Chapter 11 - The New Positive Concept Of Self-Control

How many times in your life have you signed your name to an agreement that bound you to do something, or else?

Even though you put great value on your personal freedom, and you would be wary of agreeing to do anything that would jeopardize it, you have committed yourself to certain things where a penalty was involved if you did not do them.

I'll name a few of the times you "signed your life away." You have signed sales agreements, particularly when you made purchases on a budget plan. Some of the fine print on those agreements bound you to an "or else" condition, yet you signed them willingly! In your vocation, you may have signed contracts that had all kinds of stipulations related to them, all of them most binding. Even when you opened your bank account, and applied for your insurance, you agreed to be bound by certain specific conditions. Probably right now much of your use of money, and your personal and vocational life, is influenced by such agreements. You signed your name to such binding agreements because it was the only way you could have or do what you considered necessary in your life.

Sign your life away!

These are all agreements you have made with other people. But what about yourself? Have you ever made an agreement with yourself, to do something for yourself, or else? This is the most important kind of an agreement you can make, and I propose that you make one right now. This agreement involves not parts of your life, but rather your whole life, and I believe that you are ready for it.

You are ready now to understand a new creed of living. And you are ready to accept and adopt this creed. Self-influence has now assumed its rightful importance in your concept of the future. You are in a prime condition to effect control of your subconscious. You have been given the "keys" that will open the doors to that subconscious "Garden of Eden." All of this adds up to a new concept of living that can be defined in a "creed." Bind yourself to this new concept by asserting that it is your creed.

A new creed of living

This is the creed of "do," the positive creed of action, performance, production and accomplishment. It is the opposite of the creed of "do not," the negative creed of rejection, procrastination, fear and failure.

This positive creed says "do, rather than do not"; "do, rather than talk about it"; "do, rather than wish"; "do, rather than wait.

Are you willing to embrace this creed? I am sure that it wouldn't take more than a little self-influence for you to do so. And I am sure that you are willing to say that your attitude toward it is that it is a good creed, and a right creed, for you. But like any creed, this one says a lot in a few words, so I want you to consider the "fine print" that is in back of those words before you go all the way and say it is your creed. Furthermore, I am sure you will agree with me when I say the acceptance of the creed should make a "noteworthy" impression on your subconscious mind. You will start out with a good attitude, of course, but the objective agreed upon should be to make this creed a good habit. So let's consider what is implied in the "fine print."

Don't be normal

First of all, is this the creed of a normal person? Based upon your observation of others, you know that it is not! I can confirm your observation a hundred-fold. Very few of the thousands of people I have worked with in our courses and classes had such a creed before I worked with them. Yet they all considered themselves pretty normal persons. Like these people, when they eventually adopted the creed, you are going to have to accept another designation than normal. Yes, if you adopt it you are going to have to accept the designation of an unusual, an abnormal person. For you will be a person who has veered away from the normal track and from living the typical, ultra-conventional life. You will be a person who is always on the productive, progressive track, and that is abnormal!

Secondly, you are going to have to discard any ideas about travelling in the middle of the road. You are going to definitely take one side, the positive side. No one is ever able to take a middle of the road stand anyway. He has to be on one side or other, and if he doesn't voluntarily make a choice, he is pushed to one side or the other, or pushed off the road. You are going to boldly take the positive "right" side and never veer over to the negative "left" side.
Be above normal

And third, you are not going to be able to live moderately, if such has been your interpretation of the "safe" way. The person who is living abnormally, and boldly travelling on the side of the road of his choice, is not living moderately. Moderation too often means appeasement and compromise. You can't compromise with this "do" creed, so you are going to have to live immoderately!

This "do" creed, then, means that you will live abnormally, or above the normal. You will travel only on the positive side of the road of life. You will live immoderately, by going "all the way." Knowing the true significance of this creed, are you now willing to ally yourself with it?

You have not the slightest reason to be hesitant about your decision. This is the creed of a person who has established his own importance to himself. But there is still another vital reason for its being your creed. The creed of "do" is made up of the kind of stuff that makes subconscious self-influence clear and certain. You will have the highest score of "noteworthy" impressions on your subconscious by acting according to the creed. The creed will make your subconscious the kind of a partner you want it to be.

Are you adopting the creed? You are, so say "yes"! Say it aloud, so that conscious will of yours blinks a bit from the reverberations and so that your affirmation is recorded on that subconscious camera as the brightest impression ever!

Put a plus sign on yourself

Probably to you, as it has been to most people, all of this is a new concept of self-control. It IS the modern concept, the needed concept in today's world. The emphasis is on "doing" for self-control. It puts a plus sign on action. This plus sign brings into focus those positive terms of forward, increase, reinforce and progress. It negates the outmoded and negative "do not" concept of self-control, with its minus sign on action. That is the concept that puts undue importance on the negative terms of retardation, want but can't have, ultra-moderation and withdrawal.

Actually this apparently new concept did not mushroom up overnight. It has been a long time coming to this usable climax. From a psychological standpoint, it has a background of years of testing and development in the Simmons Institute and years of research and confirmation in the world of science. The years of experimentation are over. The time of practical application is here. Thus it is a new concept, but one which has been tried and tested by thousands of persons, and which has been stamped "approved" by them. Their approval means that you can have confidence in its practical application to your life.

