Chapter Eight ~ THE SECRET OF GETTING THINGS DONE ~ Pilot No. 8
 

In this chapter you will find the secret of getting things done. You will also receive a self-motivator so powerful that it will subconsciously force you to desirable action, for it is in reality a self-starter. Yet you can use it at will. When you do, you overcome procrastination and inertia.

If you do the things you don't want to do, or if you don't do the things that you do want to do, then this chapter is for you.

Those who achieve greatness employ this secret of getting things done. Take for example the Rev. James Keller, a Maryknoll father of the Jesuit order. Father Keller had been developing an idea for quite some time. He hoped to motivate "little people to do big things by encouraging each to reach beyond his or her own little circle to the outside world." The Biblical command, "go ye forth into all the world" was to him the symbol of an idea whereby the mission he had in mind could be fulfilled.

When he responded to this command, he employed the secret of getting things done. And when he did, he went into action. This happened in 1945. It was then that he organized the Christophers an organization most unusual.

It has no chapters, no committees, no meetings, no dues. It doesn't even have a membership in the usual sense of the word It simply consists of people no one can say how many dedicated to an ideal. The Christophers operate on the concept that it is better for people to "do something and pay nothing" than to "pay dues and do nothing."

What is the ideal to which each is dedicated?

Each Christopher is dedicated to carry his religion with him wherever he goes throughout the day into the dust and heat of the market place, into the highways and byways, into the home. And thus he brings the major truths of his faith to others.

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The thrilling story is told by the Rev. James Keller in You Can Change the World. It came about because he conceived and believed in an ideal. But he did little or nothing about it until he responded to the secret of getting things done. *

You get the feel of this secret from the statement of E. E. Bauermeister, supervisor of education at California Institution for Men, Chino, California, who told the authors:

"I always tell the men in our self-adjustment class that too often what we read and profess becomes a part of our libraries and our vocabularies, instead of becoming a part of our lives."

Remember the Biblical statement: For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now how can you train yourself to get into action immediately when it is desirable?

And then we told Mr. Bauermeister how the good things we read and profess can become a part of our lives. We gave him the self-starter for getting things done.

How do you make the secret of getting things done a part of your life? By habit. And you develop habit through repetition. "Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny," said the great psychologist and philosopher William James. He was saying that you are what your habits make you. And you can choose your habits. You can develop any habit you wish when you use the self-starter.

Now what is the secret of getting things done and what is the self-starter that forces you to use this great secret?

The secret of getting things done is to act. The self-starter is the self-motivator DO IT NOW!

As long as you live, never say to yourself, "DO IT NOW!" unless you follow through with desirable action. Whenever action is desirable and the symbol DO IT NOW! flashes from your subconscious mind to your conscious mind, immediately act.

Make it a practice to respond to the self-starter DO IT NOW! m little things. You will quickly develop the habit of a reflex response so powerful that in times of emergency or when opportunity presents itself, you will act.

Say you have a phone call that you should make but you have a tendency to procrastinate. And you have put off making that phone call. When the self-starter DO IT NOW! flashes from your subconscious to your conscious mind: Act. Make that phone call immediately.

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Or suppose, for example, that you set your alarm clock for 6:00 a.m. Yet when the alarm goes off, you feel sleepy, get up, turn off the alarm, and go back to bed. You will have a tendency to develop a habit to do the same thing in the future. But if your subconscious mind flashes to the conscious DO IT NOW! then come what may-DO IT NOW! Stay up! Why? You want to develop the habit of responding to the self-starter DO IT NOW!

In Chapter Thirteen you will read how one of the authors bought a company with one million six hundred thousand dollars in net liquid assets with the seller's own money. This became a reality because at the proper time the buyer responded to the self-starter DO IT NOW!

Now H. G. Wells learned the secret of getting things done. And H. G. Wells was a prolific writer because he did. He tried never to let a good idea slip away from him. While an idea was fresh, he immediately wrote down the thought that occurred to him. This would sometimes happen in the middle of the night. No matter. Wells would switch on the light, reach for the pencil and paper that were always beside his bed and scribble away. And then he would drop off to sleep again.

