And now to the building up of the dynamic individual. We have seen what he was like, and now we must try to "make ourselves over" to resemble him. The methods given in the present chapter, and the one immediately following it apply to this work, of course. Let us now form a mental picture of the dynamic individual and see what qualities he possesses, and then learn how to develop and cultivate those qualities.

Our dynamic individual is possessed of a strong desire. He knows how to "want" a thing the right way. No mere "wishing" or "sighing" for a thing - when he wants a thing he wants it "We all think that we want things, but the majority only want them in a half-hearted way. The flame of desire burns feebly and gives little light or beat One of the first things you will notice in coming in personal contact with the men "who do things" in the world is that they are filled with that intense, eager, longing, craving, hungry, ravenous desire that urges them on to mighty effort and achievement - which makes them demand things instead of begging for them.

Even among the animals that we speak of as "strong" and "masterful,'* you will find that this desire quality is strong, so much so that it impresses itself in their every movement and action. And on the other hand, you will find a lack of that same quality in the species of animals that are preyed upon, hunted and devoured by the others. This class of weak-desired animals impress us as "weak" and "spiritless." And so it is with men. No one ever did anything or got anything unless he was filled with a strong, hungry desire for that thing If a man feels a hunger for attainment, just as he feels a hunger for his meals, he will make mighty efforts to satisfy that hunger. Just think of what you would do to satisfy a craving hunger! Well, these men feel the same way about other things for which they are hungry. Desire is a form of hunger And the hungrier a man is for a thing the more De-sire-Force will he manifest and the greater efforts will he make to get that thing.

People have fallen into the habit of speaking and thinking of "desire".as an unworthy, low, animal, selfish quality - but they are seeing only a half truth while thinking that they are seeing the whole thing. They seek to escape by speaking of "high desires," "aspiration," "ambition," "zeal," "ardor," "love," and a number of similar terms - but these things are merely our old friend "desire" with a new name. Let me give you a few words used in speak-ing of some form of desire. Here they are: Desire wish, want, need, exigency, mind, inclination, leaning, bent, animus, partiality, penchant, predilection, propensity, willingness, liking, love, fondness, relish, longing, hankering, solicitude, anxiety, yearning, coveting, aspiration, ambition, eagerness, zeal, ardor, appetite, appetency, hunger, thirst, keenness, longing, craving, etc., etc. Quite a formidable list!

The truth is that all of the "feelings" that incite one to action of any kind or sort, are forms of desire. Without desire one would cease absolutely from action. Preceding every action there must be desire, either couscious or unconscious. Even those people who make a virtue of renunciation of desire, and who claim to have "conquered desire absolutely," are acting in response to a more subtle form of desire. How is this, you ask! Well, simply because they are carrying out a desire not to desire certain other things. Desire is at the bottom of the renunciation, just as it is at the bottom of the very desires they wish to renounce. This must be so always, for desire is a fundamental natural law, and is always manifest. Not only in the doing of things is desire manifest, hut also in the refraining from doing the same things. One man desires to smoke - another desires not to do so. Desire in both cases! "Lack of desire" to do a certain thing simply means a desire to pursue an opposite course of conduct and action. And so it goes - desire is manifest in every action and refraining from action - so long as one has the capacity for action. Nothing has ever been done, created, or manifested without desire. The very atoms manifest desire in their combinations.

And 60, all the universe has been built up through the operation of the law of desire, and the law of will - both of which are phases of the one law. Desire underlies all life - it rests in the very heart of life itself. And the greater the manifestation of vitality, the greater the force of desire.

But remember always, that there are wise desires and unwise desires. And the dynamic individual learns to distinguish between the wise and the unwise desires - between the "good" and the "bad" ones - and governs himself accordingly. He examines his desires and picking out the "good and wise" ones he discards the "bad and unwise" ones - thou he proceeds to develop and build up the ones he has selected.

And how does our dynamic individual develop his desire when desire in itself is not a separate mental faculty, hut, instead, manifests through and in each faculty? He proceeds to hold up to it the mental image of the things to be desired, and the Desire-Force within him flows forth, and manifests more and more energy according to the stimulus. Desire-Force is always inherent in the person just as is Will-Power, hut both need an incentive to action - a stimulus to manifestation. It is a well-known law of psychology that desire flows out and manifests itself in response to an object. This object of desire is always something that affords pleasure, satisfaction or content to the individual, or else that will rid him of pain, discontent, discomfort, or dissatisfaction, either immediate or remote in both instances, and sometimes indirectly; that is, the pleasure or pain may be occasioned by the pleasure or pain, immediate or remote, of some other person in which the original person is interested.

The clearer the mental image of the object of desire, the greater will be the degree of desire manifested, all other things being equal. A child may be filled with discontent - it wants something, but does not know what it wants. Then the child thinks of "toys" - and it begins to want still harder. Then it sees a toy - and then its want becomes very intense. One may feel hungry in a degree, but when he sees some particular object of taste, the hunger becomes far more intense. And so it follows that if one will keep on presenting to his desire the suggestion and mental image of the object, then will the desire begin to burn more fiercely and strongly and may be cultivated to almost any degree. You know how one may awaken desire in another this way, by means of suggestion, and by presenting the mental image of the object, in conversation, etc. - how many of us know to our cost how the "sight" of an unthought of thing makes us begin to "hanker" after it and long for it? The book agent plays upon this trait of character in us - and so does the department store man on bargain days and by his window displays. You will remember what I told you in the chapters on suggestion, about the steps in "salesmanship," the important point being to "arouse desire" in the customer - and what I said about the same thing in the case of the advertiser. This idea underlies all forms of suggestive influence and is manifest in the lives of every one of us, every day of our lives. And if this be so, can you not see that by auto-suggestion you may arouse the same degree of desire in yourselves that others arouse in you and you in others?