This book is all about me , the most important person in the world!
IF YOU WILL WRITE YOUR NAME IN THAT SPACE AFTER
"me," you will be putting the finishing touch on this book that I want it to have. This book is written with you as the main character. This name identification is necessary to make it a finished piece of work. So, will you accommodate me, please, by putting your name in its proper place?
Perhaps you hesitate, because you feel that this would be a display of extreme egotism. With what you feel is appropriate humility, you might want to say: "I wouldn't want to let other people think that I considered myself the most important person in the world!"
10
• " I . . . M y . . . M e ! "
I can understand this reaction, because I know that you have had uncomfortable associations with people for whom the most important words in the language are "I . . . my . . . and me!' You have known people who appear to be intoxicated with a sense of self-importance. You don't want to be classified with either, and for this you are to be commended. Yet I am asking you to emphasize "me" and "important," and to do so more or less publicly by writing your name in this book.
A paradox? No, not at all! But it could be pointing up a different viewpoint than you have ever had about yourself.
This is my viewpoint of you, as I write, and it should be yours.
As far back in time as you can remember, you have had the desire to act as though you were the most important person to yourself. Yet you have been influenced by that code of undue humility, and you have probably suppressed that desire. But this you should not have done!
• Humbleness is unbecoming
Modesty is a cloak of superior material which you should wear on proper occasions, when it will become you. But if you wear it as an everyday vestment, it will become shabby and threadbare. And threadbare modesty turns into the cast-off raiment of humbleness. This is not the proper dress for you, because if you style yourself as being humble, you are relegat-ing yourself to an unimportant status. You are identifyrelegat-ing your-self with that undesirable caste of "little" people.
I do not envision you, as the main character in this book, as a "little" person. I envision you as a person who exemplifies the
"dignity of mankind." I envision you as a self-respecting person, deserving of the recognition and status that both your Creator
12 YOUR PLAN
and the society of men intended you to have, and which your closest associates want you to have. I envision you as a person with all of the potential power to create the best kind of a life for yourself.
I believe that there is intrinsic truth in this characterization.
I believe that if you and I were having a confidential chat, you would tell me that this is a standard of self-identification that has always been your most intimate aspiration.
• The creator made you different
Your life is surrounded by logical manifestations of your right to this important status. One of these is inherent in your birthright: your Creator made you a distinctive person with a distinctive purpose in Me. Whatever your academic interpreta-tion of the Supreme Being is, I know that it includes faith in His creative plan. In His plan, no human is made inconsequen-tial or without a purpose in life. On the other hand, He endows each person with the will to live according to his or her own distinctiveness. Only when this will is coupled with purposeful action, does a person's individuality have meaning. Therefore, in the eyes of the Creator, you are living according to His will for you when you put importance upon your individuality.
• Being important is your right
Another logical demonstration of your right to this important status came at a time when you acted upon some basic belief of yours. For example, this might have been an action that sup-ported a friend at a time when he needed the strength that came from your interest in him. You believed he was right and you believed in him. This element of distinctive belief could come only from you, and it resulted in a contribution to the life of your friend, to yourself. The will to act this way was an
endowment of the Creator, and the action you took fulfilled a basic purpose of your life. And at that moment, you were the most important person in the world, to your friend!
Furthermore, you have notable status in the material, tangi-ble scheme of things. Our society, in its long "trial-and-error"
development, has learned one cardinal fact. This is that society can have hope of perfection only when the welfare of each individual member is at its highest, most desirable level.
Actually this society of ours has a great big ego at the core of it. It's a positive, even an aggressive, ego and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. In fact, your importance is dependent upon your own ego being directly related to this big "master ego." Suc-cessful, happy people who have already learned this secret want others to join them. They believe in "the-more-the-merrier."
That's logical because, if your material welfare is on a high plane, it will help boost up the general welfare of others. But if you hold back, or drag your feet, you are pulling the average down! This is a case of one ego supporting another in a frank, unabashed manner.
Either way, therefore, you are most important. You are nega-tively important if you do not put in with the "progressive party" in life, but you are positively important if you act ac-cording to your rightful status.
• Satisfy your inner urges
Still another proof of your importance lies in emotional rela-tionships with others. Everyone is alike in having some funda-mental urges. These are the urges for recognition, prestige, and self-expression, and for love, good-will and friendship. Yet none of these urges can be satisfied by individuals alone. Such satis-faction requires emotional relationships with others. This is so because no one can really have recognition, or love, or friend-ship without also giving them to others. Therefore, you are part
14 YOUR PLAN
of an emotional relationship with others. When any of those urges are satisfied, you are the most important person in the world. Every time you give and you receive in such a relation-ship, you are substantiating your own importance.
• No one is more important than you
Then, finally, there is that outstanding and most logical angle of self-importance. This is the matter of your importance to yourself. A common tendency is for people to say: "Oh well, it goes without saying that I am important to myself." If YOU have this tendency, I want you to imagine that you are looking me straight in the eye as I say to you, it doesn't "go without saying!" And, particularly, it won't do to have that attitude here. I am vitally concerned with your having a different kind of an attitude before you get any further into this book.