This is the turning point

With the adoption of this positive creed, you have reached a mid-point climax in your experience with self-influence. This is the turning point, where well-grounded planning has made you ready to step into the practice period. You are well armed with a set of plans that have been custom made to fit you and your life.

I believe that a brief restatement of your planning steps is in order here, in recognition of your accomplishments to this point. First, you prepared yourself for this experience by making those three "agreements" with yourself, in Chapter 2. By now, you have made the demonstrations required of those agreements and have thus established your own importance to yourself. This created the initial positive attitude toward self-influence. By the way, you have made those demonstrations, haven't you? Or do I have to remind you again that there was a vital preparatory action inherent in that step?

Follow through on your creed

To be truthful with yourself, you can't adopt that creed unless you have followed through on your agreements, can you? If you did not follow through, you were subscribing to that negative "Do not" creed and your subconscious mind was so conditioned. If you haven't followed through, do so now. It's never too late to overpower a negative experience with a positive one. You know that!

Then you progressed in your planning to a rather long list of items in Chapter 4. You made your choices and determined what you could do about each one. You wrote all this down on the important piece of paper that is now serving as a bookmark for that chapter. (You can see just the edge of that paper exposed in your book, can't you? Better be sure it is there or you will be taking the "wind out of the sails" of your creed!)

Then, in the last chapter, you acquired those two "keys'* to subconscious self-influence, the "key" of deliberately controlling your conscious actions so that best impressions are made in your subconscious and the "key" of deliberately substituting positive habits for negative ones.

New attitudes new habits

And then, finally, in this chapter, you accepted the creed that was the crowning climax of your planning. You have noticed, I am sure, that every step in this planning phase was based upon the positive action concept. Other than to provide you with a framework upon which to build a finished product through self-influence, there was another specific purpose in this emphasis on "do, positively." All along the way, I have been suggesting that you accept this concept. By doing things in the planning steps, you have been suggesting to yourself that you accept them. You have accepted them, and that supports the secondary purpose of the steady emphasis on "do, positively." This has created a positive attitude within you, within your subconscious mind. The objectives just ahead are to convert that positive attitude into positive habits, everyday, lifelong habits.

The cultivation of this positive attitude has been a "noteworthy" accomplishment, by yourself, for yourself. This, as I said, is the turning point, from planning to practice. But the planning must have carry-over into the practice steps for the latter to have real meaning in your life. You can insure this carryover by putting your subconscious to work on the importance of this planning. You can do this simply and effectively, and you can do it tonight, assuming that some of the night hours are your regular sleeping hours. You can do it just as effectively if your regular sleeping hours are during daylight. The point is that the beginning and end of your regular sleeping time set the stage for this relationship with your subconscious.

Tonight is the night!

Here I am going to assume the direct role of a "teacher" and ask you to do the following as though it were an assignment you would accept without question.

Tonight (or today), just before you are ready to go to sleep (and preferably after you are in bed and ready to turn the light out), re-read this whole chapter. This is Chapter 11. The title is "The New Positive Concept of Self-Control." Re-read it all, just before "lights out" tonight. As you read and come to that reference to your list in Chapter 4, pause a moment to reread that list, too. When you have finished with the chapter, (tonight), place a bookmark at the beginning of this chapter and turn out the lights!

Tomorrow morning, as soon as possible after you awaken, re-read this chapter again (and include the "list," also). Reread it no later than breakfast time. Then put the book aside, and go about the day's activities.

Tomorrow will be bright

During tomorrow, and the days that immediately follow, you will constantly have a clear, bright picture in your conscious mind of all of the pertinent details of your plans! During the hours that you read the next chapters in your book, you will consciously relate every clear detail of your plans to the practice steps, as though they have a natural affinity for each other. This clear picture in your conscious mind will be kept in focus there because your subconscious mind was greatly impressed during this "sleeping hour" program of re-reading this chapter.

For the moment, don't ask why this will happen, Just do it! (I won't let you down. You will know why a bit later.) Just do as I suggest and let this manifestation of subconscious self-influence happen to you.

Stop here and enjoy life

If you want to make this a truly memorable experience, don't read beyond this chapter until after tonight, until after you have completed this assignment. I will admit that this sounds a bit presumptuous, telling you not to read more in your book, for the moment. But I want you to step from the planning stage to the practice stage with the greatest possible anticipation of great accomplishment ahead for you. This pause, and this subconscious conditioning, will heighten your anticipation, and bright-eyed anticipation is "good medicine" for anybody!

In Sum

Make an agreement with yourself to accept a new creed of living.

This you will do by adopting a positive attitude toward action and progress.
 
Result Getting Project

The project for this chapter has already been assigned, but here I want to put emphasis on the part that is covered in the last paragraph of the chapter. Don't read beyond this chapter until after you have completed the whole project. This is your first experience with the power of your subconscious serving you while you sleep. To be effective, it must be a complete experience, without distracting influences. So please stop at this point and have this experience.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...