There are six sequential steps to follow in applying Constructive Imagination to your life. First, here is a quick summary of them, then we will examine each step in more complete detail.
1. Select areas in which you have potential which is being limited by negatively inclined attitude patterns. 2. Evaluate whether it will be to your advantage to
use more of your potential in those areas.
3. Define each area clearly, identify the positive emo- tion you would like to have about that part of yourself and build the kind of self-description you would like to have become accurate about you. 4. Design a triggering verbal affirmation for each
characteristic or skill you have selected.
5. Use the affirmations repeatedly to stimulate the experiencing and feeling—in the imagination—of the kind of behavior and emotion you want to have become your real, normal habit.
6. Allow the changed images to guide your behavior in the new directions that you have decided upon.
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First, identify some areas in which you can recognize that you have some potential that you are not fully using. Try to pick segments of your day-to-day behavior which are probably being limited by negatively inclined attitude patterns—departments of your life in which you are driving with the brakes partly set.
It would be very difficult—perhaps impossible—to measure exactly how much potential you have in a par- ticular area, but it is a lot easier to decide whether there is a gap between your potential and your performance. Do you know more about how to organize your time than you act like you know? How about remembering people's names—do you have more knowledge and ability to remember than your behavior would indicate? If you play golf or tennis or some other active sport, perhaps you can see that all you have learned and practiced sometimes seems to get clogged up. How do you feel about public speaking? Are you as patient with your children as you know how to be?
If you have a vocation or profession, pick out three or four areas which relate to that part of your life. If you are a student, consider that to be your profession at this time. If you are managing a household then that is your professional sector. On page 291 you will find a list of some "thought starters." You will probably think of many others that are not on that list, but it will help you to clarify the sort of characteristics you want to select
From the same list, choose three or four aspects of your family and social life in which you think that you could function more effectively. Then, turn your atten- tion to more personal characteristics and skills. Pick out three or four of those departments that you would like to further strengthen.
As you scan the list, see if you can really get in touch with your emotions. How do you feel about each of those sectors? How do you feel about yourself? Select areas in which it appears to you that the emotional part of your attitude pattern is negative.
Write down the characteristics and skills that you choose on page 293. Be sure that you have a balanced
list—about the same number in each of the three cate- gories. It may seem at first as though you could achieve results faster if you were to focus all your attention on a single area, but it doesn't work that way. Centering your efforts on just one department of your system can (and usually does) create some undesirable distortions. Growth is more stable and lasting as it applies to the whole person.
Now that you have listed some areas in which you can see a clear difference between your potential and your performance, you are ready for the second step. Think carefully about each characteristic you have se- lected, with this question in mind: "Would it be to my advantage, profit, self-interest to use more of my poten- tial in this area?" If, by whatever means, it were possible for you to function more effectively in that particular department of your life, would it help you to do what you want to do, achieve what you want to achieve, five a more fulfilling, happy life?
If it appears to you that such a change would make an extreme difference, put a " 5 " in the box by that line on page 293. If the difference in your future would be very small, put a " 1 " in the box, and if the change in your life would be somewhere in between those ex- tremes, grade it accordingly. If you cannot see any pro- fit at all that would result from using more of your potential in one of the sectors that you have selected, eliminate it and find another to put in its place.
In some cases there may be both advantages and dis- advantages which would result from a change in your behavior. List them on a piece of paper and then eval- uate what, in your judgment, would be the net result.
Constructive Imagination will only work within the framework of your potential, and in those areas in which you perceive a possible change to be to your self interest, This method will not set aside the laws of the universe. It can take you far beyond what you now consider to be your limitations, though, and it has done that for many thousands of people.
You may have heard the expression, "Anything the mind of Man can conceive and believe, Man can achieve."
I regard that statement as untrue, and potentially very dangerous. I have worked with people in mental institu- tions who could conceive and believe that they could step off the roof of a very tall building and float gently to the ground below. That sort of "belief" can be very hazardous to your health! The suggestion that the idea only applies to "normal" people compounds the danger by encouraging an attempt to judge "normalcy."
Distorted maps of the territory are perilous, whether the distortions are positive or negative. With all the books and courses that promote positive thinking, it would be easy to conclude that anything positive is good and anything negative is bad, but life is not that simple. Some negative attitudes may help you to live longer, and some positive thinking can get you into a heap of trouble!
