Week 22a ~The Wisdom of Mandino, Emerson and MKMMA

We are to begin to be more self reliant .  This past week we did not have a webinar.  We have practiced silence and we are on our newest scroll VI and we had a new read of Emerson’s , his poem and essay on Self Reliance, written in 1841.

When we start a new scroll, from Og Mandino’s book, The Greatest Salesman,…we are to carry over something from the previous scroll.  I chose, Og’s statements, ….” I avoid with fury the killers of time.  Procrastination I destroy with action, doubt I bury under faith; fear I dismember with confidence.”   and I also added his sentence of…” The duties of today I shall fulfill today.”

One of the challenges presented to us in the previous webinar was how to use things like fear, anger, unworthiness, guilt and hurt feelings, as tools.  To change this things to good and useful, exciting realization of good change coming if we so choose to be observant and look at it from a better perspective and ask ourselves better questions for better results.

And lo, right there in scroll VI , Og Mandino also had some great advice…..he said, “…….I will learn this secret of the ages:   Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions;  strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.  ……. If I feel depressed I will sing.  If I feel sad I will laugh.  If I feel ill I will double my labor.  If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.  If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.  If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.  If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.  If I feel incompetent I will remember past success.  If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.  Today I will be master of my emotions. ”

Now, the only part I didn’t agree with was the one that said, if I feel ill I will double my labor. … Now if you have a virus,  you best rest and get better!  Because if you don’t, life has a way of making you rest, by your getting so sick it knocks you off your feet. I’m thinking perhaps he meant ill as in, ill with worry of doing something or taking action of something in which we may not have confidence in our ability.  Which upon looking at the 6th definition of ill,  in my dictionary it says….Not up to recognized standards of excellence or conduct.  So then , yes, in that case doubling your labor might be like practice so we can get better.  Otherwise in my mind, I question, why would you want to double your labor if you are ill, and might make things worse?  Certainly, why would someone want to listen to someone who is ill sounding?  Especially if it’s about health and nutrition.  But then again, he could mean like one of those days when you just don’t feel up to a job, but once you get started and get involved you feel better.  Ah well, perhaps it will be clearer in another scroll.

The other part of this scroll I found interesting and encouraging, is where Og, as the character Hafid, says..” No longer will I judge a man on one meeting; no longer will I fail to call again tomorrow on he who meets me with hate today.  This day he will not buy gold chariots for a penny, yet tomorrow he would exchange his home for a tree.  My knowledge of this secret will be my key to great wealth. ”

Well that there is helpful to not give up,  each day is a new day.  We must remember one never knows what one is going through in their life.  That how they act that particular day, may have nothing to do with you or what you are sharing.  So if perhaps you think something didn’t go well that day, or they might not be interested.  Still, you must follow up,.. for again, it is a new day and it may be a better response.

Now in regards to the recommended reading of Emerson’s essay on self reliance.  My goodness that is heavy thinking!  People were thinking like this in the 1800’s?  Holy Toledo!  I must say, I could only read parts at a time and then read a little more later.  And I must admit some went over my head. And then I recall how in history, some of our nations leaders  learned latin and other languages and communicated with people in other countries in that countries native tongue!  And their mathematics and vast knowledge was amazing!   And one just doesn’t see this kind of writing,   at least in everyday writing.  Maybe these folks would have been members of the elite MENSA organization for folks with a real high  I Q.    But  then again, high I Q is a good thing but it is also important to have emotional intelligence.  And that takes us back to the scroll about being in control of our emotions.

You know what’s kind of funny, the word mensa in spanish slang means silly or stupid.   Guess that would be an oxymoron!!  lol!    ( but I digress!  Sorry! Just one of those funny word things 🙂  Please take this silly observation lightly and in good fun.

How awesome to be so brilliant as those in Mensa though!   I bet they would have breezed through Emerson’s essay. 🙂

So here are some neat sentences from Emersons essay on Self Reliance that I did understand and appreciate.   ” Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.   Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connections of events.   Great men have always done so,….. ”      “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think. …….the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”  ” The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force.  It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character….so much force is withdrawn from your proper life.  But do your work, and I shall know you.  Do your work and you shall reinforce yourself….”

” There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest, and natural in their hour.  For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. ……Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions.  Your conformity explains nothing.  Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now.  Greatness appeals to the future.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

So that above would be finding our true blue print.  To be all that we can be and accomplish what we have the ability and destiny to do if we so choose and take the action.

I am so grateful to, Mark J,  The Fabulous Davene, and Trish and all of my fellow MKMMA classmates.

Feeling more confident, now I must take more action.

Thank you all for sharing your journeys and for the kind encouragement.