The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their perseverance under the promptings of a brave, determined spirit.
- Mark Twain

Make Some Light!

Here is an employer of labor who adopts crooked measures to avoid paying the regulation wage, and, in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his work-people. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards to reputation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition.

James Allen illustrates how the man who is unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions and to take right thought and action in the creation of his desired goal, rightly fails to reach his goal. To become fit for prosperity, the man must think, speak and act in congruence with the principles of prosperity, not in congruence with the principles of scarcity and lack. No one is responsible for the relative manifestation of prosperity but the man himself, through his thoughts, words and actions.
In what areas of your life have you blamed conditions outside of yourself? What can you do NOW to align yourself with the principles of prosperity in these areas of your life? How will your life change for the better as you take total responsibility for your part in enhancing these areas of your life?

Make Some Light!

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make Some Light!

Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as the result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his taste for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life.

James Allen here continues with his characterization of man and illustrates how his own choices and propensities rightly determine the state of his life. By holding two competing intentions, health and gluttony, he fails to reach the goal he states that he desires-a healthy life. Choices made in the inner world manifest in the outer world, revealing true intentions beyond our stated intentions.
In what areas in your life have you expressed an intention to change, and yet fell short of your stated intention? What does this reveal to you about the intentions held in the inner world of your mind?

Make Some Light!

Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his wages. Such a man does not understand the simplest rudiments of those principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and it is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, indolent, deceptive, and unmanly thoughts.

Here James Allen begins a characterization of man that illustrates how his own choices and propensities rightly determine the state of his life. In this case, a man whos victim thinking and avoidance of personal responsibility perpetuates the very wretchedness he thinks he desires to escape. But he cannot escape it, for it is a reflection of the man himself.

Are there areas of your life that you feel victimized by? To what degree is your thinking and behavior perpetuating your perceived victimization? What thoughts and feelings can you choose today to begin to break that cycle?

Make Some Light!

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. - Demosthenes

Make Some Light!

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more he who would realize a strong and well-poised life?

In this paragraph, James Allen helps us understand that to the extent we remain fixed in our thinking, to the extent that we cling to our victim story, we are tied fast to the cause of our results and choose to remain that way.

Are there areas of your life in which you feel bound hand and foot? If the cords you are bound with are the product of your habitual way of thinking, what new thought can you embrace to break them?

Make Some Light!