Developing Will and Ability

"When you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams, endeavor to live the life that you have imagined, you will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

H.D.Thoreau

THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL is the secret of personal power, independence of action and absolute freedom to chart our course in life in whatever way we choose.

A strong will is more valuable than money, more to be prized than gold, more precious than diamonds. For even if you get possession of these things, they will not change your essence. But the methods I am setting out to describe here, if you follow them, will. This is why, while a certain amount of money is necessary to survival in this world, and may make life pleasant, it never, on its own, brings permanent satisfaction and happiness.

People thought that the ancient alchemists were trying to turn base metals into gold, and even they perhaps thought so. But while they may not have succeeded in that, through their long years of toil in their laboratories, those who persisted, working for years at exercises of their own devising, produced a change in themselves. They achieved the philosophical gold, the extraordinary will which can then be set to any goal, and persist as if it had eternity in which to act and unlimited power at its disposal, with absolute confidence that you will succeed.

Such people have a calm confidence, are absolutely sure of their success, they have the power to do whatever they wish. If they wish to lose a certain amount of weight, they do so. If they wish to make a certain amount of money, they do so. If they wish to attain a certain position in life, they do so. And unless their intention or the methods they adopt are harmful to others - for as evidenced by two world wars, even the strongest will, set to evil purposes, will eventually be defeated by powers even greater than their own - this actually becomes the case, for they find that all their efforts are rewarded by a connection to the higher will, so that, even if they die in the midst of their work, others will complete the task for them. What I mean by the higher will must be left to another paper. First things must be undertaken first.

By following a graduated series of physical exercises, it is possible to transform our physical body - its shape, strength, and powers of endurance. It is the same with the power of the human will. By consciously setting out in a pre-planned way, to develop our will, by a series of carefully planned and graduated exercises, we can train ourselves to be persevering in the pursuit of our goals, to an astonishingly greater extent than we are now.

By creating new habits for ourselves, and sticking to what we have consciously set out to do, no matter what, we can stretch and extend our ability to do whatever we have previously decided to do, for however long it takes to achieve a result. In order to accomplish anything, it is necessary to believe in our ability to do it. We can accomplish anything which we believe reasonably in our possibility of doing. The key word here is 'reasonable'.

Each of us has, or should have, a good idea of our own potentials, abilities and limitations. If we do not, and we set out to develop our Will, we soon will have. This is because the development of will is a head on clash between you and your limitations. In setting out consciously to develop more will by adhering to set exercises, we soon find our limits, by reason of how difficult an exercise we are able to tackle successfully.

We should, as a matter of course, test our powers and abilities in every possible way and at every opportunity. Until you try to find out what you are capable of; test the abilities of this marvellous machine which you are - or which has been lent to you for seventy years or so - how will you know the full scope of what you can do? If you haven't dared to be different from how you have always been - tried various jobs, sports, recreations, how do you know that one of them doesn't contain the seeds of your success?

Writing, music, computer programming, selling, teaching, painting, car maintenance, martial arts, dancing, pottery, personal development - the list is endless. Only by trying things will you learn where your natural strengths - and limitations - are. Ideally, of course, all this should begin from birth - we should be taught to voluntarily test our abilities in any and every way we can. By and large the culture in which we live, and the sausage machine of formal education does not encourage us to do this. The sit-down-shut-up-and-listen philosophy turns us off from real self-education, which should always lead us to act - Education anagrams to ACTION DUE. If we think of all the things we were told at school which went in one ear and out of the other, and we have never been able to use, we can see something of the scale of the problem.

There has been a lot of emphasis, beginning with Maxwell Maltz's great book Psycho-cybernetics, on the importance and superiority of the imagination over willpower, when pursuing our goals. And the imagination is a powerful and important faculty. But if we set ourselves to regularly visualising our goal situation a certain number of times a day, or at a set time every day, what is it which causes most people to give up on that, or any other regular exercise or project they set themselves to, with 'the best of intentions', as most new year's resolutions are not kept? Why do we start so many things, courses, careers, etc. hopefully, only to be amongst the vast majority who fall by the wayside, while the seemingly charmed few go on to the prize? Willpower, which has almost become a derogatory term in certain personal development circles, is the backbone and backstop which separates achievers from non-achievers, since it is the element of character which allows us to perservere. But lack of it is not a failure of character, but a failure of training.

When someone says 'I have no willpower', it's not really a reflection on them. It's a reflection on a school and higher education system that teaches a lot of information, much of which will be outdated in a short time, but while teaching the essential skills which allow you to read this article, and to function economically, it does not teach you to train and educate your will, a faculty unique to human beings and which is of great help whatever we want to accomplish in life.

