This is the eighth in a series of articles based on the teachings found in the success classic "The Science of Getting Rich", written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles. This book—now in the public domain--is essential reading for anyone who wants to become wealthy. It served as inspiration for the hit film, "The Secret".

Mr. Wattles explains in chapters 9 and 10 of "The Science of Getting Rich" that the role of your will in getting rich is to compel yourself to think and do those things that will keep you on the course to riches. That is, you should use your will to keep yourself thinking and acting in "a certain way". When your mind deviates from focusing on what you want, use your will power to bring it back.

You should use your mind to form a clear mental image of what you want and use your will to make sure that you hold on to that vision continuously. If you hold on to the picture of your desires steadily, you will get rich more quickly because you will only make positive impressions on the formless substance.

Beware that you can stop the flow of positive things toward you by letting your mind wander and allowing it to focus on things that you do not want, or by giving heed to doubts and fears. Hence, it is of utmost importance to control your thoughts so that you don’t spend time worrying, doubting, and focusing on the negative. And the way that you control your thoughts is by using your will to keep your mind working in the right way.

If you’ve had past troubles of a financial nature, stop thinking about them. You should give your attention wholly to riches and stop focusing on any hardships you may have had in the past. When you recall your attention from the past and keep it firmly rooted in the present, you’re reclaiming an enormous amount of energy you had stored in the past.

In addition, your beliefs are important in getting you what you want. In turn, your beliefs are shaped by what you observe and think about. Therefore, it is very important that you should govern what you’re paying attention to, and it is by your will that you determine what your attention will be focused on. Use your willpower to keep your mind fixed with faith and purpose on what you’re creating.

In "Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace and Meaning", Eknath Easwaran compares the mind to a car.

• The mind drives us through life, and we go where it takes us.

• When you’ve decided what you want, and are focused on it, you’re driving down the center lane.

• However, when you become angry, fearful, or doubtful, or you start thinking about what you don’t want, it’s as if you changed lanes.

• When you change lanes you’re no longer on the path you need to be on to get what you want.

• You should use your will to take control of the steering wheel and make sure that your mind is always on the right course.

Things are not brought about by thinking about their opposites: you will not get rich by thinking about poverty and you will not become healthy by thinking about disease. It is not possible to create in the negative; that is, stop thinking about what you don’t want and hope that if you put up enough resistance you won’t get it. You will attract toward you anything that you’re thinking about; if you’re thinking about how much you don’t want something, this constitutes "thinking about it", so you will attract it into your life.

In conclusion, use your will to keep your mind off the things that you don’t want to attract into your life and to keep it fixed with faith and purpose on those things that you do want. To use Eknath’s car analogy, trying to get what you want out of life without having control of your thoughts is like trying to reach your destination without having control of your car. Keep both hands on the wheel at all times and do not let wandering thoughts or anything outside of yourself veer you off course.