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Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-1
Chapter 9
Performance Management
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES (SECTION)
Questions this chapter will help managers answer:
1. What steps can I, as a manager, take to make the performance management process
more relevant and more acceptable to those who will be affected by it?
2. How can we best fit our approach to performance management with the strategic
direction of our department and business?
3. Should managers and nonmanagers be appraised from multiple perspectives—for
example, by those above, by those below, by coequals, and by customers?
4. What strategy should we use to train raters at all levels in the mechanics of
performance management and in the art of giving feedback?
5. What would an effective performance management process look like?
KEY TERMS
Performance management
Performance appraisal
Performance facilitation
Performance encouragement
Relevance
Performance standards
Sensitivity
Reliability
Acceptability
Narrative essay
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-2
Practicality
Applicant group
Behavior-oriented rating methods
Relative rating systems
Absolute rating systems
Results-oriented rating methods
Simple ranking
Alternation ranking
Paired comparisons
Forced distribution
Leniency
Severity
Central tendency
Likert method of summed ratings
Critical incidents
Graphic rating scales
Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)
Management by objectives (MBO)
Work planning and review
360-degree feedback
Halo error
Contrast error
Recency error
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-3
Frame-of-reference training
Active listening
Destructive criticism
CHAPTER 9 OUTLINE
PERFORMANCE REVIEWS: THE DILEMMA OF FORCED RANKING
• In forced ranking systems, all employees are ranked against one another and grades
are distributed along a bell-shaped curve.
• This is creating a firestorm of controversy and class-action lawsuits.
• One reason that employees dislike forced rankings is because they suspect, often
correctly, that rankings are a way for companies to rationalize firings.
Challenges
1. Do you support the use of forced rankings or not?
Student answers will vary. Sample answer:
One may support the forced ranking method of performance appraisal because it
forces managers to objectively evaluate employee performance. Further, it provides a
visual clue as to where each employee falls, as far as productivity, which makes it
easy to cull the under-performers. Business is business, not charity, so it only makes
sense to keep the best of the best on the payroll.
2. If the criteria used to determine an employee’s rank are more qualitative than
quantitative, does this undermine the forced-ranking system?
If a qualitative method of the forced ranking method is used, it requires judgment on
the part of the rater, which is more subjective and could result in rater errors, such as
leniency, severity, or central tendency. Therefore, it could undermine the forced-
ranking system, although to only a slight degree.
3. Suppose all of the members of a team are superstars. Can forced-ranking deal
with that situation?
If all employees are superstars, it will be difficult to utilize the forced-ranking method
of performance appraisal because a bell-shaped curve is the end result or objective of
this procedure. This would unfairly force superstars into “average” or
“underperforming” positions on the curve, assuming that one could find a means of
distinguishing between them.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-4
MANAGING FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE
• Performance management is likened to a compass—one that indicates actual
direction as well as desired direction.
• The job of the manager is to indicate where the individual or team is now, and to help
focus attention and effort on the desired direction.
• Many managers incorrectly equate it with performance appraisal.
• There are solid organizational payoffs for implementing strong performance
management systems.
• Organizations with strong performance management systems are 51 percent more
likely to outperform their competitors on financial measures, and 41 percent are more
likely to outperform their competitors on nonfinancial measures.
• Performance appraisal is a necessary, but far from sufficient, part of performance
management.
• Performance management requires willingness and a commitment to focus on
improving performance at the level of the individual or team every day.
• At a general level, the broad process of performance management requires that you
do three things well:
✓ Define performance
✓ Facilitate performance
✓ Encourage performance
Define Performance
• A manager who defines performance ensures that individual employees or teams
know what is expected of them, and that they stay focused on effective performance.
• A manager does this by paying attention to three key elements:
✓ Goals
✓ Measures
✓ Assessment
• Setting a goal:
✓ Directs attention to the specific performance in question
✓ Mobilizes efforts to accomplish higher levels of performance
✓ Fosters persistence for higher levels of performance.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-5
• Specific and challenging goals clarify precisely what is expected and leads to high
levels of performance.
✓ On average, productivity improves by 10 percent when goal setting is used.
• The mere presence of goals is not sufficient. Managers must also be able to measure
the extent to which goals have been accomplished.
• In defining performance, the third requirement is assessment.
✓ Regular assessment of progress toward goals focuses the attention and efforts of
an employee or a team.
• There should be no surprises in the performance management process—and regular
appraisals help ensure that there won’t be.
Facilitate Performance
• Managers who are committed to managing for maximum performance have three
major responsibilities:
✓ Eliminate roadblocks to successful performance.
✓ Roadblocks can include:
▪ Outdated or poorly maintained equipment
▪ Delays in receiving supplies
▪ Inefficient design of work spaces
▪ Inefficient work methods
✓ Provide adequate resources to get a job done right and on time; capital resources,
material resources, or human resources.
✓ A final aspect of performance facilitation is the careful selection of employees.
▪ Having people who are ill suited to their jobs (e.g., by temperament or
training) often leads to overstaffing, excessive labor costs, and reduced
productivity.
▪ In leading companies, even top managers often get involved in selecting new
employees
• If you’re truly committed to managing for maximum performance, you pay attention
to all of the factors that might affect performance, and leave nothing to chance.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-6
Encourage Performance
• To encourage performance, especially repeated good performance, it is important to
provide a sufficient amount of rewards that employees really value in a timely and
fair manner.
✓ Ask your people what’s most important to them, then tailor your awards program
so that employees or teams can choose from a menu of similarly valued options.
• Provide rewards in a timely manner, soon after major accomplishments.
✓ If there is excessive delay between effective performance and receipt of the
reward, then the reward loses its potential to motivate subsequent high
performance.
• Provide rewards in a manner that employees consider fair. Fairness is a subjective
concept, but it can be enhanced by adhering to four important practices:
✓ Voice. Collect employee input through surveys or interviews.
✓ Consistency. Ensure that all employees are treated consistently when seeking
input and communicating about the process for administering rewards.
✓ Relevance. As noted earlier, include rewards that employees really care about.
✓ Communication. Explain clearly the rules and logic of the rewards process.
Performance Management in Practice
• A 2004 study by Rainmaker Thinking of more than 500 managers found that few of
them consistently provide their direct reports with the five management basics:
✓ Clear statements of what’s expected of each employee
✓ Explicit and measurable goals and deadlines
✓ Detailed evaluation of each person’s work
✓ Clear feedback
✓ Rewards distributed fairly
PURPOSES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS
• In general, appraisal serves a twofold purpose:
✓ To improve employees’ work performance by helping them realize and use their
full potential in carrying out their firms’ missions, and
✓ To provide information to employees and managers for use in making work-
related decisions.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-7
• More specifically, appraisals:
✓ Provide legal and formal organizational justification for employment decisions.
✓ Are used as criteria in test validation.
✓ Provide feedback to employees.
✓ Can help identify developmental needs of employees and establish objectives for
training programs.
✓ Can help diagnose organizational problems.
• Despite their shortcomings, appraisals continue to be used widely, especially as a
basis for tying pay to performance.
• The real challenge is to identify the appraisal techniques and practices that (1) are
most likely to achieve a particular objective and (2) are least vulnerable to the
obstacles discussed.
REQUIREMENTS OF EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS
• Legally and scientifically, the key requirements of any appraisal system are:
✓ Relevance
✓ Sensitivity
✓ Reliability
Relevance
• Relevance implies that there are:
✓ Clear links between the performance standards for a particular job and
organizational objectives and
✓ Clear links between the critical job elements identified through a job analysis and
the dimensions to be rated on an appraisal form.
• Relevance is determined by answering the question “What really makes the
difference between success and failure on a particular job, and according to whom?”
✓ The answer to this question is simple: the customer.
• Customers may be internal or external.
✓ In all cases, it is important to pay attention to the things that the customer believes
are important.
• Performance standards translate job requirements into levels of acceptable or
unacceptable employee behavior.
• Job analysis identifies what is to be done. Performance standards specify how well
work is to be done.
✓ Such standards may be quantitative or qualitative.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-8
• Relevance also implies the periodic maintenance and updating of job analyses,
performance standards, and appraisal systems.
Sensitivity
• Sensitivity implies that a performance appraisal system is capable of distinguishing
effective from ineffective performers.
• A major concern here is the purpose of the rating.
✓ Raters process identical sets of performance appraisal information differently,
depending on whether a merit pay raise, a recommendation for further
development, or the retention of a probationary employee is involved.
✓ Appraisal systems designed for administrative purposes demand performance
information about differences between individuals.
✓ Systems designed to promote employee growth demand information about
differences within individuals.
✓ The two different types of information are not interchangeable in terms of
purposes, and that is why performance management systems designed to meet
both purposes are more complex and costly.
Reliability
• A third requirement of sound appraisal systems is reliability (consistency of
judgment).
✓ For any given employee, appraisals made by raters working independently of one
another should agree closely. In practice, ratings made by supervisors tend to be
more reliable than those made by peers.
✓ To provide reliable data, each rater must observe what the employee has done and
the conditions under which he/she has done it.
• By making appraisal systems relevant, sensitive, and reliable, we can assume that the
resulting judgments are valid.
Acceptability
• In practice, acceptability is the most important requirement of all.
• HR programs must have the support of those who will use them.
• Evidence indicates that appraisal systems that are acceptable to those who will be
affected by them lead to more favorable reactions to the process, increased motivation
to improve performance, and increased trust for top management.
• Smart managers enlist the active support and cooperation of subordinates or teams by
making explicit exactly what aspects of job performance they will be evaluated on.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-9
Practicality
• Practicality implies that appraisal instruments are easy for managers and employees
to understand and use.
• Those that are not easy, or that impose inordinate time demands, are not practical;
managers will resist using them.
• Managers need as much encouragement and organizational support as possible if
thoughtful performance management is to take place.
• The crucial question to be answered in regard to each appraisal system is whether its
use results in fewer (and less costly) human, social, and organizational errors.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
• To avoid legal difficulties, consider taking the following steps:
✓ Conduct a job analysis to determine the characteristics necessary for successful
job performance.
✓ Incorporate these characteristics into a rating instrument.
✓ Provide written instructions and train supervisors to use the rating instrument
properly.
✓ Establish a system to detect potentially discriminatory effects or abuses of the
appraisal process.
✓ Include formal appeal mechanisms, coupled with higher-level review of
appraisals.
✓ Document the appraisals and the reason for any termination decisions.
✓ Provide some form of performance counseling or corrective guidance to assist
poor performers.
• The type of evidence required to defend performance ratings is linked to the purposes
for which the ratings are made.
• To assess adverse impact, organizations should keep accurate records of who is
eligible for and interested in promotion.
• Eligibility and interest, define the applicant group.
• Implementing scientifically sound, court-proof appraisal systems requires diligent
attention by organizations, plus a commitment to making them work.
• In developing a performance appraisal system, the most basic requirement is to
determine what you want the system to accomplish.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-10
The Strategic Dimension of Performance Appraisal
• In the study of work motivation, a fairly well established principle is that the things
that get rewarded get done.
• A fundamental issue for managers is “What kind of behavior do I want to encourage
in my subordinates?”
• Managers can emphasize short- or long-term objectives in the appraisal process, or
some combination of the two.
• To be most useful, the strategic management of performance must be linked to the
strategies an organization (or strategic business unit) uses to gain competitive
advantage.
• Some appraisal systems that are popular in the United States, such as management by
objectives (MBO), are less popular in other parts of the world, such as Japan and
France.
• MBO focuses primarily on results, rather than on how the results were accomplished.
Typically it has a short-term focus.
• In Japan, greater emphasis is placed on the psychological and behavioral sides of
performance appraisal than on objective outcomes.
✓ Short-term results are much less important than long-term personal development,
the establishment and maintenance of long-term relationships with customers, and
increasing market share.
• Once managers decide what they want the appraisal system to accomplish, their next
question is, “What’s the best method of performance appraisal, which technique
should I use?”
ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF APPRAISING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
• Many regard rating methods or formats as the central issue in performance appraisal.
However, broader issues must also be considered, such as:
✓ Trust in the appraisal system
✓ The attitudes of managers and employees
✓ The purpose, frequency, and source of appraisal data
✓ Rater training
• Behavior-oriented rating methods focus on employee behaviors, either by
comparing the performance of employees to that of other employees (relative rating
systems) or by evaluating each employee in terms of performance standards without
reference to others (absolute rating systems).
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Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-11
• Results-oriented rating systems place primary emphasis on what an employee
produces.
✓ Ratings are not strongly related to results.
✓ Because these processes are complex, there may be errors of judgment in the
ratings.
✓ Results depend heavily on conditions that may be outside the control of the
individual worker.
✓ Most measures of results provide only partial coverage of the overall domain of
job performance.
Behavior-Oriented Rating Methods
Narrative Essay
• The simplest type of absolute rating system is the narrative essay, in which a rater
describes, in writing, an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential, together
with suggestions for improvement.
• If essays are done well, they can provide detailed feedback to subordinates regarding
their performance.
• Comparisons across individuals, groups, or departments are almost impossible since
different essays touch on different aspects of each subordinate’s performance.
