by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
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Now culture, refinement, and civilization, like man himself, have also evolved from a primitive state. And the more cultured, refined, and civilized a society or environment may be, the less need there is for the individual to use these negatives. But in a negative, antagonistic environment, a person with common sense will use these negative forces with PMA to oppose the evil with which he is faced.
And because you live in a country with laws designed to bring the greatest good to the greatest number; because the rights of tat individual are protected, because you are in a society and environment of culture, refinement, and the highest form of
civilization: those negative thoughts, feelings, emotions, and passions which lie dormant within you from your hereditary past are not now necessary to solve the problems which primitive man could not otherwise have solved. For he was a law unto himself. And the law of the individual has become subservient to the law of society for his benefit.
Now let's clarify these concepts. Let's take anger, hate, and fear as examples.
Anger and hate. Righteous indignation against evil is a form of anger and hate. The desire to protect one's nation when attacked by an enemy, or the desire to protect the weak against the criminal attack of the madman to save human life is good. To kill to accomplish this, when necessary, is an example of the worst form of all negative feelings and emotions used to achieve a worthy purpose. In our society the patriotism of a soldier or the fulfillment of duty by a police officer are virtues.
Fear. With every new experience and in every new environment nature protects you from potential danger by alerting you through some shade of the emotion of fear. You can be assured that the bravest individual will, in a new environment, at first, experience an awareness that is a conscious or subconscious feeling of timidity or fear. If he finds that the fears are not beneficial to him, the person with PMA will neutralize an undesirable negative emotion by substituting a positive one.
What can you do about it? Man is the only member of the animal kingdom who, through the functioning of his conscious mind, can voluntarily control his emotions from within, rather than be forced to do so by external influences.
And he alone can deliberately change habits of emotional response. The more civilized, cultured and refined you are, the
more easily you can control your emotions and feelings if you choose to do so.
Emotions are controlled through the combination of reason and action. When fears are unwarranted, or harmful, they can and should be neutralized.
How?
While your emotions are not always immediately subject to reason, nonetheless they are immediately subject to action. For you can use reason to determine the needlessness of the negative emotion and thus motivate yourself to action. You can substitute fear with a positive feeling. How do you do this?
One effective means is through self-suggestion, in fact self-command, with a one word symbol that incorporates what you want to be. Thus, if you are afraid and want to be courageous, give the self-command be courageous with rapidity several times. Follow this with action. If you want to be courageous, act courageously.
How?
Use the self-starter Do It Now! And then get into action.
In this and the next chapter you will see how to control your emotions and actions by using self-suggestions. In the meantime:
Keep your mind on the things you should and do want and off the things you shouldn't and don't want.
A success formula that always succeeds when applied. Are you
among the hundreds of thousands of persons throughout the world who have read the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, or
among the tens of thousands who have read Frank Bettger's book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling? If not, we recommend that you read both. These books contain a formula that always succeeds when applied with PMA.
In his autobiography, Franklin indicates that he endeavored to help Benjamin Franklin just as the most important living person wants to help you. He wrote (language modernized):
"My intention being to acquire the habit of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on them at a time; and when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, until I should gone through the thirteen, and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view... "