Now we're ready to move on to the third' stage in applying Constructive Imagination.
Exactly what kind of information would you like to . have become the controlling, managing "REALITY" in your mental system in each of the areas that you have selected? If you could create the kind of self image in that department which would be most advantageous to you, what would it be?
To develop this information to the point that it will be useful, it will help to give some careful thought to each segment on your self image that you have listed on page 293. Use the kind of form shown on page 294 for this purpose.
First, clearly define the pattern that you would like to strengthen. Don't look it up in the dictionary; think it through and decide just what you mean by that char- acteristic that you have decided to work on. A sentence or two will be sufficient in most cases. The purpose of this activity is to be sure that you have a clear under- standing of what you really want to develop.
Also, what kind of emotion (or emotions) would you like to have with respect to that activity or event? What kind of feelings would be most advantageous for you to have become your automatic, spontaneous response to that part of your life? In some instances it may be help-
ful to identify the negative emotion which is now at- tached to the area, but that is not ordinarily a necessary step.
Write out how you would like to be able to describe yourself in that area. If you were to become just the kind of person you would really like to be with respect to that kind of behavior, how would you describe you? Sometimes it helps to think about someone else that you know who is extremely effective in that particular area. If you were telling someone about that person, what would you say?
Here is an example of what I am suggesting. If you were to decide that sometimes you don't concentrate as well as you would like—that you have the ability, but often when you are trying to concentrate on something your mind wanders off to other matters—you might put that on your list. Then ask yourself how important that is to you. How profitable would it be to you to be able to maintain good concentration when you want to do so?
After you have "graded" concentration in terms of its value to you, turn to the three "fine tuning" questions. First, how would you define concentration? I believe that most people think of the ability to concentrate as a teeth- gritting, will-power activity—something that you can only* do if you really work at it. As you think this through and work out a functional definition of concentration at its best, I think that you will find yourself using words like "fascination," "absorption," "engrossed." The harder you try to devote your attention to something, the more easily you will be distracted. If is when you find some- thing (or someone) fascinating that your attention is riveted. Concentration at its best is effortless.
So, your definition might be something like: "the ability to become thoroughly engrossed in a project or activity, to find what I am doing so fascinating that I just don't notice what else is going on."
Notice, that is not the definition of the word "con- centration." You may very well come up with a better, more useful definition for yourself. It is important that
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you identify just what it is that you want to develop and strengthen.
Next, what kind of emotion would you like to have as a part of your "REALITY" about concentration? Instead of feeling frustrated or irritated when it is im- portant that you devote your attention to a specific area, how would you like to feel? Enthusiastic, excited, eager to get started? The kind of positive, anticipation that you feel about anything that you do well?
Now, if you were to become the kind of person you would really like to be in that area, how would you describe yourself? It may help to think of an example that you have observed. When have you seen a person in complete, total, effortless concentration? A child watch- ing a television set? A fisherman watching his fly-line? You might want to be able to think of yourself as a person who easily and quickly allows your attention to become focused or engrossed in an activity or another person. Look at page 295 and see how I have completed this stage of the project.
Here is another example. You have decided that you have more potential as a public speaker than you are using—because of a limiting emotional pattern. In the area of public speaking, you have been driving with the brakes partiy set
You have rated public speaking as a " 4 " in impor- tance or value to your future achievement and happiness. On page 296 I have completed the definition, identi- fied the desired positive emotion and the kind of description one might want to have become an accurate self-appraisal in this area.
Now we have arrived at the very important fourth step in your project—designing the verbal affirmation for each area that you have selected. Remember that the purpose of the affirmation is to set into motion the ex- periencing of the kind of behavior which the affirmation represents—-in the imagination—and the feeling of the emotion which you wish to cultivate with respect to that behavior.
information for each characteristic or skill you have selected. When you have completed that part of your project, you have the first part of your own personal, unique tool kit with which to start releasing the brakes that are limiting, your effectiveness.
In order that the affirmation may stimulate the kind of constructive imagery and positive feeling that you want to develop as a part of your "REALITY" structure, it is vitally important that the affirmation be worded correctly. On page 299 are ten rules to follow as you design each of the affirmations for your "tool kit." Be sure to study each rule very carefully so that you under- stand the reason why it is important. Then, when you have written out an affirmation, check it against each of tile ten design rules to be doubly sure that it is properly worded.
There is another discomfort that you may find your- self feeling as you construct your affirmations. It may. seem as though you are lying to yourself. The affirma- tions are certainly not true, so they must be falsel
It is important that you recognize and feel comfortable with the fact that your affirmations are not in the cate- gory of "true or false." They are tools which you are designing and constructing for the purpose of building a new structure of attitudes. That new structure will be a more accurate, more honest, more complete image or representation of the real you, but the tools with which you build it are just that: neither true nor false, just tools.
If someone were to ask you if a particular hammer is true or false, you would see immediately that it was a nonsense question. Hammers are not true or false. A more rational question would be, "Is this hammer well designed, well balanced and well constructed to do a good job of building something?" That question can be tested and checked. And so, with an affirmation, we are much more concerned with the design and construction than with the present accuracy of the statement. If your affirmations were already accurate representations of your behavior, you would not have any need for them. On the other hand, from the standpoint of your true poten-
rial, the affirmations are a lot more accurate or "truth- ful" than some of the things you have been telling yourself in the past!
Don't get caught in the "lying to myself" trap. Our purpose is to build a more accurate self image, and in order to do that we need some images of effectiveness in the form of,present tense affirmations.
Now let's look at the fifth stage in our project—the programming of the affirmations.
The actual process of depositing or digesting new positive inputs into your "REALITY" structure involves the use of all three media with which you think—verbal, conceptual, and emotional. In terms of subsequent be- havior, the verbal medium is the least important, but it is a very convenient and effective way of triggering the other two, more important levels of thought.
Experiencing (conceptualizing) the kind of behavior represented by the verbal affirmation is much more im- portant, and the most important part of the whole pro- cess is the emotional medium.
The programming sequence can, I think, best be ex- plained with an example. Let's use something quite familiar—an attitude which is probably already a part of your system,
Please repeat the following sentence two or three times in your thoughts—not out loud, just in your think- ing. The sentence is, "I enjoy eating an apple." As you repeat those words in your mental system, let yourself experience the activity which they describe. In your imagination your hand reaches out toward a bowl of fruit, selects a shiny, ripe, red apple and holds it up in front of you. Mmmmm, that really looks delicious. Now, still in your imagination, open your mouth and bite into the apple. It's a juicy one! Can you taste it? Feel the texture of the fruit as you chew it? Hear the crunching sound? Smell the fragrance?
Now let yourself feel the emotion—the pleasant feel- ing you have as you chew, taste, swallow and take another bite.
Some people find it easier to put themselves into the experience of an affirmation with their eyes closed. You
may want to try an image with your eyes open and then try the same one with eyes closed to see whether block- ing out the visual distractions enhances the vividness of the experience. If you found the apple exercise the least bit difficult, go back and try it again until it flows easily. That is all there is to the programming process. Re- peat the words of the verbal affirmation, let yourself experience the kind of behavior represented by those words, and feel the positive emotion that goes with functioning well in that area.
Here is an extremely important point. In order for the three-step programming process to have any effect on your "REALITY" structure, it is absolutely essential that you be a participant, not a spectator. You must experience the behavior represented by the affirmation, not observe it!
That means putting yourself into the action—doing it, not "watching" yourself. That is why I have carefully avoided using the expressions, "Picture yourself" and "Visualize." If you watch yourself as though you were looking at a motion picture on a screen, it may be an interesting pastime, but it will not revise any patterns in your "REALITY" structure!
The effect of Constructive Imagination is to bridge or supersede old patterns with new experiences. Fortunately, your storage system is so designed that to the degree that you experience an event with vividness in your imagination, it becomes a part of your subconscious col- lection of "the way I have done things." As you slip out of the action and become a spectator, all you are doing is increasing the number of times that "I have watched someone do things that way."
What is the most important part of the programming process? Right! The emotional input. As you think IN YOUR HEART so are you. As you experience the af- firmation, let your positive emotions flow. Feel the warm glow, the enthusiasm, the pride, joy, sense of accomplishment. Let that feeling bubble up inside of you with all the richness and depth you can muster.