The Dynamic Factor which Master-Controls Your Life – 3

WATCH OUT FOR THE NEXT FEW MOMENTS! THEY ARE loaded with a power that is going to take complete control of your life!
Within these next few moments, something is going to stick a needle into you and cause you to jump into action, or something is going to cinch you to a standstill and leave you like a helplessly tied victim of circumstances!

You can’t stop the clock! It’s ticking off the moments like a referee and, at the "count of ten," you are either going to "get up and go" or you are going to be counted out. Whichever happens to you, you can give credit or blame to that power, because you will act just the way it directs you to act. This power will dominate you just as certainly as you are reading these words.
But this is not the first time this has happened to you, nor will it be the last time. Your whole life has already been dominated by this controlling power, and if you live another hundred years, every single day will be controlled by this same power.

If you have not been warned about this power before, keep your eyes open and your mind alert, especially in the next few moments. You will be able to "see" and "feel" it taking control, because the stage has been set for a demonstration of it in your own life. Become aware of that stage setting, because it shows something else about this power. It indicates that you can control this "power" in your life. The stage was set in the last chapter, when I said that this book was written about you. Do you believe that?

Applaud yourself

You do believe this book was written about you if your name has been impressively inscribed in it, and if you made those three agreements with yourself! You have the feeling that you have done something worthwhile. Even before you have gone into action, you feel good about yourself. You feel like something is "applauding" inside of you. And something is! It is self-rightness, self-respect. It is just the opposite of conscience, which shakes its head in disapproval of your intentions.

When you signed your name, and made those agreements, you caused your subconscious to build up a positive influence in your life. Since this positive build-up came from the suggestions made to you, is this not evidence that the book is written for you? Every chapter is written with the same objective, to cause something positive to happen to you. What you have just done is meant to be the first step in cultivating a habit that is important to you in this book about you. This is the habit of participation, of "getting into the act" with me, when I suggest it.

Part of your life is in this book

There is life in this book, the elements of a dynamic life. The very nature of its contents calls for your participation. So, I am continuing with the assumption that you are a participant. This is not going to be a very impressive "drama of life" if the main character is sitting on the sidelines! So if you haven’t gotten "into character," stop here, go back and sign that statement of importance and get started on those agreements. Let these acts become the positive influence they should be in your life. Feel that "applause" from within. Then we can go on with a good understanding of your story!

In the actions you took in stepping up to this important position of self-rightness and self-respect, there was a dynamic force at work. This was a power that worked ON you and within you. This was the force that patterned those "agreements." This was the power that caused those emotional and intellectual reactions you had and which you still have.

What is really controlling your life

The name of this power is used rather glibly in the everyday language of most people, yet it is something that should have our profoundest respect. And when we analyze some of its effects, we could say that we should hold it in awe. This force that worked on and within you, in those actions, is influence, and influence is the dynamic factor that master-controls your Me and the life of everyone else!
There never has been a moment, and there never will be a moment, in your life when you are not affected by this power. It affects you when you are at your best, and when you are at a low ebb. It affects you when you are with people, and when you are alone. It affects you when you are in dynamic action, and when you are "doing nothing." It even affects you while you sleep. Every minute of every day of your life is controlled by this master force we call influence!

Don’t be a living puppet

If I wanted to indulge in a bit of "fantasy fiction" here, I could paint a picture of influence as a "master," making puppets of all of us. I could picture you with a lot of strings attached to your body, with you doing whatever that puppet-master influence made you do. But I can’t imagine you in the role of a puppet, although you and I both know people who could assume this role. These are people who have let themselves become captives of uncontrolled influence. They are people who have let themselves be humbled into puppet status by not considering themselves important enough for anything other than come-what-may influence. Many such persons have become slaves of uncontrolled influence because, at first, they thought it would be easier that way only to find that the "easier way" was an illusion.

But a while ago, you painted a more realistic picture of you and influence. In Chapter 1, you took an inventory of some of the effects of influence in your Me. Take another look at that book-marked inventory and let us see what it reveals. Everything listed there, of course, is related to action. A bit of analysis will show that there are four areas of action indicated on that list and in your life. These are the areas of physical action, emotional action, intellectual action and spiritual action. Of course, all are not as outward and obvious as physical action, but you are a party to one or more of those actions continuously.

