The Templeton Plan

by Sir John Templeton

  E. Parmalee Prentice, lawyer and author, made this observation: “If anyone wants to understand the course of man on earth, he must consider the fact of the long pause, 3 million years on the level of savagery, 10,000 years on the level of dependence on the fruits of hard labor, and 150 years of sudden sharp rise. That is the time included in what we call progress in man’s history.”

  Given this stunning rate of growth, think of all that we can accomplish, applying the plan discussed in this book, by the year 2000.

  The secret of progress for all of us is to work hard in the present, always with an eye trained on the future.

  In summary, Step 13 instructs the reader on principles that are necessary to move onwards and upwards. Practice them diligently and your rate of personal progress is bound to accelerate.

  Among the main points covered:

  The ability to handle change.

  A willingness to pit yourself against your past performance.

  Welcoming the entrepreneurial spirit within yourself.

  Focusing on productive and useful goals.

  Always striving to become the most knowledgeable person in your field.

  STEP 14

  CONTROLLING YOUR THOUGHTS FOR EFFECTIVE ACTION

  THE WORDS thought control may well have an ominous ring to them, because we tend to associate thought control with controls imposed from the outside—for example, by repressive governments and certain religious cults. But John Templeton’s approach is the exact opposite of these; it’s inspirational. He practices and preaches imposing, from within, a discipline on one’s thoughts and emotions. His theory of positive thought control is actually a deep form of self-control.

  He says, “We’re not products of circumstances or accident; we’re products of what we think. Our thoughts influence our words, our deeds, what other people think of us, and whether or not they want to do business with us. If you hope to be productive and lead a happy life, you have to control your thoughts. The majority of people let their thoughts drift without making any attempt to control them. Thought control is hard work, but in the long run, with practice, it becomes easier and easier, like learning to play the piano. And when you’ve mastered the art of controlling your thoughts, you can make your mind a garden of indescribably beautiful flowers instead of a weed patch.”

  The Unity School of Christianity uses a phrase that sums up John Templeton’s theory of positive thought control: “As you rule your mind, you rule the world.” When Saint Paul recites the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22), one of those nine virtues is self-control. It is John Templeton’s strong conviction that people must pay attention to what is going on in their own minds. People are what they think. If you want to be a better person, you have to control what you’re thinking.

  Templeton’s prodigious powers of concentration, perseverance, and hard work can be traced in large part to his development of personal techniques of thought control. This is a form of self-discipline that he believes is within reach of anyone, if that person will only resolve to develop this special personal power.

  “Everyone has to work at it,” he says. “And the harder you work, the easier it gets. A person will say to you, ‘I just can’t control my thoughts. They always wander away.’ But that’s because that person has not been trying. If you sit down at the piano and say, ‘I can’t play,’ then you can’t play because you’ve taken a negative mental attitude. But if you sit down with a positive approach, you’ll find yourself making sudden strides forward. You’re beginning to practice thought control.”

  Templeton acknowledges that there are some people, especially those involved in Eastern religions, who are quite successful at thought-restricting meditation. “But making your mind blank is extremely difficult—and what useful purpose is being served? To restate an old maxim, ‘An idle mind really is the devil’s workshop.’”

  In contrast, the thought-control technique he advocates is what he calls the “crowding-out” method. He explains his approach this way: “If you fill your mind to capacity with thoughts that you think are good and productive, you won’t have room for the bad ones. The ones you crowd out are feelings of envy, hatred, covetousness, self-centeredness, damaging criticism, revenge, and any time-wasting thoughts that are unproductive for your ultimate goals in life. Another method for crowding out negative thoughts is to quietly release them. You can even say to your thoughts, ‘I lovingly release you to the vast nothingness from whence you came.’

  As active and hardworking as Templeton is, he still makes time to practice the crowding out of extraneous matter. “It’s directed thinking,” he explains. “It shouldn’t be thinking that is uncontrolled; the purpose is to clear and cleanse the mind.”

  Having learned to discipline his thinking, Templeton is able to focus a maximum amount of his energies on those matters he feels are of supreme importance: his investments and the learning and teaching of spiritual growth. Correct thought control has caused the direction of his entire life to become increasingly effective.

  “Look at the result of controlled thinking in business,” he says. “It’s very difficult to build a corporation if you’re incapable of directing your thoughts toward specific goals. You have to have an ordered mind to build any substantial organization, whether it’s a business or a church or a charity.”

