Book Reviews
Outline of the book Thoughts to Build On, by M. R. Kopmeyer. Outlined by Don Searles.
4: Your thoughts are the fuel for achievement. You wouldn’t start by putting a handful of dirt into your car’s fuel tank each morning. Then don’t stall the mechanism of your mind by dumping in thoughts of fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, or guilt. Don’t let little thoughts make you little, too.
6: 1) STAND TALL PHYSICALLY to achieve confidence! (2) STAND TALL MENTALLY to attain wisdom! (3) STAND TALL SPIRITUALLY to be triumphant!
9: Divide your life, as Dr. Osler recommended, into one-day compartments. Shut out all yesterdays. Shut out all tomorrows. Live only this one day: today! Then you have only one day’s problems to conquer. And anybody can conquer just one day’s problems! Hence, success-because, you are able (physically, mentally, and emotionally) to work with that with easy, calm sureness that comes with concentrating solely on the job at hand.
Your mind is not cluttered with yesterday’s, tomorrow’s, or even today’s other tasks. It is free to search the whole broad field of thought for the best solution for each problem and, being undistracted, find it quickly. This is the way to success. It has always been
Your guidance system: We are like an airplane or missile, always off course. However, the autopilot or missile guidance system brings it back on course. Like the missile, we must be moving forward for our guidance system to work.
18 How to solve problems. Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they know how to base a decision. If a man devotes his time to securing knowledge in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.” So get the facts. Be sure you know the exact cause of the problem before trying to solve it.
(3) WRITE DOWN EVERY POSSIBLE EFFECTIVE SOLUTION. Be sure each possible solution to your problem is the impartial result of “trying the case” from both sides by pretending you are the lawyer trying the case FOR the solution, then imagining you are the lawyer trying the case AGAINST the solution. Then if the solution still appears effective, include it in your list.
(4) DECIDE DEFINITELY WHICH SOLUTION
5) Start Immediately To Put That Solution Into Effect And Persist Vigorously. The previous steps will get you nowhere unless they end in immediate, definite, and vigorous action. And when you begin to act, don’t look back over your shoulder. Go right ahead; see it through. You’ll never get better instructions than from famous William James, who taught, “When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss all responsibility and anxiety about the outcome.” If you have conscientiously put into effect all of the preceding five steps in this Problem Solving Method, you can be sure the outcome will be very satisfactory. Knowing how to handle the inevitable unpleasant conditions, situations effectively, and people who are a part of every life and solving the problems that constantly come your way will make you master most of life’s difficulties. That knowledge now is in your hands.
20; Accepting your opinions as being facts can ruin you.
32: Remember these sure cures for fear: (a) getting all the facts; and (b) taking immediate, positive action.
37 Success or failure is caused more by mental attitudes than mental capacities.”
40: In any event, the problem results from two common causes
( a ) Mentally and emotionally building up a triviality into a “big thing” instead o
f maintaining a reasonable perspective; and (b) Allowing minor irritations to accumulate until they become an unbearable burden instead of taking them in stride as a routine part of the job, ignoring and forgetting each trivial annoyance immediately.
81 There is an inner strength in knowing that the darkest day will pass. When you cling to old burdens from yesterday, you falter and break when you add the responsibilities of each new day.
Sufficient unto each day is the burdens thereof. And sufficient is your strength for each day’s burdens.
As Dorothy Dix wrote: “I stood yesterday; I can stand today; I will not permit myself to think about what might happen tomorrow.”
81: So some little incident, annoying harassment, irritates you? Forget it! Forget it now! At It will be obliterated by the profusion of events which will, in turn, occupy your attention next week, next month, next year. So you will forget it anyway, sooner or later. Why not now? Why make yourself unhappy, angry, and annoyed at some minor incident you will forget?
88: We will never know the cumulative cost to our interests, desires, and objectives of our usually thoughtless disregard of this warning. I can only assure you that your loss is so significant as incalculable when you disregard the warning clearly stated on the big invisible signs that everybody always wears across his chest: “I want to be IMPORTANT.” “l want to be ADMIRED.” “l want to be APPRECIATED.”
