A curious thing has evolved in the human being. The quality of mental reflection which has slowly developed in his psyche over the eons of his evolution has enabled him to form pictures within his mind in complete variance to the world around him. He can, if he will, on a flight of fancy, transfer himself from rags to riches, a bench-warmer to Super Bowl MVP, in the twinkling of an eye, and thus, in the conscious center of his being, no longer is a slave to the world in which he finds himself. Two principal phenomena have resulted, one stigmata, the other a blessing.
The stigmata are these. Life is largely a matter of disciplining one's self to endure pain in order to achieve a desired end, but the immature person often seizes on the image power of the mind to seek refuge from reality, and as a result develops a kind of wish-thinking that makes him absolutely ineffectual in all circumstances. He turns the power of the imagination upon itself, destroys its ability to influence the outer world be setting it to work on problems that have no relationship to the outer world. The victims of such delusions are legion. They populate our mental hospitals, derelict centers, flop houses. They constitute the majority of those admitted to sanitariums for the treatment of alcoholism. And they are to be found all over the world in zombie-like trance, making the movements of the living, but with one foot in another world.
On the other hand is the blessing that imagination brings. It is the mystic seeing that enables man to gaze upon his surroundings with x-ray eye and perceive in them their hidden potentiality. This harnessing of the image-making power of the mind to the outer world of things and events has transformed life on earth, has enabled man, in a few short centuries not only to achieve dominion over his immediate environment but to arrive at the verge of extending that dominion through the time-space continuum of the universe.
Most modern thinking conveniently divides the world into two different classes of things, one substance, the other intelligence. Science takes great pains to classify substance. It catalogs the elements and their various combination's, delineates the make-up of the molecules whose cohesion forms the elements, breaks down the molecule into various atomic weights, and even differentiates the atom into a nucleus and a certain number of encircling electrons. At this point, the difference between hydrogen and lead , for example, has become startlingly slight. Each has an invisible nucleus encircled by a certain number of electrons, more in the case of lead, but hardly appreciably more, and the difference between them appears to be one of degree rather than one of kind. Our confusion grows when, through the sudden process of nuclear fission, the atom itself is reduced to nothing measurable, disappearing in a burst of flamer, and we are forced to inquire at last if substance is really substance after all but perhaps might not represent a vastly subtler conception, of idea only, intelligence itself.
What message are YOU telling yourself? Do you send yourself messages of defeat or are you constantly reinforcing your future success? Football is a mental game and only those who can master their minds can master this game. This is why conditioning is so important because it taxes not just our muscles and lungs, but our minds as well. Do you give it full effort every play or do you take it take it down a notch or two once it begins to get harder? YOU are capable of tremendous things and it is important that you constantly feed your mind positive thoughts! As they say, "The Man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both correct!"