Ideas that might have been forgotten were recalled when he refreshed his memory by looking at the flashes of inspiration that had been written down immediately when they occurred. This habit of Wells' was as natural and effortless to him as smiling is to you when a happy thought occurs.
Many persons have the habit of procrastination. Because of it, they may miss a train, be late for work, or even more important-miss an opportunity that could change the whole course of their lives for the better. History has recorded how battles have been lost because someone put off taking desirable action.

New students in our PMA Science of Success course sometimes state that the procrastination habit is the one they would like to eliminate. And then we reveal to them the secret of getting things done. We give them the self-starter. We may motivate them by telling them the true story of what the self-starter meant to a war prisoner in World War II.

What the self-starter meant to a war prisoner, Kenneth Erwin Harmon was a civilian employee for the Navy at Manila when the Japanese landed there. He was captured and held in a hotel for two days before he was sent to a prison camp.

On the first day, Kenneth saw that his roommate had a book under his pillow. "May I borrow it?" he asked. The book was Think and Grow Rich. Kenneth began to read. As he read, he met the most important living person with the invisible talisman imprinted with PMA on one side and NMA on the reverse.

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Before he started to read it, he had the feeling of despair. He fearfully looked ahead to possible torture-even death in the prison camp. But now as he read his attitude became one inspired by hope. He had a craving to own the book. He wanted it with him during the dread days ahead. In discussing Think and Grow Rich with his fellow prisoner, he realized that the book meant a great deal to the owner.

"Let me copy it," he said. "Sure, go ahead," was the response.

Kenneth Harmon employed the secret of getting things done. He swung into immediate action. In a fury of activity he began typing away. Word by word, page by page, chapter by chapter. Because he was obsessed with the possibility that it would be taken away at any moment, he was motivated to work night and day.

It was a good thing that he did for within an hour after the last page was completed, his captors led him away to the notorious Santo Tomas prison camp. He had finished in time because he started in time. Kenneth Harmon kept the manuscript with him during the three years and one month he was a prisoner. He read it again and again. And it gave him food for thought. It inspired him to: develop courage, make plans for the future, and retain his mental and physical health. Many prisoners at Santo Tomas were permanently injured physically and mentally by malnutrition and fear fear of the present and fear of the future. "But V is better when I left Santo Tomas than when I was interned better prepared for life more mentally alert," Kenneth Harmon told us. You get the feel of his thinking in his statement: "Success must be continually practiced, or it will take wings and fly away.

Now is the time to act.

For the secret of getting things done can change a person's attitude from negative to positive. A day that might have been ruined can become a pleasant day.

The day that might have been wasted. Jorgen Juhldahl, a student at the University of Copenhagen, worked one summer as a tourist guide. Because he cheerfully did much more than he was paid to do, some visitors from Chicago made arrangements for him to tour America. The itinerary included a day of sightseeing in Washington, D. C, while he was en route to Chicago.

On arriving in Washington, Jorgen checked in at the Willard Hotel, where his bill had been pre-paid. He was sitting on top of the world. In his coat pocket was his plane ticket to Chicago; in his hip pocket was his wallet with his passport and money. Then the young man was dealt a shocking blow.

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While getting ready for bed, he found that his wallet was missing. He ran downstairs to the hotel desk.

"We'll do everything we can," said the manager.

But the next morning the wallet had still not been located. Jorgen Juhldahl had less than two dollars change in his pockets. Alone in a foreign country, he wondered what he should do. Wire his friends in Chicago and tell them what had happened? Go to the Danish embassy and report the lost passport? Sit at police headquarters until they had some news?

Then, all of a sudden, he said: "No! I won't do any of these things I I'll see Washington. I may never be here again. I have one precious day in this great capital. After all, I still have my ticket to get me to Chicago tonight, and there'll be plenty of time then to solve the problem of the money and the passport. But if I don't see Washington now I may never see it. I've walked miles at home, I'll enjoy walking here.

"Now is the time to be happy.

"I am the same man that I was yesterday before I lost my wallet I was happy then. I should be happy now just to be in America-just to have the privilege of enjoying a holiday in this great city.

"I won't waste my time in futile unhappiness over my loss."

And so he headed off, on foot. He saw the White House and the Capitol, he visited the great museums, he climbed to the top of the Washington Monument. He wasn't able to take the tour of Arlington and some other places he'd wanted to see. But what he did see, he saw more thoroughly. He bought peanuts and candy and nibbled on them to keep from getting too hungry.

