CONCLUSION
THE reader will have no difficulty in figuring out the percent of his personal efficiency on the basis of the foregoing chapters. He can see himself more intimately than he is seen by others, and he can be governed accordingly. To some, the process may be more or less a discouraging one. On the other hand, it is hoped that courage has risen through the discovery that no matter how far now one may be from the ideal, still the power lies within him for its attainment. Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” One is potentially one hundred percent perfect, and it is to bring this potential into expression that we must all think and work
“Practice makes perfect”; constant effort to improve will bring its own reward. There is time to work out your problems, and age has nothing whatever to do with it. We might instance the lives of unnumbered men and women who have done “the big thing” after they had reached the age of fifty, or even eighty. What counts is the will to bigness. It is what you really want that counts. If you want it strongly enough, you will think about it, you will dream about it, you will work for it, you will develop capacity in regard to it, you will become an authority in it, you will be indispensable
because of your knowledge, your reliability, and your enthusiasm. You will succeed
The great secret is the impregnation of your whole consciousness with the passion of your purpose. Fill yourself daily and hourly with the suggestion of success. “I am made of the stuff that masters problems. I have within me all the capacity I require. There is no such word for me as fail. I know only success. I believe in success. In my mind I am already a success, and I know that whatever I am within I shall sooner or later express without. ‘I do not need to struggle, I only need to know.’ It is knowledge and not struggle that will bring results to me. I shall not worry. I shall not drive myself. I shall be calm, expectant, steadfast.
Today I launch my soul out into the bigness of things. I set my sail and I steer my course to the great goal of my desire I sail fearlessly and independently. I sail joyously and gloriously. I am master of my fate.”
“Today I set my soul the task To go the way I will,
Today let all who wish me well And all who wish me ill
Be still:
For I shall go as my soul decrees, I shall sail for the harbors I choose;
It is I set the sail, It is I face the gale,
It is I who must cope with the ruse And the will of the storm
If I am to sail Afar, without trail
Alone on the breast of the sea, Can you turn the rudder for me,
Can you set my sail? Can you meet my gale?
IS it you who shall take the blow?
Ah, then, is it well That you seek to tell
Or dictate the way I shall go?
You may point me the light of a star, You may warn of the reef and the bar, You may say, ‘It is so and is so,’
You may mark out a way I can go— But you cannot sail it for me.”
What greater independence of individuality can we ask than this, that no one can sail the sea of life for us. We trim the sheet to the wind, we hold the rudder, and we are away to the highest adventure the mind can conceive, the working out of our personal destiny, the development of our own inner resources, the expression of that which we feel ourselves to be. Life is self-expression
The ultimate nature of that self and its interrelationship with other selves through the common medium of the One Great Mind of the Universe will be considered in Volume Two of this series.
THE END