How important is memory? Let me put it this way – without memory there can be no intelligence. Think of it like this – if you lost your memory, you would have no intelligence, because permanent experience would be impossible. For instance, you would be taught how to dress yourself one morning, but the next morning when your clothes were brought to you they would have no meaning; you would stare at them blankly, for you would not remember having seen them before.

Importance of Sense Training

Most of our knowledge comes through sight and hearing, so these senses are important in mental growth. The better trained those senses are, the wider and the more discriminating will be the range of our experience. The untrained sense means little knowledge and of poor quality: the trained sense means wider knowledge of the best type. Therefore, we must train the eye to see and the ear to hear. Or find a way to compensate for these senses. The kind of mental life we are living now will decide the kind of mental life we will live in the years to come. The process is continuous.

Character and Intellect

To achieve any kind of permanent success there must be a balance between character and intellect. In other words, you have to develop your mind and ethics equally. The superior ability which mental training and experience have given such men is not prostituted in the service of illegal gains, because they have the balance between intellect and character. Most of the great tragedies of commercial and professional life come from the lack of such a balance. The desire for great fortune consumes a person, or the ambition to create a family name of national and international distinction overpowers him: the sense of all finer considerations is lost—there is a tremendous plunge, scruples are thrown to the winds, and the result is disaster.

What is Mental Ability?

39. Mental ability is defined by Pelmanism as “that emotional response to stimuli, which, joined to the powers of understanding, memory and work, enables a person to achieve results of unusual merit.”

There are three factors here: (a) energy, due to interest, which, in its turn is due to internal or external stimulus; (b) intelligence, i. e. brain power pure and simple; and (c) action, or will-power.   Let us analyze these three. Energy comes first: other words sometimes used are inward urge, zeal, and enthusiasm. In measuring your mental ability, or any man’s or woman’s, you have to decide, first of all, what is the depth and power of feeling or emotion as evidenced by a purpose, an ambition—an inward urge toward some aim which is to be achieved.

Or, simply stated, how much do you care about having a better life?

It may be that the urge is to expand in business, to paint pictures, to relieve the lot of the oppressed, or to get into politics; or it may be simply to do well, or better, the work you are doing now. The chief point is: that mental ability is primarily emotional. All the other powers—those we call purely intellectual—may be said to form the machinery of mind; the inward urge is the steam that sets it going.

How do you know if you have to urge, zeal, or stimulus? By self-analysis. For instance, have you had, from the earliest years, a definite tendency toward some line of thought or action! Did you desire to follow your present calling? What is it you want to be or to do more than anything else in the world? Answers to these questions may be infinite in variety, but if you can say positively that you take a deep and lasting interest in some sphere of thinking, or of practical work, your ability will be in that direction.

The Mind’s Essential Power

The second element in mental ability is what refer to as “brains.”   The power to create a vast business, or to solve a profound problem in mathematics, or to discover a great law like that of gravitation, is said to be the offspring of thought, but every success in thinking has two accompaniments: the inward urge, and hard work. We have known men who for sheer brains were difficult to match; but they had no enthusiasm for anything in particular, and they were born lazy. To get the success you want, all your functions must work together in complete harmony.

The third element is work, or action. It simply means the effort you make to carry out the ideas you have arrived at as the result of the enthusiasm which moves you. To feel and to think are two-thirds of the process: to will is the final component. Action completes desire.

Looking at the three constituents in their unity, we see that in spite of some complexity they are simple as to fundamentals. In popular phrase, mental ability has three constituents: (a) driving power, (b) a good engine, and (c) hard work and perseverance. We can see now why some clever men seem to be failures. They have splendid engines (i. e., brains) but no force, no perseverance, no power for hard work. Other men have less ability but with plenty of “pep,” and a will to conquer, they leave their cleverer colleagues far behind.

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Mental Inefficiency Factors

Illness can affect your concentration and memory functions that suffer most. In such cases, physical and mental remedies should be used together cautiously, slowly and hopefully. Avoid negative suggestion, such as “I don’t think my memory will ever recover,” can affect your Physical neglect will also exert a mischievous influence on the powers of the mind. The first step then is to work on being physically. Or at least as physically fit as you can be.

