Knowledge
Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end.
Remember, your mental limitations are of your own making.
For years, athletes attempted to run a mile in four minutes but it seemed to be a barrier that no one could overcome. Then on May 6, 1954, a British runner named Roger Gilbert Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 minutes to establish a world record. Soon afterward, other runners broke Bannister’s record. Too often, we accept conventional wisdom as fact. Make sure you set your goals high enough. Don’t settle for less because of limitations you place upon yourself. Most of us never really reach the level of achievement of which we are capable because we don’t challenge ourselves to do so. Perhaps Robert Browning said it best: “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what’s a heaven for?”
Everything you create or acquire begins in the form of desire.
In order to act, you must have a purpose. If you want to act successfully in all but the most mundane affairs, you must embrace that purpose with a burning desire. Many people think they want to be successful, but since they do not back that thought with an intense drive, they never achieve success. Cultivate your desire. Feed it with thoughts of yourself enjoying whatever it is you seek. It’s like stoking the furnace of a steam engine. You need to build up enough pressure to carry yourself over hills; if your desire doesn’t burn hotly enough, you’ll find yourself stalled and rolling backwards. The secret to action is a red-hot desire.
Your mind is the only thing you control exclusively. Don’t give it away too freely through useless arguments.
You may spend your time and your energy — both physical and mental — in pursuits that yield the greatest return on your investment, or you may fritter it away on activities that will never bear fruit. Since your mind is entirely your own domain, you may choose to use it to constructive ends, or you can waste mind power and time on useless arguments that go nowhere. There is a vast difference between a spirited intellectual debate and a petty argument. When you discuss concepts, your own knowledge is expanded through the interaction with another thinking person. When you allow yourself to be dragged into arguments about insignificant things, the result will be a dulling of both the mind and the spirit.