What Does Tony Robbins Have In Common With Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Denis Waitley?

Could it just be that Robbins, Peale, and Waitley are great motivators?  That would be too obvious, but you will figure out the answer shortly.

As A Man Thinketh haw a great message for everyone.  It was written by James Allen in 1902 and is based on his meditations on Proverbs 23:7.  Your mind is like a garden, it will bring forth.  If you cultivate it, it will produce good results, results that you want.  If you let anything grow then your results will be the same as if you let your garden grow – you will get weeds.

It is important that you cultivate your vital thoughts.  This is a law that is fixed you reap what you sew.  “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”  There is great insight to be gained from doing your own meditation on that verse.

Circumstances grow out of your thoughts, when you sincerely seek to remedy the problems in your character, which was produced by your thoughts, you will see a rapid improvement in your circumstances.  Right thinking draws you to a life of prosperity and achievement.  Keep your mind on the things you seek.  This is another statement of the law of attraction.  The book contains all the elements of the law and it’s study will help you advance in that study.

Allen talks of mental harmony where your mind and thoughts are not torn by competing ideas.  When we allow ideas to be planted by others, by media, then we are not being good gardeners and may even become share croppers with others controlling us by the messages we allowed them to implant.

Limiting beliefs plague everyman and as we cultivate our thoughts we need to examine these.  Beliefs can both protect us and hold us back.  That is why we must understand why we hold our beliefs and should we keep them..

Allen says: “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”  That is very clear and one of the main themes of the book. Our thoughts bring our environment and our environment becomes a looking glass into our minds.  If we cannot make ourselves do the things we think we should do then we need to look deeper in to what is being planted in our subconscious.  We have to cultivate the beliefs that will cause us to take action in the ways we want, in the ways that will benefit us.

The answer to the question about what Robbins has in common with Peale, and Waitley is that they were all greatly influenced by “As A Man Thinketh.”  Were you looking for a more profound answer?  Alright, they were all profoundly influenced by “As A Man Thinketh” as many thousands or millions have been.

Read and listen to “As A Man Thinketh” there is a free downloadable audio and ebook from the links on this site.

“As A Man Thinketh” James Allen is sometimes called “As A Man Thinks.”

Jan 20th 2009 Podcast

James Allen speaks very clearly on the need for purpose in life.

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent
accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to
“drift” upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such
drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of
catastrophe and destruction.

When a person loses heart, loses direction and drifts – he begins a decay process, slow at first, but increasing as time goes by. Many begin to drift when they turn loose of their dreams. The thing they envisioned that once gave them joy causes them to look to the thing that they now see as impossible, inconceivable for them and they turn loose of their moorings. When this happens has the man become “realistic” or has he begun the slow drift that will end catastrophe and destruction. If a man cannot be drawn by something he feels good about, something that he loves, then what does he have in his life anyway?

As A Man Thinketh In His Heart, So Is He…

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it.

Have you lost bearings because the thing you love seems too difficult?

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Seneca

Do the thing and you shall have the power.
Emerson

Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.
Doug Horton

Don’t Put The Money Before The Joy

There is a book out a few years ago: Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow, why not try that idea on. Don’t put the money before the joy. Money is not a good objective but providing a contribution that gives you joy is. Expecting a reward when you have been of service likewise is a good thing.

Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who
_knows_ this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a
mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who
_does _this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his
mental powers.

A note, free audio for As A Man Thinketh is available on the resource sidebar or on this post: As A Man Thinketh Free Audio.

All my best,

Mike

By Michael Griffin

Jan 9th 2009 Podcast

How To Your thoughts create and control your circumstances

Can you see yourself a year from now, walking on the beach – the beautiful blue ocean out before you. The water is so clear you can see the fishes, small ones, larger ones, and some big ones. It is a wonderful day, perhaps you’ll take a swim later but now you are just taking it all in. You are here because a year ago you got some ideas and you immediately took action and put them to work in your business, in your life — now you are here on the beach on a perfect day.

Do you get that?

Thoughts + action taken = results

This is the underlying theme of “As A Man Thinketh.”

What kinds of thoughts is your mind churning out? It probably depends on what has gone into your head. Are you hearing how business is bad and no one has a chance. Perhaps you heard it on the news or even from some marketer who wants to use scare tactics and have you believe that his product is the only way out of your business dilemma.