You will go on reading this book with one of two attitudes affecting your reaction to it. You will read it with a feeling that there are a lot of good ideas expressed, which could be applied to lots of other people. But for YOU, you might feel, it's
"maybe," or "mañana" or "I should try them." If this were your attitude, it would "go without saying" that you don't put much importance on yourself.
Or, you will read the book impelled by the feeling that it is written for you simply because it is written for the most im-portant people. You know, however, that you can't cash in on the reactions of others. The value of the contents of this book starts and ends with you. Are you important to yourself? Then demonstrate it, by signing your name as I have suggested!
• Your name packs power
Is this name-signing just a clever gesture? No, not at all! It is the first concrete step in a series of stimulating, powerfully
practical experiences that will be yours, provided you think yourself important enough to be part of them. Signing your name at this chapter heading will cause a chain reaction in your life, because it will result in a manifestation of the power of your subconscious mind.
Is this book all about you? When you sign your name, you are saying, "yes, I believe it is!"
Are you the most important person in the world? When you sign your name you are saying: "yes, I believe I am, in relation to a role in life that will best exemplify my distinctiveness."
These are unusual, perhaps remarkable, statements for you to put your name to. Once you have put that singular brand of yours on them, they will color every sentence you read. This coloring, this personal slant, will be the result of the work of your subconscious mind.
This, then, will be "just another book," or it will be a personal treatise, depending upon whether you let your subconscious put that "coloring" on it. But the choice is yours. How im-portant are you to yourself? Imim-portant enough to sign your name, now?
• Be influenced the positive way
There is a powerful symbolism in this act of signing your name. Your name was given you as a mark of individual identifi-cation. But, more significantly, it is a mark of your individual importance. Since the moment it was bestowed upon you, you have been subject to a major force that has made this individual
"you" have an important or unimportant status. This force is influence. When you sign your name to that statement, you are inviting a positive influence to affect the importance of that name. This positive influence will be abetted by the work of your subconscious mind. You are about to participate in a dem-onstration which will display the power of your subconscious.
16 YOUR PLAN
When you have finished this chapter, and after you have signed your name, close the book. Place it in a conspicuous spot and go about some normal activity. To make this demon-stration doubly effective, do something that is normally quite absorbing to you. Work in the garden, read the paper, even look at TV. But keep the closed book in a spot where you can see it.
Two things will happen to you during this period. Both will appear to be involuntary reactions. First, you won't be able to keep your thoughts from the fact that you signed your name to that statement. You will think about what an unpredicted action that was, saying that this book is all about yourself and that you are so important. At the moment, you won't be able to resolve much from this conjecture, except that it was most unusual, for you! (I assure you that a bigger answer will come later!)
Secondly, you will feel some of the thoughts expressed in these two chapters bouncing around in your mind. You will begin to wonder if it isn't time for a change, time to be more concerned about what you are doing with your life. For the moment, you won't be able to resolve these questions, either.
But these answers, too, will come later.
Actually, neither of these reactions will be "involuntary."
They will come as the result of the influence of your subcon-scious mind, which has been stimulated by that impressive action you took in signing your name.
• Subconscious power in action!
If you think you are important enough to yourself to call upon the power of your subconscious to work positively for you, then make this demonstration. It will verify your belief in your importance in life. This is most important to both of us, because, in writing this book, I envision you with this belief.
After you have made this demonstration, and you have felt
the power of its influence, go on with your book. You will be properly conditioned for what is ahead, not with the inferior attitude of a person who is afraid to demonstrate and declare his importance, but with the attitude of a person who is about to have his superior status confirmed.
IN SUM
You, as the most important person in the world, have a purpose in life.
Do not underestimate its importance.
Reinforce your elevation to this status of importance by making the following agreements with yourself:
1. To demonstrate the importance of your beliefs to your self, and to the world about you. Within the next 24 hours, demonstrate your belief in something or someone by delib- erately acting in support of that belief. For example, dis play your belief in your religion by some positive act. Here and now, make an agreement with yourself to (write in your choice of action)
2. To demonstrate your importance in what the world offers in the matter of tangible, material things. Within the next 24 hours, take at least the first steps in associating
18 YOUR PLAN
yourself with some progressive action, something which symbolizes "going forward" in life. It can be the joining of a charitable or civic organization. Here and now, make an agreement with yourself to (write in the progressive ac- tion of your choice)
3. To demonstrate your importance in relationship to others. Within the next 24 hours, make a deliberate effort to render a service to someone, a family member, friend or vocational associate. Right now, make an agreement with yourself to (define the service you will render)
Each one of these projects, in addition to the act of signing your name, will cause the power of your subcon-scious to be a positive influence in your life. Each one will serve to confirm your distinctiveness. In each case, at the moment you act in accordance with those agreements, you are the "most important person in the world" to others related to that action. These actions point up your impor-tance. But even more than that, these actions will demon-strate that you can be important all the time, since you can act and re-act in a similar manner, time and time again. Just now they will reinforce the toe-hold you have made on a stimulating, new kind of a life.