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All the business
activities of the world are developing the will. Through
them will and desire work together in evolving latent
powers.
Desire
arouses will power. A man
desires wealth and the desire plunges him into
business activities and stimulates the will by which he
overcomes all the difficulties that lie in his way.
Ardent desire for an education arouses the will of the
student and the awakened will triumphs over poverty and
all other barriers between him and the coveted diploma.
If a man stands at a lower point in evolution where he
has not the ambition for intellectual culture nor for
fame nor for wealth, but only the desire for shelter and
food, still that primitive desire forces him into
action; and while his will power will be evolved only in
proportion to the strength of the desire that prompts
him, it must nevertheless grow. Instead of rising at a
certain hour because the will decrees it he may rise
only because he knows his livelihood depends upon it.
But he is learning the same lesson – the overcoming of
the inertia of the physical body--albeit it is
compulsory instead of voluntary. But all this is
unconscious evolution. It is the long, slow, painful
process. It is the only way possible for those who are
not wise enough to co-operate with nature in her
evolutionary work and thus rise above the necessity of
compulsion.
How, then, may we
develop the will when it is so weak that we are
still the slaves of nature instead of the masters of
destiny? Will power, like any other faculty, may be
cultivated and made strong. To do this one may plan
in advance what he will do under certain
circumstances and then carry out the program without
evasion or hesitation when the time arrives. His
forethought will enable him to do this if he does
not undertake things too difficult at first. Let him
resolve to do at a certain hour some small thing
which, in the ordinary course of his duties, he sees
is necessary but unpleasant; and then firmly resolve
in advance that exactly at the appointed time he
will do it. Thus fortified before the trial comes he
will probably go successfully through with it. After
once deciding upon the time there should be no
postponement and not an instant's delay when the
moment arrives.
One of the things we
have to learn is to overcome the inertia of the
physical body and many people are not really awake
on the physical plane because they have not done so.
To a certain extent they are "dead" within the
physical body for it is a condition much nearer
death than that supposed death of one who no longer
has the physical body. The inert mass of physical
matter in which such people are functioning leaves
them only half alive until they have aroused
themselves from its domination. They remind one of
the lines:
"Life is a mystery,
death is a doubt,
And some folks are dead
While they're walking about!"
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This inertia of the physical body
that so often renders people nearly useless is very
largely a matter of habit and can be overcome to a
surprising degree by simply using a little
will-power. Everybody is familiar with the fact that
it is sometimes much easier to think and act than at
other times. But perhaps it is not so well known
that the dull periods can invariably be overcome by
an effort of the will and the physical body be made
to do its proper work. An actor or lecturer after
months of continuous work may find the brain and
body growing tired and dull. He may feel when going
before his audience that he has not an idea nor the
wit to express it were someone else to furnish it.
Yet by an effort of the will he can
quickly overcome the condition and change from
stupidity to mental alertness and intensity of
thought. The self is never tired. It is only the
physical body that grows weary. It is true that it
has its limitations and must not be overtaxed and
driven beyond endurance as a tired horse is
sometimes cruelly urged forward with whip and spur.
Judgment must always be used
in determining one's capacity for
work. But that which is to be done should never be
done draggingly, with the inertia of the physical
body marring the work. We should be fully awake
instead of "dead" while we "are walking about." If a
person resolves to be the master of the body
he may soon acquire the power to arouse it to
activity and alertness during all his waking hours,
very much as one may acquire the habit of keen
observation and be conscious of what is occurring in
his vicinity instead of being carelessly unconscious
of the major portion of what is going on immediately
about him.
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