The subject of this broadcast and the next one, our final programs in Paris, is cosmic habit force. I don’t want you to become scared on account of the high-sounding name, but before I finish, I hope to convey to you that this is one of the most important, if not the most important, principles of this entire success series.
Some years ago, shortly after Think and Grow Rich was published, I began to get letters and telegrams from all over the world complimenting me on that book. Those letters and telegrams became so numerous that I sent my secretary out to get a copy of it. I hadn’t read it since I wrote it some year and a half before that. I sat down and read it. I read it carefully. While I was reading, I discovered in that book, not on the lines but behind the lines, this marvelous subject on which we’re speaking tonight, the law of cosmic habit force.
I want to tell you that the major purpose of all my books, including Think and Grow Rich, and of my personal lectures, is not necessarily to tell people that which they don’t already know, but to inspire them to use their own minds, and to make a better use of the things they already know. I want you to know that’s the purpose of this talk tonight.
Cosmic habit force is a law of the universe into which all of the other natural laws blend and become a part. It’s the comptroller of all of the natural laws, you might say. I want to tell you that there are three factors that enter into it that are quite important. These three factors are, first of all, as I have called to your attention many times, nature has given to every individual the most precious thing available to mankind, and this thing which has been given to mankind by nature has never been given to any other living creature. It is nothing more nor less than the power of control over one’s mind. Second, nature has provided mankind with the means by which he may organize this great privilege of using his own mind, and direct it to any end he pleases. The means by which this may be done is the law of cosmic habit force. The third factor is that in order to make use of this law, there must be a technique, a plan, a method.
I don’t know that my plan is the best one in the world, but it has been successful in connection with my own life and my own work. I call it the eight guiding princes. The first of those eight guiding princes is the prince of financial prosperity. I have never yet found any way of getting along in life in any station or calling above mediocrity without finances, and I don’t believe anybody else can do it. I’ll correct myself on that. I knew one man who, despite the fact that he didn’t have any money, didn’t have any military forces, didn’t even own a suit of clothes, nevertheless brought about the freedom of a great nation. That man was Mahatma Gandhi. He got along all right without money, but personally, I’ve never been able to do it. So the prince of financial prosperity heads the list of these guiding princes that I have created in my own mind for the purpose of taking advantage of this great law of cosmic habit force which, once it is established, automatically carries out whatever purpose you direct it to.
Number two of these princes is the prince of sound physical health. In the work in which I am engaged, I have to demonstrate sound physical health all the time. I put a tremendous amount of energy into everything I do, and especially into my writing. I write under inspiration; I have to key myself up, and I’ll tell you that when I go to key myself down, I oftentimes am exhausted. So I have to have sound physical health.
The third of these princes is the prince of peace of mind. I learned a long time ago that there wasn’t any real purpose in wasting your energy in worrying about things, in fretting about things, or in fearing things. So I created this prince of peace of mind for the purpose of clearing my mind and keeping it clear of those little things which annoy people so much. I think the thing that caused me to give so much attention to the importance of peace of mind was that I read a little statement once which said that a man is no bigger than the things which he allows to annoy him. I made up my mind I was going to set up in my mind the means of avoiding these little, petty circumstances which have the effect of annoying people.
The next two of these eight princes are twins; they are called the prince of hope and the prince of faith. Their purpose is to give me inspired guidance. They tell me what to do and what not to do. I don’t always follow their guidance, I might tell you that. When I don’t, I generally get into difficulty.
The next two are also twins; they are the princes of love and romance. Their duty is simply to keep me young in body and mind, and now when I have a birthday, I not only do not add another year, but I take off a year. And I might tell you, I’m getting to be in my second childhood, already.
The last and the most important of these eight guiding princes is the prince of overall wisdom. The purpose and object of the prince of overall wisdom is to keep the other seven princes working on my behalf, and also to connect me to all of the circumstances which affect my life in such a way that I benefit by those circumstances.
The reason I go over the identity and role of these eight princes is to let you know the particular technique by which I have chosen to make use of this great law of cosmic habit force. This law explains the importance of habits in our lives. It’s interesting to know how habits are formed. I read a little piece not long ago which says: “Vice is a monster of so frightful a mien that to be hated, it needs but to be seen. Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, and then embrace.” That’s the way bad habits are formed, a little at a time.
