Growing up in a long ranch-style home, the baseboards seemed endless. Before we could do anything else on Saturday morning (like play) we had to clean. Baseboards were mandatory. “They don’t need wiping.” I implored to my Mother. Among my seven siblings, guess who wiped baseboards?
Me, whenever I objected.
Affirm the Life you Want
Long hallways of hardwood floors needed vacuuming, and washing on hands and knees. Beds needed stripping and sheets washed and hung to dry. The list is long.
Simply stated, I disliked my Mother’s “work, work, work” philosophy of cleaning the house every Saturday morning before we could go outside.
Why all this working? grrrrrrrrr
Hard Work
Like all of us, I come from parental limitations. A stand-out limitation of my mother was “we must work hard” to have a good life, to be moral and God-loving. This was a strong value of hers. But she did not know any better.
Charles Haanel, the author of the Master Key System, makes a distinction in his statement: “Work Is Necessary. Labor, the hard, mental labor of change…” did you catch the keyword: mental?
To further quote Haanel: “All power is not physical power; there is also mental power, and there is moral and spiritual power.” This is what I wish my mother knew and taught us about work.
But Mother didn’t know the power of mental labor. Her father plowed fields behind horses long after tractors were invented. Her mother canned countless mason jars of tomatoes from their garden. Understandably, Mother would never eat tomato soup as an adult, saying she grew up on it. It was the evening meal for the family several times a week.
Mental Labor
What is mental labor? To help understand, know that (from Haanel’s writings) the subconscious mind is instinctive desire. It relies on the conscious mind to guard it from mistaken impressions. It has been found that by plainly stating to the subconscious mind certain specific things to be accomplished, forces are set in operation that leads to the result desired.
Those who have learned to trust the subconscious find that they have infinite resources at their command. Did you catch the optimal word, “infinite” resources”?
Does life involve physical work? Of course.
But let us know that mental, moral, and spiritual powers exist too.
May we utilize these powers alongside our physical power to fulfill our desires. Instead of work, work, work, let us think, think, think with the power of reasoning. Haanel states: “Our conscious mind is the seat of the will with all the energies that flow therefrom.”
Sit, Think, Observe, Listen, Affirm
Sit, think, observe, listen to your heart, and affirm what your desired outcome is, so your subconscious knows.
Do your part to move your feet, meaning take action. And let the invisible powers do their part in bringing forth your wants and needs.
Indeed….May the Force be with us all. I love how you do what you love and share your thoughts and ideas on Polo too!!! I like so many are routing for you and your DMP in your life! Thank you for sharing and continually to grow!
The story with your mother reminds me the Karate Kid story and also the warning of Haanel in the first exercices of the Master Key System: zero chance to acquire the mastery of the mind if we cannot first master the physical body…It seems that your mother passed onto you without knowing it the precious gift of “doing the work whatsoever” or overcoming the frustration of “doing anyway something you don’t like”…And this made you perfectly equiped to succeed in the hard mental labor that too few are ready to do…! Great sharing, thanks Mary!
Did our mothers know each other? Ha‼️ We are so lucky to have found MKE and a better way. Mental housecleaning is SO MUCH more productive. I love your insightful writing, Mary.
Thanks, Mary, for sharing your blog. I loved the vivid picture you painted of your parents’ and your life growing up. They didn’t know any better. And neither do we until the veil is pulled back. That’s what the MKE does for all of us.