The Self-confidence Formula: Second

Second:  I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality; therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating, in my mind, a clear, mental picture.  (Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, p. 46)

One of my favorite quotes is from the Prophet Muhammad:  "The most excellent jihad is that for the conquest of self."  I quote it because it's right, it's true, it's wise.  There is no greater struggle, none more difficult, and none more necessary!  The closer you come to that conquest, the easier EVERYTHING else is.  If you go easy on yourself, everything else will beat you up and take your lunch money.

Let me state a powerful, powerful corollary of this truth:    Self-indulgence is suicide.

When I was in seminary, it was a popular thing to ask stressed people, "What are you doing to take care of yourself?"  I used to answer that question with fun things I would do, things I would do to give myself a break.  And these are necessary, like salt.  But, like salt, overdone, they are poison!  Face it:  anything in life too far out of balance is poison.  And to live for self-indulgence is to take pleasure in your own slow dying. 

But a few years later, I learned a powerful lesson.  My wife was in her first years as Director of the Wesley Foundation at Georgia State University.  They were building a new building and moving Student Services into it.  One of the women there, who was greatly responsible for the move, and under a lot of stress, began to lose a lot of weight.  Winnie was worried about her, afraid the strain was hurting her.  The truth, however, was that this woman, under such a strain, chose to take control of one important area of her life:  her weight.  Her response to strain was to tighten up on her self-indulgence, and give herself the gift of a healthier body.  Now, she knew how to take care of herself!

When you have mastered yourself, you can master virtually anything.  When you have mastered yourself, then and only then can you really enjoy yourself.  You'll never find real pleasure in self-indulgence.  That is the artificial kind.

Real pleasure comes with excellence, with accomplishment, with achievement.  And that comes with self-control, self-mastery.

God has given you the godlike power to create yourself, and to recreate yourself.  You can make yourself into what you want to be.  But it will only take place with great desire, great effort, and probably a great deal of time!  It takes self-talk.  Self-hypnosis.  Saying it aloud, over and over and over again, until you convince yourself.  It takes a "clear, concise mental picture", a picture you hold up before your own eyes until it sparks an intense flame of desire within you, a desire that overwhelms all opposition, almost all of which will come from within yourself!

Or you can be ordinary, just like everybody else.

Is that what you want?