I saw something in a journal not long ago that fitted into this lesson tonight beautifully. In one sentence, the writer says that habit is at first like a cobweb. Then it grows to be a strong cable with which many people bind themselves for life. What an interesting and correct statement that is.
The purpose of this broadcast and the next is to describe the law by which one acquires habits, a law so stupendous in its scope and power that it may be difficult of understanding, except by those who have a comprehensive knowledge of the sciences. This law is known as cosmic habit force—that is, the ultimate principle pertaining to the universe and the laws which govern it. This is the law by which the equilibrium of the whole universe is maintained in orderliness through established habits. This law forces every living thing and every inanimate particle of matter to adhere to and follow the pattern of its environment, including the physical habits and the thinking habits of mankind.
Here are some of the fixed habits of cosmic habit force: First of all, there are the stars and the planets as they are established in their fixed places in the heavens. Isn’t it a marvelous thing to contemplate the orderliness of this whole universe, and to recognize that their habits are so definitely fixed—that is, the habits of the stars and the planets—that astronomers may estimate and determine hundreds of years in advance the exact relationship of any two given stars or planets? Nature doesn’t do anything by rule of thumb. She has definite ways of doing everything. She has laws by which she governs the universe, and those laws apply to individuals as well.
We see the law of cosmic habit force working out in the seasons of the year. They come and go with regularity, and sometimes we can anticipate what they’re going to be like in advance, but not always—at least, not here in this particular community. And we see it in the reproduction and growth of everything that sprouts from the soil of the earth, with each seed reproducing precisely its own kind, without variation, and in the reproduction of every living thing from the smallest insect and the microscopic particle on up to man. You never heard of a farmer planting a grain of wheat and raising a stalk of corn, or vice versa. You never heard of a pine seed producing an oak tree. Nature has definite ways of doing everything according to fixed habits that are inexorable and cannot be circumvented, cannot be avoided.
We see it in the chemical actions of matter, from the smallest particles of matter, which are the electrons and protons of the atom, to the largest particles of matter as they exist in the stars in the heavens. All actions and reactions of matter are based upon the fixed habits of cosmic habit force.
Everything that has life in this world, with the lone exception of man, comes into life with its life span and its actions and reactions fixed in a definite pattern, through what we call instinct. Man is the only one who comes to life with no fixed pattern, and with the ability to establish and carry out his own pattern, by adapting himself to this great law of cosmic habit force. Yet this law ultimately governs even the thought habits of individuals, which are automatically fixed and made permanent by cosmic habit force, no matter whether they are negative or positive. The individual creates the pattern of his thoughts by repetition of thought on any given subject. But the law of cosmic habit force takes over these patterns and makes them permanent unless they are broken up by the will of the individual. Man is the only living creature that is equipped with the power to rearrange these at will.
Therefore, let us consider briefly some of the practical applications one may make of this great benefit. Let us consider some of the focal points at which you should begin establishing habits of your own making, thus taking advantage of the great law of cosmic habit force in carrying out these habits.
I might say to you that you are who you are and what you are today as a result of the habits that you’ve been accumulating, back down through the past. Probably the vast majority of those habits were fixed upon you not necessarily by design, but by the circumstances of your environment, as the result of the influences that you have come into contact with. Unless you are outstanding and unusual, instead of taking advantage of this great prerogative which nature gave you, the right to control your mind, to make your mind whatever you wish it to be, you probably have never taken full possession of your entire mind. You have never probably recognized the fact that there are great rewards awaiting you if you do this, and great penalties also awaiting you if you do not.
Here is where cosmic habit force should be applied to definite circumstances in order to take possession of your own mind, and to direct it to whatever destiny you want to carry out. I want you to observe very carefully how well this principle fits in with principles discussed on previous broadcasts, especially definiteness of purpose. Because the first place where you want to start using the law of cosmic habit force is in connection with definiteness of purpose. You want to begin by deciding on that definite major purpose, talking to yourself about it, and dealing with your subconscious mind exactly as if it were another person.
