How Ideas Result in Objects
The Woolworth Building was primarily an idea; then it existed on paper in the shape of the architect’s plans; finally, it became actual in steel and stone. An artist’s picture passes through various stages ere it is ready for the public view, and a poet’s poem (witness Poe’s explanation of how he wrote The Raven) is often a transition from thought to printed expression which involves wide knowledge as well as fine feeling. The main point, however, is that the idea always comes first. Now there are tens of thousands of men and women in America today who have the initial idea for accomplishing great things. They have vast opportunities before them; chances of success beyond their highest dreams. Why do so many of these people fail? Simply because they have not realized the first principle of Pelmanism, which is that external success must first be internal success. Their ideas are neither new nor clever. Further, it is one thing to have a new idea; quite another thing to make it actual. What is needed in so many instances is an increase of mental ability; there is no proper correspondence between the idea itself and the power to make it an objective reality. Successful men always have this adjustment between the world within and the world without. They have better ideas than the average man because their abilities have, had a better training, and they can devise, ways and means for making those ideas go.
How to Reach the Larger Life
Is not this an ideal which is worthy in itself? And is not the effort to attain it calculated to bring a peculiar satisfaction? You cannot strive for its achievement without feeling benefit, and the benefit itself is appreciable. Keep physically fit. Get your aim clear and definite (Lesson II); live a full life of the senses (Lesson III); learn the secret of will-power (Lesson IV); of concentration (Lesson V) and this broad and comprehensive life of mind and body will in due time be yours. It is no imaginary possession, but a reality. Interest is found everywhere. Dull days are no more.
The Power of Purpose
On the emotional side Pelmanism’s most distinctive feature is the place given to interest and aim. The second lesson, where we drive this truth home, has changed the course of hundreds of lives. Instead of mental drift there comes a definite purpose, and instead of dissipated energies there develops a steady growth in mental powers, working cohesively toward an intelligent end. Life has ceased to be uninteresting. Work is an enthusiasm. The future is a promise.
These highly desirable results are brought about because the student finds his right position in the world; he discovers his work and is enthusiastic about it. The world within and the world without are harmonized. Life gets a new meaning. Mental abilities begin to develop. The range of power is extended. All the while the student is realizing himself. He is not a nonentity. He counts one. The day is not long enough for the work he wants to do and for the pleasures he would enjoy.
Mental Sensibility
Another vital truth is expounded in the third lesson, under the heading of “Knowledge and the Senses.” That truth may be summed up in the word Sensibility, which means quickness and understanding of response to external impressions. There are impressions coming to us from nature; from men and women individually, and in social’ groups; and from our general surroundings. These impressions may be lost upon us unless we train our senses up to the efficiency standard. A great financial success may stare us in the face, and yet we may not see it. The failure to notice a detail may mean the difference between getting a contract and losing it. Inability to use the senses of sight and hearing with speed and accuracy and also with an ever widening sphere of action, entails losses of every kind; financial, scientific, literary, artistic. But when training has sharpened the senses and made them responsive, we perceive that which escapes the average eye and ear; and, in consequence, we gain immeasurably. Minute things which other people thought unimportant are seen to be items with immense financial possibilities; and, to speak of different things, the foliage of spring which to most men is merely a pleasant picture of green, conveys a subtle message of joy that brings happiness to the soul. The world is a dull place to those whose mind life is confined to a few daily impressions, oft repeated. To the man who is alive it throbs with interest, and offers untold chances of wealth, of artistic enjoyment, and of human welfare.
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