• This makes it difficult to use essay information for employment decisions since
subordinates are not compared objectively and ranked relative to one another.
Ranking
• Simple ranking requires only that a rater order all employees from highest to lowest,
from “best” employee to “worst” employee.
• Alternation ranking requires that a rater initially list all employees on a sheet of
paper. From this list he/she first chooses the best employee (No. 1), then the worst
employee, then the second best then the second worst, and so forth, alternating from
the top to the bottom of the list until all employees have been ranked.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-12
Paired Comparisons
• Use of paired comparisons is a more systematic method for comparing employees to
one another.
• Each employee is compared with every other employee, usually in terms of an overall
category such as “present value to the organization.” The rater’s task is simply to
choose the “better” of each pair, and each employee’s rank is determined by counting
the number of times he/she was rated superior.
• The number of comparisons becomes quite large as the number of employees
increases.
• Methods that compare employees to one another are useful for generating initial
rankings for purposes of employment decisions.
Forced Distribution
• Forced distribution is another method of comparing employees to one another.
• The overall distribution of ratings is forced into a normal, or bell-shaped, curve under
the assumption that a relatively small portion of employees is truly outstanding, a
relatively small portion is unsatisfactory, and everybody else falls in between.
• Forced distribution eliminates clustering almost all employees at the top of the
distribution (rater leniency), at the bottom of the distribution (rater severity), or in the
middle (central tendency).
• However, it can foster a great deal of employee resentment if an entire group of
employees is either superior or substandard.
• It is most useful when a large number of employees must be rated and there is more
than one rater.
Behavioral Checklist
• The rater is provided with a series of statements that describe job-related behavior.
His/her task is simply to “check” which of the statements, or the extent to which each
statement, describes the employee.
• Raters are not so much evaluators as reporters whose task is to describe job behavior.
• Descriptive ratings are likely to be more reliable than evaluative (good-bad) ratings.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-13
• With a Likert method of summed ratings:
✓ A declarative statement (e.g., “He/she follows up on customer complaints”) is
followed by several response categories, such as “always,” “fairly often,”
“occasionally,” and “never.” The rater checks the response category that he/she
thinks best describes the employee.
✓ Each category is weighted, for example, from 5 (“always”) to 1 (“never”) if the
statement describes desirable behavior.
✓ The overall numerical rating (or score) for each employee is the sum of the
weights of the responses that were checked for each item.
Critical Incidents
• Critical incidents are brief anecdotal reports by supervisors of things employees do
that are particularly effective or ineffective in accomplishing parts of their jobs.
• They focus on behaviors, not traits.
• They can provide the basis for training programs.
• Critical incidents lend themselves to appraisal interviews because supervisors can
focus on actual job behaviors rather than on vaguely defined traits.
• Supervisors may find that recording incidents for their subordinates on a daily or even
a weekly basis is burdensome.
• Incidents alone do not permit comparisons across individuals or departments; graphic
rating scales may overcome this problem.
Graphic Rating Scales
• Many different forms of graphic rating scales exist.
• In terms of the amount of structure provided, the scales differ in three ways:
✓ The degree to which the meaning of the response categories is defined.
✓ The degree to which the individual who is interpreting the ratings can tell clearly
what response was intended.
✓ The degree to which the performance dimensions are defined for the rater.
• Graphic rating scales may not yield the depth of essays or critical incidents, but they:
✓ Are less time-consuming to develop and administer.
✓ Allow results to be expressed in quantitative terms
✓ Consider more than one performance dimension
✓ Facilitate comparisons across employees.
• Graphic rating scales, when compared to more sophisticated forced-choice scales,
have proved just as reliable and valid and are more acceptable to raters.
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-14
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
• A variation of the simple graphic rating scale is behaviorally anchored rating scales
(BARS).
• The major advantage of BARS is that they define the dimensions to be rated in
behavioral terms and use critical incidents to describe various levels of performance.
• BARS therefore provide a common frame of reference for raters.
• BARS require considerable effort to develop, yet there is little research evidence to
support the superiority of BARS over other types of rating systems.
• The participative process required to develop them provides information that is useful
for other organizational purposes, such as communicating clearly to employees
exactly what “good performance” means in the context of their jobs.
Results-Oriented Rating Methods
Management by Objectives
• Management by objectives (MBO) relies on goal-setting to establish objectives for
the organization as a whole, for each department, for each manager within each
department, and for each employee.
• MBO is not a measure of employee behavior; rather, it is a measure of each
employee’s contribution to the success of the organization.
• To establish objectives, the key people involved should do three things:
✓ Meet to agree on the major objectives for a given period of time
✓ Develop plans for how and when the objectives will be accomplished, and
✓ Agree on the measurement tools for determining whether the objectives have been
met.
• In theory, MBO promotes success in each employee because, as each employee
succeeds, so do that employee’s manager, the department, and the organization.
✓ This is true only to the extent that the individual, departmental, and organizational
goals are compatible.
✓ In light of the corporate scandals that characterized the early part of the 21st
century, progressive firms do not focus only on results achieved but also on how
those results were achieved. That approach is known as “full-spectrum
leadership.”
Chapter 09 - Performance Management
9-15
Work Planning and Review
• Work planning and review is similar to MBO; however, it places greater emphasis
on the periodic review of work plans by both supervisor and subordinate in order to
identify goals attained, problems encountered, and the need for training.
When Should Each Technique Be Used?
• The rating format is not as important as the relevance and acceptability of the rating
system.
• An extensive review of the research literature that relates the various rating methods
to indicators of performance appraisal effectiveness found no clear “winner.”
• However, the researchers provided several “if . . . then” propositions and general
statements based on their study:
✓ If the objective is to compare employees across raters for important employment
decisions, don’t use MBO and work planning and review. They are not based on a
standardized rating scheme for all employees.
✓ If you use a BARS, also make diary keeping a part of the process. This will
improve the accuracy of the ratings, and it also will help supervisors distinguish
between effective and ineffective employees.
✓ If objective performance data are available, MBO is the best strategy to use.
✓ In general, the appraisal methods that are best in a broad, organizational sense—
BARS and MBO—are the most difficult to use and maintain.
✓ Methods that focus on describing, rather than evaluating, behavior (e.g., BARS,
summed rating scales) produce results that are the most interpretable across raters
and help remove the effects of individual differences in raters.
✓ No rating method has been an unqualified success when used as a basis for merit
pay or promotional decisions.
✓ When certain statistical corrections are made, the correlations between scores on
alternative rating formats are very high. Hence all the formats measure essentially
the same thing.
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different content
If you play as hard as you work, refresh and rejuvenate yourself
by pleasant recreation and a jolly good time when your work is
done, and then at a regular hour every night prepare your mind for
sleep, just as you would prepare your body, give it a mental bath
and clothe it in beautiful thoughts, you will in a short time establish
the habit of sound, peaceful, refreshing sleep.
Whatever else you do, or do not, form the habit of making a call
on the Great Within of yourself before retiring. Leave there the
message of up-lift, of self-betterment and self-enlargement, that
which you yearn for and long to realize but do not know just how to
attain. Registering this call, this demand for something higher and
nobler, in your subconsciousness, putting it right up to yourself, will
work like a leaven during the night; and, after a while, all the
building forces within you will unite in furthering your aim; in helping
you to realize your vision, whatever it may be.
The period of sleep may be made a wonderful period of growth,
for the mind as well as for the body. It is a time when you can
attract your desires; it is a propitious time to nurse your vision.
Instead of making an enemy of your subconscious self by giving it
destructive thoughts to work with, explosives that will destroy much
of what you have accomplished during the day, make it your friend
by giving it strong, creative, helpful thoughts with which to go on
creating, building for you during the night.
There are marvelous possibilities for health and character, success
and happiness building, during sleep. Every thought dropped into
the subconscious mind before we go to sleep is a seed that will
germinate in the night while we are unconscious and ultimately bring
forth a harvest of its kind. By impressing upon it our desires,
picturing as vividly as possible our ideals, what we wish to become,
and what we long to accomplish, we will be surprised to see how
quickly that wonderful force in the subjective self will begin to shape
the pattern, to copy the model which it is given. In this way we can
correct habits which are wounding our self-respect, humiliating us,
marring our usefulness and efficiency, perhaps sapping our lives. We
can get rid of faults and imperfections; we can strengthen our weak
faculties and overcome vicious tendencies which the will power may
not be strong enough to correct in the daytime.
If, as now seems clear, the subconscious mind can build or
destroy, can make us happy or miserable according to the pattern
we give it before going to sleep, if it can solve the problems of the
inventor, of the discoverer, of the troubled business man, why do we
not use it more? Why do we not avail ourselves of this tremendous
mysterious force for life building, character building, success
building, happiness building, instead of for life destroying?
One reason is that we are only just beginning to discover that we
can control this secondary self or intelligence, which regulates all the
functions of the body without the immediate orders of the objective
self. We are getting a glimpse of what it is capable of doing by
experiments upon hypnotized subjects, when the objective mind, the
mind which gets most of its material through the five senses is shut
off and the other, the subjective mind, is in control. We are finding
that it is comparatively easy while a person is in a hypnotic state to
make wonderful changes in disposition, and to correct vicious habits,
mental and moral defects, through suggestion.
There is no doubt that so far as the subjective mind is concerned
we are in a similar condition when asleep as when in a hypnotic
trance, and experiments have shown that marvelous results are
possible, especially in the case of children, by talking to them, during
their sleep, advising them, counseling them, suggesting things that
are for their good.
Parents should teach their children how to prepare their minds for
sleep so that the subconscious self would create, produce something
beautiful instead of the black, discordant images of fear which so
often terrorize little ones before they fall asleep and when they wake
up in the dark hours of the night. How often have we noticed the
troubled, fear-full expression on the face of a sleeping child, who
was sent to bed with anger thoughts, with fear thoughts in its mind
after a severe scolding or perhaps a whipping.
A child should never be scolded or frightened, or teased,
especially just before bedtime. It should be encouraged to fall asleep
in its sweetest, happiest mood, in the spirit of love. Then its sleeping
face will reflect the love spirit and the child will awaken in the same
spirit, as though it had been talking with angels while it slept.
Children are peculiarly susceptible to the influence of our
thoughts, our suggestions to them during sleep. Their character can
be molded to a great extent, their ability developed, their faults
eradicated, and their weak points strengthened during sleep. In
some ways the suggestions made to them in that state have more
effect than those made to them when awake, because while the
objective mind often scatters and fails to reproduce what is
presented to it, the subjective mind gradually absorbs and reflects
every suggestion. Many mothers have found this true, especially in
correcting bad habits which seemed almost impossible to reach while
the children were awake.
If you want to make your child beautiful in character, in
disposition, in person, think beautiful thoughts into its mind as it falls
asleep; speak to it of beautiful things while it sleeps. I believe the
time will come when much of the child's training will be effected
during sleep. Its æsthetic faculties, the love of music, of art, of all
things noble and beautiful, special talents, and latent possibilities of
all kinds will be developed through suggestion.
In the marvelous interior creative forces lies the great secret of
life, and blessed is he who findeth it. Doubly blessed is he who
findeth it at the start of life.
CHAPTER XV
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count.
R. W. Emerson.
The ability to hold mentally the picture of youth in all its glory, vivacity and
splendor has a powerful influence in restraining the old age processes.
Old age begins in the heart. When the heart grows cold the skin grows old, and
the appearances of age impress themselves on the body. The mind becomes
blighted, the ideals blurred, and the juices of life congealed.
Many people look forward to old age as a time when, as a recent
writer puts it, you have "a feeling that no one wants you, that all
those you have borne and brought up have long passed out onto
roads where you cannot follow, that even the thought-life of the
world streams by so fast that you lie up in a backwater, feebly,
blindly groping for the full of the water, and always pushed gently,
hopelessly back."
There is such a thing as an old age of this kind, but not for those
who face life in the right way. Such a pathetic, such a tragic ending
is not for those who love and are loved, because they keep their
hearts open to the joys and sorrows of life; who maintain a
sympathetic interest in their fellow-beings and in the progress and
uplift of the world; who keep their faculties sharpened by use, and
whose minds are constantly reaching out, broadening and growing,
in the love and service of humanity. A dismal, useless old age is only
for those who have not learned how to live.
Growth in knowledge and wisdom should be the only indication of
our added years. Professor Metchnikoff, the greatest authority on
age, believes that it is possible to prolong life, with its maximum of
vigor and freshness, until the end of its normal cycle, when the
individual will gratefully welcome what will be a perfectly happy
release. At this point he claims that the instinct of death will
supplant the instinct of life, when the bodily mechanism approaches
the natural end of normal exhaustion. He believes that men should
live and maintain their usefulness for at least one hundred and
twenty years.
The author of "Philosophy of Longevity" tells us that man can live
to be two hundred years old. Jean Finot says: "Speaking
physiologically, the human body possesses peerless solidity. Not one
of the machines invented by man could resist for a single year the
incessant taxes which we impose upon ours. Yet it continues to
perform its functions notwithstanding."
