While clearing out some files—a rare occurrence I can assure you—scraps of paper with notes from Bob Proctor’s Thinking Into Results program fell into my lap. Several years ago, I completed the 6-month course to qualify as a certified facilitator, although ultimately decided not to work with large corporations. The money wasn’t wasted because I learned plenty and put the techniques to work on myself. After all, I should probably fix me before trying to help someone else.
The lesson that dropped into my lap explained that we’re creators and are here to make a good life for ourselves and those around us. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? To do that we’ve been given an intellectual capacity that separates us from the rest of God’s creatures.
Ok, I did already know I was smarter than my dogs. I would have also guaranteed you there wasn’t a creative bone in my body, and never recalled learning anything about being a creator. Evidently, I belonged on a different planet.
Now I smile as I remember learning all this information – and, oh, how my life has changed! With these mental powers we can choose to live in harmony and create a full and happy life; or if misused, reap fear, hate, greed, prejudice, selfishness, pain and jealousy to name just a few calamities.
If you’re like me, you were raised to react to everything going on in the outside world. Using our senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell—we feed our current physical environment and let that regulate how we think and feel. We declare ourselves victims of poor relationships, lack of money, social media, etc.—as if all of this is happening to us, not coming from us!
What are these intellectual abilities and how do we use them?
Imagination . . . My favorite. Just look around! Everything you see–the chair, lights, computer—were all first formed in someone’s imagination and then built in the physical world. With our imagination, we craft fantasies and goals, and as young children, we freely and fearlessly used it in play. For some of us, our creativity was shut down when we started school. Were you told to “stop day-dreaming,” “pay attention” or “quit doodling?” We learned that fantasizing could get us in trouble.
Allow yourself to reawaken your imagination and discover your true talents and gifts.
Intuition . . . This is how we pick up vibrations from other people and our surroundings. Intuition often resonates from our heart or our stomach—you know, that “gut feeling.” It’s important that you know that your vibration means everything to you! Everything vibrates, the environment, other people and even you.
Listen to the higher voice in your mind—not the prattling one that sounds like a negative Nellie—the part of you that KNOWS the answer. It’s been said that when we pray we’re talking to God, and our intuition is God talking to us.
Intuition isn’t for a select few, all of us have it, it’s just that some people have developed it more than others.
Memory . . . Memory is like a photo album in our mind. It’s where we retrieve a person’s name or a beautiful moment from our past.
Many say they have a poor memory, but our memory is perfect. I’ll admit that stress, illness, poor diet and some medications cause fogginess, but for the most part, you can improve it with word association. If you believe you need to strengthen your memory, there are many books available.
Perception . . . Perception is our point of view and usually, it’s a conditioned point of view. We tend to look at things from only ONE angle and this causes frustration, disagreement, and anger.
It’s bizarre, but we often use perception to our disadvantage. Be honest, when you have a great idea or a problem to solve, what’s the first thing you do? Do you list all the reasons why it can’t be done or why it won’t work? If you look at the idea or problem from a different perspective, you just may discover how the obstacle can be overcome.
Reason . . . Reason gives us the ability to think, and thinking is our highest function.
Using logic, we evaluate what’s going on in our outside world and form judgments as to whether to accept or reject certain ideas. It’s with our reason we solve problems, resolve conflict, and decipher complicated math problems.
Even more powerful, reason gives us the ability to originate thoughts; thoughts fueled by our imagination. We collect those thoughts together to form new ideas to be used to change our situation and our life. Although we can control our thoughts, hidden programs in the unconscious mind may attempt to distort the decision process and keep us stuck.
The Will . . . The will is the faculty that allows us to concentrate and focus. Are you surprised by that definition? It’s probably not what you learned! The will IS NOT to be used to make others do your bidding.
By using your will, you can focus on the thoughts, visions, and goals you’ve set for yourself. It’s with the use of the will that you can develop new habits, discipline yourself, and take the action required to change your life.
Those are our six intellectual powers; they are perfect and like a muscle can be strengthened through exercise. It’s been fun for me to review this lesson and I hope you’ll watch the video below.
In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill said:
Remember, the educated person Hill talks about isn’t necessarily the individual who’s acquired a lot of formal education and college degrees; the educated person is someone who creates the life they want from the inside out by using their higher faculties. When we stop letting our outside world control our thinking and start using our higher powers, our whole world will change.