The fact is the human mind is the most powerful goal seeking system on the planet. A question properly phrased, an instruction to find the answer, and the understanding and underlying belief that the result will come. In the case of the news and the marketer, information was planted in you mind by someone other than yourself. In the case of the marketer he had in mind actions that he would like you to take. In the case of the news report, perhaps a reporters bias of the facts, or a government agency, or something that is just wrong, has skewed the report causing confusion and inaction.

You have to take control of the information that feeds your mind. You have to examine what has gone into your mind that is driving the decisions you are taking today and that those decisions are driving your tomorrow.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad
thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but
saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from
nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world,
and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral
world (though its operation there is just as simple and
undeviating), and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.

Could your thoughts bring such great results to your life?

Allen says:

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it
loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its
cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened
desires,–and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives
its own.

A person must come to a decision about his life that he (he or she) is responsible for it. At that point he must begin to examine his thoughts and recognize the powerful goal seeking system that is his mind. He must look at the beliefs that would have him not make that extra sales call, or watch three or four hours of TV instead of looking for ways to produce the income that will give him the perfect days at the beach, that will insure his future.

TV wasn’t a part of the picture when Allen wrote As A Man Thinketh but there have always been plenty of ways to ‘sew nettles’ in the fertile field of the mind. The point is what beliefs are running your mind and therefore your life that would cause you to spend so much time in a way that will cause you to be only a very ordinary person? Earl Nightingale discusses this very issue, he calls it “The Strangest Secret.”

How They Laughed When I Said – my thoughts create and control my circumstances

What is it that you want to do that you’ve had on the back-burner so long that you hardly think of it at all anymore? Perhaps you bought a course quietly, to study in private, so people wouldn’t see you reach for the stars? So people wouldn’t laugh? Where did that thought – that people will laugh – come from? Is it your thought or is it just one of those thoughts generally held that keep people mindlessly doing the same thing as everyone else and causing them to trail down the road of life one-after-the-other like cattle to the slaughter?

New Thought Will Help You Put the law of attraction to work in your life, bringing you the things you want rather than what society has for normal people.

Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at
the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions
of his life.

If you direct your mind – if you tell it to seek the things that you want by holding a clear and definite picture of the outcome you want, then it will begin to target that result and not the results that people all around you are getting.

Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts, which
he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most
speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.

Remember that your mind is a powerful goal seeking system. Unless you want to wind up somewhere else – you need to take over what goes into it yourself, you need to be the programmer. Allen has also, without saying so, introduced the law of attraction into the mix. This is a step beyond the simple cause and effect relationship that we spoke about in part 1 of this post and have continued until now. “Nature helps every man” and from the previous quote: “rapid transformation.” These are acknowledgments of the larger force at work as we have been discussing in Wallace Wattles “The Science of Getting Rich.” We will develop the idea more as we examine the later chapters of the book but will not focus too much on it for now.

The Effect of Thought on Circumstance – As A Man Thinketh – This is the message, take charge of your thoughts and you will take charge of your life.

Next time we’ll pick up with chapter 3 of James Allen’s “As A Man Thinketh.”

By Michael Griffin

Jan 8th 2009 Podcast

The Great Books – Ideas Held In Common

The Science of Getting Rich, Think and Grow Rich, and now As A Man Thinketh share the common idea that what you think has a profound affect on your external world. There are several levels on which you can think of this, several levels on which you may or may not choose to accept and agree with the idea.

First it is not much of a stretch to realize that a person who walks around like Eyore in the Winnie the Pooh stories (Eyore is the donkey with the rain cloud that follows him) will not see the good around him nor can he because he is constantly filtering it out. There is so much happening in the world around us that we cannot take it all in and the conscious mind filters parts which it considers unimportant. And so the mind will see the things it is looking for. It will seek them out to find them just like the guidance system on a heat seeking missile it will find what is programmed into it.

On one level, this is what James Allen is saying, our thoughts help us tune into those things in the world that will either empower us or cause us to turn away like Eyore. Eyore either won’t see or doesn’t think he is worthy. So tune up your thoughts to be able to see opportunity and tune up your thoughts to grab opportunities – grab them even if you don’t have the whole answer to it when you do Grab them. Successful entrepreneur after successful entrepreneur tells stories of getting into things that they didn’t have all the information or skills to accomplish and yet they pushed through and found the resources. This is different from not beginning because you notice some little block in the road.

Zig Ziglar uses the analogy of traffic lights. If you are going somewhere do you sit at home and wait for all the lights to turn green before you leave? Next time you have concerns about something down the road on your journey through life think about that a little, it is really quite profound.

