OR THE LAW OF ATTRACTION IN THE THOUGHT WORLD
by William Walker Atkinson
Chapter
XIII
THE ATTRACTIVE POWER - DESIRE FORCE
WE have discussed the necessity of getting rid of fear, that your desire
may have full strength with which to work. Supposing that you have mastered
this part of the task, or at least started on the road to mastery, I will
now call your attention to another important branch of the subject. I
allude to the subject of mental leaks. No, I don't mean the leakage arising
from your failure to keep your own secrets - that is also important, but
forms another story. The leakage I am now referring to is that occasioned
by the habit of having the attention attracted to and distracted by every
passing fancy.
In order to attain a thing it is necessary that the mind should fall in
love with it, and be conscious of its existence, almost to the exclusion
of everything else.
You must get in love with the thing you wish to attain, just as much as
you would if you were to meet the girl or man you wished to marry.
I do not mean that you should become a monomaniac upon the subject, and
should lose all interest in everything else in the world - that won't
do, for the mind must have recreation and change.
But, I do mean that you must be so "set" upon the desired thing
that all else will seem of secondary importance. A man in love may be
pleasant to everyone else, and may go through the duties and pleasures
of life with good spirit, but underneath it all he is humming to himself
"Just One Girl;" and every one of his actions is bent toward
getting that girl, and making a comfortable home for her.
Do you see what I mean?
You must get in love with the thing you want, and you must get in love
with it in earnest - none of this latter-day flirting, "on-today
and off-tomorrow" sort of love, but the good old-fashioned kind,
that used to make it impossible for a young man to get to sleep unless
he took a walk around his best girl's house, just to be sure it was still
there.
That's the real kind!
And the man or woman in search of success must make of that desired thing
his ruling passion - he must keep his mind on the main chance.
Success is jealous - that's why we speak of her as feminine.
She demands a man's whole affection, and if he begins flirting with other
fair charmers, she soon turns her back upon him.
If a man allows his strong interest in the main chance to be sidetracked,
he will be the loser.
Mental Force operates best when it is concentrated. You must give to the
desired thing your best and most earnest thought. Just as the man who
is thoroughly in love will think out plans and schemes whereby he may
please the fair one, so will the man who is in love with his work or business
give it his best thought, and the result will be that a hundred and one
plans will come into his field of consciousness, many of which are very
important.
The mind works on the subconscious plane, remember, and almost always
along the lines of the ruling passion or desire. It will fix up things,
and patch together plans and schemes, and when you need them the most
it will pop them into your consciousness, and you will feel like hurrahing,
just as if you had received some valuable aid from outside.
But if you scatter your thought-force, the subconscious mind will not
know just how to please you and the result is that you are apt to be put
off from this source of aid and assistance. Beside this, you will miss
the powerful result of concentrated thought in the conscious working out
of the details of your plans.
And then again the man whose mind is full of a dozen interests fails to
exert the attracting power that is manifested by the man of the one ruling
passion, and he fails to draw to him persons, things, and results that
will aid in the working out of his plans, and will also fail to place
himself in the current of attraction whereby he is brought into contact
with those who will be glad to help him because of harmonious interests.
I have noticed, in my own affairs, that when I would allow myself to be
side-tracked by anything outside of my regular line of work, it would
be only a short time before my receipts dropped off, and my business showed
signs of a lack of vitality.
Now, many may say that this was because I left undone some things that
I would have done if my mind had been centered on the business. This is
true; but I have noticed like results in cases where there was nothing
to be done - cases in which the seed was sown, and the crop was
awaited.
And in just such cases, as soon as I directed my thought to the matter
the seed began to sprout. I do not man that I had to send out great mental
waves with the idea of affecting people - not a bit of it. I simply began
to realize what a good thing I had, and how much people wanted it, and
how glad they would be to know of it and all that sort of thing, and lo!
My thought seemed to vitalize the work, and the seed began to sprout.
This is no mere fancy, for I have experienced it on several occasions;
I have spoken to many others on the subject, and I find that our experiences
tally perfectly. So don't get into the habit of permitting these mental
leaks.
Keep your Desire fresh and active, and let it get in its work without
interference from conflicting desires. Keep in love with the thing you
wish to attain - feed your fancy with it - see it as accomplished already,
but don't lose your interest. Keep your eye on the main chance,
and keep your one ruling passion strong and vigorous.
Don't be a mental polygamist - one mental love is all that a man needs
- that is, one at a time.
Some scientists have claimed that something that might as well be called
"Love" is at the bottom of the whole of life. They claim that
the love of the plant for water causes it to send forth its roots until
the loved thing is found. They say that the love of the flower for the
sun causes it to grow away from the dark places, so that it may receive
the light. The so-called "chemical affinities" are really a
form of love. And Desire is a manifestation of this Universal Life Love.
So I am not using a mere figure of speech when I tell you that you must
love the thing you wish to attain. Nothing but intense love will enable
you to surmount the many obstacles placed in your path. Nothing but that
love will enable you to bear the burdens of the task. The more Desire
you have for a thing, the more you Love it; and the more you Love it,
the greater will be the attractive force exerted toward its attainment
- both within yourself, and outside of you.
So love, but one thing at a time - don't be a mental Mormon.