And when he got back to Denmark, the part of his American trip he remembered best was that day on foot in Washington a day that might have gotten away from Jorgen Juhldahl if he had not employed the secret of getting things done. For he knew the truth in the statement. NOW is the time. He knew that NOW must be seized before it becomes: yesterday-I-could-have . . .

Incidentally, to round off his story, five days after that eventful day Washington police found both wallet and passport and sent them to him.

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Are you scared of your own best ideas? One of the things that often prevents us from seizing the NOW is a certain timidity in the face of our own inspirations. We're a little bit afraid of our ideas when they first occur to us. They may seem novel or farfetched. There's no doubt about it: It takes a certain boldness to step out on an untested idea. Yet it's exactly this kind of boldness that often produces the most spectacular results. The well-known writer, Elsie Lee, tells about Ruth Butler and her sister Eleanor, the daughters of a nationally-known New York furrier.

"My father was a frustrated painter," says Ruth. "He had talent, but the need to earn a living left him no time to build a reputation as an artist. So he collected paintings. Later, he started buying paintings for Eleanor and me." Thus, the girls developed a knowledge and appreciation of fine art, along with an impeccable sense of taste. As they grew older, friends would consult them on what types of paintings they should buy for their homes. Often they would loan pieces from their collection for brief periods.

One day Eleanor woke Ruth up at 3 a.m. "Don't start arguing, but I have a terrific idea! We're going to form a Master Mind alliance."

"Now what in the world is a Master Mind alliance?" Ruth asked.

"A Master Mind alliance is coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose. And that's just what we're going to do. We're going into the business of renting paintings!"

And Ruth agreed. It was a terrific idea. They set to work the same day although friends tried to warn them of dangers: Their valued paintings might be lost or stolen; and there might be law suits and insurance problems. But they went right on working--accumulating $300 in capital and talking their father into loaning them the basement of his fur shop, rent free.

"We hauled 1,800 paintings from our own collections in among the coat forms," Ruth recalls, "and ignored father's sad and disapproving eyes. The first year was grim a real struggle."

But the novel idea paid off. Their company, known as the New York Circulating Library of Paintings, became a success with about 500 paintings constantly on rental to business firms, doctors, lawyers and for use in homes. One valued client was an inmate of the Massachusetts Penitentiary for eight years. He wrote humbly that perhaps the Library wouldn't rent to him, considering his address. The paintings went to him rent free except for transportation costs. In return Ruth and Eleanor received a letter from prison authorities.

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telling how the paintings were used in an art appreciation course that benefited many hundreds of prisoners. Ruth and Eleanor started their business with an idea. And then they backed their idea up with immediate action. The results were a profit to themselves and increased pleasure and happiness for many others.

Are you ready to double your income? In 1955, W. Clement Stone was one of seven executives who made a tour of the Asiatic and Pacific areas as representatives of the National Sales Executives International. On a Tuesday in mid-November, he gave a talk on motivation to a group of businessmen at Melbourne, Australia. The following Thursday evening, he received a phone call. It was from Edwin H. East, manager of a firm that sold metal cabinets. Mr. East was excited: "Something wonderful has happened! You'll be as enthusiastic as I am when I tell you about it!" "Tell me about it. What did happen?"

"An amazing thing! You gave your talk on motivation Tuesday. In your talk you recommended ten inspirational books. I bought Think and Grow Rich and started to read it that evening. I read for hours. The next morning I started reading it again and then I wrote on a piece of paper:

"My major definite aim is to double last year's sales this year. The amazing thing is: I did it in forty-eight hours."

"How did you do it?" Mr. Stone asked East. "How did you double your income?"

East responded: "In your speech on motivation, you told how Al Allen, one of your Wisconsin salesmen, tried to sell cold-canvass in a certain block. You said that Al was lucky because he worked all day and didn't make a sale.

"That evening, you said, Al Allen developed inspirational dissatisfaction. He determined that the following day he would again call on exactly the same prospects and sell more insurance policies that day than any of the other representatives in his group would sell all week.

"You told how Al Allen completely canvassed the same city block. He called on the same people and sold 66 new accident contracts. I remembered your statement: 'It can't be done some may think, but Al did it.' I believed you. I was ready. "I remembered the self-starter you gave us: DO IT NOW! '*I went to my card records and analyzed ten 'dead' accounts I prepared what might previously have seemed to be an enormous program to present to each. I repeated the self-starter DO IT NOW several times. And then I called on the ten accounts with a positive mental attitude and made eight large sales. It is amazing truly amazing what PMA will do for the salesmen who use its power!"

