524 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
You have within your control the power to select the material that
constitutes the dominating thoughts of your mind, and just as surely as
you are reading these lines, those thoughts which dominate your mind
will bring you success or failure, according to their nature.
The fact that thought is the only thing over which you have abso-
lute control is of most profound significance. It strongly suggests that
thought is your nearest approach to Divinity on this earthly plane.
Surely, Divine Providence did not make thought the sole power
over which you have absolute control, without associating with that
power potentialities which, if understood and developed, would stag-
ger the imagination. Thought is your most important tool; the one
with which you may shape your worldly destiny according to your own
liking.
Self-Control is solely a matter of thought control!
Please read the foregoing sentence aloud. Read it thoughtfully and
meditate over it before reading further, because it is, without doubt, the
most important single sentence of this entire course.
You are studying this course, presumably, because you are earnestly
seeking truth and understanding sufficient to enable you to attain some
high station in life.
You are searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the
source of power. And yet you have the key in your own hands, and you
may make use of it the moment you learn to control your thoughts.
Place in your own mind, through the principle of autosuggestion,
the positive, constructive thoughts that harmonize with your Definite
Chief Aim in life, and that mind will transform those thoughts into
physical reality and hand them back to you, as a finished product.
This is thought control!
When you deliberately choose the thoughts that dominate your
mind, and firmly refuse admittance to outside suggestion, you are
exercising Self-Control in its highest and most efficient form. Human
beings are the only animals that can do this.