Secret Is My Power

KNOW THYSELF

Too many people have been content with a mere "animal existence" sort of life. Orison Swett Marden put it this way: "The trouble with most of us is that, while ambitious to succeed, we do not put ourselves in a condition to win; we do not cut the cords which bind us, or try to get rid of the entanglements and obstructions that hinder us. We trust too much to luck."

"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound," said James Allen in his book, "As a Man Thinketh."

"No desire is felt for a thing unknown," says a Latin proverb.

A generation ago the dictionaries described uranium as a rare small white metallic substance with few known uses. During the generation past we have seen demonstrated a power from this uranium substance that has changed the course of civilization. Virtually unlimited power had been in this relatively unknown, too, it was unused.

People are a lot like this example of uranium. Although capable of tremendous accomplishments, nineteen out of every twenty are content to drift with the tides of life. To them, life is a struggle. They do not know their own capabilities----they have never learned how to succeed. Only a small part of their mental powerhouse is ever tapped. Unknown, priceless potentials remain virtually unused.

Socrates' guiding rule was "Know thyself." These words are of eternal significance. No better advice was ever given to man.

"There is no limit to the knowing of the self that knows," the Hindus have said. There is no limit to the developing of the self which steadily and vigorously wills to unfold.

Believe with Stevens that every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered possibilities. Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul.

As the future oak lies folded in the acorn, so in the present lies our future. Our success will be, can be, but a natural tree, developed from the seeds of our own sowing: the fragrance of its blossoms and the richness of its fruitage will depend upon the nourishment absorbed from our past and present.

In an article entitled, The Energiea of Men, published about the turn of the century in the Philosophical Review, Professor William James uses these words: "Most of us fell as if we lived habitually with a sort of cloud weighing upon us, below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning and firmness in deciding." Further on in the article, he describes how men from time to time, through various experiences, and chiefly by the energy," and thus disclose in themselves forces of which they had been hitherto ignorant.

EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF SELF-DISCOVERY AND OPEN UP CONTINENTS OF POSSIBILITIES IN YOUR NATURE WHICH MIGHT OTHERWISE REMAIN UNDISCOVERED