12 How to Get What You Go After

DESIRE IS THE gift of God, or the Cosmic Power, seeking expression through you. When you are hungry, the Life-Principle supplies you with the desire for food in order to preserve you. When thirsty, you desire water; when cold, you build a fire; when sick, you desire health.

The Limitless Cosmic One within you does not desire to express Itself in any form of limitation. The desires, urges, intimations, and promptings of your Deeper Mind are always lifeward, urging you to rise, to transcend, to grow, and to manifest your desires for health, happiness, prosperity, true expression, and the fulfillment of your ideals, dreams, and aspirations. Desire is the goad which pushes you onward, upward, and Godward.

Men who had strong desires and powerful ambitions to get what they went after and to achieve their goals in life, made America what it is today—the greatest industrial nation in the world. For instance, Henry Ford desired to build an automobile. Then he had another desire still greater than the first, which was to put the whole world on wheels. The attainment of this desire gave employment to millions of people all over the world and blessed humanity in countless ways.

Desire is the beginning, and its realization is the end and the solution to your problem. Failure to realize your desire is the cause of frustration, unhappiness, and illness. To continue desiring to reach your goal morning, noon, and night over a prolonged period of time, yet failing to get what you go after, brings chaos and confusion into your life and is the cause of endless suffering—mental, emotional, and physical.

YOU CREATE YOUR OWN DESTINY

The Bible says: . . . Choose you this day whom ye will serve (Joshua 24:15). You can choose right now to mold, fashion, and create a wonderful future. Your thought and feeling control your destiny.

Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks all day long,” and the Bible says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he . . . (Proverbs 23:7). The word heart in the Bible is an old Chaldean word meaning the subconscious mind—all of which means that whatever thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and impressions you have made, or have permitted others to impregnate your mind with, have a life of their own in your Deeper Mind, and they dictate, control, and manipulate all your conscious actions.

In other words and in utter simplicity, what is impressed in your subconscious is also expressed outwardly in form, function, experience, and event. Over a hundred years ago, Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby said, “Man is belief expressed.”

Your future, therefore, is your present habitual thinking projected on the multi-dimensional screen of space. In other words, it is your present thought and belief made manifest. Your future is your present thought patterns grown up, and this is accomplished in the same way as a field reproduces a harvest in consonance with the seeds deposited therein. All seeds (thoughts) grow after their kind.

HOW A TREMENDOUS INCREASE IN BUSINESS WAS ACHIEVED

A businessman who visited me and asked me how he should pray about his business said, “Everything is going wrong. I am going to be a failure. Everything is against me. Business is bad, and the worst is yet to come!”

I explained to him that he could reverse the entire situation by changing his thought patterns and keeping them changed. After reflecting on my advice he began to realize that he had been actually creating the conditions he feared, because his subconscious mind was constantly reproducing his habitual thinking.

I further pointed out to this businessman that he could attain success, prosperity, and inner peace—or any other good thing in life he felt entitled to—provided only that he would pay the mental price by incorporating into his subconscious mind the equivalent of it. Accordingly, every morning when he opened his eyes he affirmed boldly:

Today is God’s day. I choose happiness, success, prosperity, and peace of mind. I am Divinely guided all day long, and whatever I do will prosper. Whenever my attention wanders away from my thoughts of success, peace, prosperity, or my good, I will immediately bring back my thoughts to the contemplation of God and His love, knowing that He careth for me. I am a spiritual magnet, attracting to myself customers who want what I have to offer. I give better service every day. I am a wonderful success in all my undertakings. I bless and prosper all those who come into my subconscious mind, and they come forth as abundance, security, and peace of mind. It is wonderful!

He started using the above prayer each morning and night, and before the end of the month I received the following letter from him:

Dear Dr. Murphy: This is a thank-you letter, to let you know how much I got from the interview I had with you some weeks ago. I know now that I have a right to anything that would be good for me or that would make me healthier, happier, more successful, and more useful.

I had never thought that the desire for success, prosperity, and advancement was the urge of the Divine Presence in me telling me that the time has come for me to take a step up the ladder of life. Now I know that the will of God, or Life, for me is to move forward, to conquer, to rise, and to achieve great things along all lines.

I am grateful for your emphasis on the truth that one of the things holding me back was that I thought I had the right to something that belonged to someone else. I now know it is dead wrong to infringe on the rights of others or to covet their goods or property or wealth. I fully realize that God can give me all the wealth, happiness, success, and opportunities in life without infringing upon the rights of anyone else.

