One man with courage makes a majority.

- Andrew Jackson

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In the light of this truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fighting against circumstances?” It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.

Here James Allen illustrates a most powerful truth; trying to change the world around us is fruitless without changing the world within us.

Which circumstances around you would you like change? Which thoughts and feelings within yourself can you change today to alter your outer world?

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Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.

In this brief paragraph, James Allen stresses the idea that to get what we really want, our thoughts and actions must be in harmony with true desires. Wallace Wattles put it this way: "By thought, the thing you want is brought to you. By action, you receive it."

What actions can you take today that will move you one or two steps closer to your worthy ideal? What can you do today that will help you be, do, and have more of the vision you are creating of your ideal life?

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To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?

- Katherine Graham

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Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The "divinity that shapes our ends" is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers of Fate - they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom - they liberate, being noble.

Here, James Allen teaches us that we have the power to shackle or liberate ourselves, and we do it by feeding our thoughts and feelings. To create and attract freedom, we must choose to be free, no matter what.

What do you really want to be? What decisions can you make today that will commit you to becoming that, no matter what?

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You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

- James Allen

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A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathering power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations; or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.

In this paragraph, James Allen helps us to understand that the bondage or paradise of our lives always begins within us before it is experienced all around us.

What do you want to experience in your life? How do the thoughts of that vision make you feel? How do the thoughts and feelings of that vision make you want to behave differently today?

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Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by which he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o-the-wisps of impure imagining or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfillment in the outer condition of his life.

The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain.

James Allen here suggests that we each ultimately arrive at the destination we have pursued with our thoughts, desires, and aspirations. Where we eventually arrive completely depends on what we choose to focus on or be distracted by.

What is your unique mission or worthy ideal in life? What concrete steps can you take towards it today? Which distractions from it can you choose to eliminate from your life today?

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Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
- Syrus

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The outer world of circumstances shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.

Here James Allen suggests that this is a friendly universe that has been created for our good and benefit. When we choose to be grateful for the harvest we reap from our thoughts, we can benefit and grow from whatever we have sown.

What lessons are waiting for you today in the circumstances of your life that are currently painful? Can you be grateful today for those lessons and learn from them? What can you do today to show additional gratitude for the joyful successes in your life?

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Make no little plans; they have mo magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die. - Daniel H. Burnham

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The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires; and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstances. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

In this paragraph, James Allen reiterates that our thoughts plant in us the seeds of our results, and by our actions we reap the harvest of the thought seeds we have planted and long cultivated. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Which thoughts do you secretly harbor? Are they worthy of you, The Creator’s Child?

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That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and self-purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.

Here, James Allen explains that our circumstances, and indeed our very characters grow out of the thoughts that we secretly harbor. Our characters will improve and our circumstances will change in exact proportion to the changes we make in our thinking.

Which thoughts that are faithful to you worthy ideal can you adopt today? Which thoughts that are fearful or unfaithful to it can you avoid and eliminate today?

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You become what you think about.
- Earl Nightingale

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Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, then he becomes the rightful master of himself.

James Allen here teaches us that when we believe ourselves to be ruled by our circumstances, we allow ourselves to be. But once we understand that we are the creators of our circumstances, we begin to re-create them and truly rule ourselves.

Are your thoughts and feelings controlled by your circumstances? Which of them would you like to re-create first? How can you begin to use your powers of creation to remake the world around you?

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Chance favors the prepared mind. - Louis Pasteur

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As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.

In this paragraph, James Allen helps us to understand there are no failures in life, only feedback. We will change the circumstances of our lives as quickly as we learn the lessons they contain for us, and we will repeat those circumstances until we do.

Are there areas of your life where you feel like you are experiencing the same painful circumstances over and over again? What are the hidden spiritual lessons in those circumstances? What can you learn from them so that you can change them and move on?

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To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all, but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. – Abraham Lincoln




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Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. - George Washington

Happy Independence Day!

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No problem can sustain the assault of sustained thinking – Voltaire


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Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all this is the result of a law which cannot err. This is just as true of those who feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as those who are contented with them.

Here James Allen teaches us that there are laws of life and creation. When we are aware of the laws and choose to live by them, we grow in our ability to create the lives that we love. We prosper, by law. When we are unaware of the laws, then happiness and prosperity seem to be governed by chance and luck.

Which parts of your life feel like they are ruled by luck? Where can you learn the laws by which all of creation is governed? How can you begin, today, to live in harmony with the laws of creation?

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