Your choice: guarantee success by overcoming your bad habits and building up your character or guarantee your failure by refusing to do so. To find a way to escape from evil habit and weaknesses of character, we must go deeper than actual deeds, for actions are effects of hidden causes. The cause of all action is thought. A thought, someone has said, is an action in the process of being born. It is true that we possess primitive desires and impulses, but these can be changed into noble actions and high achievement, thus guaranteeing your success, simply by directing the thoughts and attention to higher and better aims, ambitions and pursuits.

It is impossible to overcome bad habits by fighting them, for the more we fight them the stronger they become. The way of escape is not by fighting evil or wrong habit, no matter what its character may be, but by concentrating upon building a good habit that shall cut the ground from under the feet of the bad one.

Whatever we fix our attention upon, or whatever it is that we idealize, our subconscious mind endeavors to actualize and make real in our life. By fighting a habit we direct subconscious attention to it, and this is fatal, for failure will sure follow. If, however, we turn our whole attention to something entirely different and which is of higher and better, all the powers of the subconscious are directed towards the production, in life and body, of the new object of attention and success will surely manifest.

We see, therefore, that we do not have to overcome habit. If we did our task would be hopeless, for the human will is helpless before the power of the subconscious mind. The subconscious powers can be led by the imagination, but they cannot be coerced by will. The will must be used not to fight the habit, but in raising and directing the attention to something higher and better. By this means a new habit is formed. The attention of the subconscious mind is taken away from the bad habit, and all its powers directed towards the creation of a new and better one. The subconscious does not care what the habit is. It is indifferent as to whether it is good or bad. It is just as willing to produce a good habit as a bad one. We, each of us, therefore, hold our fate in our own hands. We, can, by controlling our thoughts and imagination and by directing our attention to better things, focus all the powers of the subconscious on the building up of good habits, or, on the other hand, we can, by allowing our thoughts and mental pictures to low or weak ideals, fall into undesirable habits. The power that produces the habits is the same in each case; it is the way in which this power is directed that is vital and essential to guaranteeing your success or failure.

It is very necessary to point out that right thinking and correct use of the imagination must be accompanied by corresponding right action. Many people make use of affirmations and expect it to destroy their bad habits and build up better ones, but it never will, or can do so, unaided. Affirmations are useless if it is not followed by constructive action. Most people will find it necessary to do something in order to attract their attention and guide their thoughts to something quite different from the forbidden subject. They should expend our energies in physical culture, hobbies and intellectual pursuits. Later on, however, when they become more advanced in the science of right thinking, they will be able to direct their thoughts into any desired direction. This necessitates constant vigilance. Each thought has to be carefully scrutinized before being allowed to pass the threshold of the mind. By reversing every negative or unworthy thought into its opposite, a change is wrought in the brain and nervous system. The cells formerly used for wrong thinking and for the production of wrong action and failure go out of use as new cells are brought into use for the production of right action and guaranteed success.

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