James Allen, one of the most well known New Thought authors, said:
“When mental energy is allowed to follow the line of least resistance and to fall into easy channels, it is called weakness.”
In a world where technology makes us lazy and everything keeps getting easier, telling someone to make their lives harder, is frowned upon.
Why would you purposely make your life harder? Why would you trade the “line of least resistance” and the “easy channels” to create new and harder channels?
I’ll let James Allen answer that too:
“When [mental energy] is gathered, focused and forced into upward and different directions, it becomes power; and this concentration of energy and acquisition of power is brought about by means of self-control”
Inner power and self-control are the most underrated qualities of this world.
When done right, they can be a great source of wealth and happiness.
It’s interesting how certain movements based on self-control and discipline are getting traction and, the people participating in them, finding a stable source of happiness. Movements like minimalism, fasting, stoicism, meditation, monotasking, marathon running, martial arts among many others.
All of them require self-control and inner power in order to succeed. In fact, they use the same qualities that are also needed to succeed in life (which goes way beyond material success). You may not ever be the “richest man in Babylon”, but when you go through life according to the principles you define for yourself, you get something much more important than riches.
“He who controls himself controls his life, his circumstances, his destiny, and wherever he goes he carries his happiness with him as an abiding possession.”
We train our self-control and inner power in the course:
