We have made our plans and set our goals for the year. We had every plan, hope and desire to make a mark in our own self fulfillment, and expound our personal assets a hundred percent. We were going to be happy, successful, and conquer previously unattainable heights. We were going to manifest our dreams. What happened? With the exception of the seasonal weather, things seem about the same. The dream is still there, but we find ourselves more maintaining our life than advancing it. How can we discover the hidden formula, that the masters or great statesmen have seemed to have employed to reach, what the average person views as unattainable?
During the month of February, Americans celebrate two great presidents. The first one to be acknowledged was George Washington. He helped to chart the destiny of our country. He was well educated and came from wealthy stock. The next president who was dear to citizens who studies their country's history is Abraham Lincoln. He was the sixteenth president of our nation. It was easy to see why President Washington is celebrated, being the first president. Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, is the only other president who receives the honor of a national holiday.
Every citizen knows the answer. President Lincoln brought the country, who divided itself on the precepts of freedom for every man, back together in unity. If you were to ask the citizen what talent he had to possess to accomplish such a feat, they would become rather pensive and silent. "Well", they would say, "He was a great statesman." If you were to inquire what were his attributes or essence, there wouldn't be much more of a discussion.
True, he stopped a civil war. True, he was a great statesman. One would imagine that such a talented and wise person had a comprehensive education of higher learning. Not so. What makes President Lincoln an outstanding president is that he possessed within his being all the traits and characteristics of a true master. What was his philosophy? Let's look at his background and thought process, and then his philosophy will become easy to define.
Young Mr. Lincoln was a self-educated man. He read all the newspapers he could get his hands on. He read the classics such as the Euclid and Shakespeare. Like the early masters, he studied astronomy. He had a precise mind. He was a believer in dreams. Young Lincoln had a remoteness about him. He was simple, yet complex. Natural and unostentatious. He was humble, but self-reliant. He was self-assured, keen minded and analytical. He was practical.
In his personal life, he was undemonstrative on the surface, but displayed unfathomed depths of tenderness, joy and pity. By nature, he was conservative, and cautious. He wasn't close to his father, but adored and loved his step-mother. He was a man of great morals. This moral challenge transformed a small town politician of self-developed, but largely unsuspective, talents into a statesman of world dimensions.
Masters believe in the equality of everyone in the land, regardless of ethnic backgrounds or religion. Lincoln explained that the Constitution of our country promised freedom for everybody, and didn't state "with the exception of....". His basic tenet was equal opportunity for mankind. He believed that the most important traits were perseverance, thrift, and enterprise potential for all. He believed that a person in our country could begin poor, but that every person should have the right for a better life and that no person had to be stuck in a fixed condition, or a certain type of labor, for the rest of his life.
President Lincoln believed that the three contributors to any goal are: (1) Establishing it; (2) Administering it; and (3) Maintaining it.
When we can study history and learn something about the famous and talented people of the past, it gives us a guide and road map. Abraham Lincoln has dispelled any reason for defeat. He defines the basic component of success is trust, which the inhabitants of a free county inherit at birth.
The second month of the year is the ideal time to start developing ways to use the creative process and believe in the dream. No excuse. No delay. Do it now and experience the wonderful world of the masters! Start today formulating your dream. Believe it. Actualize it. Share it with the world!