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Now Edwin H. East was ready when he heard the talk on motivation. He listened to the message that was applicable to him. He was searching for something. And he found what he was looking for. Our purpose in relating this particular story is that you, too, have read about Al Allen. But you may not have seen how you could apply the principle to your own experience. Edwin H. East did. And you can, too. You can apply the principles in each of the stories you read in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.

Now, however, we want you to learn the self-starter, DO IT NOW!

Sometimes a decision to act immediately can make your wildest dreams come true. It worked that way for Manley Sweazey.

You can mix business and pleasure. Manley loved hunting and fishing. His idea of the good life was to hike fifty miles into the woods with his pole and his rifle, and hike back a couple of days later exhausted, muddy, and very happy.

The only trouble with this hobby was that it took too much time out from his work as an insurance salesman. Then one day as he reluctantly left a favorite bass lake and headed back to his desk, Manley had a wild idea. Suppose, somewhere, there were people . living in a wilderness people who needed insurance. Then he could work and be out-of-doors at the same time! And indeed, Manley discovered, there was such a group of people: The men who worked for the Alaska Railroad. They lived in scattered section-houses strung out along the 500-mile length of the track. What if he were to sell insurance to these railroad men, and to the trappers and gold miners along the route?

The same day that the idea came to him, Sweazey began making positive plans. He consulted a travel agent and began packing. He didn't pause to let doubts creep in and frighten him into believing that his idea might be scatterbrained . . . that it might fail. Instead of picking the idea apart for its flaws, he took a boat to Seward, Alaska.

He walked the length of the railroad many, many times. "Walking Sweazey," as he was called, became a welcome sight to these isolated families, not only because he sold insurance when no one else had thought them worth bothering with, but because he represented the outside world. He went the extra mile.

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For he taught himself how to cut hair, and did it free of charge. He taught himself how to cook, too. Since the single men ate mostly canned foods and bacon, Manley, with his culinary skills, was a welcome guest. And all the while he was doing what came naturally. He was doing what he wanted to do: tramping the hills, hunting, fishing and as he puts it, "living the life of Sweazey!"

In the life insurance business there is a special place of honor reserved for men who sell over a million dollars worth of business in one year. It is called the Million Dollar Round Table. Now the remarkable and almost unbelievable part of Manley Sweazey's story is that: having acted on his impulse, having taken off for the wilds of Alaska, having walked the railroad where no one else had bothered to go, he did his million dollars of business, and more, in a single year, to take his place at the Round Table.

And none of it would have happened if he had hesitated to employ the secret of getting things done when his "wild" idea came to him.
Memorize the self-starter DO IT NOW!

DO IT NOW! can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do, but don't feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you as it did Manley Sweazey, to do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments which, if lost, may never be retrieved. The endearing word to a friend, for example. The telephone call to an associate, fust telling him that you admire him. All in response to the self-starter DO IT NOW!
Write yourself a letter. Here is an idea to help you get started. Sit down and write yourself a letter, telling the things you always intended to do as though they had already been accomplished-some personal, some charitable, and others community projects. Write the letter as if a biographer were writing about the wonderful person you really are when you come under the influence of PMA. But don't stop there. Use the secret of getting things done. Respond to the self-starter DO IT NOW!

Remember, regardless of what you have been or what you are, you can be what you want to be if you act with PMA.

The self-starter DO IT NOW! is an important self-motivator. It is the important step towards understanding and applying the principles of the next chapter entitled, "How to Motivate Yourself."
 

11
Pilot No. 8
THOUGHTS TO STEER BY
THE SECRET OF GETTING THINGS DONE

1. It is better for people to do something and pay nothing, than to pay dues and do nothing.

2. "Too often what we read and profess becomes a part of our libraries and our vocabularies, instead of becoming a part of our lives."

3. "Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.

4. The secret of getting things done is: DO IT NOW!

5. As long as you live, never say to yourself "DO IT NOW!" unless you immediately follow through with desirable action.

6. Now is the time to act.

7. Now is the time to be happy.

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DO IT NOW!