Harry Lorayne - Secrets of Mind Power: Your Absolute, Quintessential, All You Wanted to Know, Complete Guide to Memory Mastery

In Memory
of
Mike Estrin

We are born unarmed.
Our mind is our only weapon.

Ayn Rand, THE FOUNTAINHEAD

Since I originally wrote Secrets of Mind Power, back in 1961, my books on memory training have become bestsellers; they have been translated into as many as eighteen languages. My first book on the subject,

How To Develop A Super-Power Memory, first appeared in 1957 and is still selling along with some of my later books on the subject. Secrets of Mind Power was my second book. Im leaving most of it exactly as originally written. Ive updated it a bit, and added some material. Its interesting that the thoughts I had and recorded those forty years ago still hold up today.

The fact that my memory books continue to sell proves something Ive always known that people from all walks of life, in every field of endeavor, are interested in improving themselves and organizing their minds.

In my opinion and, admittedly, Im a bit biased, a trained memory is one of the most important factors in mental organization. There are, of course, many other factors involved.

It is mostly with these other factors that this book is concerned, although the subject of memory has not been ignored.

There is no doubt in my mind that the person with a well-trained and organized mind is the happy and successful person.

Abraham Lincoln once said, Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Its difficult to argue with that. The search for happiness need not be a long or difficult one you can find happiness within yourself.

Yes you can be a better and happier person than you are now! Yes you can use your mind much more efficiently and effectively.

Theres no doubt about it. Just make up your mind that this is true and you will be able to use the brain power you have to much better advantage. Samuel Johnson wrote:

The fountain of content must spring
up in the mind, and he who has so little
knowledge of human nature as to seek
happiness by changing anything but his
own disposition will waste his life in
fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs
which he purposes to remove.

Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.

Daniel Webster

There is only one thing that can help you avoid chaos in business in social dealings in life itself; and that thing is organization. Without it everything would fall apart; there would be no learning, no science, no knowledge, no writing, no creative thinking, no competitive business nothing!

This should be obvious to you. Ones entire life is built around organization from the moment of birth even from the moment of conception. The world we live in, the universe, everything about us is organized. All our activities, whether they be directed toward making a living, or enjoying ourselves, or both, are planned and organized.

An expectant mother follows a definite regimen suggested by her obstetrician. After the baby is born, he is fed, bathed and made to rest according to a definite system. Even his food consists of a formula of planned ingredients.

When the child starts school, he is faced with more order, planning and organization. And so it goes, until he becomes the reluctant participant in a carefully organized funeral. So, from conception to death, we must organize our pursuits, our activities, even our joys and our sorrows. Above all, we should and must organize our thinking.

I dont mean that you should organize your thinking just to aid you in business or in your job; although that is quite an important part of the entire picture. I mean you should organize your mind in general for all things, throughout the rest of your life. If you look at life with an organized mind instead of through the proverbial rose-colored glasses (although they have their place, too), you will surely see success and happiness from a much better vantage point.

If you manage to organize your mind, you will organize and manage your life, and it is to this end that this book is dedicated.

To organize your mind is to control it, and according to Charles Darwin, The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

Business, of course, recognized the importance of organization long ago. That is why the business world uses so many efficiency experts another name for one who is an expert in organization. Just as it is another name for efficiency engineer and efficiency consultant.

Basically, organization is simply a question of systemization. Have you ever watched a good short-order cook at work during a busy lunch hour? Well, when you get the chance, observe one carefully. Almost every move he makes is done for a definite purpose. All the ingredients that he may have to use are within easy reach; the most used, closest to him. He is so familiar with the positions of these ingredients that he can reach for any one of them almost without looking.

One of the countermen may order a B and T down bacon and tomato on toast. The short-order man immediately puts two pieces of bread into the toaster and places the bacon on the griddle, and takes out a couple of slices of tomato, almost in one continuous movement.

If eggs are ordered, he stops whatever hes doing for just enough time to put out two eggs. The fact that the eggs are out is enough to remind him of that standing order. If he were to try to remember every order as it was called, hed be in a mess in no time at all. Any competent short-order cook has at least one key ingredient for every order, which he immediately places on his working surface the moment the order is called.

That is the organized or systematic way of being a short-order cook. The same idea can be, and certainly should be, applied to any other activity. The fastest, most efficient, easiest and best way of doing anything, including thinking, is the organized way. The short-order cook example is a good instance of advance preparation, which is one of the first steps in organization. Preparation, planning ahead, anticipating and getting ready for minor difficulties or obstacles are all part of, or synonymous with, organization.

Remember: This book is an effort on my part to aid you in systematizing your thinking. Im taking quite a chance, too, because it has been said (by Don Marquis) that, If you make people think theyre thinking, theyll love you. If you really make them think, theyll hate you. Well, Im willing to take that chance, even though I know that most of us tend to be lazy and become quite annoyed at having to make the effort necessary to think clearly and in an organized manner.

In this day and age, when efficiency and organization are virtually essentials for success, I see no reason for anybody to tolerate inefficiency. Particularly when something can be done about it! Fundamentally, there is only one person responsible for how you think, for what goes on in your mind, and that person is You!