12 Lessons in Concentration and Will Power

We should never be afraid to spend our money for anything which will benefit us.

There is plenty of money in the world and there is no reason why we should not relate with whatever amount we may want.

When we do not it is because we have used our concentration and will power wrongly and not because there is any lack in the supply of money.

When we try to get the best of anyone in any deal we are only beating ourselves by using our concentration and will power wrongly.

When we do anything with the consciousness of "economizing" we are simply shutting ourselves away from the universal abundance of the supply of everything through the wrong use of our concentration and will power.

When we attempt to control others and make them buy our goods whether or not they want them, we are using our concentration and will power wrongly and no matter how much profit we may make today as the result, the day will come when we will lose it all and everything else we may have.

All this is the result of the Universal Law which works out the effects of causes we set in motion through the wrong use of our concentration and will power.

We may say "I do not believe such rot," but that doesn't in any way affect its truth.
The time was, and not so very long ago either, when the most intellectual men in the world did not believe such "rot" as that the world was round, and they proved conclusively (to their own satisfaction) that it couldn't be round or else the water would all fall off of it.

The best educated men of that day, as well as the Christian religion, taught also that the sun revolved around the earth and ostracized and excommunicated those who did not profess similar beliefs, but that did not make the earth square neither did it make the sun revolve around the earth.

"Ignorance of the law excuses no one," so say our civil and criminal courts," and this is in full accord with the Universal Laws; our " beliefs," no matter what they may be, do not in any way excuse our ignorance.

It is evident that you wanted to learn something you did not know otherwise you would not have purchased these lessons.

The first thing for a real student to do is to become receptive to his teacher.

This does not mean that he has to become acceptive and swallow everything whole at one gulp without regard to whether or not it appeals to his reason, logic and common-sense, but it does mean that he should become receptive, and that when he finds something which does not agree with his preconceived ideas he should not reject it at once as being untrue but he should go to work to see how well he can prove its truth to himself.

There is nothing in these lessons but what the Author knows is true because he has proven them for himself and has taught thousands of his students how to prove them during the past few years.

There are two ways in which to learn any lesson: One way is to memorize the words.

This is the method usually adopted by most students.

The other way is to learn by absorption. That is, read the lesson over quietly, carefully, calmly, while in a relaxed condition and so absorb it rather than attempt to memorize it.

When we memorize a lesson we only get the form, the words; we get little or nothing of either their consciousness or vibration.

Memorizing a thing gives us an intellectual knowledge of it, its theory, but gives us little or nothing of its wisdom or understanding.

When we absorb a lesson we may not at first be able to express our conception of it as intellectually as it is written but we at least get the soul of it, the wisdom and understanding of it, because we feel it and live it in our consciousness.

This is the true method of obtaining wisdom and understanding, and it is the method the Author would most earnestly recommend in the study of these lessons.

My best wishes are always with you.
THE AUTHOR.

12 Lessons in Concentration
and Will Power
by F.W. Sears
1919

Topics covered in the 12 lessons include: Concentration Rightly and Wrongly Used; Character of Thoughts We Think; Thought Habits; Inharmonious Thought Habits; Consciousness and Thought Habits; I'll Try Thought Habit; Overcoming Self-Consciousness; Law of Harmony; Law of Force; Oneness of All Life; Individuality; and Will Power.

F.W. Sears was a pioneer in the field of self-help writing and teaching and his theories remain as relevant decades after his death as they were at the time of his writings in the 1910s and 1920s.