 Age and Mental Efficiency

 “Am I too old’?” This is a serious question that can hit anyone one, even those who are merely 40. Age is a state of mind.

The age limit for mental efficiency depends on the individual. If you let your mind to “run to seed,” it will naturally take a little longer to remedy the situation. The first thing to do is stop the mental drift that has set in. You can recover a good deal of what you had lost. If you have been using your mind, you will be able to increase your mental powers regardless of your age. The results of inquiry into this matter show that many of the world’s great people have done their best work after the age of 50.

The Mechanism of Mind

How does our mind work? Pelman says that the mind is a unity. There are factors that impact on our minds. Feeling, Thought and Will are the three chief forms in which the human mind manifests itself. You cannot use your mind in a manner that could not be classified under one of these three headings. Every mental product is, in the main, either a Feeling, a Thought or an act of Will. But there is only one Mind. Note that very carefully. There are not three distinct and separate compartments of the mind. These three functions interact.

Here’s an example: If you approach a man in the street and deliberately knock his straw hat into the mud, you know that that man’s mind will be supercharged with Feeling–a feeling of anger and indignation preponderates. But Thought is not absent. He is thinking about you, very rapidly, of course; and it is just possible that in a second or two Will may assert itself, and you will be called upon to defend your person against a counter attack. In that event Will is preponderant, but Thought is not absent. It is decidedly present, and is seen in the skilful tactics adopted by the enemy to fight you into a corner and have you at his mercy. When it is all over, and you sit down at home to reflect, thinking is preponderant, and you realize that the excuse you made, i.e., “He has no right to wear a hat in April” is unjustifiable. But even so, Will is present, guiding your Thoughts, and Feeling is also expressed in the desire to review the whole matter.

Feeling is Fundamental

We know that Feeling is the most fundamental of our psychical function.

Feeling or Emotion are the same thing. Desire is an example. You see a beautiful house on a hillside in the country, and you long to have one like it. Feeling in the form of desire is always urging us forward to action, and Thought sits in judgment, deciding for or against every scheme for which a plea is made. This deep, varied, and complex life of Feeling is older and more profound than the life of Thought.

So don’t discount your feelings. Energize your feelings. Look for beauty in life. Success in business is due to a large extent to a scientific use of the imagination. Is it likely, therefore, that your neglect of the imagination in matters of art, music, poetry, painting, will give you additional imaginative powers in business?

The aim of Pelmanism is a synthetic working of all functions in the individual in relation to the environment in which he or she may be placed, or which he or she aspires to reach.

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Organize Your Time

You know how much free time you have and everyone knows how much time we all have. One of the problems people have when they want to change their lives is that they procrastinate. “I don’t have the time,” they moan.

Other people have too much time and keep putting things off because, after all, there is always tomorrow. And lots of time to make the necessary changes. But it is a fact that distractions expand to fit the time available.

Making Time

Yesterday we suggested that you find five minutes. If you had trouble with finding that tiny amount of time, try this: Draw up a weekly plan and use that to make the time. Here’s an example.

EVENING TIME TABLE

Perhaps some of this time is already taken up with work, school, or family commitments. Mark in those commitments. This gives you a long view of where you might fit in the time.

One of the major time-suckers we suffer in this day and age is watching television reruns and an even bigger one is checking your email or Facebook account constantly.  Use the above table to see if you can find serious wastes of time – hey, you can even skip a phone call and find five minutes there.

Causes of Mental Inefficiency

Day One we mentioned mental inefficiency. Finding and keeping time set aside for your own personal improvement is the first step toward overcoming mental inefficiency.

We’re going to be harsh right here. Whatever your excuse is for being where you are at the moment – too busy to spare five minutes for yourself or too unmotivated for finding the time – know this: whatever in your history is that led you to where you are now, the success of your future is largely in your own hands.