You can achieve positive results

Your inventory of influence also revealed something else, quite dramatically. Those actions that came about, or are forecast, and that are the result of your own desire and decision, were the best actions, for the most part. And you find that if you had used your own influence with greater determination, you could have changed or amended some of those outside influences, to your benefit. This is so because you really know what you want to do and what is best for you. So now you know that in addition to having the scales balanced in favor of action from your own influence, you need to keep your own influence consistently on the positive side.

Yes, influence does master-control your life, but you can become the skilled technician who controls most of the influences in your life. In the last chapter, you probed the world of self-influence. Now go all the way, and have a controlled experience, by going into action on those three agreements. This can be the beginning of a golden era in your life, through self-influence!

Depend on yourself first

At this point, you may have some questions. Other people do when I have taken them this far in a developmental experience with self-influence. They have asked: "Can I depend on this self-influence plan to work all the time? Do you mean that I should go out on my own, and figure that I can always call the shots right? What about self-influence in relation to the big things in my life?"
If you have such an inquiring attitude, it is good, because it means that you are alert and you want to know "what and why." It means that you are seeking understanding, with an open mind, you are going to find it.

You can rely upon the effectiveness of self-influence 24 hours a day! Even though you are envisioning a 24-hour period as including such things as eating, driving a car, recreation, and, of all things, sleeping, I repeat, you can use self-influence at all times! As we move along, I’ll show you how to use it in every specific circumstance, even while you are sleeping!
But just now, let’s cover that question about the "big things."

Everything you do is important

Nothing you ever do that is of your own volition is a "little thing." Everything that you do that is self-influenced is important at its source, and that source is the most important you! Your job, your home life, your future are all big things in your life, of course. But your active relationship to them is based upon many actions. No one big action is going to make or break your job status or your future. On the other hand, everything you do, even though at times it seems like a "little thing," is affecting one or more of the big things in your life. Self-control of more and more of every action will assure good outcomes in the big things. This is, of course, only common-sense psychology, and that is the basis for all of the contents of this book of yours.

Now about that question, "Will I always call the shots right?" You are not being handed a "genie’s lamp" through self-influence. Of course you won’t have a 100 per cent score, all the time! But let me ask you a question. What is your score in life right now, where outside influence is calling most of the shots? I know what your answer is. The score isn’t anything you are too happy about. You know you could better the score if you could call more of the shots yourself! Through controlled self-influence, you will run up a consistently higher score, and that is our objective!
Suppose you do call a shot wrong once in a while. In the past you might have said: "Well, I have nobody to blame but myself." But in the future, guided by your high standard of importance to yourself, you are going to say: "Well! I learned something I didn’t know before. I’ll take better aim and try another shot!" As we go along, I am going to show you how to always have that positive attitude, on your own!

Science has paved the way

You are not a pioneer in this experience with self-influence, you know. It may be a first experience for you, but you are travelling a trail that has already been clearly blazed. Ahead of you have travelled men and women who have used self-influence through all of the ages of recorded history. And immediately ahead of you have travelled the men and women of modern science, the science of human behavior and relationships. The "trial-and-error" experiences of the first group have been evaluated and tested by the second group. Out of this research has come the modern-day knowledge that makes up your book.

Researchers and scholars have always been intrigued by the question: "Why are some people so successful in life, while others are not, when the basic circumstances of both are the same?" Of course, the "man-in-the-street," including you and me, has been mightily intrigued by it, too! The proven answer is that only self-influenced people lead the most successful lives. This has always been so. How they do it is the theme of this, your book.

The best people are self-influenced

Who are some of the people who have travelled, and are travelling, this trail of self-influence? They are all people with high standards of their importance to themselves—just like you. Incidentally, you will observe a common thread running through their lives which acknowledges an overtone of influence that I am sure you and I agree upon. This is the influence of the spirit of their Creator. The hand of the Supreme Being seems to rest encouragingly on the shoulders of these self-influenced people.

