Chapter 24 - You And Your Subconscious Mind As Partners In Action…In Relation To Heredity And Environment

"He was born that way. he couldn't be any different if he tried!" You have heard descriptions like that defining some outstanding trait in a person.

"What else could you expect? Look at the conditions in her home. You would be the same way, if you were in her shoes." You have also heard comments like these when some person's life is being described.

These remarks represent generalizations about the influence of heredity and environment that have been too commonly accepted. The first would indicate that a person was born with his life inevitably mapped out, with no chance for deviation. The others would indicate that a person's environment is the major influence in his life, regardless of other factors. There is an apparent conflict in this philosophy of life or, at the least, there could be for those who apparently believe those generalized statements. If either has been your belief in the past, I am sure that you now know that neither statement should be taken as the basic truth.

Twin influences in your life

In fact, I believe that you could write this chapter yourself, insofar as the application of the title is concerned with the contents of this book about you. You are now well aware of most of the basic inheritances that are yours. You know what to look for in the power of influence from these inheritances. You are aware of the power of influence from your environment. You are coming closer and closer to the ability to control the power of both of these influences. You have been plotting this control and practicing it, and all of it adds up to action in relation to your heredity and environment. That story about you certainly would fit this chapter heading, wouldn't it?

I want to add a bit to your contribution to this chapter and I am only able to do it in the way I am taking, because of the knowledge and experience you have had with influence control up to the present. I want to be sure that heredity and environment are always positive factors in your life, particularly if there has been any tendency toward either of them having been a negative factor in the past.

Books by the thousands have been written about heredity and environment. Educational institutions, teachers, researchers and scholars have devoted years to the study and interpretation of the subjects. Professionals in the fields of medicine, psychology, psychiatry, religion, health and social welfare are concerned with these subjects. All this attests to the importance of the "cause and effect" of heredity and environment.

In a very realistic way, this book is a summation of certain accumulated knowledge of the subject, knowledge based upon these "cause and effect" studies. I want to pin-point certain factors of heredity and environment as they relate to your life and to subconscious self-influence.

Which one governs your life?

Many people, including scholars, line themselves up rather vehemently on either side of this matter. Some claim that heredity is the strongest factor, while others claim that environment is the predominant one. I must respectfully disagree with those who say that either one is more potent and say that I believe neither is more important, that both are powerful factors. Yes, both are powerful influences and both materially affect the life of a person. But both are subject to control by the person who practices self-influence. Our objective here is to prove that neither needs to be an inevitable, uncontrolled force in your life, particularly if a negative influence has been exerted.

The influence of heredity

Let's examine some of the facts of heredity as they might affect you and your use of self-influence. Certainly we understand the effect of the biological inheritance of genes that is part of the parent-offspring relationship. Physical and personality traits often appear to be passed along from generation to generation, through the persistence of certain genes in a family line. Sometimes these are so pronounced among members of a family, that people will say of a particular person: "You can certainly tell that he is a "Smith," or, "She is just like her mother." Many families take pride in this transfer of traits and consider them marks of distinction. On the other hand, some families consider their inheritance of certain traits as a curse. Still further, an anomaly will occasionally appear in a family line, a non-conformist who doesn't follow the hereditary pattern. Among families who take pride in heredity, such a person is often called a "black sheep." An anomaly in another family is credited with "rising above" ids heredity. It would appear, in the face of all this, that either you "do or you don't/' either you "have or have not," in the matter of inherited traits, and that whatever you have been given is setting an inevitable pattern. If you accept this as gospel, you are accepting only half of the facts.

Many positive inheritances

Certainly, the transfer of genes and personality traits is something you can't control, but to a great degree you can control or amend the effects of them. You can capitalize on the positive traits, and you can minimize the negative ones. This is possible because of some of the facts about yourself, concerning some other inheritances that you arealready aware of. First, you were born with the fundamental urges, about which we have been concerned all the way along in your book. Among these are the urge for self-expression, progressiveness, recognition, adventure. Second, you were also born with certain marks of distinctiveness that make you a unique individual. These inheritances are from your creator, and you know that you can and will use them to the best advantage through your program of self-influence.

Now, let's juxtapose these two phases of hereditary action and compare them with the theory of self-control of your life. Let's do it, for example, by considering two common hereditary traits: the trait that makes one person an introvert and the trait that makes another an extrovert. Actually neither is undesirable except when allowed to become extreme influences. A combination of both, in the right proportions, is ideal.

Heredity factors under control

A person who has inherited the trait of extreme introversion could be considered to be "cursed" if he lets it make a captive of him. Uncontrolled, this tendency causes him to hold back, to withdraw within himself, to live passively instead of dynamically. But if the same person, through self-influence, unleashes the fundamental urges he has and capitalizes on his distinctive-ness, he can make an asset out of his Introversion. It becomes an asset when he looks at himself and his life objectively, which is "a natural" for him, since he has the inherited capacity to think things through. It becomes an asset when he plans his life carefully, which is also an inherited ability he possesses. With the ability to do these vital things so superbly, the introvert can put himself in an ideal circumstance to use subconscious self-influence for action based upon the best that is in him. He thus converts a potentially negative hereditary factor into a positive one. Thus, through the use of the "creed" and the "three rules" of self-control, he creates the proper proportion of extroversion in his life.