Sure it is beneficial to be born with money, have good health, and have lots of education. Or is can be beneficial. But remember that confidence is a major factor in success so don’t waste time fretting about your lack of money, health, or education.

You are you. Believe in yourself and your ability to overcome mind-wandering, defective memory, moodiness and lack of interest. Some of this is learned behavior. We pick up bad habits in school as we suffer from wrong teaching methods, wrong ideals of education, haste to attain results, and bad policy that atrophies our reasoning powers. Too often we cannot see the relation between cause and effect.  Our creative powers are stifled before they are able to reach maturity.

Subsidiary Causes

Lack of discipline between the years of 14 and 25 often gives rise to mental inefficiency. Whatever advantage school routine has offered, in the way of attention to prescribed lessons at certain hours, is frequently lost. For instance, we read for fun rather than to learn something. By the time we’re 25, we find ourselves unable to concentrate because we have lost the mental discipline necessary to focus and concentrate.

REMEMBER

1. Don’t look at difficulties as something you cannot overcome. Be hopeful.

2. Don’t rage against your memory; that just makes it worse.

3. Don’t say, “I can’t concentrate.” If you do, you will be less able to concentrate.

4. Be patient. There is no magic in Pelmanism, but if you will stick to it the results will be so surprising it will take on the appearance of magic.

5. Begin to exercise your willpower now. Resolve to master this lesson in spite of every difficulty.

6. Psychosynthesis  means the training of the whole mind. So begin immediately to follow out our instructions in this, and every other lesson.

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Confidence

Let’s begin with the first step in changing our lives. There are two fundamental conditions that need to be fulfilled so that you can become the person you want to and need to become. The conditions are “confidence,” and “work.”

Doubt and self-distrust are fatal to achievement.

It’s true. And this is the first fundamental that you need to understand. If you don’t believe in yourself, why would someone else believe in you?

Therefore, start this course boldly, trusting us and trusting yourself. Your mental abilities are probably better than you think they are. You may imagine that you have a hopelessly bad memory when it is actually quite normal, and a normal memory is capable of great possibilities.

The problem is not in your memory but in how you use it. All you need to know today is that you have the material. You have the brain power. You have the goods.

Work

There is one other qualification and it is the most important one. WORK. Continued effort is the price we have to pay for progress. This 30 days of Pelmanism is not dull, disagreeable, or hard work. It isn’t going to occupy long periods of your time.  But it is work.

Think of this process like a business. One of the biggest problems is that people buy the book and then let it sit there. I’ve done extensive research and all the diet books in the world on the bookshelf do not help you lose weight. They really don’t. You have to read them and carry out the suggestions and instructions in the work.

So don’t just glance over this and think that you’ll catch up later.

Here’s the deal: Give us five minutes a day – do it while your coffee is perking or get up five minutes earlier. Surely you are worth five minutes a day.

What’s in it for you?

Mental efficiency, that’s what. So what’s that all about? Let’s consider the successful business person. Think how useful it would be to him or her to grasp details, to hold them in the mind, to compare them; to remember prices, contracts, the names, addresses, and peculiarities of clients; the extent of stock on hand at the moment, and to foresee the probable future movements of markets. This gives the person a huge advantage over competitors.

Every achievement begins with an idea; each visible successful act is primarily an invisible thought. Consequently, right thinking—in the broad sense—means right action; and it is for this reason that mental efficiency is the foundation of every other kind of efficiency.

That’s it for Day One. That wasn’t too difficult was it? Just remember, you are worth it. Now, your exercise for today is – find FIVE minutes a day and commit to it.

Tomorrow: Organize Your Time

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Starting on January 8, 2010, the 30 Days of Pelman begin. First of all, the entire set of lessons are at http://chaoscure.com/pelmanism. There is an overview of Pelman there but here’s a short sweet description of what it is all about. It’s about maximizing your mind and your energy and becoming the best you can be. The lessons were written in the early part of the 20th century and have a lot of dated references. For one thing, the focus is always on men as they were considered to be the ones who needed business sense and acumen. Another thing is that there is an assumption that education included Latin. And there are references to books that were the hot items at the time but are long since out of print.