Be sure to visualize those signs every time you come face to face with every person-or, write to or phone him. They are the basis for your dealings with all people, at all times, in all matters, under all circumstances. They are the very essence of success itself.
92:Schopenhauer, the philosopher of gloom and doom, did give us the basis for at least one happiness-producing technique when he said, “We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.” Thank you, sir; we’ll take it from there.
The easiest way to be unhappy is to spend a lifetime, a day, an hour, or even a minute, regretting what we do not have. No matter how fortunate, each of us can think of an unlimited number of things we would like to have but have not. So, if we choose, we can spend a lifetime suffering the bitterness of regret. Or a lesser time since the choice is ours.
93: Eddie Rickenbacker with his companions drifted in life rafts, hopelessly lost in the Pacific Ocean for 21 days. When asked what the biggest lesson he learned from this ordeal of terrible suffering was: “If you have all the fresh water you want to drink and all the food you want to eat, you ought never to complain about anything.”
105-106 save money for retirement and save good memories for retirement. Write them down so then you retire you have a record of them.
112: To radiate personal magnetism and attract other people requires that you do three things:
(1) Generate an INNER “GLOW.” By a combination of alertness, excitement, exhilaration, joy, anticipation, confidence, and emotional power. (2) Radiate an OUTER “GLOW.” ( 3) SMILE with your EYES.
125: President Coolidge said, “Nothing in the world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not; Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
130: ( 1) Learn to avoid resentment. (2) Get rid of all feelings of resentment which you now have.
132: Let wise, thoughtful Bernard Baruch advise you. He said, “No man can humiliate or disturb me. I won’t let him.” That’s how to block out resentment before it upsets you emotionally. Just don’t let anyone humiliate or disturb you.
No matter how frigid the snubs or how heated the personal attacks you inevitably will encounter from time to time. Do not respond to the emotional storms swirling about you, but be as emotionally unconcerned as “the ticking of a clock during a thunderstorm.” Another way to avoid developing resentment is to adopt the life motto of the great French philosopher Montaigne: “A man is not hurt so much by what happens as by his opinion of what happens.” So don’t make a mountain of resentment out of the molehill of some snub or irritation. Don’t ”bleed” emotionally from every insulting “cut.” If somebody tries to do a ”hatchet job” on you, don’t let the hatchet make a dent in your composure and disposition.
Remember, your resentment doesn’t hurt the person against whom you harbor the resentment. It hurts only you. So why deliberately hurt yourself? Mentally punching pin-holes in another person’s picture doesn’t hurt them. If you can’t love your enemies, at least love yourself enough that you won’t let your enemies control your happiness, disposition, and health.
141 So, each of us should “Be Prepared» to accept such misfortunes as inevitably come our way, realizing that life was not made for our enjoyment but our living.
142 You cannot control the length of your life, but you can control its other dimensions: its breadth, depth, and height. Within these dimensions, you live your life, which is a miracle and unrepeatable.
144 Yes, the graph lines of every life move up and down. In realizing and accepting this, we achieve, in our personality, «The Vital Balance,” about which psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger wrote. We can «Be Prepared” without being apprehensive-because it is in the serene knowledge of our preparedness that we lose our apprehension and attain that vital balance and composure to meet the inevitable vicissitudes of life.
By Don Searles
Each person must organize themselves, obtain the knowledge needed, and draw accurate maps of how the world works in such a way that they will be prepared to take advantage of, or cope with, whatever may come along by, accident, luck, circumstances, serendipity, fate, providence, or an act of nature, and learn to be happy in every situation.
147 A noted conversationalist said that correctly asked, there was almost no limit to the time and trouble another person will take to further your education.
148 It is more accurate, instead of saying, “TALK your way to success,” that we say, “ASK your way to success.”( 1) ASK others to give you the information to succeed. (2) ASK others to do what you want them to do to help you succeed. ( 3) ASK others to provide you with what you need to succeed. Again, these are proven psychological principles.
151 I want to be IMPORTANT!” I want to be ADMIRED. I want to be APPRECIATED!” So that’s what to talk about: the things other people want to hear most about themselves. And be sure to ask leading questions encouraging others to speak about themselves-then listen. You’ll be surprised at how interested listening eliminates your self-consciousness, furnishes you with the best material to continue the conversation, and thus improves your ability to talk your way to success.