I have paid the price by constantly dwelling on the prayer you gave me, and I have noticed a big increase in business, and I feel happier and am much more cheerful. Over my desk I have placed a beautiful printed card: In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6). The price I paid was mental acceptance and application of these truths and remaining faithful to them.

HE STOPPED BLAMING FATE AND ACHIEVED PROMOTION AND FINANCIAL INCREASE

Some months ago while staying at the Kona Inn, a favorite resort on the big island of Hawaii, I chatted with a man by the swimming pool in that lovely spot. This is the gist of what he said to me: “I came here for a week to get away from it all. My life is a daily grind. I get nowhere, even though I work hard. I am bored and jaded, and life for me is monotonous. I eat, sleep, work, and look at TV. I hate my work. There is a cruel fate holding me back, for I try so hard and yet can’t make ends meet.”

I gathered in conversing with this man that he actually had borrowed the money from his sister in San Francisco in order to have a week’s vacation. I said to him that I would give him a simple, down-to-earth, practical formula that would completely turn the wheel of fortune and enable him to acquire wealth, success, happiness, and the full realization of his ambitions in life.

He listened avidly to the meaning of . . . Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7). This means that if you plant thoughts of lack, limitation, strife, bitterness, sickness, poverty, and contention, you shall reap accordingly. You must remember that your subconscious mind is like the soil: it will grow whatever type of seed (thoughts and mental imagery) that you plant in the garden of your mind. You sow thoughts when you believe them wholeheartedly to be true; and it is what you believe deep down in your heart that you demonstrate for yourself and the world.

This man had studied Emerson’s philosophy in college, yet had never understood it; he merely read it as literature. Emerson wrote in his Essay on Fate: He (man) thinks his fate alien because the copula (connection) is hidden. But the soul (subconscious mind) contains the event that shall befall it, for the event is only the actualization of its thought, and what we pray to ourselves for is always granted. The event is the print of your form. It fits you like your skin.

This is the formula I gave this man to use morning, noon, and night:

God is my Partner, and within me is the Cosmic Power to overcome any condition. I was born to win, to succeed, and to conquer. I find a great thrill in mastering difficult assignments. My joy is in overcoming and getting what I go after without infringing in any way whatsoever on the rights of others; neither do I want others to do that which they would not want me to do.

I know that the Cosmic Presence within me can and does give me all the happiness and opportunity I need without interfering with another person’s rights. I am now in touch with the Eternal Source of all supply and of all good, and the Divine Presence is bringing me peace, happiness, joy, success, prosperity, and full expression through Divine and legitimate channels. God shows me the path; I trust the Divine Intelligence within me, and I am Divinely directed and guided to my true expression in life and to the fulfillment of my heart’s desires.

I wrote this prayer for him by the pool and explained that as he affirmed these truths consciously and with a deep, abiding faith, they would sink down by osmosis to his subconscious mind, and the latter—being one with the Cosmic Power and boundless wisdom—would compel him to take all steps necessary for the fulfillment of his dreams and that he would get, legitimately and through a Divine way, whatever he was going after in life.

This young man discovered that he was not a victim of cruel fate; neither was he condemned to live a life of mediocrity, poverty, and miserable conditions. He broke loose mentally from false ideas and beliefs which had held him in thralldom and bondage. The following letter from San Francisco attests to his complete mental transformation:

Dear Dr. Murphy: I was glad to talk to you in Kona! I had never heard much about the subconscious mind and its powers. I have followed the formula you wrote out for me. I apply it three times daily, and when negative thoughts come to me, I immediately reverse them. I have discovered that what you told me is true—that the negative thoughts have gradually lost their momentum, and I am now a constructive thinker.

I am now attending a course in business management and also am brushing up on my Spanish three evenings a week at the University. I have been promoted to assistant manager and have received $50 weekly increase in salary. I am on the way up! I also am studying The Power of Your Subconscious Mind24 and find it a treasure house of knowledge. Many thanks! T.I.

HOW A SALESMAN BROKE BLOCKS TO CLOSING SALES

A few months ago I received a letter from a man in New York City in which he stated that whenever he was about to bring a deal to the point of completion, the door seemed to jam tightly and everything would collapse at the eleventh hour. This has happened time after time when he is supposed to have the prospective client sign on the dotted line. Suddenly the client becomes ill, or his wife dies, or he meets with an accident. There is a definite appointment at an office, and the meeting falls through for various reasons, such as fog delaying the plane or sudden illness or failure of different people to show up. He asked what he could do to remove the “block.”