That is the first level of accepting what Allen has to say in As A Man Thinketh. Is that something that makes sense, that our mind at the very least filters the world according to what we have put into it. That if we are expecting the worst, we will notice mostly things that are not working out and will have less inclination to try the new thing for ourselves.

Who Has Planted Your Garden?

Allen says that those filters in your mind are as if someone planted weeds in your garden.

Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently
cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or
neglected, it must, and will, _bring forth._ If no useful seeds are
_put _into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will _fall
_therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Allen makes the case for examining the thoughts, what is going on in your mind and why. Where did the thoughts come from, are they leftover from childhood, wrong information from a teacher, a pastor, a parent, a friend, something you saw on TV, or words from a song that you liked?

Can you take charge of those thoughts and begin to weed out the ones that stop you, the ones that cause you to believe that circumstance is responsible for your condition?

Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to
be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he
is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and
seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes
the rightful master of himself.

Allen says: “Circumstances grow out of thought.” As we are saying here, you find what you are looking for. Change what you are looking for and find something different.

A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad,
cannot fail to produce its results on the character and
circumstances. A man cannot _directly_ choose his circumstances, but
he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his
circumstances.

In the light of this truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fighting
against circumstances?” It means that a man is continually revolting
against an _effect_ without, while all the time he is nourishing and
preserving its _cause_ in his heart. That cause may take the form of
a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it
stubbornly retards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls
aloud for remedy.

Change your thoughts and change your circumstances

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to
improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

As I said, this is the first level of accepting the ideas of As A Man Thinketh. I don’t believe it is too much of a stretch to accept this. Earl Nightingale put it: “we become what we think about all day long.” He called it “The Strangest Secret“. If you accept this then you are well on your way to a life of accomplishment.

“Only himself manicles man” says Allen. Isn’t it time to put off the manacles and live life on your terms?

We will leave it there for now and pick up again next time in chapter 2.

“Thought and character are one”
James Allen

Jan 5th 2009 Podcast

As a Man Thinketh, Gettting Your Mind Into The Law of Attraction

As A Man Thinketh is a great little book published in 1902 by James Allen. Allen arrived at the philosophy of the book through observation and meditation. Allen was profoundly impacted by Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he… Allen argues that a man who works on himself inside first will soon see the changes reflected in his outer world.

As A Man Thinketh is a powerful philosophy that will help you achieve by changing and purifying your thoughts. The book will show you how to transform your thoughts into concrete actions that will result in the achievement of anything that you deeply desire in your heart.

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen argues that a man is his dream: that what a man thinks about is what he becomes. In the book, readers are introduced to effect of thought on circumstances; effect of thought on health and body; thought and purpose; thought factor in achievement; vision and ideals and serenity. It is another statement of the law of attraction.

Download As A Man Thinketh

In this post you’ll find the complete audio book and links to the text also on this site. We’ll be providing a download with the complete audio and also will include the chapters in the podcast. Likewise we will be providing a download of the EBook. Keep watch in the resources section for these items.

Throughout this week we’ll have posts about this book and will resume our regular podcast.

Download The Audiobook

You can read the book here

Foreword

Thought and Character

Effect of Thought on Circumstances

Effect of Thought on Health and the Body

Thought and Purpose

The Thought-Factor in Achievement

Visions and Ideals

Serenity

Download The Ebook

This Book Is Sometimes Called “As You Think” by James Allen

As A Man Thinketh or As You Think, both titles refer to the same great book by James Allen.

It is interesting how the success books of the first part of the 20th Century all tie into each other. Like today the authors were up on what other writers are doing. Learning from each other and refining their ideas. So it is with James Allen’s As A Man Thinketh.

It’s a great little book that I first read about 15 years ago. I’m sorry to say that I couldn’t relate to it, I read it and said, “OK,” and went on. On picking it up again I am amazed by all that I missed.

If you lay it along side “The Science of Getting Rich,” and “Think and Grow Rich” it highlights and enhances them. Each of these books brings out different points in the others.

On January 5th, 2009 when I pick up the podcast again, I will begin publishing the audio book of “As A Man Thinketh” and try to bring correlation between it and the other two books. It is an interesting comparison. Here is a preview of chapter 1:

Thought and Character

Look for this new series and new podcasts on www.TheRealMikeGriffin.com and Have a great new year.