SUMMARY CHECKLIST OF THE USES OF RATIONAL THOUGHT (By Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S.)

1. It is the job of rational, conscious thought to examine and analyze incoming messages, to accept those that are true and reject those that are untrue.

2.  It is the job of the conscious rational mind to form logical and correct conclusions.

3.  It is the job of conscious rational thought to decide what you want, select the goals you wish to achieve, and concentrate on these rather than on what you do not want.

4.  It is the job of your conscious mind to pay strict attention to the task at hand, to what your are doing and what is going on around you, so that these incoming sensory messages can keep your automatic mechanism currently advised of the environment and allow it to respond spontaneously.

LAW OF HABIT

Thought is the force underlying all acts; repeated actions formulate habits; a system of habits constitutes a character; and, one’s character largely determines one’s destiny.

And what is meant by this? Simply this: Every conscious act is preceded by a thought. Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. Repeated acts crystallize themselves into a habit. The aggregate of your habits is your character.

Whatever, then, you would want to be your character you must look well to the character of every thought you entertain. If there is an act that is not in your best interest to do or a habit that you would not wish to acquire, you must guard against thinking about such.

In other words, guard your mind from negative thoughts; and, whenever one gets into it, displace it with positive thinking. Don’t let a negative thought give birth to some negative act. It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, if entertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach the motor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. And, repeated actions build strongly resistant habits.

LAW OF BELIEF

The universal law of belief states that we do not believe what we see, we rather see what we have already decided to believe.

LAW OF SUBSTITUTION

Brian Tracy, in his book Maximum Achievement, explains the Law of Substitution this way:

“It states that your conscious mind can hold only one thought at a time, and that you can substitute one thought for another. The ‘crowding out’ principle allows you to deliberately replace a negative thought with a positive thought.”

It is virtually impossible to eradicate a thought from your mind unless you fill the space with something else. 

The more you try not to think about something, the more you think about it.

And, according to Sigmund Freud, when a thought is deliberately forgotten it just recedes into the subconscious mind where it can cause havoc without the person ever knowing the cause.

So, rather than trying to forget negative thoughts it is better to replace them with positive thoughts. 

LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

Things that you think, say, and do will be causes that have effects on something or somebody even if on nothing or no one but your own mind and your own body.

LAW OF ATTRACTION

For me, the law of attraction works in this way:

You tend to attract or are attracted to that which you think about.

NATURE IS OUR CREATOR

Humans are the helpers and interpreters of nature. Humans have only acted rationally and comprehensively in so far as we have learned about and adapted to nature. By experimenting with nature or observing nature humans have come to perceive nature’s order and learn nature's laws.  Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another. Thus the knowledge of nature’s laws and order is power. There is no strength that can break the causal chain of nature, and nature cannot be conquered but by being obeyed.  Accordingly the twin goals—human science and human power—come in the end to be one. To be ignorant of the related causes and effects is to be frustrated in actions.

Our creator has clearly defined mental guidelines to direct our path: The laws of attraction, cause and effect, substitution, belief, habit, use or lose, and correspondence are only a few. Each guideline leads us to the safest and most fruitful path to travel. There is law and order in the universe. These rules for the road plant our feet on firm ground. They are words of reality that can provide light and uplift for our immediate pathways, and they can offer a beam of light down the corridors of our uncertain tomorrows.

Thus knowledge of nature’s laws and order is power, but mere knowledge is insufficient to keep an individual from acting like a fool. Nevertheless, obey these laws and prosper, disregard them and fail.