  Templeton also believes that correct thought control is a positive force. Listen to some of his observations on life: “If a stranger walks into the room, do you notice that he has a withered hand or do you notice the smile on his face? You can plant in your mind a wonderful concept and a good relationship with that stranger if you look for what’s good in him, not for what worries you about him.

  “You can find what you want to find in any situation. I’m a great believer in the old story about the stranger who came to the gates of a city and asked, ‘What kind of people live here?’

  “The gatekeeper replied, ‘What kind of people live in the place you come from?’

  “The stranger answered, ‘Oh, they were knaves and fools and thugs.’

  “The gatekeeper said, ‘You will find the same kind of people here.’

  “Another stranger came to the gate and asked the same question. The gatekeeper again asked, ‘What kind of people live in the place you come from?’

  “And the stranger answered, ‘They are loving and generous.’

  “The gatekeeper told him, ‘You will find the same kind of people here.’

  “That’s what our lives are all about. And what effective thought control and success are all about. If you’re looking for the good in every person, you’ll ask yourself, ‘Where can I see Jesus shining through in this man’s personality or that woman’s life?’ And you’ll find him when you look for him. Jesus is always there awaiting our recognition.

  “As soon as you wake up in the morning, direct your thoughts toward five things you’re deeply grateful for. That will set the pattern for your day. You can’t be prey to all the negative emotions if your heart is full of joy and gratitude.”

  John Templeton’s entire personal and business life seems directed toward thoughts and actions that build up rather than tear down. He consciously attempts to realize in practical, everyday terms the words of Saint Paul to the Philippians (4:8): “Finally, brethren, whatever is true…whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” As much as any other passages of scripture, these words have become the slogan of Templeton’s private and professional life.

  Although a Presbyterian and not a member of the Unity School of Christianity, Templeton has profited from literature published by the latter. For example, these words of Charles Fillmore, from his book Prosperity, go right to the heart of what gives us our special power as human beings. They speak to the bright side of our existence, the success side: “You can do everything with the thoughts of your mind. They are under your absolute control. You can direct them. You
can coerce them. You can hush them or crush them. You can dissolve them and put others in their place. There is no other spot in the universe where man has mastery. The dominion that is yours by divine right is over your own thoughts. When man apprehends this and commences to exercise that dominion, he has begun to open the way to God, the only door to God—through mind and thought.”

  Templeton’s favorite quotations on the importance and benefits of controlling your thoughts include the following:

  According to author Ernest Holmes: “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.”

  George Matthew Adams, author and advertising executive, said: “Everyone knows that weeds eat out the life of a garden and of the productive fields. The gardener and farmer alike each has to keep the weeding process alive. It’s like that in the building and developing of character. No one knows our own faults and tendencies better than we do ourselves, so that it is up to each one of us to keep the weeds out, and to keep all growth vigorous and fruitful.”

  To quote Grenville Kleiser once again: “Just as you are unconsciously influenced by outside advertisement, announcement, and appeal, so you can vitally influence your life from within by autosuggestion. The first thing each morning, and the last thing each night, suggest to yourself specific ideas that you wish to embody in your character and personality. Address such suggestions to yourself, silently or aloud, until they are deeply impressed upon your mind.”

  College president James Allen believed that “our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter toward him.”

  Thomas Dreier, author and editor, visualized the art of thinking in these terms: “Before a painter puts a brush to his canvas he sees his picture mentally. It is the mental concept that he externalizes with the help of paint and canvas. If you think of yourself in terms of a painting, what do you see? How do you appear to yourself? Is the picture one you think worth painting? You are what you think you are. You create yourself in the image you hold in your mind. What you are advertises what you think.”

  Charles Darwin, the great naturalist, stated that “the highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.”

  And George Matthew Adams once more: “We can accomplish almost anything within our ability if we but think that we can. Every great achievement in this world was first carefully thought out…. Think—but to a purpose. Think constructively. Think as you read. Think as you listen. Think as you travel and your eyes reveal new situations. Think as you work daily at your desk, or in the field, or while strolling. Think to raise and improve your place in life. There can be no advancement or success without serious thought.”

  In the opinion of John Homer Miller, college president and author of many inspirational books: “Your life is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. Circumstances and situations do color life but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be.”

  Finally, these thoughts by two famous Americans: Washington Irving: “Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not spill thy soul in running hither and yon, grieving over the mistakes and vices of others. The one person whom it is most necessary to reform is yourself.”

  The message is clear. If properly conceived and executed, thought control becomes positive thought control, which in turn results in effective action.

  Controlling our thoughts, rather than being controlled by them, is a key element on the road to success and happiness.

  What are the valuable lessons we have learned in Step 14?

