By: Orison Swett Marden
Reprinted from Nautilus Magazine – November 1914
John Burroughs constantly repeated the beautiful lines:
“I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate, For lo! My own shall come to me.”
It is a fundamental law of nature that like produces like, that what we are we attract.
We cannot go through life with sour, melancholy faces and expect to meet with kindness, charity and good cheer in return.
Whatever we do or say or think will be reflected back in the actions, speech, and thought of those about us. People who grumble and snarl and criticize must not complain or be disappointed if they get the same in return. An acorn produces an oak, not a maple or a pine. People, who are polite, sunny, gentle, kind, and sweet-tempered, will call forth the same qualities in others.
I once traveled abroad with two young men who perfectly illustrated these principles. These men were as opposite as two people could possibly be. One was gloomy and morose, cross and disagreeable to the servants in the hotels, the attendants on the trains, the clerks in the stores, and those whom he daily encountered. Everybody, at least, so he thought, seemed to have a grudge against him. He was snubbed, jostled about, and treated unceremoniously wherever he went. His chops, he declared, were always tough, his soup cold, and nothing ever came to him quite as he expected He was constantly in trouble about something or with somebody, and did not enjoy his trip in the least.
The other had a bright, sunny temper, and a most agreeable disposition. He was pleased with everything, and people seemed anxious to serve him, simply because he appreciated whatever was done for him, and tried to make those about him happy. Nobody tried to take ad- vantage of him, and he got whatever he wanted without effort He never grumbled at the weather if the sun shone, he was ready to join in any excursion that might be planned. If it rained, he was glad of a little time to attend to his diary or to write letters He was continually meeting people he had seen or heard of before, and everyone seemed happier for his presence.
Each of these men got exactly what he gave. Wherever they went they found a looking glass ready to reflect their smiles or frowns. So it is with every individual, in every rank in life like attracts and reproduces like, and happiness and misery are, in a great measure, conditions of our own creation
One reason why we get such stingy results from our life-work is because we are not more generous givers of ourselves, our sympathy and encouragement. We must give more in order to get more. He who is stingy of his sympathy, of his helpfulness, of his praise and appreciation, pinches, starves and strangles his own nature.
It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest. Many people are so stingy of their sympathies, their praise and appreciation, are so afraid of giving away something, they are so shut in the shutters of their lives so tightly closed that their natures are stunted and starved for the lack of sunshine and air.
It is astonishing how rapidly a person will develop when he opens up his nature and flings out his life with all his might in the service of others. There is nothing which will do so much for the life as the early forming of the good will habit, the kindly habit, the habit of saying pleasant things about others. To radiate helpfulness, a friendly feeling toward everybody, has a powerful influence upon the character. It lifts the mind above petty jealousies and weaknesses. It enriches and enlarges the personality, broadens and ennobles the whole life.
No one can help another very much when he sees in him a hopeless picture. On the other hand, you can make a person do almost anything when you show him his possibilities and make him believe in himself.
A New York woman once invited a ragged, dirty beggar into her house, and after he had had a comfortable meal and some clean clothing, she sent him away with words of encouragement, telling him that he was made for something better than tramping; that it was a shame for a man of his apparent intelligence and good health to be getting a living in such a disgraceful way.
A year afterward, when she had forgotten all about the tramp she had befriended this lady became embarrassed financially and was in sore need of money. She asked a friend if he knew where she could borrow five hundred dollars, but he could not accommodate her, nor did he know of any one who could. Next day to her great astonishment, a man, a total stranger, as she thought, called at her house and told her that he had heard she was pressed for money, and that he had come to lend her the amount she needed. With growing surprise she asked how it was that a complete stranger, whom she had never seen, was willing to trust her. The man then explained that he was the tramp whom, a year before, she had taken to her home and treated like a brother, that her kindness on that occasion had been the turning-point in his career, had made a man of him again, that he had prospered beyond his desserts, and that ever since he had gotten on his feet he had been washing for an opportunity to show his appreciation of what she had done for him.
How important it is to cultivate the kindly thought, the generous thought, the magnanimous, uplifting thought which thinks well of everybody and everything, which seeks to help rather than to hinder, to uplift than to depress!
We are never quite the same again after any kind of thought has passed through the mind. We are a little higher or a little lower, a little better or a little worse off, but never just the same.
If we could only learn to live in the mental state the life which we wish to become a fixed reality, it would be a wonderful help towards the realization of our longings, our ambitions
If we persist in living in the world beautiful mentally, if our mind is always aspiring mentally, reaching up to that which is higher, larger, more beautiful we shall not grovel We only grovel when the mind is wallowing in the mud, in the mire of things When the mind is changed the man is changed.
“Our thoughts will flow with the current that we have chosen, in the channel where we have placed them,” says Harry T. Fee They are confined only by our volition. Thought is free It has no limitations but those we choose to give it Environment does not encircle it; for, if we will, it passes beyond environment. Our limitations are our thought. .A. soul may be free behind prison bars, and many a galley slave sits in his counting room. Environment is thought, and. we paint it black as night, or invest it with the morning glow accordingly.”
Keeping the thought in line with the ambition, with the life aim, never allowing yourself to harbor a mental attitude or a mood that is antagonistic to your purpose is of the very essence of achievement.
Health, for example, is not built out of sick pictures. We cannot build up strength by complaining of weakness.
If you wish to become healthy and strong, you must hold the perfect health ideal in the mind. How long would it take an invalid to become strong and vigorous by dwelling upon his imperfections, his diseased condition holding sick pictures in his mind? You must deny the things you are trying to get rid of and hold tenaciously to the ideal, the perfect condition, not the imperfect.
No man can do effective work while his mind is filled with the enemies of his peace, his happiness, his mental freedom. If we cannot rid ourselves of the enemies of our efficiency, our work will be ineffective. Learn to clear the mind of rubbish, of everything which mars efficiency, destroys peace of mind this is the first step to the success that is worth while.
One must keep out of his mind all disease pictures and conditions, ideas of hospitals and of sick rooms, and hold the idea of the perfect body, vigorous and strong, glowing and quivering with health, buoyant with life. This is the architect’s plan one can no more build a health structure with a diseased brain than the architect would build with an Inferior, dwarfed, imperfect set of plans.
In order to attract a thing we must put ourselves into an attractive relation with it. No one can take our own away from us, because what has come to us by the Law of Attraction; it has come to us because we have concentrated upon it, created it by our mental attitude and our efforts.
We may complain of our condition today, but we are simply reaping what we sowed yesterday. There is no dodging this reaping. The only way to get a different harvest tomorrow is to sow differently today. Everything we do, every thought that passes through our mind, is a seed which we throw out into the soil, the world, and which must give a harvest like itself. Many people complain because their harvest is so full of thorns, thistles, and weeds; but if they analyzed their lives they would find that they had been sowing seeds of selfishness, jealousy, and envy. If they had sown seeds of unselfishness, kindness, happiness, and love, they would have had a very different kind of harvest.
On what principle can we expect a crop of happiness and contentment when for years we have been sowing seed thoughts of exactly the opposite character? How can we expect a crop of health when we are all the time sowing disease thought seeds?
We would think a farmer insane who should sow thistle seeds all over his farm and expect to reap wheat. But we sow fear thoughts, worry thoughts anxious thoughts, doubt thoughts, and wonder that we are not in perpetual harmony
The harvest from our thoughts is just as much the result of law as that of the farmer’s sowing. Seed corn can only produce corn. A man’s achievement is the harvest, big or little, beautiful or ‘blighted, abundant or scarce according to the character of the thoughts he has sown.
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