What we have a horror of is the premature death of the faculties,
the cutting off of power, opportunity, the decay of the body many
years before the close of the life on earth. We shudder at the giving
up of a large part of life that has potency of work, of action and of
happiness. This horror of senility increases, because life continually
grows more interesting. There never was a time when it seemed so
precious, so full of possibilities, when there was so much to live for,
as in this glorious present. There never was a time when it seemed
so hard to be forced out of the life race. We are on the eve of a new
and marvelous era, and the whole race is on the tiptoe of
expectancy. Never before was the thought of old age as represented
by decay and enforced inactivity so repugnant to man.
But why should any one look forward to such a period? It is just
this looking forward, the anticipating and dreading the coming of old
age, that makes us old, senile, useless.
The creative forces inside of us build on our suggestions, on our
thought models, and if we constantly thrust into our consciousness
old age thoughts and pictures of decrepitude, of declining faculties,
these thoughts and pictures will be reproduced in the body.
A few years ago a young man "died of old age" in a New York
hospital. After an autopsy the surgeons said that while the man was
in reality only twenty-three years old he was internally eighty! If you
have arrived at an age which you accept as a starting point for
physical deterioration, your body will sympathize with your
conviction. Your walk, your gait, your expression, your general
appearance, and even your acts will all fall into line with your mental
attitude.
A short time ago I was talking with a remarkable man of sixty
about growing old. The thought of the inevitableness of the aging
processes appalled him. No matter, he declared, what efforts he
might make to avert or postpone the decrepitude of age there would
come a period of diminishing returns, and though he might fight
against it he would ever after be on the decline of life, going
irrevocably toward the sunset, ever nearer and nearer to the time
when he should be useless. "The conviction that every moment,
every hour, every day takes me so much nearer to that hole in the
ground from which no power in Heaven or earth can help us to
escape is ever present in my mind," he said. "This progressive, ever-
active retrogression is monstrous. This inevitably decrepit old age
staring me in the face is robbing me of happiness, paralyzing my
efforts and discouraging my ambition."
"But why do you dwell on those things that terrify you?" I asked.
"Why do you harbor such old age thoughts? Why are you visualizing
decrepitude, the dulling and weakening of your mental faculties? If
you have such a horror of the decrepitude, the loss of memory, the
failing eyesight, the hesitating step, and the general deterioration
which you believe accompany old age, why don't you get away from
these terrifying thoughts, put them out of your mind instead of
dwelling on them? Don't you know that what you concentrate on,
what you fear, the pictures that so terrify you, are creating the very
conditions which you would give anything to escape? If you really
wish to stay the old age processes you must change your thoughts.
Erase everything that has to do with age from your mind. Visualize
youthful conditions. Say to yourself, "God is my life. I cannot grow
old in spirit, and that is the only old age to fear. As long as my spirit
is youthful; as long as the boy in me lives, I cannot age."
The great trouble with those who are getting along in years is that
they put themselves outside of the things that would keep them
young. Most people after fifty begin to shun children and youth
generally. They feel that it is not "becoming to their years" to act as
they did when younger, and day by day they gradually fall more and
more into old age ways and habits.
We build into our lives the picture patterns which we hold in our
minds. This is a mental law. When you have reached the time at
which most people show traces of their age you imagine that you
must do the same. You begin to think you have probably done your
best work, and that your powers must henceforth decline. You
imagine your faculties are deteriorating, that they are not quite so
sharp as they once were; that you cannot endure quite so much,
and that you ought to begin to let up a little; to take less exercise, to
do less work, to take life a little easier.
The moment you allow yourself to think your powers are
beginning to decline they will do so, and your appearance and bodily
conditions will follow your convictions. If you hold the thought that
your ambition is sagging, that your faculties are deteriorating, you
will be convinced that younger men have the advantage of you, and,
voluntarily, at first, you will begin to take a back seat, figuratively
speaking, behind the younger men. Once you do this you are
doomed to be pushed farther and farther to the rear. You will be
taken at your own valuation. Having made a confession of age,
acknowledged in thought and act that, in so far as work and
productive returns are concerned, you are no longer the equal of
young men, they will naturally be preferred before you.
If people who have aged prematurely could only analyze the
influences which have robbed them of their birthright of youth they
would find that most of them were a false conviction that they must
grow old at about such a time, needless worry,—all worry is
needless,—silly anxiety, which often comes from vanity, jealousy and
the indulgence of such passions as excessive temper, revenge, and
all sorts of unhealthy thinking. If they could only eliminate these
influences from their lives, they would take a great leap back toward
youthfulness. If it were possible to erase all of the scars and
wrinkles, all the effects of our aging thoughts, aging emotions,
moods and passions, many of us would be so transformed, so
rejuvenated that our friends would scarcely know us. The aging
thoughts and moods and passions make old men and women of
most of us in middle life.
The laws of renewal, of rejuvenation are always operating in us,
and will be effective if we do not neutralize them by wrong thinking.
The chemical changes caused in the blood and other secretions by
worry, fear, the operation of the explosive passions, or by any
depressing mental disturbance, will put the aging processes in
action.
Whatever we establish as a fixed conviction in our lives we
transmit to our children, and this conviction gathers cumulative force
all the way down the centuries. Every child in Christian countries is
born with the race belief that three score years or three score years
and ten is a sort of measure of the limit to human life. This has
crystallized into a race belief, and we begin to prepare for the end
much in advance of the period fixed. As long as we hold this belief
we cannot bar out of our minds the consequent suggestion that
when we pass the half century limit our powers begin to decline.
The very idea that we have reached our limit of growth, that any
hope of further progress must be abandoned, tends to etch the old
age picture and conviction deeper and deeper in our minds, and of
course the creative processes can only reproduce the pattern given
them.
Some men cross the zenith line, from which they believe they
must henceforth go down-hill, a quarter of a century or more earlier
than others, because we cross this line of demarcation mentally first,
cross it when we are convinced that we have passed the maximum
of our producing power and have reached the period of diminishing
returns.
Many people have what they are pleased to call a premonition that
they will not live beyond a certain age, and that becomes a focus
toward which the whole life points. They begin to prepare for the
end. Their conviction that they are to die at a certain time largely
determines the limitation of their years.
Not long since, at a banquet, I met a very intelligent, widely read
man who told me that he felt perfectly sure he could not possibly
live to be an old man. He cited as a reason for his belief the analogy
which runs through all nature, showing that plants, animals and all
forms of life which mature early also die early, and because he was
practically an adult at fifteen he was convinced that he must die
comparatively young. He said he was like a poplar tree in
comparison with an oak; the one matured early and died early; the
other matured late and was very long-lived.
So thoroughly is this man under the dominion of his belief that he
must die early that he is making no fight for longevity. He does not
take ordinary care of his health, or necessary precautions in time of
danger. "What is the use," he says, "of trying to fight against
Nature's laws? I might as well live while I live, and enjoy all I can,
and try to make up for an early death."
Multitudes of people start out in youth handicapped by a belief
that they have some hereditary taint, a predisposition to some
disease that will probably shorten their lives. They go through life
with this restricting, limiting thought so deeply embedded in the very
marrow of their being that they never even try to develop
themselves to their utmost capacity.
Our achievement depends very largely upon the expectancy plan,
the life pattern we make for ourselves. If we make our plan to fit
only one-half or one-third of the time we ought to live, naturally we
will accomplish only a fraction of what we are really capable of
doing. I have a friend who from boyhood has been convinced that
he would not live much, if any, beyond forty years, because both his
parents had died before that age. Consequently he never planned
for a long life of steady growth and increasing power, and the result
is he has not brought anything like all of his latent possibilities into
activity, or accomplished a fourth of what he is really capable.
It is infinitely better to believe that we are going to live much
longer than there is any probability we shall than to cut off precious
years by setting a fixed date for our death simply because one or
both of our parents happened to die about such an age, or because
we fear we have inherited some disease, such as cancer, which is
likely to develop fatally at about a certain time.
Just think of the pernicious influence upon a child's mind of the
constant suggestion that it will probably die very young because its
parents or some of its relatives did; that even if it is fortunate
enough to survive the diseases and accidents of youth and early
maturity, it is not possible to extend its limits of life much, if any,
beyond a certain point! Yet we burn this and similar suggestions into
the minds of our children until they become a part of their lives. We
celebrate birthdays and mark off each recurring anniversary as a
red-letter day and fix in our minds the thought that we are a year
older. All through our mature life the picture of death is kept in view,
the idea that we must expect it and prepare for it at about such a
time. The truth is the death suggestion has wrought more havoc and
marred more lives than almost anything else in human history. It is
responsible for most of the fear, which is the greatest curse of the
race.
A noted physician says that if children, instead of hearing so much
about death, were trained more in the principles of immortality, they
would retain their youth very much longer, and would extend their
lives to a much greater length than is now general.
I believe the time will come when the custom of celebrating
birthdays, of emphasizing the fact that we are a year older, that we
are getting so much nearer the end, will be done away with.
Children will not then be reminded so forcibly once in three hundred
and sixty-five days that each birthday is a milestone in age. We shall
know that the spirit is not affected by years, that its very essence is
youth and immortality. In our inmost souls we shall realize that there
is a life principle within us that knows neither age nor death. We
shall find that old age is largely a question of mental attitude, and
that we shall become what we are convinced we must become.
As a matter of fact the average length of life is steadily increasing,
because science is teaching men how to live so as to conserve
health and youth. Formerly men and women grew old very much
earlier than they do now, and they died much younger. We do not
think so much about dying as they used to in the early days of this
country, when to prepare for the future life seemed to be the chief
occupation of our Puritan ancestors. They had very little use for this
world and did not try to enjoy life here very much. They were always
talking and praying and singing about "the life over there," while
making the life here gloomy and forbidding. They forgot that the
religion Christ taught was one of joy.
There is no greater foe to the aging processes than joy, hope,
good cheer, gladness. These are the incarnation of the youthful
spirit. If you would keep young, cultivate this spirit; think youthful
thoughts; live much with youth; enter into their lives, into their
sports, their plays, their ambitions. Play the youthful part, not half
heartedly, but with enthusiasm and zest. You cannot use any ability
until you think, until you believe, you can. Your reserve power will
stand in the background until your self-faith calls it into action. If
you want to stay young you must act as if you felt young.
If you do not wish to grow old, quit thinking and acting as if you
were aging. Instead of walking with drooped shoulders and with a
slow, dragging gait, straighten up and put elasticity into your steps.
Do not walk like an old man whose energies are waning, whose
youthful fires are spent. Step with the springiness of a young man
full of life, spirit and vigor. The body is not old until the mind gives
its consent. Stop thinking of yourself as an old man or an old
woman. Cease manifesting symptoms of decrepitude. Remember
that the impression you make upon others will react on yourself. If
other people get the idea that you are going down hill physically and
mentally, you will have all the more to overcome in your effort to
change their convictions.
When we are ambitious to obtain a certain thing, and our hearts
are set on it, we strive for it, we contact with it mentally and
through our thoughts we become vitally related to it. We establish a
connection with the coveted object. In other words, we do
everything in our power to obtain it; and the mental effort is a real
force which tends to match our dream with its realization.
An up-to-date modern woman is a good example of what I mean.
She does not act like an old lady, and does not put on an old lady's
garb after she has passed the half-century milestone. We do not see
the old lady's cap, the old lady's gown of the past any more. Women
getting along in years nowadays dress more youthfully and appear
younger than their grandmothers did at the same age. They do
everything to make themselves appear young. Men are much more
likely than women to grow careless in regard to personal appearance
as they grow older. They wear their hair longer, they let their beard
grow, they stoop their shoulders, drag their feet when they walk,
and begin to neglect their dress. They are not as careful in any
respect to retain their youthful appearance as women, who resort to
all sorts of expedients to ward off signs of age and to retain their
attractiveness.
The habit of growing old must be combated as we combat any
other vicious habit, by reversing the processes by which it is formed.
Instead of surrendering and giving up to old age convictions and
fears, stoutly deny them and affirm the opposite. When the
suggestion comes to you that your powers are waning, that you
cannot do what you once did, prove its falsity by exercising the
faculties which you think are weakening. Giving up is only to
surrender to age.
We tend to find what we look for in this world, and if, as we
advance in years, we are always looking for signs of old age we will
find them. If you are constantly on the alert for symptoms of failing
faculties, you will discover plenty of them; and the great danger of
this is that we are apt to take our unfortunate moods for permanent
symptoms. That is, some day perhaps you cannot think as clearly,
you cannot concentrate your mind as well, you do not remember as
readily as you did the day before, and you immediately jump to the
conclusion that a man of your age must begin to fail, cannot expect
as much of himself as when he was younger. In other words, a
person whose mind is concentrated upon his aging processes is
inclined to draw a wrong conclusion from his temporary moods and
feelings, mistaking them for permanent conditions.
The majority of people who are showing the signs of premature
aging are suffering from chronic thought poison, that is, the chronic
old age poison. From the cradle they have heard old age talk, the
reiteration of the old age belief that when a person reached about
such an age he would then naturally begin to let up, to prepare for
the end. And so instead of fighting off age by holding the eternal
youth thought and the vigor thought they have held the thoughts of
weakness and declining powers. When they happen to forget
something, they say their memory is beginning to go back on them,
their sight will soon begin to fail, and they go on anticipating signs of
decline and decrepitude until the old age visualization is built into
the very structure of their bodies.
