Table of Contents
You cannot retain a true and clear vision of wealth if you are constantly turning your attention to opposing pictures, whether they be external or imaginary. Basically, your subconscious mind does not support any conflicting thoughts. It dwells on both, positive & negative thoughts equally, and the result…neutral. It’s true in each field of your life.
Do not tell of your past troubles of a financial nature, if you have had them; do not think of them at all. Do not tell of the poverty of your parents, or the hardships of your early life; to do any of these things is to class yourself with the poor for the time being mentally.
Put poverty and all things that pertain to poverty completely behind you. You have accepted a certain theory of the universe as being correct, and are resting all your hopes of happiness on its being correct; and what can you gain by giving heed to conflicting theories? Do not read religious books which tell you that the world is soon coming to an end, and do not read the writings of pessimistic philosophers who tell you that it is going to the devil.
The world is not going to the devil; it is going to God.
Only Wealth, No Poverty
There may be many things in existing conditions that are disagreeable; but what is the use of studying them when they are certainly passing away? Why give time and attention to things which are being removed by evolutionary growth? No matter how horrible in seeming may be the conditions in certain countries, sections, or places, you waste your time and destroy your own chances by considering them. You should interest yourself in the world’s becoming rich.
Think of the wealth the world is coming into, instead of the poverty it is growing out of, and bear in mind that the only way in which you can assist the world in growing rich is by growing rich yourself first. Give your attention wholly to wealth; ignore poverty. Whenever you think or speak of those who are poor, think and speak of them as those who are becoming rich; as those who are to be congratulated rather than sympathized.
Because I say that you are to give your whole time and mind and thought to wealth, it does not follow that you are to be mean. To become really rich is the noblest aim you can have in life, for it includes everything else. You must fix your attention on your mental picture of wealth, to the exclusion of all that may tend to dim or obscure the vision.
It is the truth that there is no such thing as poverty; that there is only wealth.
People Remain in Poverty, Why?
Some people remain in poverty because they are ignorant of the fact that there is wealth for them, and these can best be taught by showing them the way to prosperity in their own person and practice. Others are poor because, while they feel that there is a way out, they are too intellectually lazy to put forth the mental effort necessary to find that way and travel it; and for these the very best thing you can do is to arouse their desire by showing them the happiness that comes from being rightly rich.
Others still are poor because, while they have some notion of science, they have become so busy and lost in the maze of metaphysical, mystical, and supernatural theories that they do not know which road to take. They try a mixture of many systems and fail in all. For these, again, the very best thing to do is to show the right way in your own person and practice; an ounce of doing things is worth a pound of theorizing.
You can serve God and man in no more effective way than by getting wealth. There is only one way to think scientifically, and that is to think in the way that leads by the most direct and simple route to the goal.
Acting in the Certain Way
Thought is the creative power or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act; thinking in a Certain Way will bring wealth to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying any attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck—the failure to connect thought with personal action.
By thought you can cause the gold in the hearts of the mountains to be impelled toward you; but it will not mine itself, refine itself, coin itself, and come rolling along the roads seeking its way into your pocket.
Under the impelling power of the Supreme Spirit, men’s affairs will be so ordered that someone will be led to mine the gold for you; other men’s business transactions will be so directed that the gold will be brought toward you, and you must so arrange your own business affairs that you may be able to receive it when it comes to you. Your thought makes all things, animate and inanimate, work to bring you what you want; but your personal activity must be such that you can rightly receive what you want when it reaches you. You are not to take it as a charity, nor to steal it; you must give every man more in use value than he gives you in cash value.
The scientific use of thought consists in forming a clear and distinct mental image of what you want; in holding fast to the purpose to get what you want; and in realizing with grateful faith that you do get what you want.
Crucial Point in Getting Wealth
Do not try to “project” your thought in any mysterious or occult way; that is a wasted effort and will weaken your power to think with sanity. You must act in a Certain Way, so that you can appropriate what is yours when it comes to you; so that you can meet the things you have in your picture, and put them in their proper places as they arrive.
You can readily see the truth of this. When things reach you, they will be in the hands of other men, who will ask for an equivalent for them. And you can only get what is yours by giving the other man what is his.
Your pocketbook is not going to be transformed into a Fortunatus’s purse, which shall be always full of money without effort on your part.
This is the crucial point in the science of getting rich; right here, where thought and personal action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.
By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.
Act NOW
Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past, and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived.
Because you are not in the right business, or the right environment now, do not think that you must postpone action until you get into the right business or environment. And do not spend time in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives. If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided mind, and will not be effective. Put your whole mind into present action.
There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready for the reception of what you want, you must begin now. And your action, whatever it is, must most likely be in your present business or employment and must be upon the persons and things in your present environment. You cannot act where you are not; you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be; you can act only where you are.
Do not bother as to whether yesterday’s work was well done or ill done; do to-day’s work well.
Do not try to do tomorrow’s work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.
Do not try, by occult or mystical means, to act on people or things that are out of your reach.
Do not wait for a change of environment before you act; get a change of environment by action.
You can so act upon the environment in which you are now, as to cause yourself to be transferred to a better environment. Hold with faith and purpose the vision of yourself in the better environment, but act upon your present environment with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Do not spend any time in daydreaming or castle building; hold to the one vision of what you want, and act NOW.
Don’t Wait for the Right Business or Job
If you are engaged in some business and feel that it is not the right one for you, do not wait until you get into the right business before you begin to act. Do not feel discouraged, or sit down and lament because you are misplaced. No man was ever so misplaced but that he could find the right place, and no man ever became so involved in the wrong business but that he could get into the right business.
Hold the vision of yourself in the right business, with the purpose to get into it, and the faith that you will get into it, and are getting into it; but ACT in your present business. Use your present business as the means of getting a better one, and use your present environment as the means of getting into a better one. Your vision of the right business, if held with faith and purpose, will cause the Supreme to move the right business toward you; and your action will cause you to move toward the business.
If you are an employee, or wage earner, and feel that you must change places in order to get what you want, do not “project” your thought into space and rely upon it to get you another job. It will probably fail to do so. Hold the vision of yourself in the job you want, while you ACT with faith and purpose on the job you have, and you will certainly get the job you want. Your vision and faith will set the creative force in motion to bring it toward you, and your action will cause the forces in your own environment to move you toward the place you want. (Excerpt is from ‘The Science of Getting Rich’ by W. D. Wattles).