I had thought of calling this something other than Pelman but that was the guy’s name and the least I can do is keep it — it’s his compilation of winning techniques. The following suggestions come from the introduction to Lesson 1. (I’ve changed them somewhat to make them sound more 21st century.)

If your time is limited, Pelmanize a little every day. Even if you only have five minutes, Pelmanize so you don’t make that common mistake of saying “Oh I am too busy now but I’ll make it up on the weekend.” The reality is, if you don’t have time now, when will you have time?

Realize that every distinctive achievement like a prosperous business, a remunerative invention, a fine poem, a beautiful picture, had its first origin in the mind. Develop your mind and better results are inevitable. Taking the time to improve your mind is not a selfish thing. You owe it to yourself and to your family.

A thoroughly trained and efficient mind is the only universal asset in the world. Even money cannot compete with it, and is powerless without it. Every country, every trade, every profession is eager to welcome and employ it. It is the key to success in life.

Unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, your brain is the only weapon with which you can hope to fight the battles of life, and the higher the state of efficiency to which you can bring it, the surer your success.

The struggle for wealth, and power, and fame is just as fierce today as the struggle for food, and clothing, and life, between primeval man and the brute creation thousands of years ago. The victory must still be won by the same old weapon. It is no longer a question of the swiftest arrow or the longest spear, but only and always of the more efficient brain.

Let’s make our brains as efficient as they can be.

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It’s a well-known fact that anything we want has a price tag on it. The big secret has a price tag too. The catch is that like so many of the great things in life, the price tag is not money-based. The tag is change. There is a lovely old saying that if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will get what you always got.

You want to lose weight, get fit, get in shape? You have to change your pattern of living. It’s extremely basic. Eat less, exercise more.

You want to have more money? Also very simple, earn more, spend less — or one or the other of these two things.

So simple…so why do we resist change? Why do we look for the instant gratification and easy way? Even the process of change can be fun.

Because change takes time and effort and old habits are hard to break.

Here’s a surefire way to make yourself change…learn winning ways and Get your mind wide open

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A farmer stopped by the local mechanic shop to have his truck fixed. They couldn’t do it while he waited, so he said he didn’t live far and would just walk home.

On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket, and a gallon of paint. He then stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem – how to carry his entire purchases home.

While he was scratching his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She asked, ‘Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane? ‘

The farmer said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, my farm is very close to that house I would walk you there but I can’t carry this lot.’

The old lady suggested, ‘Why don’t you put the can of paint in the bucket. Carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in your other hand?’

‘Why thank you very much,’ he said and proceeded to walk the old girl home.

On the way he says ‘Let’s take my short cut and go down this alley. We’ll be there in no time.’

The little old lady looked him over cautiously then said, ‘I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me.. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won’t hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and have your way with me?’

The farmer said, ‘Holy smokes lady! I ‘m carrying a bucket, a gallon of paint, two chickens, and a goose. How in the world could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?’

The old lady replied, ‘Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the paint on top of the bucket, and I’ll hold the chickens…..

[Thanks Kerry.]

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I want to start this off by saying that time management can be achieved simply – just focus on the task at hand and finish it. However that is easier said than done.

Each of us has to find what works best for our personality. We’re all unique. So my idea of time management may not work for you. So time management begins by knowing yourself and accepting yourself and understanding your own actions, behaviors and thoughts.

Wherever we are, we know how we got where we are. Just follow the connection between your past and your future. Sure, some gurus tell you to “never look back” but what they really mean (I hope) is don’t dwell on the past — just learn from it.

Once we accept ourselves, we can move on to the basics in time management which really involves setting goals that are obtainable. When you set your goals ask…”Is this goal obtainable. Do I have the ability to achieve this goal? How do I plan to make this goal successful? Asking questions is one basic element of a time management scheme that works smoothly.

Asking for help is another basic element in successful time management.

