THE MAKING OVER OF ONE'S SELF

Our first lesson is introductory, desiring to give the student the right view point of the subject, to enable him to see clearly the relation between character and achievements in life, and to clear the ground for the practical rules and instructions to follow

Our first rule then, and one of the most important of all, is this;

MAKE YOURSELF OVER

The student of these lessons will very probably interpose this objection We expected to get practical instructions in money-making and our teacher is giving us theoretical instruction in the building of character.

And for the very good reason that moneymaking, money-keeping and right money using depend on character. Nothing more directly bearing on material interests could be given a student than the up-building of a strong, progressive, courageous and determined character.

All real success in life in all departments of human endeavour depends on that. Men conquer material conditions by first conquering themselves. Men become rich in worldly goods by becoming rich in intellectual power, in faith, hope, courage, and in the creative powers of the mind.

The outward life is a reflex of the inward life and no man can become master of the outward and physical realms who does not master the kingdom within. No one is prepared to make wealth, conserve wealth, or rightly use wealth, who is in mental poverty, moral weakness or of a cowardly spirit.

The Great Master of Nazareth knew the order in which happiness, harmony, health and riches in fact all outward good come into the life, and expressed it when he said Seek first the Kingdom that is within and all these things shall be added unto you.

Multitudes of men want results in their lives without the trouble on their part of furnishing the efficient cause. But results do not come from mere wishing. Harvests do not come without the sweat and toil of the labourer and the sowing of the seed. All the greatest blessings of life and all our mightiest achievements result from right thinking, right feeling and right willing.

Until a man gets the right conception of the meaning of life, of the unlimited powers of the human soul, until his nature is burning with desire to do and dare and win, until his Will is developed by exercise and he has acquired Courage and indomitable Perseverance, he is poorly equipped for either attaining or rightly using money.

It is well worth the student's attention, therefore, to study the relation between strong character and great achievements.

Most people have to do considerable judicious weeding in the garden of their minds getting rid of many inherited and traditional ideas and notions of earlier times freeing the mentality from Fear, Worry, Doubt, and planting therein the seeds of Faith in themselves, in Nature, in the Law of Opulence, Faith in their own Rights, and developing Courage, Hope, Ambition and Patience, until mentally and spiritually they have rebuilt themselves into a nobler type of being.

As man's present outward condition whether poverty or wealth, happiness or misery is largely the result of his past methods of thinking, so will the future out- ward conditions be the direct outgrowth of his future methods of thinking.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he which is but another way of saying that man's body is the result of his thinking (conscious or unconscious); his speech, manner, gait, his culture conduct, his influence among men, his success or failure all are the natural sequence of his thoughts.

How, then, you ask, can one make himself over Just as a tailor makes over a coat, a carpenter makes over a house, a shipbuilder makes over a ship by changing the pattern or the design. We build our lives from Ideals as the carpenter builds his house from plans.

If we change our ideas, our conceptions of life, its privileges and responsibilities, our thoughts of ourselves, our ideals of character, and persist in holding the new ideas and ideals, we shall develop characters in harmony with them.

Whatever we want in our outward life in material expression, we must first build into our mental life, into our Ideals, Purposes and Will. Events, conditions and seeming results of chance or miracle in our outward life, are all under law and in reality are mostly genuine materializations of forms we have built up in our thought realm.

Life proceeds as a stream from the within to the without, from the mental and spiritual to the physical and material expressions. We must therefore create wealth in the mind before we realize its possession in the life.

This is not peculiar to the subject of money-making but applies to all life's activities, as we see that the architect first builds his house in his mind before he erects it on the material plane; the engineer constructs his tunnel mentally before he pierces the mountain or builds his underground railway; the financial magnate builds his plans of commercial conquest or aggression in the silence and secrecy of his own mind before he takes the first step toward their outward realization.

We shall treat this more fully in succeeding pages sufficient for the student at present to be impressed with the great fact that right ideas and conceptions, right plans and purposes, clear vision of opportunities, a strongly developed power of mental creation, unflinching courage, an adamantine will and a perseverance that never tires, are among the essential requisites in moneymaking.

Let me assure the student of these pages that much thought, time and effort spent in getting a clear grasp of these truths, and in weeding out erroneous ideas and impressions from the mind, in getting a right viewpoint of this subject, a right concept of one's own place in nature as Lord and Master, a right view of one's intimate relation to, and vital connection with, the Great Source of all Wisdom, Strength and Goodness, through which he may draw unlimited supplies in all life's honest endeavors, is not wasted, but will prove of unspeakable advantage to him in conquering Poverty and acquiring Wealth.

These considerations are not incidental, or accessory, but vital and fundamental to the subject. The student, therefore, should make a close inspection of his own mental and spiritual equipment for the great struggle he is to enter upon in the conquest of the conditions and limitations of life.

Then he must gain by reflection, study and experience a clear and lofty ideal of the type of character he would reach, the style of man he must become if he would succeed in the race for wealth, in the battle he would fight to rise from the cabined, cribbed and confined conditions of poverty to the enjoyment and power of great wealth.

He will doubtless find himself in possession of qualities of mind and traits of character not only useless but positively detrimental to success in life. These he must no matter how great the effort or long the struggle eliminate. Then he will find other mental qualities and characteristics essential to success conspicuous by their absence, or by very faint expression in his life.

These he must develop, nourish, exercise and call into Strength and Beauty. So the work of making one's self over is a three-fold work a thorough diagnosis of our own mental, moral and spiritual equipment for the battle before us ; elimination of undesirable ideas, characteristics, habits, etc.; and the cultivation of the un-developed germs of mental and spiritual qualities essential to success.

This three-fold work of preparation is as rational and essential to one seeking wealth as the careful study of the mental qualities, the physical endowment and the rigid training of the athlete before a contest as necessary as the discipline, training and equipment of the soldier in war.

The man who thinks himself qualified without this three-fold mental discipline to enter upon the fierce competitions and tremendous difficulties in his struggle for his share of worldly good, is as truly a fool as the man who, untrained, wages war with the athlete in the arena. No one but a fool expects the harvest without toil and seed-sowing.

Only the fool expects results without adequate cause. Right ideas, views of life, right conceptions of your own powers, right ideals and purposes, the right courage and will and the right hope and spirit, constitute the adequate cause for the result we call success. They are the fruitful seed of the harvest you wish to reap. The student cannot be too deeply impressed with the necessity of this mental and spiritual preparation.

In this making-over process, time, money, effort and zeal are well expended. Every teacher who can give you a fruitful idea, every book that can bring a real inspiration, every exercise of mental gymnastics that can strengthen the will, every ray of light that can give you clearer vision of true ideals, is of priceless value to you.