Lesson 11 – How to transform your thoughts into reality.

The University of success by Og Mandino
Lesson 11 – How to transform your thoughts into reality.

“All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts,” James Allan wrote in his book “As a man Thinketh.”

You are, literally, what you think, and your character is the complete sum of all your thoughts! So, what you are thinking now, and tomorrow, and next month, is what you will eventually become!

(I (Fay) read James Allen’s book years and years ago and it was one of the most important books I have ever read – it was then and it is now. It is a book that has been constantly in print for over 100 years and James Allen is undoubtedly one of the most quoted writers in all history.).

All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man’s; they are brought about by himself and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is: as he continues to think, so he remains.

Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly thugs, he must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. The higher he lifts his thoughts, the more upright and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his happiness, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.

Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.

Achievement of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought, a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption and confusion of thought, a man descends.

Victories attained by right thoughts can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success and happiness is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.

All achievements, whether in business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.

He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he go wouid achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.

The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so man through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget it’s dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade as die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.

He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that dresses your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. “Ask and receive.”

Dream lofty dreams,and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time, a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking Angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and drive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without.
You will realise the Vision of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart- this you will build your life by, this you will become.