I provide a series of practical exercises to aid in the development of the will, the first step in a process of self re-creation. It has taken me over thirty years to come into harmony with the Way, but if I had realised the real power and potential of this teaching when I first came into contact with it, it would have taken me a lot less time to begin living the life of which I had always dreamed. I had to overcome what are called unconscious blockers, first, so having done that myself, I can tell you where to find the resources to do that too, which can be of great help in assisting you to overcome internal psychological barriers. I don't see myself as a teacher, just as a fellow student who's been around a while, and is prepared to help.

World Copyright © Kee Decemgero

For thousands of years, in cultures throughout history, powerful techniques of self-creation and success have been under the guardianship of societies of elite individuals with special training. An earnest attempt seems to have begun to make this previously esoteric knowledge responsibly but widely available using the power of modern technology and the mass media. The intention is that everyone on the planet who wishes to can learn and experience the benefits of this knowledge, previously reserved for a few. Applauding this, and seeing the potential for a giant leap in the general level of consciousness, wisdom and understanding of the human race, I decided to add my lifelong study and practise of both eastern and western spiritual paths to the resources of the most rapidly growing educational institution on the planet.

The Beginning...

"A great man causes religion to rise in others, but it is their own religion, not the great man's."

'L'

While still at school, I set a self-determined life intention, to which I have kept ever since:

"A SOLEMN DECLARATION OF INTENT

I, in (my birth name), on this the 4th March 1973, do solemnly declare before all of Existence, and in particular the hierarchy of beings on a higher level of consciousness than myself, that I wish to devote my energy and existence to attaining the highest levels of consciousness, wisdom and understanding possible, and using these and all other things within my power, in accordance with the will of the highest Being, to which I now surrender any personal wills of my own.

SIGNED

The 'I' in (my birth name) on 4th March 1973 A.D."

Personal Journal,vol. 3, p 2 of my (currently twenty-six volume) personal journal.

This has been the dedicated aim of my life, my guiding intention, ever since. I had been studying a wonderful, simple book by an american writer, David Schwartz Ph.D, called The Magic of Psychic Power. Books like that were not generally available on the shelves of bookstores in England, where I live, in those days. I had seen a small ad for the book at the back of a magazine called Weekend which our family took regularly when I was sixteen or seventeen, and I took the trouble to send for it. At the time I was interested in hypnosis and all things psychic. I don't know what I expected The Magic of Psychic Power to be about, but in fact it was all about positive thinking, going after what you really want in life, and rising above mediocrity.

David Schwartz passed away some years ago, but I shall always be grateful to him and his book - which is now out of print I think, but his previous top selling book The Magic of Thinking Big is still available. He urged his readers to set a 'life will', not just a will for when they die - to write down on paper, what. after careful forethought, you really, truly want and intend to do with your life. That was his principal advice.

I did that. And although I was still at school at the time, it was, fortunately, sufficiently well considered that it has continued to be my guiding light through all the intervening years, and it will remain so. I considered sharing it here, but it is personal to me, and I tend to share it only with people who I know. The principle of setting and keeping to a life goal and intention, like a compass or guiding star, has certainly helped me through some difficult times, and I confidently expect it to continue as the guiding motive of my life as long as I live, taking me on a 'magical mystery tour to 'staggering, awe inspiring things'. It has, in a sense, become my life, and my life has become an expression of my intention. From thirty-three years experience, I highly recommend the practice of setting a life purpose to any young person - or any person - reading this.

Today people tend to associate success mainly with financial and material wealth. I recommend making connection and direction by the Higher Power or God, under whatever guise your upbringing and culture have taught you to conceive it, your primary aim.

Acting as a conduit through which the abundance of the universe flows could certainly be a worthy secondary goal.

For thousands of years, in cultures throughout history, powerful techniques of self-creation and success have been under the guardianship of societies of elite individuals. A movement seems to be beginning to make this previously esoteric or 'secret' knowledge responsibly but widely available using the power of modern technology and the mass media. The intention is that everyone on the planet who wishes to can learn and experience the benefits of this knowledge previously reserved for a few.

Seeing this, and applauding the intention and potential for a giant leap in the general level of consciousness, wisdom and understanding of the human race, and as this knowledge has been the aim and centre of my whole adult life, I have decided to make the distilled essence of my thirty-three years of experience in eastern and western spiritual paths available world-wide.