When I start talking to the eight princes in connection with any objective I wish to attain in life, I deal with them just as if they were real people. I don’t always talk out loud where people can hear me, because I don’t want them turning their fingers around at their temples and saying, “There’s another good man gone wrong.” Very often, I carry out my instructions to my eight princes in silence, generally just before I go to sleep. I talk to them just as if they were paid servants of mine, and I don’t get rough with them, I don’t think that would help any. The most that I do is call their attention to my needs, and express my gratitude in advance for having received and responded to my requests. That’s highly important.
Definiteness of purpose is the beginning point where you’ll learn to make the most profitable use of this great law of cosmic habit force. Draw a clear picture of the thing you wish to attain in life, the person you wish to be, the place you wish to go, and then repeat that in your mind many hundreds of times a day until cosmic habit force has a chance to pick up that picture and automatically work it into a habit. You’ll find that after that is accomplished practically everything and every circumstance that confronts you will bring you nearer and nearer to the object of your purpose, whatever it may be.
This applies not only to your major or overall or outstanding purpose, but it applies as well to your minor purposes. The major portion of the people of the world don’t have a definite purpose. They drift along, following the path of least resistance. They’re going around and around just like a goldfish in a bowl, always coming back to the place from whence they started and coming back empty-handed. You don’t need any elaborate proof of this, you only need to look around and examine the people you know best, and you’ll find that that’s true.
If you will examine any person who is outstanding in any field, any calling, any profession, any business, any industry, you’ll discover that that person has a definite major objective, and that he devotes the major portion of his time to carrying out that objective. He eats it, he sleeps it, he thinks about it, he takes it to bed with him, he gets up with it of a morning. He takes it to his work with him. It becomes an intimate part of his companionship. Only by doing that can you be absolutely sure of the law of cosmic habit force taking over your objective and working out definite ways and means of helping you to attain it.
There is a law in the universe known as the law of harmonious attraction. That law states that like attracts like. If you’re a negative-minded person, you’re going to attract other negative-minded persons, and my, my what a gossip fest they oftentimes have when they get together. If you’re a positive-minded person, you will have fewer neighbors and friends, perhaps, but they’ll be only positive-minded people. You won’t attract the negatives. The agency through which this law operates is none other than the great overall law of cosmic habit force.
The next place to apply cosmic habit force is establishing the definite routine for developing a health consciousness. You don’t just develop a health consciousness by wanting to be healthy—everybody wishes to be healthy. No, I beg your pardon, that isn’t true. There are people who enjoy poor health, and we call them a $64 word: hypochondriacs. But generally speaking, other than the hypochondriac, most people want sound physical health, but I fear they don’t have the best of knowledge as to how to go about getting that.
If you want to have sound physical health, you’ve got to think in terms of health. Stop imagining that you’re suffering with all kinds of ailments, like the hypochondriac does. You’ve got to work at that. You’ve got to think about it day in and day out. I never go to bed at night that I don’t sit down on the side of my bed and express my gratitude to the prince of sound physical health for keeping me in such fine condition. If perchance I do get up with a bad headache of a morning, which is very rare, I immediately go back to trace the cause, and I get right after the prince of sound physical health and ask him to do something about that cause. So far, he hasn’t let me down.
The next practical application of cosmic habit force is the development and the maintenance of a positive mental attitude. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t get a positive mental attitude by allowing all of the circumstances of life to fix themselves upon you whether you want them to or not. I’ve heard people say, “Well, I had an experience today with a certain person, which made me very angry.” Ladies and gentlemen, nobody is going to make me angry unless I wish to become angry, because I have a system of keeping my mind positive, of keeping things that would ordinarily annoy people or anger people out of my mind. I don’t react to them. I do react, but just as if they didn’t happen. I do not permit them to destroy my system of maintaining a positive mental attitude.
As the result of this particular principle, you may be interested in knowing that within the last fourteen years, since I discovered the law of cosmic habit force and began to use it, I have placed myself in a position in life where I have everything in the world that I want or need or can possibly use, including peace of mind, including sound physical health, including the joy of being of service to people, in writing books and delivering lectures. Prior to that time, I had just as much knowledge about the science of success as I now have, but I didn’t have peace of mind, I didn’t have sound physical health; I didn’t have a lot of things because I hadn’t worked out a definite way of establishing a positive mental attitude, and keeping it positive at all times.