The only “block” this man suffered from was his false belief which dominated his mind. He feared a recurrence of these episodes in his life, and what he feared most he experienced. In other words, it was done unto him as he believed in very tangible form.

In my letter to him, I pointed out that the way to harmony, success, and prosperity was within himself. He did not have to beg, supplicate, or beseech God—all he had to do was to change the stream of his mental thought and imagery. I emphasized that the affirmations I was about to write for him possessed their value only because of his thought and understanding of the laws of his mind behind them—that he could, for example, recite the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and still have little or no understanding of the true meaning of Americanism. Following my directions, he reversed his mind as follows:

I know that there is only One Mind which created all things, and my mind is one with that Cosmic Mind. I meditate on my inseparable oneness with this Cosmic Mind Power, and, without strain or stress or any great mental effort, I let my thoughts and mental images sink into my deeper mind; I am quiet in the assurance that these thoughts will return, fabricated and manifested by the Cosmic Mind who created the universe.

I know God is the Cosmic Mind Power, which is the reality of me. My work is God’s work, for God works through me and my work cannot be hindered or delayed. The Cosmic Mind Power that created all things finished whatever It created. My work goes through to completion in Divine order. All that I set out to do reaches fruition. I entertain only those thoughts that make for my highest happiness, peace of mind, and achievement.

The above prayer, affirmed with sincerity and deep understanding of the way his mind worked, brought about a complete change. He reversed the so-called block and is now closing sales and moving forward with faith and confidence to greater and greater usefulness and accomplishments in life.

WHAT YOU CAN CONCEIVE, YOU CAN ACHIEVE

An engineer in London, England, once said to me, “Some years ago when I first started, I failed miserably in three assignments given to me, and my supervisor said to me, ‘You are fearing failure and you expect failure, and it is what you really expect deep down in your heart that you experience.’ This was the turning point in my life, and I completely changed my mental attitude.

“I admitted to myself that I had faith in failure, not in success and getting things done. From that moment on, I had faith in success. My motto became Anything I can conceive and believe possible, I can achieve. My new attitude is the reason behind my being the director of this engineering firm.”

I would suggest that you inscribe in your heart this engineer’s quotation: Anything I can conceive and believe possible, I can achieve.

This engineer began to realize there was an Almighty Power within him, the Cosmic Giver of all gifts, which he could tap; he began to find the answers, the power, and the wisdom to accomplish things which he previously had believed to be hopeless. He looked forward to achievement, victory, and triumph, and his faith became contagious: all the men working under him likewise became imbued with the idea of success and triumph, and they also accomplished great things.

This engineer’s favorite Bible quotation is: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low . . . Make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3,4).

SUMMARY

IMPORTANT POINTERS

Desire is the Cosmic gift of God. The desires, urges, intimations, and promptings of the Life-Principle within you are Life’s way of telling you to rise, to transcend, and to grow.
You mold, fashion, and create your own destiny. Your future is determined by your habitual thinking and self-imagery, and your subconscious mind faithfully reproduces what you think all day long. Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks all day long.” Change your present thought for the better and you change your destiny for the better.
You have to pay the price in order to get what you want in life. The price is to learn the Cosmic laws of your mind and then to give attention, devotion, and nourishment to your ideals. The law of mind is that whatever you give attention to and take a deep interest in, your subconscious mind will magnify and multiply and express on the screen of space. Your price is recognition of the laws of mind, complete acceptance of these laws, application of them, and deep abiding trust that they never fail. In short, your price is recognition, acceptance, and conviction of the Cosmic Power within YOU.
You have a perfect right to anything that would make you happier, healthier, or more successful in life, and one of the things that could hold you back on your upward journey is to think you have a right to something that belongs to someone else. It is dead wrong in Cosmic justice to infringe on the rights of others. Wish for all men that which you wish for yourself.
Realize the Cosmic Giver, your God-Self, can give you all the wealth, happiness, success, and opportunities in life without hurting a hair on the head of any living being in the world.
There is no cruel fate holding you in mediocrity, lack, or sickness. As you sow in your mind, so shall you reap. Plant orchids (beautiful thoughts) in the garden of your mind. All the experiences of your life are simply externalizing your thoughts, conscious and unconscious.
There is no block holding you back other than a false belief or an abnormal fear enthroned in your mind. A block is a false belief which dominates a man’s mind, bringing all sorts of suffering in its train. Remove the block with a deep understanding of the laws of your mind.
Whatever you can conceive and believe possible, you can achieve with Cosmic Mind.