Seven centuries before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah had to rely on self-influence to give him strength to fulfill his destiny. In the face of violent opposition, he had to make a strong pact with himself before he could publicly say: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah."

George Washington, leading his people in a struggle for what they felt was right, had no stable government to back him. In almost every circumstance that called for decision on his part, he had no precedent to guide him. He had to depend upon self-influence. Our country was founded upon the standards of this self-influenced man.

Leaders are self-influenced

Benjamin Franklin, an apparently versatile genius, living at a time when his people needed his influence, was acting almost 100 per cent on the self-influence principle of living.

Abraham Lincoln, created the leader of a confused people by time and circumstance, brought a new concept of living to his country, by depending and acting upon self-influence.

Clara Barton, seeing a realistic need that could be met only by service, had to back her determination to render this service, with self-influence. Few saw her vision, at first, but the Red Cross was born of the self-influence action of this woman.
Herbert Hoover, world citizen and President of the United States, faced the devastation of an election defeat at the height of his career. He had no one else but himself to turn to. But, long before, Herbert Hoover had learned the value of self-influence, and he used it again, to rise to even greater heights in human accomplishment.

The doctor upon whom you depend to administer to you in the care of that complex machine that is your body does so in a successful manner only because he combines knowledge and skill with the use of good judgment. Besides being a medical practitioner, he is a practitioner of self-influence, and you rely upon that self-influence.

Interesting people are self-influenced

The man you may have seen pitch a no-hit, no-run baseball game had to know how to apply self-influence many times during the game. Self-influence was the reserve power that helped him put the ball across the plate so that it couldn’t be hit!
The test pilot who takes an untried aircraft on its first flight, goes equipped with experience, skill, nerve and self-influence! If he couldn’t depend upon himself, he couldn’t fly that plane!

That fine woman who was made an untimely widow, yet who has made the adjustment in life that makes her a wholesome, purposeful person, on her own, knows the power and value of self-influence.
Any person who has inspired you by words or deeds, who has demonstrated a fresh viewpoint or who acts self-confidently, has been motivated by forces he or she marshalled with the power of self-influence.

Success comes from self-influence

Indeed, self-influenced people do lead the most successful lives. These are the kind of people you are taking your cue from in following the path of self-influence in this book of yours. This indeed is the dynamic factor that master-controls your life. The next step is to learn the skill of self-influence, all the way!

What have you learned about your life? You have become aware of that force that is working ON you, from the outside, and within you, in your mind. This ever-present force is influence, and it master-controls your life. It always has and always will!

Self-influence for yourself

You now know that you can control this force in your life by cultivating the skill of self-influence. You know that you can make self-influence exert positive control over your life, and you know that you can depend on this kind of control 24 hours a day, every day. Other successful people have done this. The secret of their success has been their determination to influence their own lives, call their own shots, shape their own futures. But there is no secret to learning the skill of self-influence. The determination to learn is the first self-influenced step for you to take, and that is right at hand!

IN SUM

You can learn to control influence.
Influence shapes your life.
Self-controlled influence is the key to success.
Cultivate the skill of self-influence and you will be able to depend on its positive control at all times.

2. Continuing with the paper and pencil, make a "bright star" list of six items that represent accomplishment in your life, where you called the shots that made them happen. You wouldn’t be out of line if you put a gold star in front of each item. Please do put these down on paper, because I want you to prove to yourself that the potential for positive self-influence is dynamic in your life!

3. Write down three items that are concerned with the present time in your life.

What self-influenced action are you involved in, or in which you are about to be involved, that positively affects:

(a) Your home life?
(b) Your financial status?
(c) The use of the power of your subconscious mind?

If you are a "good student," and are "doing your home work," you could list all three answers quickly, "a" and "b," for example, could be related to your agreements in Chapter 2. Right? And would you say that "c" is related to your participation, thus far, in your book? I would say it is! Your objective here is prove that this idea of self-influenced action is not a nebulous thing but that, rather, it is related to your life at this moment!

(Again, don’t throw this "home-work" away. Better fold it in as a bookmark at this chapter!)