The next application of cosmic habit force is the habit of taking personal inventory periodically, perhaps every six months, to develop an accurate listing of all your assets and liabilities, including both tangible and intangible things. If you’re going to understand yourself, if you’re going to be prosperous and if you’re going to have peace of mind, you’ve got to know what are your assets and liabilities—and I am not talking about banking assets and liabilities alone. I’m talking about things that are even more important than anything that could be banked. I’m talking about your recognition, if you please, of that great gift from the Creator which permits you to use your mind any way you choose to use it. I’m also talking about your privilege of directing your mind to whatever you wish to attain, with the assurance that you’re going to be able to attain it. I have never yet met a successful person in any calling that hadn’t discovered that he owned his own mind, and hadn’t discovered that he had the power to direct that mind to the attainment of any goal he might seek.
I was greatly surprised when I first met Henry Ford. I observed that he had a very weak personality, I learned that he had little formal schooling, I noticed he had some peculiar opinions, and I wondered how in the name of heaven, a man like that would have attained so much success. That is, I wondered until I became acquainted with Mr. Ford, and I found out that he had stumbled upon a way of recognizing the power of his own mind, and built for himself a plan of making use of that discovery by directing it to whatever he wished to attain. I asked Mr. Ford once if he had ever really and truly desired anything which he hadn’t been able to acquire. With a sly grin on his face, he said, “Yes, one time. When I was in high school I wanted a certain redheaded girl for a wife, and the other fellow got her.” I said, “Was that all?” He said, “Well, yes, that was all. Everything else I have wanted, I have been able to get.” I said, “Have you always been able to get the things you wanted without struggle?” He said, “No, I don’t think anybody ever reaches that point.” But he said, “Struggle to me is just a way of becoming stronger. And I find that every time I refuse to yield to struggle, I become stronger the next time in connection with the same circumstance.”
I heard a similar story from Mr. Edison, and from Mr. Wanamaker, the department store tycoon. I heard similar stories of struggle and success from at least four hundred of those five hundred outstanding Americans who helped build the Science of Success. These men recognized this great prerogative given to them by the Creator, their right to take possession of their mind, to use it, to set up in that mind thought patterns of their own choosing, and to stand by until cosmic habit force guided them through the ways and means of carrying out those thought patterns.
The next practical application of cosmic habit force is the development of a system for applying the principle of going the extra mile, in your job or in your profession, or in your relationships generally with people. It’s just not enough, ladies and gentlemen, for you to understand the principle of going the extra mile and say, “Yes, I believe in that.” That’s not enough. You know, practically everybody believes in the Golden Rule, but the way some interpret it, it means doing it to the other fellow and doing it to him plenty hard before he does it to you. Yes, they believe in going the extra mile, but the person who is a student of the Science of Success philosophy recognizes that you have to have a system, a technique, a method of honestly and fairly applying this principle of going the extra mile. One of the things you do is to start moving on that principle right where you stand, with whatever circumstance that may be nearest to you. Start on it without thought of what you’re going to get back in return.
I want to tell you that of all the success laws that I know anything about, I don’t know of one that brings back such great returns in such a variety of assets as this principle of going the extra mile. But you’ve got to start practicing it, and keep on practicing, without stopping to wonder how much you’re going to get out of it. If you apply the principle of going the extra mile today, and then expect that you’re going to get a reward tomorrow, it would be just like a farmer who went out and planted his wheat today, and the next day he went out with his harvesting machinery, ready to harvest the crop, and was surprised to not find any wheat. The farmer recognizes that there’s an element of timing which enters between the planting and the harvesting, and that’s true with reference to the service you render in going the extra mile.
When you once get into the habit of doing that, rendering extra services without expecting immediate results, that great law of harmonious attractions, that great law of increasing returns, begins to work in your behalf. Whether you will it or not, the things that are good for you, the things that you desire most, begin to come to you, and they come oftentimes from the most unexpected sources, because that law of cosmic habit force has taken over the pattern which you set up by your daily actions in going the extra mile, and has begun to carry it out. That’s the way the law works.
Ladies and gentlemen, our time is up for tonight. Please join me next week for further discussion of the law of cosmic habit force.