The person who apparently has inherited the trait of extreme extraversion can be considered equally "cursed" if the trait tends to take him through life like a runaway horse. The person who tends to "act before he thinks" too often makes himself and others unhappy. Often such a person tends to rationalize his unbridled actions as "something he can't help." He becomes an expert at recovering from self-made, undesirable situations. All of this is wasted time and energy, because of the lack of purposefulness and control.

However, this kind of a person has the potential for a fine life because dynamic action comes naturally to him. His need is to consider those fundamental urges of his, and his distinctiveness, as the objects of his dynamic energy. This he can do through the use of the same "creed," and the same "three rules," plus self-influenced planning. In fact, such a person finds great stimulation in the self-influenced planning of his life, because lie can clearly picture himself in action. He is used to action! Every time this person plans something, the plans have a "lighted fuse" attached to them, because action is what he wants out of life. By first directing his action to objective planning, this person puts himself in the right position to use subconscious self-influence to cause the best action. Thus he creates the proper proportion of introversion in his life, and he converts his inherited extroversion into a fine asset.

Self-control is stronger influence

The same pattern of control is applicable to any hereditary personality trait. Those which are positively slanted can be used to greatest advantage through self-controlled action. Those which tend to be negative can be minimized or converted to positive helps, through the increase of the power of the fundamental urges and personal distinctiveness, and through self-controlled action. Thus there is no pattern of the inevitable in hereditary factors in your life, since their influence is subject to subconscious self-control.

Environmental factors under control

We do not need to dwell on the facts of environmental influence. Through your experiences with your book, you know that such outside influences can be put into a controlled relationship with your life. You know that there is no inevitable pattern in environmental influences, for you. In view of this knowledge, plus some of the facts about heredity we have just discussed, is one, or any of the other, of these factors most important in your life? All are important, and all can and need to be subject to self-influenced control on your part.

Choose the best of each

There is no "curse" in hereditary factors unless you let them become uncontrolled. You are not a "black sheep" if you go contrary to a hereditary pattern, if that pattern by itself does not provide a positive life for you. There need not be a predestined life because of undesirable environmental factors. The obligation you have to yourself is that you frankly recognize all of the hereditary traits you possess and "play up" the best ones and "play down" the questionable ones, through self-controlled action. Your obligation also is to frankly identify all of the environmental factors that surround you, to use the best of them and to substitute positive factors for any negative ones that exist. And this, too, you can do through self-influenced action.

Through subconscious self-influence, as applied to your life through the principles of our "creed" and the "three rules," you will recognize the importance of heredity and environment as major influences, but you will give them their proper importance in relation to your planned life.

Perhaps this is an appropriate moment to go back and re-read Chapter 1, "What Is Life?" I believe that the re-reading of the section now, will strengthen your understanding of the true values of heredity and environment in your life.

In Sum

Inherited and environmental factors do not have an absolute control over your life.

Recognize those factors.

Through self-influence, use the positive factors and substitute for the negative ones.
 
Result Getting Projects

This project is a self-inventory which will paint a picture of the cross-fire effect of heredity and environment in your life. Here is a list of ten personality elements. Copy them onto a piece of paper so that you may score each item, under a choice of four column headings. Head the columns: 1. "Good"; 2. "Need Improvement"; 3. "Heredity"; 4. "Environment"

Copy This List:

1. Personal appearance
2. Use of good judgment
3. Decision making
4. Getting along with others
5. Optimistic viewpoint
6. Follow-through on plans
7. Cheerfulness
8. Influence over others
9. Influence over self
10. Self-expression
Now, go down the list and place each item under (1) Good or (2) Need improvement. Your experience so far with your book has proved that "honesty is the best policy," so I know that you will do this scoring on a truthful basis. Now, go back to item No. 1, Personal appearance, again, and make another decision about the item, in either column 3 or 4. Decide whether your score is "Good" or you "Need Improvement" in each item because of hereditary or environmental influences. In other words, is your score the result of a tendency you have inherited or the result of the circumstances surrounding your life?

You are not going to be able to check off the answers as though this were an ordinary questionnaire. You will find yourself carefully considering each item as you ask, "Why am I this way? Was I born this way, or did I become this way as the result of how I have lived?" When you have scored all the items in either Column 1 or 2, and in either column 3 or 4, go back to item 1 again. Put a big check mark in front of each item where you consider that your own influence over yourself has brought a score of "good." Put a big zero in front of each item where lack of self-influence has caused you to score "Need improvement." My prediction is that every item will have either a check mark or a zero in front of it. This will prove to you that if any personality factor is "Good" or "Needs improvement," it is that way because of what you do or do not do about it, regardless of whether heredity or environment is the major factor in its existence in your life.

I strongly urge you to make this self-inventory. The result will represent a concept of life that few people accept, primarily because they believe that hereditary or environmental influences have inevitable effects. They would have to be shown that this is not so. This project is aimed at showing you, because of its vital importance to you.

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