The fuel that ignites success is action. Success and achievement will not drop ready made from heaven into your lap. All who succeed are gluttons for work, working while others play and sleep. All teaching to the contrary is erroneous. To think that success is going to come to you when it is unmerited, simply because you make use of "affirmations" or employ mental "treatments" is foolish. There is only one way to succeed in the affairs of life, and that is by taking action and raising oneself to greater usefulness and service. By doing things better than they have been done before, be bearing greater responsibility, you serve humanity better, and therefore merit success.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive," said the Master, and this is true even in the practical and material affairs of life. First, you must give better and more valuable service: in other words, deserve and merit before you expect to see it materialize. You must sow before you can reap: you must become too big for your present position before you are capable of occupying a larger one. You must grow and expand in every possible way, and as you grow so will your success increase. Outward success is only a reflection, so to speak, of what you really are, and a result of greater and more valuable service to humanity. It requires great effort, determination, and action to get out of the rut, but so long as your ambition is not dishonorable or selfish, there will be found within you power sufficient for all your needs.

2 Corinthians 9:10-12 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

To win success, either in the hurly-burly of life or the more difficult path of spiritual progress, demands imagination, vision, courage, faith, determination, persistence, perseverance, hope, cheerfulness, and other qualities. These are all to be found within. All these qualities lie more or less dormant within, and can be called into expression if we believe that Infinite Power is ours. Again, once these qualities are called into expression you must employ the key to success; action.

James 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Heed the warning that this Power must not be used for selfish self-aggrandizement, still less may it be used, or, rather, mis-used, either to influence or dominate others. If this Power is mis-used the results are terrible and disastrous. Therefore, use the Power only for the achievement of good and noble aims in service which shall enrich the life of your fellows, adding to the common good. Having arrived at this stage you must go forward. There can be no holding back. Ever onward, the Divine Urge is sending you, to greater achievement and accomplishment. Just as surely as the planets must revolve round the sun and fulfill their destiny, so also must you go forward. See to it, then, that your aims and ambitions are based upon eternal wisdom and that you take action accordingly, for upon this does the key to your success depend.