4: Your thoughts are the fuel for achievement. You wouldn’t start by putting a handful of dirt into your car’s fuel tank each morning. Then don’t stall the mechanism of your mind by dumping in thoughts of fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, or guilt. Don’t let little thoughts make you little, too.
6: 1) STAND TALL PHYSICALLY to achieve confidence! (2) STAND TALL MENTALLY to attain wisdom! (3) STAND TALL SPIRITUALLY to be triumphant!
9: Divide your life, as Dr. Osler recommended, into one-day compartments. Shut out all yesterdays. Shut out all tomorrows. Live only this one day: today! Then you have only one day’s problems to conquer. And anybody can conquer just one day’s problems! Hence, success-because, you are able (physically, mentally, and emotionally) to work with that with easy, calm sureness that comes with concentrating solely on the job at hand.
Your mind is not cluttered with yesterday’s, tomorrow’s, or even today’s other tasks. It is free to search the whole broad field of thought for the best solution for each problem and, being undistracted, find it quickly. This is the way to success. It has always been
Your guidance system: We are like an airplane or missile, always off course. However, the autopilot or missile guidance system brings it back on course. Like the missile, we must be moving forward for our guidance system to work.
18 How to solve problems. Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they know how to base a decision. If a man devotes his time to securing knowledge in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.” So get the facts. Be sure you know the exact cause of the problem before trying to solve it.
(3) WRITE DOWN EVERY POSSIBLE EFFECTIVE SOLUTION. Be sure each possible solution to your problem is the impartial result of “trying the case” from both sides by pretending you are the lawyer trying the case FOR the solution, then imagining you are the lawyer trying the case AGAINST the solution. Then if the solution still appears effective, include it in your list.
(4) DECIDE DEFINITELY WHICH SOLUTION
5) Start Immediately To Put That Solution Into Effect And Persist Vigorously. The previous steps will get you nowhere unless they end in immediate, definite, and vigorous action. And when you begin to act, don’t look back over your shoulder. Go right ahead; see it through. You’ll never get better instructions than from famous William James, who taught, “When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss all responsibility and anxiety about the outcome.” If you have conscientiously put into effect all of the preceding five steps in this Problem Solving Method, you can be sure the outcome will be very satisfactory. Knowing how to handle the inevitable unpleasant conditions, situations effectively, and people who are a part of every life and solving the problems that constantly come your way will make you master most of life’s difficulties. That knowledge now is in your hands.
20; Accepting your opinions as being facts can ruin you.
32: Remember these sure cures for fear: (a) getting all the facts; and (b) taking immediate, positive action.
37 Success or failure is caused more by mental attitudes than mental capacities.”
40: In any event, the problem results from two common causes
( a ) Mentally and emotionally building up a triviality into a “big thing” instead o
f maintaining a reasonable perspective; and (b) Allowing minor irritations to accumulate until they become an unbearable burden instead of taking them in stride as a routine part of the job, ignoring and forgetting each trivial annoyance immediately.
81 There is an inner strength in knowing that the darkest day will pass. When you cling to old burdens from yesterday, you falter and break when you add the responsibilities of each new day.
Sufficient unto each day is the burdens thereof. And sufficient is your strength for each day’s burdens.
As Dorothy Dix wrote: “I stood yesterday; I can stand today; I will not permit myself to think about what might happen tomorrow.”
81: So some little incident, annoying harassment, irritates you? Forget it! Forget it now! At It will be obliterated by the profusion of events which will, in turn, occupy your attention next week, next month, next year. So you will forget it anyway, sooner or later. Why not now? Why make yourself unhappy, angry, and annoyed at some minor incident you will forget?
88: We will never know the cumulative cost to our interests, desires, and objectives of our usually thoughtless disregard of this warning. I can only assure you that your loss is so significant as incalculable when you disregard the warning clearly stated on the big invisible signs that everybody always wears across his chest: “I want to be IMPORTANT.” “l want to be ADMIRED.” “l want to be APPRECIATED.”
Be sure to visualize those signs every time you come face to face with every person-or, write to or phone him. They are the basis for your dealings with all people, at all times, in all matters, under all circumstances. They are the very essence of success itself.