Instead of forming the habit of looking for signs of age form the
habit of looking for signs of youth. Form the habit of thinking of your
body as robust and supple and your brain as strong and active.
Never allow yourself to think that you are on the decline, that your
faculties are on the wane, that they are not as sharp as they used to
be and that you cannot think as well, because your cells are
becoming old and hard. He ages who thinks he ages. He keeps
young who believes he is young.
We get a good hint of the power of mental influence in the
marvelous way in which many of our actresses and grand-opera
singers retain their youthfulness, because they feel that it is
imperative that they should do so. Had Sara Bernhardt, Adelina Patti,
Lily Lehmann, Madame Schumann-Heink, Lillian Russell, and scores
of other actresses and singers pursued any other vocation they
would undoubtedly have been at least ten, perhaps twenty years
older in appearance than they are.
There are too many exceptions to the race belief that man's
powers begin to wane at fifty, sixty or seventy to allow oneself to be
influenced by it. We really ought to do our best work after fifty. If
the brain is kept active, fresh and young, and the brain cells are not
ruined by a vicious life, worry, fear, selfishness, or by disease
induced by wrong living or thinking, the mind will constantly increase
in vigor and power. Men and women whose faculties are sharp and
whose minds are keen and vigorous at ninety, and even at a
hundred, prove this. I know a number of men in their seventies and
eighties who are as sturdy and vigorous physically and mentally to-
day as they were twenty years ago. Only recently I was talking with
a business man who broke down at forty from over strain but who is
now, in his eightieth year, more buoyant and elastic in mind and
body than many men at fifty. This man does not believe in growing
old because he knows that ten years ago he did not have a bit of the
cell material in his body that he has to-day. "Why should I stamp
these new body cells with four score years," he says, "when not a
single one of them may be a quarter of that age?"
Many of us do not realize the biological fact that Nature herself
bestows upon us the power of perpetual renewal. There is not a cell
in our bodies that can possibly become very old, because all of them
are frequently renewed. Physiologists tell us that the tissue cells of
some muscles are renewed every few months. Some authorities
estimate that eighty or ninety per cent. of all the cells in the body of
a person of ordinary activity are entirely renewed within a couple of
years.
One's mental attitude, however, is the most important of all. There
is no possible way of keeping young while convinced that one must
inevitably manifest the characteristics of old age. The old age
thoughts stamp themselves upon the new body cells, so that they
very soon look forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old. We should hold
tenaciously the conviction that none of the cells of the body can be
old because they are constantly being renewed, a large part of them
every few months. It is impossible for the processes producing
senility to get control of the system, or to make very serious
changes in the body, unless the mind first gives its consent. Age is
not so much a matter of years as of the limpidity, the suppleness of
the protoplasm of the cells of the body, and there is nothing which
will age the protoplasm like aging thoughts and serenity enemies,
such as worry, anxiety, fear, anger, hatred, revenge, or any
discordant emotion. If you keep your protoplasm young by holding
youthful ideals, there is no reason why you should not live well into
the teens of your second century.
Constantly affirm, "I am young because I am perpetually being
renewed; my life comes new every instant from the Infinite Source
of life. I am new every morning and fresh every evening, because I
live, move, and have my being in Him who is the source of all life."
Not only affirm this mentally, but also audibly. Make this picture of
perpetual rejuvenation and re-creation so vivid that you will feel the
thrill of youthful renewal through your entire system.
Some people try to cure the physical ravages made by wrong
living and wrong thinking by patching their bodies from the outside.
The "beauty parlors" in our great cities are besieged by women who
are desperately trying to maintain their youthful appearance, not
realizing that the elixir of youth is in one's own mind, not in bottles
or boxes. Is there anything quite so ghastly as to see an old lady
(really old because her heart is no longer young), with a painted or
enameled face, dressed like a young girl? Such a woman deceives no
one but herself. Other people can see the old, dry skin beneath the
rouge. They can see the wrinkles which she tries to disguise. She
cannot cover up her age with such frivolous pretenses. The painting
of cheeks and wearing of girlish frocks do not make a person young.
It is largely a question of the age of the mind. If the mind has
become hardened, dry, uninteresting, if there is no charm in the
personality one is old, no matter what his or her years count.
Idle, selfish women of wealth who live an animal life, who are
constantly doing things which hasten the appearance of old age,
overeating, over-drinking, over-sleeping, idling life away, having
nothing to do but gratify every luxurious whim, are the best
customers of beauty doctors, who try to erase the earmarks of old
age by "treating" the skin and the hair. Doctoring the effects instead
of trying to remove the cause of old age never has been, and never
can be, really successful. You cannot repair the ravages of age on
the outside. You must remove the cause, which is in the mind, in the
heart. When the affections are marbleized, when one ceases to be
sympathetic and helpful and interested in life, the ravages of old age
will appear in spite of all the beauty doctors in the world.
I know indolent wives of rich men, who cannot understand why
they age so rapidly in appearance when living such easy, care-free,
worry-free lives. They are puzzled to know why it is when they do
not have to work, when they have no cares, when their wants are all
supplied without any effort of theirs, they do not retain their youthful
appearance many years longer than they do. The fact is those
women stagnate, and nothing ages one faster than mental and
physical stagnation. Work, useful employment of some sort, is the
price of all real growth, of all real human expansion. He, or she, who
indulges in continuous idleness pays the price in constant
deterioration, physical, mental and moral. A ship lying idle in the
wharf will rot and go to destruction much more rapidly than a ship at
sea in constant use. Every force in nature seems to combine in
corroding, destroying the unused thing, the idle person.
Work, love, kindness, sympathy, helpfulness, unselfish interest—
these are the eternal youth essences. These never age, and if you
make friends with them they will act like a leaven in your life,
enriching your nature, sweetening and ennobling your character, and
prolonging your youth even to the century mark.
We are learning that the fabled fountain of youth lies in ourselves;
is in our own mentality. Perpetual rejuvenation and renewal are
possible through right thinking. We look as old as we think and feel,
because thought and feeling maintain or change our appearance in
exact accordance with their persistence or their variations. It is
impossible to appear youthful and remain young unless we feel
young. Youthful thinking should be a life habit.
Managing Human Resources Productivity Quality of Work Life Profits 9th Edition Cascio Solutions Manual
CHAPTER XVI
OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFE
He lives best and most who gives God his greatest opportunity in him. If we
only knew how to live and move and have our being in Him, to be conscious of
this every instant, we should then know what true living means. We should be
satisfied, for we should then awake in His likeness.
"Deep within every heart that has not dulled the sense of its inner vision is the
belief that we are one with some great unknown, unseen power; and that we are
somehow inseparably connected with the Infinite Consciousness."
It is a mental law that thoughts and convictions can only attract their kind. A
hatred thought is a hatred magnet and the longer we harbor it, the more steadily
we contemplate it, focus our minds upon it, the larger and more powerful the
hatred magnet becomes.
In the early days of the great European war a Jewish soldier, in
the first line of a Russian battalion, engaged in a man to man fight
with an Austrian in the opposing battalion. In their desperate
encounter the Russian Jew drove his bayonet through the breast of
his opponent. As the latter, an Austrian Jew, fell mortally wounded,
with his dying breath he gasped the Hebrew prayer, which begins,
"Hear, O Israel." The Russian, realizing that he had killed a brother
Jew, overcome with horror, fell fainting on the battlefield. When he
regained consciousness he was a raving lunatic.
When will men realize that we are all brothers; that we are all
members of the same great human family, children of the same
great Father-Mother-God. When will we see that though oceans and
continents divide us, though we may speak different tongues, may
differ in race, color and creed, yet we are so closely related in
thought and motive that our deepest, most vital interests are
identical.
Time and again despite all outward differences has that invisible
bond of union which binds mankind into one great family manifested
itself even on the battlefield. There men who have sabered or shot
at and wounded each other have become fast friends and learned to
feel their brotherhood. Many and many a time has it happened that
soldiers who had been bitter enemies in battle and had tried in every
way to kill each other, have found while convalescing side by side
that they were really one in sympathy and feeling, brothers at heart
and did not know it. If these men had known and seen into one
another's soul before the battle as they had afterwards in the
hospital they never could have been induced to fire at or to try to
injure one another.
In spite of our failures, our blunders, our crimes, the nations are
coming closer and closer together. Scientific discoveries, marvelous
inventions, the extended use of steam and electricity, the conquest
of the air, all these are fast welding the interests of mankind and
bringing into close and intimate relation the most distant countries of
the globe. The Occident and the Orient are no longer at the ends of
the earth. They are beginning to know and to respect each other,
and to learn each from the other. They are beginning to realize in its
largest sense the truth of Kipling's utterance:
"But there is neither East nor West,
Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
tho' they come from the ends of the
earth."
Scientists are piling up proof after proof of the unity, not only of
mankind, but of everything in the universe, of the oneness of all life.
They are demonstrating that there is but one substance, one eternal
force or essence in the universe, and that all we see is but a varying
expression of it. Everything about us is merely a modification, a
change of form of this universal substance, just as electricity is a
manifestation of force in various forms—in its unchained power in
rending giant trees and destroying huge buildings, and as harnessed
by man in moving trains, in lighting our homes, in furnishing heat for
cooking and in many other domestic and industrial devices.
The lesson of lessons for us to learn from this is our inseparable
union with the Creator of life, that everlasting, eternal unity of spirit,
that oneness with the Father which Christ came to teach.
"I and the Father are one." "I am the vine, ye are the branches."
We are as closely united one to the other, and all to the Father as
are the branches to the parent stem. When we are conscious of our
union, of our co-partnership with the Infinite, we feel an added
power, just as the branch feels the force of the life currents flowing
into it from the vine. Severed from the parent stem the same branch
would not feel so confident. It would soon find that of itself it could
do nothing; and in a short time it would wither and die.
The moment we pluck a flower from its stem it begins to wilt and
fade because it is separated from the source of its life. Cut off from
the great chemical laboratory of Nature, from the creative, miracle-
working energy of the sun, the soil, and the atmosphere, it dies
within a few hours.
The moment we are cut off from our Divine Source we begin to
wither, shrivel and die. As long as we remain separate nothing can
stop this fatal blighting process. When we are not fed from our
Source we are like the branch severed from the parent vine, like the
flower plucked from its mother stem.
My experience has shown that people who, from different causes,
feel cut off from connection with the Divine Source of things suffer
intensely from fear. They are filled with a vague, but overmastering
terror which presses upon them with greater force because it is
unseen, unknown. They dimly feel that like meteors in the sky which
have passed beyond the controlling gravity governing the other
heavenly bodies, they are separate, unrelated human atoms without
assurance that they are under a protective, guiding, sustaining
power.
Victims of extreme nervous diseases are often overwhelmed with
a sense of utter isolation, of being cut off from every sustaining
force, and they are terror stricken, just as a child who has lost its
way, and knows not where to turn. Temporarily, and in a lesser
degree, people who are terrified in a thunder storm and rush to a
cellar, anywhere to hide themselves from threatened danger, suffer
from this feeling of separation, of aloneness.
All who are affected in this way would be greatly benefited by
dwelling on such Biblical passages as, "In Him we live and move and
have our being," "The Father in me and I in the Father." These are
strictly scientific truths. We could not live or move or have any being
apart from the Power that made us, that sustains and supports us,
and the consciousness of this gives a steadying, buttressing sense of
security and safety that nothing else can.
Our individual strength comes from our conscious oneness with
Omnipotence, just as our national or corporate strength is derived
from union with one another. Each human being is like a drop of
water in the ocean. He is not independent. He cannot work alone.
Consciously or unconsciously he is a part of the masses all around
him. He is touched by other water drops on every side, and his
existence, his success is largely dependent upon his union with the
others. Even if a drop of the ocean could separate itself from the
mass and should try to live its own life in its own way it would soon
cease to exist as a drop. A man cannot accomplish much alone. His
success depends on his union with other men. His dignity and
strength are reënforced by the organization or association of which
he is a unit, as a cable is reënforced by the sum of the strength of
its separate wires.
"Nature," says Humboldt, "is Unity in diversity of manifestation,
one stupendous whole, animated by the breath of life." When we
come into conscious realization of the truth that we are a part, the
most important part, of the stupendous whole created by God, and
that we are working in coöperation with Him, we will come into
possession of a power and dignity which will make our lives sublime.
The greatest minds of all ages have drawn their strength from the
invisible Source, from their vital connection with the Power which
creates, and works through every one of us. They have also believed
in the great mission of the race; believed in a divine plan running
through the universe which works for righteousness, and shapes the
destiny of the race. This faith in the Godward movement of the great
human current has characterized even those who did not openly
profess any religious faith. Their belief in the divinity of humanity
has been a strong factor in their character, and the root source of
their power.
This same faith, this unquestioned confidence in the divine cosmic
Intelligence, has given more comfort, has brought more peace of
mind, and happiness to vast multitudes of human beings than any
other thing. Indeed it is the only thing that can bring us true peace,
enduring happiness.
