The Master
Key System is quite different from a typical personal growth book, as each Part
is a list of statements associated with Charles Haanel’s concepts. At the end of each Part, he provides
questions to study. The idea is to read
over each Part several times and use the questions to study the concepts so
that they make sense to you. Two basic
concepts came out of my study of Part One.
I create everything in my outside world: Most of the time, we do this unconsciously: we think about how we don’t
want to work on a project anymore and we end up having a disagreement with our
project partner, which puts the future of the project in jeopardy. We focus on how annoying our teenager is and
they go out of their way to bug us before leaving for school. We worry about how we’re going to make ends
meet this month and another bill shows up in the mail. Notice how many of these things are negative. My initial feeling is that I couldn’t
possibly want to create all these negative things. And yet, if we dig deep enough, we can find
when and how we created it. Example: I’m
not on speaking terms with one of my sisters right now because of a huge fight
we had last spring. I couldn’t possibly
have wanted to create that, right?
Except that I was reading through my journal the other day and noticed
an entry about 4 weeks before I went to visit her, where I expressed my
frustration regarding the organization of the trip. And I wrote: “sometimes it would just be
easier not to have a family!”. That
convinced me how careful we need to be about what we think, feel and especially
express.
Consciousness and sustained focus allow me to
control this process: Great!
Now I have a solution that I use to create only good things, things that
I want. So, what do I want? Most of us don’t have a clue. Sure, we know on the surface what type of car
we would drive if we had unlimited money to buy it, or what body we would
prefer over our own. But if you were
given a sheet of paper and you had to write down EVERYTHING you want in life
(relationships, health, job, leisure, experiences, etc), could you? More importantly, could you choose one
path? Maybe you want to live in Costa Rica
and sell seashell art. No, actually you
would prefer an apartment in Paris so that you could become a fashion
consultant. No, no, really you want to move
to a small farm, raise your family and become self-sufficient. Yikes,
this is hard! But the Master Key System
insists that we need to be focused, not scattered. We can’t focus on creating Paris one day and
seashells the next. So an important step
is taking the time to decide what we want[1],
and then applying the tools we are learning to focus on that.
That’s it
for Part One. Hopefully my comments have
triggered some thoughts in you – if so, please share them with me; I’d love to
hear what you have to say about all of this!
[1] For those of you who don’t know,
there are tools out there to help you. I
recommend that you search for “purpose” at your favourite bookstore or
online. You can also check out my soon-to-be-released
2-part e-course “Discover your Confidence” where I discuss discovering your
purpose (see www.happiness-after-midlife.com) and my upcoming book “Drown or
Surf: Riding Life’s Tidal Waves” which will also include a section on purpose
and vision.