We cannot know it all, so asking for help is necessary. When you are asking questions, you are letting others know that you have a goal and you are searching to obtain that goal by seeking out a solution. When we question our selves, we are performing a therapeutic technique that helps us to find answers to unanswered questions. For example, if you are getting married in July and it is January, you may want to ask yourself is your timeframe suitable? Does the timeframe work with your schedule? Am I ready for this? Do I have the ability to manage a marriage?

If you see where I am going, it is obvious. Many people commit to marriage, but often neglect elements of time management that are essential for making the marriage work. Time and money is invested in this arrangement and often wasted, since the marriage leads to divorce.

Likewise, if we are starting a new business, we have to ask questions. Questions are the root of establishing a time management scheme that leads to success. Don’t let pride get in the way of obtaining your goals. Pride can be a major stumbling block. Learn to ask people questions pertinent to your goal.

Another basic element in time management is keeping it simple. Keeping it benefits our mind, body, and responsibilities. Simple does not mean neglecting your responsibilities. Rather, simple means to put a plan in motion that works smoothly and effectively while reaching for your goals. There is no need to make it complicated. If you plan to write a novel, focus on the story not on whether you need an office, a new computer, a mentor or any other distraction. Sit down and write. Start there and let the rest be added if necessary.

Make a plan that is logical and simple and that can let you handle complications as they arise. No plan is perfect. Remember that as you create a plan for time management. Rehearse your plan. As you make your plan, play out the part, and focus on the results. If good results come from the actions or decisions, you know then that the plan will run smoothly. Life is too short to waste time.

Time manages everything. No matter what we do in life, it all revolves around time. You can spend time wisely and get results from your efforts, or you can waste time and sit back wondering what happened to your life?

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The best working space I ever had was a large boardroom table in a wide front hallway. The only thing on the table was my computer and the only other piece of furniture in the room was a small bookcase. On that bookcase was an African violet and a telephone. I remember this setup fondly because that was the summer I averaged 2,500 words a day in my freelance writing career. I actually got a physical sense of wellbeing as I wrote. My work flowed faster and my brain clicked at a faster rate. It was a very happy summer.

That was a summer rental. The next summer, encouraged by that lovely peaceful working holiday, I rented a cottage with a spectacular view and set up a little desk in the main room. It was a disaster. I felt fidgety and kept getting up to make yet another cup of coffee for myself. It was not until I took all the pictures down and rearranged the furniture that I was able to get some serious work done.

Since my work involves organization and decluttering – I’ve been the Chaos Queen for nearly a decade now – it should not have been difficult for me to grasp why that first place was such a conducive work spot. It was completely uncluttered and there was everything I needed to do my work right there at my fingertips.

You see, things have power. The items around us nag at our subconscious. A stack of papers teetering on the shelf behind you will make its presence known and slice into your subconscious. Clutter and disorganization will throw you off schedule. I have heard that the average person spends 45 minutes a day looking for lost items – keys, check book, glasses.

We race around in never-ending circles, trying to find tranquility, trying to find daylight at the end of the tunnel, trying to find our keys. The reality is that if we took 5 minutes at the end of a day to tidy our space and our minds, we would have more time, more ease of mind, and more productivity. We do not need a bigger storage space, a faster PDA, or a complete make-over of our personalities. What we need is a system that we can develop as we go.

Whether you write, manage a company, do crafts, keep books, or fix computers, your work calls for a certain toolbox full of specific tools. You need what you need and not one iota more to carry out your job. And you need it at hand. This gives you control over things, not the other way around. Take a look at your workspace right now and see how oppressed you are by objects crowding you.  You are about to take the first step to organizational freedom. In 5 minutes you will see a change.

Get a box or bag. A grocery bag will do. Sit down. Now take everything within reach and decide whether to keep it in your workspace or not. NOTE: Keep only one of each item. Toss the rest into the box or bag. Set the box or bag out of your sight. Rearrange what is left.

Don’t you feel better already?

As for the stuff you moved away – well, tomorrow is another day and you will have another five minutes.

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