There is something beside brain force needed to make a man a
real constructive power in the world, and that is his divine
connection, his being in the current which runs Godward.
Without this essential, notwithstanding all that the mind and the
body can do for us, we feel a void in our being, a great lack, a
longing, a yearning for something, we know not what. Without this,
even though we have the most complete physical and mental
equipment, we are like a new electric car, ready for service,
thoroughly equipped in every detail, except the trolley pole, which
makes the connection with the electric current. Completion,
satisfaction, divine energy can only come from attuning ourselves to
something beyond the physical and the mental plane. We must put
up our trolley pole and tap the infinite Source of Power or else we
are, so far as true progress is concerned, in the position of the car
that is not connected with the motor force that alone gives it power
to move forward. We must tap the divine current running Godward
through contemplation, through prayer, through noble deeds,
unselfish service, honest endeavor to live up to our best. We can not
make connection with Divine Power through any selfish cause, any
greedy deed.
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
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  • 1. Managing Human Resources Productivity Quality of Work Life Profits 9th Edition Cascio Solutions Manual download https://testbankfan.com/product/managing-human-resources- productivity-quality-of-work-life-profits-9th-edition-cascio- solutions-manual/ Explore and download more test bank or solution manual at testbankfan.com
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  • 5. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-1 Chapter 9 Performance Management CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES (SECTION) Questions this chapter will help managers answer: 1. What steps can I, as a manager, take to make the performance management process more relevant and more acceptable to those who will be affected by it? 2. How can we best fit our approach to performance management with the strategic direction of our department and business? 3. Should managers and nonmanagers be appraised from multiple perspectives—for example, by those above, by those below, by coequals, and by customers? 4. What strategy should we use to train raters at all levels in the mechanics of performance management and in the art of giving feedback? 5. What would an effective performance management process look like? KEY TERMS Performance management Performance appraisal Performance facilitation Performance encouragement Relevance Performance standards Sensitivity Reliability Acceptability Narrative essay
  • 6. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-2 Practicality Applicant group Behavior-oriented rating methods Relative rating systems Absolute rating systems Results-oriented rating methods Simple ranking Alternation ranking Paired comparisons Forced distribution Leniency Severity Central tendency Likert method of summed ratings Critical incidents Graphic rating scales Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) Management by objectives (MBO) Work planning and review 360-degree feedback Halo error Contrast error Recency error
  • 7. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-3 Frame-of-reference training Active listening Destructive criticism CHAPTER 9 OUTLINE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS: THE DILEMMA OF FORCED RANKING • In forced ranking systems, all employees are ranked against one another and grades are distributed along a bell-shaped curve. • This is creating a firestorm of controversy and class-action lawsuits. • One reason that employees dislike forced rankings is because they suspect, often correctly, that rankings are a way for companies to rationalize firings. Challenges 1. Do you support the use of forced rankings or not? Student answers will vary. Sample answer: One may support the forced ranking method of performance appraisal because it forces managers to objectively evaluate employee performance. Further, it provides a visual clue as to where each employee falls, as far as productivity, which makes it easy to cull the under-performers. Business is business, not charity, so it only makes sense to keep the best of the best on the payroll. 2. If the criteria used to determine an employee’s rank are more qualitative than quantitative, does this undermine the forced-ranking system? If a qualitative method of the forced ranking method is used, it requires judgment on the part of the rater, which is more subjective and could result in rater errors, such as leniency, severity, or central tendency. Therefore, it could undermine the forced- ranking system, although to only a slight degree. 3. Suppose all of the members of a team are superstars. Can forced-ranking deal with that situation? If all employees are superstars, it will be difficult to utilize the forced-ranking method of performance appraisal because a bell-shaped curve is the end result or objective of this procedure. This would unfairly force superstars into “average” or “underperforming” positions on the curve, assuming that one could find a means of distinguishing between them.
  • 8. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-4 MANAGING FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE • Performance management is likened to a compass—one that indicates actual direction as well as desired direction. • The job of the manager is to indicate where the individual or team is now, and to help focus attention and effort on the desired direction. • Many managers incorrectly equate it with performance appraisal. • There are solid organizational payoffs for implementing strong performance management systems. • Organizations with strong performance management systems are 51 percent more likely to outperform their competitors on financial measures, and 41 percent are more likely to outperform their competitors on nonfinancial measures. • Performance appraisal is a necessary, but far from sufficient, part of performance management. • Performance management requires willingness and a commitment to focus on improving performance at the level of the individual or team every day. • At a general level, the broad process of performance management requires that you do three things well: ✓ Define performance ✓ Facilitate performance ✓ Encourage performance Define Performance • A manager who defines performance ensures that individual employees or teams know what is expected of them, and that they stay focused on effective performance. • A manager does this by paying attention to three key elements: ✓ Goals ✓ Measures ✓ Assessment • Setting a goal: ✓ Directs attention to the specific performance in question ✓ Mobilizes efforts to accomplish higher levels of performance ✓ Fosters persistence for higher levels of performance.
  • 9. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-5 • Specific and challenging goals clarify precisely what is expected and leads to high levels of performance. ✓ On average, productivity improves by 10 percent when goal setting is used. • The mere presence of goals is not sufficient. Managers must also be able to measure the extent to which goals have been accomplished. • In defining performance, the third requirement is assessment. ✓ Regular assessment of progress toward goals focuses the attention and efforts of an employee or a team. • There should be no surprises in the performance management process—and regular appraisals help ensure that there won’t be. Facilitate Performance • Managers who are committed to managing for maximum performance have three major responsibilities: ✓ Eliminate roadblocks to successful performance. ✓ Roadblocks can include: ▪ Outdated or poorly maintained equipment ▪ Delays in receiving supplies ▪ Inefficient design of work spaces ▪ Inefficient work methods ✓ Provide adequate resources to get a job done right and on time; capital resources, material resources, or human resources. ✓ A final aspect of performance facilitation is the careful selection of employees. ▪ Having people who are ill suited to their jobs (e.g., by temperament or training) often leads to overstaffing, excessive labor costs, and reduced productivity. ▪ In leading companies, even top managers often get involved in selecting new employees • If you’re truly committed to managing for maximum performance, you pay attention to all of the factors that might affect performance, and leave nothing to chance.
  • 10. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-6 Encourage Performance • To encourage performance, especially repeated good performance, it is important to provide a sufficient amount of rewards that employees really value in a timely and fair manner. ✓ Ask your people what’s most important to them, then tailor your awards program so that employees or teams can choose from a menu of similarly valued options. • Provide rewards in a timely manner, soon after major accomplishments. ✓ If there is excessive delay between effective performance and receipt of the reward, then the reward loses its potential to motivate subsequent high performance. • Provide rewards in a manner that employees consider fair. Fairness is a subjective concept, but it can be enhanced by adhering to four important practices: ✓ Voice. Collect employee input through surveys or interviews. ✓ Consistency. Ensure that all employees are treated consistently when seeking input and communicating about the process for administering rewards. ✓ Relevance. As noted earlier, include rewards that employees really care about. ✓ Communication. Explain clearly the rules and logic of the rewards process. Performance Management in Practice • A 2004 study by Rainmaker Thinking of more than 500 managers found that few of them consistently provide their direct reports with the five management basics: ✓ Clear statements of what’s expected of each employee ✓ Explicit and measurable goals and deadlines ✓ Detailed evaluation of each person’s work ✓ Clear feedback ✓ Rewards distributed fairly PURPOSES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS • In general, appraisal serves a twofold purpose: ✓ To improve employees’ work performance by helping them realize and use their full potential in carrying out their firms’ missions, and ✓ To provide information to employees and managers for use in making work- related decisions.
  • 11. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-7 • More specifically, appraisals: ✓ Provide legal and formal organizational justification for employment decisions. ✓ Are used as criteria in test validation. ✓ Provide feedback to employees. ✓ Can help identify developmental needs of employees and establish objectives for training programs. ✓ Can help diagnose organizational problems. • Despite their shortcomings, appraisals continue to be used widely, especially as a basis for tying pay to performance. • The real challenge is to identify the appraisal techniques and practices that (1) are most likely to achieve a particular objective and (2) are least vulnerable to the obstacles discussed. REQUIREMENTS OF EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS • Legally and scientifically, the key requirements of any appraisal system are: ✓ Relevance ✓ Sensitivity ✓ Reliability Relevance • Relevance implies that there are: ✓ Clear links between the performance standards for a particular job and organizational objectives and ✓ Clear links between the critical job elements identified through a job analysis and the dimensions to be rated on an appraisal form. • Relevance is determined by answering the question “What really makes the difference between success and failure on a particular job, and according to whom?” ✓ The answer to this question is simple: the customer. • Customers may be internal or external. ✓ In all cases, it is important to pay attention to the things that the customer believes are important. • Performance standards translate job requirements into levels of acceptable or unacceptable employee behavior. • Job analysis identifies what is to be done. Performance standards specify how well work is to be done. ✓ Such standards may be quantitative or qualitative.
  • 12. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-8 • Relevance also implies the periodic maintenance and updating of job analyses, performance standards, and appraisal systems. Sensitivity • Sensitivity implies that a performance appraisal system is capable of distinguishing effective from ineffective performers. • A major concern here is the purpose of the rating. ✓ Raters process identical sets of performance appraisal information differently, depending on whether a merit pay raise, a recommendation for further development, or the retention of a probationary employee is involved. ✓ Appraisal systems designed for administrative purposes demand performance information about differences between individuals. ✓ Systems designed to promote employee growth demand information about differences within individuals. ✓ The two different types of information are not interchangeable in terms of purposes, and that is why performance management systems designed to meet both purposes are more complex and costly. Reliability • A third requirement of sound appraisal systems is reliability (consistency of judgment). ✓ For any given employee, appraisals made by raters working independently of one another should agree closely. In practice, ratings made by supervisors tend to be more reliable than those made by peers. ✓ To provide reliable data, each rater must observe what the employee has done and the conditions under which he/she has done it. • By making appraisal systems relevant, sensitive, and reliable, we can assume that the resulting judgments are valid. Acceptability • In practice, acceptability is the most important requirement of all. • HR programs must have the support of those who will use them. • Evidence indicates that appraisal systems that are acceptable to those who will be affected by them lead to more favorable reactions to the process, increased motivation to improve performance, and increased trust for top management. • Smart managers enlist the active support and cooperation of subordinates or teams by making explicit exactly what aspects of job performance they will be evaluated on.
  • 13. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-9 Practicality • Practicality implies that appraisal instruments are easy for managers and employees to understand and use. • Those that are not easy, or that impose inordinate time demands, are not practical; managers will resist using them. • Managers need as much encouragement and organizational support as possible if thoughtful performance management is to take place. • The crucial question to be answered in regard to each appraisal system is whether its use results in fewer (and less costly) human, social, and organizational errors. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL • To avoid legal difficulties, consider taking the following steps: ✓ Conduct a job analysis to determine the characteristics necessary for successful job performance. ✓ Incorporate these characteristics into a rating instrument. ✓ Provide written instructions and train supervisors to use the rating instrument properly. ✓ Establish a system to detect potentially discriminatory effects or abuses of the appraisal process. ✓ Include formal appeal mechanisms, coupled with higher-level review of appraisals. ✓ Document the appraisals and the reason for any termination decisions. ✓ Provide some form of performance counseling or corrective guidance to assist poor performers. • The type of evidence required to defend performance ratings is linked to the purposes for which the ratings are made. • To assess adverse impact, organizations should keep accurate records of who is eligible for and interested in promotion. • Eligibility and interest, define the applicant group. • Implementing scientifically sound, court-proof appraisal systems requires diligent attention by organizations, plus a commitment to making them work. • In developing a performance appraisal system, the most basic requirement is to determine what you want the system to accomplish.
  • 14. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-10 The Strategic Dimension of Performance Appraisal • In the study of work motivation, a fairly well established principle is that the things that get rewarded get done. • A fundamental issue for managers is “What kind of behavior do I want to encourage in my subordinates?” • Managers can emphasize short- or long-term objectives in the appraisal process, or some combination of the two. • To be most useful, the strategic management of performance must be linked to the strategies an organization (or strategic business unit) uses to gain competitive advantage. • Some appraisal systems that are popular in the United States, such as management by objectives (MBO), are less popular in other parts of the world, such as Japan and France. • MBO focuses primarily on results, rather than on how the results were accomplished. Typically it has a short-term focus. • In Japan, greater emphasis is placed on the psychological and behavioral sides of performance appraisal than on objective outcomes. ✓ Short-term results are much less important than long-term personal development, the establishment and maintenance of long-term relationships with customers, and increasing market share. • Once managers decide what they want the appraisal system to accomplish, their next question is, “What’s the best method of performance appraisal, which technique should I use?” ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF APPRAISING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE • Many regard rating methods or formats as the central issue in performance appraisal. However, broader issues must also be considered, such as: ✓ Trust in the appraisal system ✓ The attitudes of managers and employees ✓ The purpose, frequency, and source of appraisal data ✓ Rater training • Behavior-oriented rating methods focus on employee behaviors, either by comparing the performance of employees to that of other employees (relative rating systems) or by evaluating each employee in terms of performance standards without reference to others (absolute rating systems).
