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Creative Mind and Success, by Ernest Shurtleff Holmes [1919], at sacred-texts.com
THE Universe is teeming with activity. There is motion everywhere. Nothing ever stands still. All activity comes from mind. If we want to be in line with things we must move. This doesn't mean that we must strain or struggle, but we must be willing to do our part by letting the Law work through us.
God can do for us only as we will allow Him to do through us. Intelligence gives us ideas and in our turn we work on them. But our work is no longer done in any sense of doubt or fear, for we know that we are dealing with something that never makes a mistake. We proceed with a calm confidence born of the inner trust in a Power that is Infinite. Behind all of our movements, then, is a great purpose, to let the Law work through us.
The Law of Activity must be complied with; we must be willing to take the way of outer activity. Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus. We may have to go but there will accompany us something that never fails.
This law of activity we must use in our business. So many business places that we go into have such an atmosphere of inactivity, produce such a drowsy feeling, that we at once lose all interest in what is going on. We don't feel like buying. We leave that place without any apparent reason and go into another. Here we feel that all is life, all is motion, all is activity. We feel confident that this is the place we are looking for. We will buy here; we find just what we want; we are satisfied with our purchase and go away cheerful.
Now to create this activity something more than thought is essential. Not that it does not come first, but the one who has this thought of activity will naturally manifest it in vigorous, energetic movement which helps to produce a spirit of activity in his business and in everything he undertakes. Wherever you see a man who does not move, then you will find one whose thought is inactive; the two always go together.
A man in a store or place of business should always be moving his goods. He should always be doing something. People will see this and getting the thought of activity behind it will want to trade there. We are not attracted to a store that always has the same things on the same shelf. The world likes action, change. Action is Life.
Let a clerk in a store think activity and begin to manifest it, even though he may not be waiting on customers, and in a short time he will be waiting on them. Alertness is the word. Always be alert. There must be mental alertness before there can be physical activity.
Act as though things were happening even though they may not appear to be. Keep things moving and soon you will have to avoid the rush. Activity is genius. Half the stores that you go into make you sleepy before you get out, and you feel as though you can't get out fast enough. The other half are alive and those are the ones who are doing the business of the world.
The man who is active in his thought doesn't have to sit by himself to think; he works while he thinks and so complies with the Law which has to work through him. The thought of activity makes him move, and the thought of confidence makes his movements sure, and the
thought of Supreme Guidance makes his work intelligent.
We must be careful and not get into ruts; always be doing something new and different, and you will find life becomes a great game in which you are taking the leading part.
Life will never become tiresome to the active mind and body. It is so interesting that we wonder if we will ever get enough of it. Some people get into such lazy mental habits that a new idea cannot find entrance. Great things are done by people who think great thoughts and then go out into the world to make their dreams come true.
If you can't find anything new to do, go home and change the bed around, or the piano; put the cook stove in the parlor and eat on the back step for a time. It will start something moving and changing in you that will never stop. The wide awake person can find so many things to do that he hasn't time even to begin in this life and he knows that Eternity is necessary to carry out the ideals that he already has evolved.
Everything comes from Mind, but Mind acts on itself and we must act on ourselves and on conditions; not as a slave but as a master. Be interested in life, if you want life to be interested in you. Act in Life and Life will act through you. So will you also become one of the great people on earth.