  Do not think of “thought control” as a repressive tool out of George Orwell’s 1984. Rather, think of it as a positive force that will leave your mind clearer, more directed, and more effective.

  Remember that you are what you think. If you think well of yourself, others will think well of you. Your mind creates the environment in which you live and function.

  Practice the “crowding-out” method by filling your mind with good and productive thoughts. Soon there will be no room left for the bad ones.

  The moment you wake up in the morning set your thought pattern for the day. Think of five things for which you are deeply grateful and keep them in your mind.

  We learned in Step 10 that we can be master of time and not its slave. Now, in Step 14, it is clear that we can also be master of our thoughts, directing them along channels that will lead us to a happy and successful life.

  STEP 15

  LOVING AS THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT

  “THE BIBLE SPEAKS often about the meaning of love,” John Templeton says. “In the Sermon on the Mount, we are told to love our enemies. We are told to love those who hate us. We are told to turn the other cheek. Some people scoff at this advice and call it impractical. But, in fact, it’s extremely practical. There is really no other way to lead a truly successful life.

  “After all, it’s not so hard to love those who love you. Even sinners are capable of that. And it’s easy to give to those who give to us. The Bible doesn’t applaud us for that. But if we can give and expect nothing in return, if we can learn to love our enemies, if we can be merciful even as our father is merciful, we will be true sons of the most high.

  “’Judge not,’ it says in Matthew (7:2), ‘that you be not judged.’ Condemn not and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

  John Templeton also stresses that it is important to love ourselves. By being able to experience self-love, we can love others more completely. All successful people radiate self-love as well as love for others. Remember that Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). But he did not say that you must love your neighbor and not yourself. In order to become a clear channel for the unlimited love of God to travel through you and spread to all his other children, you must first love yourself.

  To succeed in your career, you must love yourself. You also must love yourself before you can give love to others.

  One of the laws of life states that by expressing love, you attract love. John Templeton has written that “love given multiplies while love hoarded shrinks.” God is the source of all love, and if we open ourselves to receive his love, then we are able to radiate it to other people every day.

  Ninety-nine percent of the people you meet have good motives and mean well. You must be sufficiently imaginative and sympathetic to see through a crust of self-consciousness and fear to the inner person. There is goodness there waiting to be released.

  Happiness and harmony will enter your life if you form the habit of always blessing and praying for your opponent. Try to visualize your opponent as a needy person, starved for affection and understanding.

  To quote Ordway Tead, author of many books on management and education: “More and more clearly every day, out of biology, anthropology, sociology, history, economic analysis, psychological insight, plain human decency, and common sense, the necessary mandate of survival that we shall love all our neighbors as we do ourselves is being confirmed and reaffirmed.”

  The fifth winner of the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion was Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement. When Chiara was a young teacher, she read in the Bible that Jesus commands us to love all others, including the unlovable, with his degree of passion. She realized that she had not yet met the test.

  She then assembled a group of young people and they discussed how they could learn to love as Jesus loved. Their discussions were successful. Chiara and the others began to express a much deeper form of love. The movement she founded is called Focolare, from the Italian word meaning “fireplace,” named that because her followers
radiate love just as a fireplace radiates heat.

  All of those connected with the Focolare movement live ordinary lives as employees of companies or members of secular societies and organizations. So, in that sense, they are so low-profile as to be nearly invisible to the casual observer. But to the people who are in contact with them every day, they are likely to be a breath of fresh air in a stuffy office, or an energizing influence in an otherwise drab environment.

  The purpose of the Focolare movement is to promote the unity of all peoples and unity between generations. By the witness of their experience of living the gospel, and through songs, mime, and dance, they launch the message of the gospel with exceptional results. Working together with help from all over the world, the Focolarini built a town for the Bangwa tribe in the Cameroon in the late 1970s, complete with a hospital, schools, an electric generator, and small industries.

  The key thing about the most effective Focolare adherents is that they have caught part of Chiara Lubich’s original fire, which began to burn at those spiritual “fireplaces” in the bomb shelters of Trent, Italy, during the Second World War, when Chiara was a young woman. They have learned how to love—how to love all people, black and white, rich and poor—how to love with Jesus’ passion.

  The main lesson from Chiara and her Focolare movement is essentially the same as Jesus’ double-edged message in the Sermon on the Mount: It is important not to practice your piety before others and, in effect, sound a fanfare each time you go to worship or perform a good deed. But, at the same time, it’s essential not to hide the light of your faith under a bushel so that no one knows the direction from whence it came.