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  • 16. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-11 • Results-oriented rating systems place primary emphasis on what an employee produces. ✓ Ratings are not strongly related to results. ✓ Because these processes are complex, there may be errors of judgment in the ratings. ✓ Results depend heavily on conditions that may be outside the control of the individual worker. ✓ Most measures of results provide only partial coverage of the overall domain of job performance. Behavior-Oriented Rating Methods Narrative Essay • The simplest type of absolute rating system is the narrative essay, in which a rater describes, in writing, an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential, together with suggestions for improvement. • If essays are done well, they can provide detailed feedback to subordinates regarding their performance. • Comparisons across individuals, groups, or departments are almost impossible since different essays touch on different aspects of each subordinate’s performance. • This makes it difficult to use essay information for employment decisions since subordinates are not compared objectively and ranked relative to one another. Ranking • Simple ranking requires only that a rater order all employees from highest to lowest, from “best” employee to “worst” employee. • Alternation ranking requires that a rater initially list all employees on a sheet of paper. From this list he/she first chooses the best employee (No. 1), then the worst employee, then the second best then the second worst, and so forth, alternating from the top to the bottom of the list until all employees have been ranked.
  • 17. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-12 Paired Comparisons • Use of paired comparisons is a more systematic method for comparing employees to one another. • Each employee is compared with every other employee, usually in terms of an overall category such as “present value to the organization.” The rater’s task is simply to choose the “better” of each pair, and each employee’s rank is determined by counting the number of times he/she was rated superior. • The number of comparisons becomes quite large as the number of employees increases. • Methods that compare employees to one another are useful for generating initial rankings for purposes of employment decisions. Forced Distribution • Forced distribution is another method of comparing employees to one another. • The overall distribution of ratings is forced into a normal, or bell-shaped, curve under the assumption that a relatively small portion of employees is truly outstanding, a relatively small portion is unsatisfactory, and everybody else falls in between. • Forced distribution eliminates clustering almost all employees at the top of the distribution (rater leniency), at the bottom of the distribution (rater severity), or in the middle (central tendency). • However, it can foster a great deal of employee resentment if an entire group of employees is either superior or substandard. • It is most useful when a large number of employees must be rated and there is more than one rater. Behavioral Checklist • The rater is provided with a series of statements that describe job-related behavior. His/her task is simply to “check” which of the statements, or the extent to which each statement, describes the employee. • Raters are not so much evaluators as reporters whose task is to describe job behavior. • Descriptive ratings are likely to be more reliable than evaluative (good-bad) ratings.
  • 18. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-13 • With a Likert method of summed ratings: ✓ A declarative statement (e.g., “He/she follows up on customer complaints”) is followed by several response categories, such as “always,” “fairly often,” “occasionally,” and “never.” The rater checks the response category that he/she thinks best describes the employee. ✓ Each category is weighted, for example, from 5 (“always”) to 1 (“never”) if the statement describes desirable behavior. ✓ The overall numerical rating (or score) for each employee is the sum of the weights of the responses that were checked for each item. Critical Incidents • Critical incidents are brief anecdotal reports by supervisors of things employees do that are particularly effective or ineffective in accomplishing parts of their jobs. • They focus on behaviors, not traits. • They can provide the basis for training programs. • Critical incidents lend themselves to appraisal interviews because supervisors can focus on actual job behaviors rather than on vaguely defined traits. • Supervisors may find that recording incidents for their subordinates on a daily or even a weekly basis is burdensome. • Incidents alone do not permit comparisons across individuals or departments; graphic rating scales may overcome this problem. Graphic Rating Scales • Many different forms of graphic rating scales exist. • In terms of the amount of structure provided, the scales differ in three ways: ✓ The degree to which the meaning of the response categories is defined. ✓ The degree to which the individual who is interpreting the ratings can tell clearly what response was intended. ✓ The degree to which the performance dimensions are defined for the rater. • Graphic rating scales may not yield the depth of essays or critical incidents, but they: ✓ Are less time-consuming to develop and administer. ✓ Allow results to be expressed in quantitative terms ✓ Consider more than one performance dimension ✓ Facilitate comparisons across employees. • Graphic rating scales, when compared to more sophisticated forced-choice scales, have proved just as reliable and valid and are more acceptable to raters.
  • 19. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-14 Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales • A variation of the simple graphic rating scale is behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). • The major advantage of BARS is that they define the dimensions to be rated in behavioral terms and use critical incidents to describe various levels of performance. • BARS therefore provide a common frame of reference for raters. • BARS require considerable effort to develop, yet there is little research evidence to support the superiority of BARS over other types of rating systems. • The participative process required to develop them provides information that is useful for other organizational purposes, such as communicating clearly to employees exactly what “good performance” means in the context of their jobs. Results-Oriented Rating Methods Management by Objectives • Management by objectives (MBO) relies on goal-setting to establish objectives for the organization as a whole, for each department, for each manager within each department, and for each employee. • MBO is not a measure of employee behavior; rather, it is a measure of each employee’s contribution to the success of the organization. • To establish objectives, the key people involved should do three things: ✓ Meet to agree on the major objectives for a given period of time ✓ Develop plans for how and when the objectives will be accomplished, and ✓ Agree on the measurement tools for determining whether the objectives have been met. • In theory, MBO promotes success in each employee because, as each employee succeeds, so do that employee’s manager, the department, and the organization. ✓ This is true only to the extent that the individual, departmental, and organizational goals are compatible. ✓ In light of the corporate scandals that characterized the early part of the 21st century, progressive firms do not focus only on results achieved but also on how those results were achieved. That approach is known as “full-spectrum leadership.”
  • 20. Chapter 09 - Performance Management 9-15 Work Planning and Review • Work planning and review is similar to MBO; however, it places greater emphasis on the periodic review of work plans by both supervisor and subordinate in order to identify goals attained, problems encountered, and the need for training. When Should Each Technique Be Used? • The rating format is not as important as the relevance and acceptability of the rating system. • An extensive review of the research literature that relates the various rating methods to indicators of performance appraisal effectiveness found no clear “winner.” • However, the researchers provided several “if . . . then” propositions and general statements based on their study: ✓ If the objective is to compare employees across raters for important employment decisions, don’t use MBO and work planning and review. They are not based on a standardized rating scheme for all employees. ✓ If you use a BARS, also make diary keeping a part of the process. This will improve the accuracy of the ratings, and it also will help supervisors distinguish between effective and ineffective employees. ✓ If objective performance data are available, MBO is the best strategy to use. ✓ In general, the appraisal methods that are best in a broad, organizational sense— BARS and MBO—are the most difficult to use and maintain. ✓ Methods that focus on describing, rather than evaluating, behavior (e.g., BARS, summed rating scales) produce results that are the most interpretable across raters and help remove the effects of individual differences in raters. ✓ No rating method has been an unqualified success when used as a basis for merit pay or promotional decisions. ✓ When certain statistical corrections are made, the correlations between scores on alternative rating formats are very high. Hence all the formats measure essentially the same thing.
  • 21. Other documents randomly have different content
  • 22. If you play as hard as you work, refresh and rejuvenate yourself by pleasant recreation and a jolly good time when your work is done, and then at a regular hour every night prepare your mind for sleep, just as you would prepare your body, give it a mental bath and clothe it in beautiful thoughts, you will in a short time establish the habit of sound, peaceful, refreshing sleep. Whatever else you do, or do not, form the habit of making a call on the Great Within of yourself before retiring. Leave there the message of up-lift, of self-betterment and self-enlargement, that which you yearn for and long to realize but do not know just how to attain. Registering this call, this demand for something higher and nobler, in your subconsciousness, putting it right up to yourself, will work like a leaven during the night; and, after a while, all the building forces within you will unite in furthering your aim; in helping you to realize your vision, whatever it may be. The period of sleep may be made a wonderful period of growth, for the mind as well as for the body. It is a time when you can attract your desires; it is a propitious time to nurse your vision. Instead of making an enemy of your subconscious self by giving it destructive thoughts to work with, explosives that will destroy much of what you have accomplished during the day, make it your friend by giving it strong, creative, helpful thoughts with which to go on creating, building for you during the night. There are marvelous possibilities for health and character, success and happiness building, during sleep. Every thought dropped into the subconscious mind before we go to sleep is a seed that will germinate in the night while we are unconscious and ultimately bring forth a harvest of its kind. By impressing upon it our desires, picturing as vividly as possible our ideals, what we wish to become, and what we long to accomplish, we will be surprised to see how quickly that wonderful force in the subjective self will begin to shape the pattern, to copy the model which it is given. In this way we can correct habits which are wounding our self-respect, humiliating us, marring our usefulness and efficiency, perhaps sapping our lives. We can get rid of faults and imperfections; we can strengthen our weak
  • 23. faculties and overcome vicious tendencies which the will power may not be strong enough to correct in the daytime. If, as now seems clear, the subconscious mind can build or destroy, can make us happy or miserable according to the pattern we give it before going to sleep, if it can solve the problems of the inventor, of the discoverer, of the troubled business man, why do we not use it more? Why do we not avail ourselves of this tremendous mysterious force for life building, character building, success building, happiness building, instead of for life destroying? One reason is that we are only just beginning to discover that we can control this secondary self or intelligence, which regulates all the functions of the body without the immediate orders of the objective self. We are getting a glimpse of what it is capable of doing by experiments upon hypnotized subjects, when the objective mind, the mind which gets most of its material through the five senses is shut off and the other, the subjective mind, is in control. We are finding that it is comparatively easy while a person is in a hypnotic state to make wonderful changes in disposition, and to correct vicious habits, mental and moral defects, through suggestion. There is no doubt that so far as the subjective mind is concerned we are in a similar condition when asleep as when in a hypnotic trance, and experiments have shown that marvelous results are possible, especially in the case of children, by talking to them, during their sleep, advising them, counseling them, suggesting things that are for their good. Parents should teach their children how to prepare their minds for sleep so that the subconscious self would create, produce something beautiful instead of the black, discordant images of fear which so often terrorize little ones before they fall asleep and when they wake up in the dark hours of the night. How often have we noticed the troubled, fear-full expression on the face of a sleeping child, who was sent to bed with anger thoughts, with fear thoughts in its mind after a severe scolding or perhaps a whipping.
  • 24. A child should never be scolded or frightened, or teased, especially just before bedtime. It should be encouraged to fall asleep in its sweetest, happiest mood, in the spirit of love. Then its sleeping face will reflect the love spirit and the child will awaken in the same spirit, as though it had been talking with angels while it slept. Children are peculiarly susceptible to the influence of our thoughts, our suggestions to them during sleep. Their character can be molded to a great extent, their ability developed, their faults eradicated, and their weak points strengthened during sleep. In some ways the suggestions made to them in that state have more effect than those made to them when awake, because while the objective mind often scatters and fails to reproduce what is presented to it, the subjective mind gradually absorbs and reflects every suggestion. Many mothers have found this true, especially in correcting bad habits which seemed almost impossible to reach while the children were awake. If you want to make your child beautiful in character, in disposition, in person, think beautiful thoughts into its mind as it falls asleep; speak to it of beautiful things while it sleeps. I believe the time will come when much of the child's training will be effected during sleep. Its æsthetic faculties, the love of music, of art, of all things noble and beautiful, special talents, and latent possibilities of all kinds will be developed through suggestion. In the marvelous interior creative forces lies the great secret of life, and blessed is he who findeth it. Doubly blessed is he who findeth it at the start of life.
  • 25. CHAPTER XV HOW TO STAY YOUNG We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count. R. W. Emerson. The ability to hold mentally the picture of youth in all its glory, vivacity and splendor has a powerful influence in restraining the old age processes. Old age begins in the heart. When the heart grows cold the skin grows old, and the appearances of age impress themselves on the body. The mind becomes blighted, the ideals blurred, and the juices of life congealed. Many people look forward to old age as a time when, as a recent writer puts it, you have "a feeling that no one wants you, that all those you have borne and brought up have long passed out onto roads where you cannot follow, that even the thought-life of the world streams by so fast that you lie up in a backwater, feebly, blindly groping for the full of the water, and always pushed gently, hopelessly back." There is such a thing as an old age of this kind, but not for those who face life in the right way. Such a pathetic, such a tragic ending is not for those who love and are loved, because they keep their hearts open to the joys and sorrows of life; who maintain a sympathetic interest in their fellow-beings and in the progress and uplift of the world; who keep their faculties sharpened by use, and whose minds are constantly reaching out, broadening and growing, in the love and service of humanity. A dismal, useless old age is only for those who have not learned how to live. Growth in knowledge and wisdom should be the only indication of our added years. Professor Metchnikoff, the greatest authority on
  • 26. age, believes that it is possible to prolong life, with its maximum of vigor and freshness, until the end of its normal cycle, when the individual will gratefully welcome what will be a perfectly happy release. At this point he claims that the instinct of death will supplant the instinct of life, when the bodily mechanism approaches the natural end of normal exhaustion. He believes that men should live and maintain their usefulness for at least one hundred and twenty years. The author of "Philosophy of Longevity" tells us that man can live to be two hundred years old. Jean Finot says: "Speaking physiologically, the human body possesses peerless solidity. Not one of the machines invented by man could resist for a single year the incessant taxes which we impose upon ours. Yet it continues to perform its functions notwithstanding." What we have a horror of is the premature death of the faculties, the cutting off of power, opportunity, the decay of the body many years before the close of the life on earth. We shudder at the giving up of a large part of life that has potency of work, of action and of happiness. This horror of senility increases, because life continually grows more interesting. There never was a time when it seemed so precious, so full of possibilities, when there was so much to live for, as in this glorious present. There never was a time when it seemed so hard to be forced out of the life race. We are on the eve of a new and marvelous era, and the whole race is on the tiptoe of expectancy. Never before was the thought of old age as represented by decay and enforced inactivity so repugnant to man. But why should any one look forward to such a period? It is just this looking forward, the anticipating and dreading the coming of old age, that makes us old, senile, useless. The creative forces inside of us build on our suggestions, on our thought models, and if we constantly thrust into our consciousness old age thoughts and pictures of decrepitude, of declining faculties, these thoughts and pictures will be reproduced in the body.
