.

“The Thought-Factor In Achievement

ALL that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the

direct result of his own thoughts. In a

justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total 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

are evolved from within. As

he thinks, so is he; 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 of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop

the strength which he admires in

another. None but himself can alter his condition.

It has been usual for men to think and to say, "Many men are

slaves because one is an oppressor; let us

hate the oppressor." Now, however, there is amongst an increasing few a

tendency to reverse this judgment, and

to say, "One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise

the slaves."

The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in

ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each

other, are in reality afflicting themselves. A 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; a perfect compassion embraces both oppressor

and oppressed.

He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish

thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor

oppressed. He is free.

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

thoughts. He can only remain weak, and

abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.

Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he

must lift his thoughts above slavish

animal indulgence. He may not, in order 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, and

a man's worldly success will be in

the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes

his mind on the development of

his plans, and the strengthening of 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, the more blessed and enduring

will be his achievement.

The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, 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 up 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 of pure and unselfish thoughts.

Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations.

He who lives constantly in the

conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure

and unselfish, will, as surely as the

sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in

character, and rise into a position of

influence and blessedness.

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 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;

he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly” --As A Man

Thinketh by James Allen

Broad Park Avenue, IIfracombe, England; Printed in the United States of America--

webpage format edited 2019 0723 10:07 P.M. MT; 09/29/2017