92:Schopenhauer, the philosopher of gloom and doom, did give us the basis for at least one happiness-producing technique when he said, “We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.” Thank you, sir; we’ll take it from there.
The easiest way to be unhappy is to spend a lifetime, a day, an hour, or even a minute, regretting what we do not have. No matter how fortunate, each of us can think of an unlimited number of things we would like to have but have not. So, if we choose, we can spend a lifetime suffering the bitterness of regret. Or a lesser time since the choice is ours.
93: Eddie Rickenbacker with his companions drifted in life rafts, hopelessly lost in the Pacific Ocean for 21 days. When asked what the biggest lesson he learned from this ordeal of terrible suffering was: “If you have all the fresh water you want to drink and all the food you want to eat, you ought never to complain about anything.”
105-106 save money for retirement and save good memories for retirement. Write them down so then you retire you have a record of them.
112: To radiate personal magnetism and attract other people requires that you do three things:
(1) Generate an INNER “GLOW.” By a combination of alertness, excitement, exhilaration, joy, anticipation, confidence, and emotional power. (2) Radiate an OUTER “GLOW.” ( 3) SMILE with your EYES.
125: President Coolidge said, “Nothing in the world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not; Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
130: ( 1) Learn to avoid resentment. (2) Get rid of all feelings of resentment which you now have.
132: Let wise, thoughtful Bernard Baruch advise you. He said, “No man can humiliate or disturb me. I won’t let him.” That’s how to block out resentment before it upsets you emotionally. Just don’t let anyone humiliate or disturb you.
No matter how frigid the snubs or how heated the personal attacks you inevitably will encounter from time to time. Do not respond to the emotional storms swirling about you, but be as emotionally unconcerned as “the ticking of a clock during a thunderstorm.” Another way to avoid developing resentment is to adopt the life motto of the great French philosopher Montaigne: “A man is not hurt so much by what happens as by his opinion of what happens.” So don’t make a mountain of resentment out of the molehill of some snub or irritation. Don’t ”bleed” emotionally from every insulting “cut.” If somebody tries to do a ”hatchet job” on you, don’t let the hatchet make a dent in your composure and disposition.
Remember, your resentment doesn’t hurt the person against whom you harbor the resentment. It hurts only you. So why deliberately hurt yourself? Mentally punching pin-holes in another person’s picture doesn’t hurt them. If you can’t love your enemies, at least love yourself enough that you won’t let your enemies control your happiness, disposition, and health.
141 So, each of us should “Be Prepared» to accept such misfortunes as inevitably come our way, realizing that life was not made for our enjoyment but our living.
142 You cannot control the length of your life, but you can control its other dimensions: its breadth, depth, and height. Within these dimensions, you live your life, which is a miracle and unrepeatable.
144 Yes, the graph lines of every life move up and down. In realizing and accepting this, we achieve, in our personality, «The Vital Balance,” about which psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger wrote. We can «Be Prepared” without being apprehensive-because it is in the serene knowledge of our preparedness that we lose our apprehension and attain that vital balance and composure to meet the inevitable vicissitudes of life.
By Don Searles
Each person must organize themselves, obtain the knowledge needed, and draw accurate maps of how the world works in such a way that they will be prepared to take advantage of, or cope with, whatever may come along by, accident, luck, circumstances, serendipity, fate, providence, or an act of nature, and learn to be happy in every situation.
147 A noted conversationalist said that correctly asked, there was almost no limit to the time and trouble another person will take to further your education.
148 It is more accurate, instead of saying, “TALK your way to success,” that we say, “ASK your way to success.”( 1) ASK others to give you the information to succeed. (2) ASK others to do what you want them to do to help you succeed. ( 3) ASK others to provide you with what you need to succeed. Again, these are proven psychological principles.
151 I want to be IMPORTANT!” I want to be ADMIRED. I want to be APPRECIATED!” So that’s what to talk about: the things other people want to hear most about themselves. And be sure to ask leading questions encouraging others to speak about themselves-then listen. You’ll be surprised at how interested listening eliminates your self-consciousness, furnishes you with the best material to continue the conversation, and thus improves your ability to talk your way to success.