  • 27. A few years ago a young man "died of old age" in a New York hospital. After an autopsy the surgeons said that while the man was in reality only twenty-three years old he was internally eighty! If you have arrived at an age which you accept as a starting point for physical deterioration, your body will sympathize with your conviction. Your walk, your gait, your expression, your general appearance, and even your acts will all fall into line with your mental attitude. A short time ago I was talking with a remarkable man of sixty about growing old. The thought of the inevitableness of the aging processes appalled him. No matter, he declared, what efforts he might make to avert or postpone the decrepitude of age there would come a period of diminishing returns, and though he might fight against it he would ever after be on the decline of life, going irrevocably toward the sunset, ever nearer and nearer to the time when he should be useless. "The conviction that every moment, every hour, every day takes me so much nearer to that hole in the ground from which no power in Heaven or earth can help us to escape is ever present in my mind," he said. "This progressive, ever- active retrogression is monstrous. This inevitably decrepit old age staring me in the face is robbing me of happiness, paralyzing my efforts and discouraging my ambition." "But why do you dwell on those things that terrify you?" I asked. "Why do you harbor such old age thoughts? Why are you visualizing decrepitude, the dulling and weakening of your mental faculties? If you have such a horror of the decrepitude, the loss of memory, the failing eyesight, the hesitating step, and the general deterioration which you believe accompany old age, why don't you get away from these terrifying thoughts, put them out of your mind instead of dwelling on them? Don't you know that what you concentrate on, what you fear, the pictures that so terrify you, are creating the very conditions which you would give anything to escape? If you really wish to stay the old age processes you must change your thoughts. Erase everything that has to do with age from your mind. Visualize youthful conditions. Say to yourself, "God is my life. I cannot grow
  • 28. old in spirit, and that is the only old age to fear. As long as my spirit is youthful; as long as the boy in me lives, I cannot age." The great trouble with those who are getting along in years is that they put themselves outside of the things that would keep them young. Most people after fifty begin to shun children and youth generally. They feel that it is not "becoming to their years" to act as they did when younger, and day by day they gradually fall more and more into old age ways and habits. We build into our lives the picture patterns which we hold in our minds. This is a mental law. When you have reached the time at which most people show traces of their age you imagine that you must do the same. You begin to think you have probably done your best work, and that your powers must henceforth decline. You imagine your faculties are deteriorating, that they are not quite so sharp as they once were; that you cannot endure quite so much, and that you ought to begin to let up a little; to take less exercise, to do less work, to take life a little easier. The moment you allow yourself to think your powers are beginning to decline they will do so, and your appearance and bodily conditions will follow your convictions. If you hold the thought that your ambition is sagging, that your faculties are deteriorating, you will be convinced that younger men have the advantage of you, and, voluntarily, at first, you will begin to take a back seat, figuratively speaking, behind the younger men. Once you do this you are doomed to be pushed farther and farther to the rear. You will be taken at your own valuation. Having made a confession of age, acknowledged in thought and act that, in so far as work and productive returns are concerned, you are no longer the equal of young men, they will naturally be preferred before you. If people who have aged prematurely could only analyze the influences which have robbed them of their birthright of youth they would find that most of them were a false conviction that they must grow old at about such a time, needless worry,—all worry is needless,—silly anxiety, which often comes from vanity, jealousy and the indulgence of such passions as excessive temper, revenge, and
  • 29. all sorts of unhealthy thinking. If they could only eliminate these influences from their lives, they would take a great leap back toward youthfulness. If it were possible to erase all of the scars and wrinkles, all the effects of our aging thoughts, aging emotions, moods and passions, many of us would be so transformed, so rejuvenated that our friends would scarcely know us. The aging thoughts and moods and passions make old men and women of most of us in middle life. The laws of renewal, of rejuvenation are always operating in us, and will be effective if we do not neutralize them by wrong thinking. The chemical changes caused in the blood and other secretions by worry, fear, the operation of the explosive passions, or by any depressing mental disturbance, will put the aging processes in action. Whatever we establish as a fixed conviction in our lives we transmit to our children, and this conviction gathers cumulative force all the way down the centuries. Every child in Christian countries is born with the race belief that three score years or three score years and ten is a sort of measure of the limit to human life. This has crystallized into a race belief, and we begin to prepare for the end much in advance of the period fixed. As long as we hold this belief we cannot bar out of our minds the consequent suggestion that when we pass the half century limit our powers begin to decline. The very idea that we have reached our limit of growth, that any hope of further progress must be abandoned, tends to etch the old age picture and conviction deeper and deeper in our minds, and of course the creative processes can only reproduce the pattern given them. Some men cross the zenith line, from which they believe they must henceforth go down-hill, a quarter of a century or more earlier than others, because we cross this line of demarcation mentally first, cross it when we are convinced that we have passed the maximum of our producing power and have reached the period of diminishing returns.
  • 30. Many people have what they are pleased to call a premonition that they will not live beyond a certain age, and that becomes a focus toward which the whole life points. They begin to prepare for the end. Their conviction that they are to die at a certain time largely determines the limitation of their years. Not long since, at a banquet, I met a very intelligent, widely read man who told me that he felt perfectly sure he could not possibly live to be an old man. He cited as a reason for his belief the analogy which runs through all nature, showing that plants, animals and all forms of life which mature early also die early, and because he was practically an adult at fifteen he was convinced that he must die comparatively young. He said he was like a poplar tree in comparison with an oak; the one matured early and died early; the other matured late and was very long-lived. So thoroughly is this man under the dominion of his belief that he must die early that he is making no fight for longevity. He does not take ordinary care of his health, or necessary precautions in time of danger. "What is the use," he says, "of trying to fight against Nature's laws? I might as well live while I live, and enjoy all I can, and try to make up for an early death." Multitudes of people start out in youth handicapped by a belief that they have some hereditary taint, a predisposition to some disease that will probably shorten their lives. They go through life with this restricting, limiting thought so deeply embedded in the very marrow of their being that they never even try to develop themselves to their utmost capacity. Our achievement depends very largely upon the expectancy plan, the life pattern we make for ourselves. If we make our plan to fit only one-half or one-third of the time we ought to live, naturally we will accomplish only a fraction of what we are really capable of doing. I have a friend who from boyhood has been convinced that he would not live much, if any, beyond forty years, because both his parents had died before that age. Consequently he never planned for a long life of steady growth and increasing power, and the result
  • 31. is he has not brought anything like all of his latent possibilities into activity, or accomplished a fourth of what he is really capable. It is infinitely better to believe that we are going to live much longer than there is any probability we shall than to cut off precious years by setting a fixed date for our death simply because one or both of our parents happened to die about such an age, or because we fear we have inherited some disease, such as cancer, which is likely to develop fatally at about a certain time. Just think of the pernicious influence upon a child's mind of the constant suggestion that it will probably die very young because its parents or some of its relatives did; that even if it is fortunate enough to survive the diseases and accidents of youth and early maturity, it is not possible to extend its limits of life much, if any, beyond a certain point! Yet we burn this and similar suggestions into the minds of our children until they become a part of their lives. We celebrate birthdays and mark off each recurring anniversary as a red-letter day and fix in our minds the thought that we are a year older. All through our mature life the picture of death is kept in view, the idea that we must expect it and prepare for it at about such a time. The truth is the death suggestion has wrought more havoc and marred more lives than almost anything else in human history. It is responsible for most of the fear, which is the greatest curse of the race. A noted physician says that if children, instead of hearing so much about death, were trained more in the principles of immortality, they would retain their youth very much longer, and would extend their lives to a much greater length than is now general. I believe the time will come when the custom of celebrating birthdays, of emphasizing the fact that we are a year older, that we are getting so much nearer the end, will be done away with. Children will not then be reminded so forcibly once in three hundred and sixty-five days that each birthday is a milestone in age. We shall know that the spirit is not affected by years, that its very essence is youth and immortality. In our inmost souls we shall realize that there is a life principle within us that knows neither age nor death. We
  • 32. shall find that old age is largely a question of mental attitude, and that we shall become what we are convinced we must become. As a matter of fact the average length of life is steadily increasing, because science is teaching men how to live so as to conserve health and youth. Formerly men and women grew old very much earlier than they do now, and they died much younger. We do not think so much about dying as they used to in the early days of this country, when to prepare for the future life seemed to be the chief occupation of our Puritan ancestors. They had very little use for this world and did not try to enjoy life here very much. They were always talking and praying and singing about "the life over there," while making the life here gloomy and forbidding. They forgot that the religion Christ taught was one of joy. There is no greater foe to the aging processes than joy, hope, good cheer, gladness. These are the incarnation of the youthful spirit. If you would keep young, cultivate this spirit; think youthful thoughts; live much with youth; enter into their lives, into their sports, their plays, their ambitions. Play the youthful part, not half heartedly, but with enthusiasm and zest. You cannot use any ability until you think, until you believe, you can. Your reserve power will stand in the background until your self-faith calls it into action. If you want to stay young you must act as if you felt young. If you do not wish to grow old, quit thinking and acting as if you were aging. Instead of walking with drooped shoulders and with a slow, dragging gait, straighten up and put elasticity into your steps. Do not walk like an old man whose energies are waning, whose youthful fires are spent. Step with the springiness of a young man full of life, spirit and vigor. The body is not old until the mind gives its consent. Stop thinking of yourself as an old man or an old woman. Cease manifesting symptoms of decrepitude. Remember that the impression you make upon others will react on yourself. If other people get the idea that you are going down hill physically and mentally, you will have all the more to overcome in your effort to change their convictions.
  • 33. When we are ambitious to obtain a certain thing, and our hearts are set on it, we strive for it, we contact with it mentally and through our thoughts we become vitally related to it. We establish a connection with the coveted object. In other words, we do everything in our power to obtain it; and the mental effort is a real force which tends to match our dream with its realization. An up-to-date modern woman is a good example of what I mean. She does not act like an old lady, and does not put on an old lady's garb after she has passed the half-century milestone. We do not see the old lady's cap, the old lady's gown of the past any more. Women getting along in years nowadays dress more youthfully and appear younger than their grandmothers did at the same age. They do everything to make themselves appear young. Men are much more likely than women to grow careless in regard to personal appearance as they grow older. They wear their hair longer, they let their beard grow, they stoop their shoulders, drag their feet when they walk, and begin to neglect their dress. They are not as careful in any respect to retain their youthful appearance as women, who resort to all sorts of expedients to ward off signs of age and to retain their attractiveness. The habit of growing old must be combated as we combat any other vicious habit, by reversing the processes by which it is formed. Instead of surrendering and giving up to old age convictions and fears, stoutly deny them and affirm the opposite. When the suggestion comes to you that your powers are waning, that you cannot do what you once did, prove its falsity by exercising the faculties which you think are weakening. Giving up is only to surrender to age. We tend to find what we look for in this world, and if, as we advance in years, we are always looking for signs of old age we will find them. If you are constantly on the alert for symptoms of failing faculties, you will discover plenty of them; and the great danger of this is that we are apt to take our unfortunate moods for permanent symptoms. That is, some day perhaps you cannot think as clearly, you cannot concentrate your mind as well, you do not remember as
  • 34. readily as you did the day before, and you immediately jump to the conclusion that a man of your age must begin to fail, cannot expect as much of himself as when he was younger. In other words, a person whose mind is concentrated upon his aging processes is inclined to draw a wrong conclusion from his temporary moods and feelings, mistaking them for permanent conditions. The majority of people who are showing the signs of premature aging are suffering from chronic thought poison, that is, the chronic old age poison. From the cradle they have heard old age talk, the reiteration of the old age belief that when a person reached about such an age he would then naturally begin to let up, to prepare for the end. And so instead of fighting off age by holding the eternal youth thought and the vigor thought they have held the thoughts of weakness and declining powers. When they happen to forget something, they say their memory is beginning to go back on them, their sight will soon begin to fail, and they go on anticipating signs of decline and decrepitude until the old age visualization is built into the very structure of their bodies. Instead of forming the habit of looking for signs of age form the habit of looking for signs of youth. Form the habit of thinking of your body as robust and supple and your brain as strong and active. Never allow yourself to think that you are on the decline, that your faculties are on the wane, that they are not as sharp as they used to be and that you cannot think as well, because your cells are becoming old and hard. He ages who thinks he ages. He keeps young who believes he is young. We get a good hint of the power of mental influence in the marvelous way in which many of our actresses and grand-opera singers retain their youthfulness, because they feel that it is imperative that they should do so. Had Sara Bernhardt, Adelina Patti, Lily Lehmann, Madame Schumann-Heink, Lillian Russell, and scores of other actresses and singers pursued any other vocation they would undoubtedly have been at least ten, perhaps twenty years older in appearance than they are.
  • 35. There are too many exceptions to the race belief that man's powers begin to wane at fifty, sixty or seventy to allow oneself to be influenced by it. We really ought to do our best work after fifty. If the brain is kept active, fresh and young, and the brain cells are not ruined by a vicious life, worry, fear, selfishness, or by disease induced by wrong living or thinking, the mind will constantly increase in vigor and power. Men and women whose faculties are sharp and whose minds are keen and vigorous at ninety, and even at a hundred, prove this. I know a number of men in their seventies and eighties who are as sturdy and vigorous physically and mentally to- day as they were twenty years ago. Only recently I was talking with a business man who broke down at forty from over strain but who is now, in his eightieth year, more buoyant and elastic in mind and body than many men at fifty. This man does not believe in growing old because he knows that ten years ago he did not have a bit of the cell material in his body that he has to-day. "Why should I stamp these new body cells with four score years," he says, "when not a single one of them may be a quarter of that age?" Many of us do not realize the biological fact that Nature herself bestows upon us the power of perpetual renewal. There is not a cell in our bodies that can possibly become very old, because all of them are frequently renewed. Physiologists tell us that the tissue cells of some muscles are renewed every few months. Some authorities estimate that eighty or ninety per cent. of all the cells in the body of a person of ordinary activity are entirely renewed within a couple of years. One's mental attitude, however, is the most important of all. There is no possible way of keeping young while convinced that one must inevitably manifest the characteristics of old age. The old age thoughts stamp themselves upon the new body cells, so that they very soon look forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old. We should hold tenaciously the conviction that none of the cells of the body can be old because they are constantly being renewed, a large part of them every few months. It is impossible for the processes producing senility to get control of the system, or to make very serious
  • 36. changes in the body, unless the mind first gives its consent. Age is not so much a matter of years as of the limpidity, the suppleness of the protoplasm of the cells of the body, and there is nothing which will age the protoplasm like aging thoughts and serenity enemies, such as worry, anxiety, fear, anger, hatred, revenge, or any discordant emotion. If you keep your protoplasm young by holding youthful ideals, there is no reason why you should not live well into the teens of your second century. Constantly affirm, "I am young because I am perpetually being renewed; my life comes new every instant from the Infinite Source of life. I am new every morning and fresh every evening, because I live, move, and have my being in Him who is the source of all life." Not only affirm this mentally, but also audibly. Make this picture of perpetual rejuvenation and re-creation so vivid that you will feel the thrill of youthful renewal through your entire system. Some people try to cure the physical ravages made by wrong living and wrong thinking by patching their bodies from the outside. The "beauty parlors" in our great cities are besieged by women who are desperately trying to maintain their youthful appearance, not realizing that the elixir of youth is in one's own mind, not in bottles or boxes. Is there anything quite so ghastly as to see an old lady (really old because her heart is no longer young), with a painted or enameled face, dressed like a young girl? Such a woman deceives no one but herself. Other people can see the old, dry skin beneath the rouge. They can see the wrinkles which she tries to disguise. She cannot cover up her age with such frivolous pretenses. The painting of cheeks and wearing of girlish frocks do not make a person young. It is largely a question of the age of the mind. If the mind has become hardened, dry, uninteresting, if there is no charm in the personality one is old, no matter what his or her years count. Idle, selfish women of wealth who live an animal life, who are constantly doing things which hasten the appearance of old age, overeating, over-drinking, over-sleeping, idling life away, having nothing to do but gratify every luxurious whim, are the best customers of beauty doctors, who try to erase the earmarks of old
  • 37. age by "treating" the skin and the hair. Doctoring the effects instead of trying to remove the cause of old age never has been, and never can be, really successful. You cannot repair the ravages of age on the outside. You must remove the cause, which is in the mind, in the heart. When the affections are marbleized, when one ceases to be sympathetic and helpful and interested in life, the ravages of old age will appear in spite of all the beauty doctors in the world. I know indolent wives of rich men, who cannot understand why they age so rapidly in appearance when living such easy, care-free, worry-free lives. They are puzzled to know why it is when they do not have to work, when they have no cares, when their wants are all supplied without any effort of theirs, they do not retain their youthful appearance many years longer than they do. The fact is those women stagnate, and nothing ages one faster than mental and physical stagnation. Work, useful employment of some sort, is the price of all real growth, of all real human expansion. He, or she, who indulges in continuous idleness pays the price in constant deterioration, physical, mental and moral. A ship lying idle in the wharf will rot and go to destruction much more rapidly than a ship at sea in constant use. Every force in nature seems to combine in corroding, destroying the unused thing, the idle person. Work, love, kindness, sympathy, helpfulness, unselfish interest— these are the eternal youth essences. These never age, and if you make friends with them they will act like a leaven in your life, enriching your nature, sweetening and ennobling your character, and prolonging your youth even to the century mark. We are learning that the fabled fountain of youth lies in ourselves; is in our own mentality. Perpetual rejuvenation and renewal are possible through right thinking. We look as old as we think and feel, because thought and feeling maintain or change our appearance in exact accordance with their persistence or their variations. It is impossible to appear youthful and remain young unless we feel young. Youthful thinking should be a life habit.
  • 39. CHAPTER XVI OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFE He lives best and most who gives God his greatest opportunity in him. If we only knew how to live and move and have our being in Him, to be conscious of this every instant, we should then know what true living means. We should be satisfied, for we should then awake in His likeness. "Deep within every heart that has not dulled the sense of its inner vision is the belief that we are one with some great unknown, unseen power; and that we are somehow inseparably connected with the Infinite Consciousness." It is a mental law that thoughts and convictions can only attract their kind. A hatred thought is a hatred magnet and the longer we harbor it, the more steadily we contemplate it, focus our minds upon it, the larger and more powerful the hatred magnet becomes. In the early days of the great European war a Jewish soldier, in the first line of a Russian battalion, engaged in a man to man fight with an Austrian in the opposing battalion. In their desperate encounter the Russian Jew drove his bayonet through the breast of his opponent. As the latter, an Austrian Jew, fell mortally wounded, with his dying breath he gasped the Hebrew prayer, which begins, "Hear, O Israel." The Russian, realizing that he had killed a brother Jew, overcome with horror, fell fainting on the battlefield. When he regained consciousness he was a raving lunatic. When will men realize that we are all brothers; that we are all members of the same great human family, children of the same great Father-Mother-God. When will we see that though oceans and continents divide us, though we may speak different tongues, may differ in race, color and creed, yet we are so closely related in
  • 40. thought and motive that our deepest, most vital interests are identical. Time and again despite all outward differences has that invisible bond of union which binds mankind into one great family manifested itself even on the battlefield. There men who have sabered or shot at and wounded each other have become fast friends and learned to feel their brotherhood. Many and many a time has it happened that soldiers who had been bitter enemies in battle and had tried in every way to kill each other, have found while convalescing side by side that they were really one in sympathy and feeling, brothers at heart and did not know it. If these men had known and seen into one another's soul before the battle as they had afterwards in the hospital they never could have been induced to fire at or to try to injure one another. In spite of our failures, our blunders, our crimes, the nations are coming closer and closer together. Scientific discoveries, marvelous inventions, the extended use of steam and electricity, the conquest of the air, all these are fast welding the interests of mankind and bringing into close and intimate relation the most distant countries of the globe. The Occident and the Orient are no longer at the ends of the earth. They are beginning to know and to respect each other, and to learn each from the other. They are beginning to realize in its largest sense the truth of Kipling's utterance: "But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth." Scientists are piling up proof after proof of the unity, not only of mankind, but of everything in the universe, of the oneness of all life. They are demonstrating that there is but one substance, one eternal force or essence in the universe, and that all we see is but a varying expression of it. Everything about us is merely a modification, a change of form of this universal substance, just as electricity is a manifestation of force in various forms—in its unchained power in
  • 41. rending giant trees and destroying huge buildings, and as harnessed by man in moving trains, in lighting our homes, in furnishing heat for cooking and in many other domestic and industrial devices. The lesson of lessons for us to learn from this is our inseparable union with the Creator of life, that everlasting, eternal unity of spirit, that oneness with the Father which Christ came to teach. "I and the Father are one." "I am the vine, ye are the branches." We are as closely united one to the other, and all to the Father as are the branches to the parent stem. When we are conscious of our union, of our co-partnership with the Infinite, we feel an added power, just as the branch feels the force of the life currents flowing into it from the vine. Severed from the parent stem the same branch would not feel so confident. It would soon find that of itself it could do nothing; and in a short time it would wither and die. The moment we pluck a flower from its stem it begins to wilt and fade because it is separated from the source of its life. Cut off from the great chemical laboratory of Nature, from the creative, miracle- working energy of the sun, the soil, and the atmosphere, it dies within a few hours. The moment we are cut off from our Divine Source we begin to wither, shrivel and die. As long as we remain separate nothing can stop this fatal blighting process. When we are not fed from our Source we are like the branch severed from the parent vine, like the flower plucked from its mother stem. My experience has shown that people who, from different causes, feel cut off from connection with the Divine Source of things suffer intensely from fear. They are filled with a vague, but overmastering terror which presses upon them with greater force because it is unseen, unknown. They dimly feel that like meteors in the sky which have passed beyond the controlling gravity governing the other heavenly bodies, they are separate, unrelated human atoms without assurance that they are under a protective, guiding, sustaining power.
  • 42. Victims of extreme nervous diseases are often overwhelmed with a sense of utter isolation, of being cut off from every sustaining force, and they are terror stricken, just as a child who has lost its way, and knows not where to turn. Temporarily, and in a lesser degree, people who are terrified in a thunder storm and rush to a cellar, anywhere to hide themselves from threatened danger, suffer from this feeling of separation, of aloneness. All who are affected in this way would be greatly benefited by dwelling on such Biblical passages as, "In Him we live and move and have our being," "The Father in me and I in the Father." These are strictly scientific truths. We could not live or move or have any being apart from the Power that made us, that sustains and supports us, and the consciousness of this gives a steadying, buttressing sense of security and safety that nothing else can. Our individual strength comes from our conscious oneness with Omnipotence, just as our national or corporate strength is derived from union with one another. Each human being is like a drop of water in the ocean. He is not independent. He cannot work alone. Consciously or unconsciously he is a part of the masses all around him. He is touched by other water drops on every side, and his existence, his success is largely dependent upon his union with the others. Even if a drop of the ocean could separate itself from the mass and should try to live its own life in its own way it would soon cease to exist as a drop. A man cannot accomplish much alone. His success depends on his union with other men. His dignity and strength are reënforced by the organization or association of which he is a unit, as a cable is reënforced by the sum of the strength of its separate wires. "Nature," says Humboldt, "is Unity in diversity of manifestation, one stupendous whole, animated by the breath of life." When we come into conscious realization of the truth that we are a part, the most important part, of the stupendous whole created by God, and that we are working in coöperation with Him, we will come into possession of a power and dignity which will make our lives sublime.
  • 43. The greatest minds of all ages have drawn their strength from the invisible Source, from their vital connection with the Power which creates, and works through every one of us. They have also believed in the great mission of the race; believed in a divine plan running through the universe which works for righteousness, and shapes the destiny of the race. This faith in the Godward movement of the great human current has characterized even those who did not openly profess any religious faith. Their belief in the divinity of humanity has been a strong factor in their character, and the root source of their power. This same faith, this unquestioned confidence in the divine cosmic Intelligence, has given more comfort, has brought more peace of mind, and happiness to vast multitudes of human beings than any other thing. Indeed it is the only thing that can bring us true peace, enduring happiness. There is something beside brain force needed to make a man a real constructive power in the world, and that is his divine connection, his being in the current which runs Godward. Without this essential, notwithstanding all that the mind and the body can do for us, we feel a void in our being, a great lack, a longing, a yearning for something, we know not what. Without this, even though we have the most complete physical and mental equipment, we are like a new electric car, ready for service, thoroughly equipped in every detail, except the trolley pole, which makes the connection with the electric current. Completion, satisfaction, divine energy can only come from attuning ourselves to something beyond the physical and the mental plane. We must put up our trolley pole and tap the infinite Source of Power or else we are, so far as true progress is concerned, in the position of the car that is not connected with the motor force that alone gives it power to move forward. We must tap the divine current running Godward through contemplation, through prayer, through noble deeds, unselfish service, honest endeavor to live up to our best. We can not make connection with Divine Power through any selfish cause, any greedy deed.
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