Act as if Failure Impossible

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 277, 23 November 1936, Page 10

Act as if Failure Impossible

B l " ,r h "" k - ai|, i i-kc Dorothea Braude develops lit j theory that people fail in life Levans they have not lhe w ill to sm reed - ii deed, they have the will to fail. “Some months ago,” she asserts, “ was asked to lecture to a group < booksellers, and the subject which wa tentatively given me was ‘The Diflicu ties of Becoming a Writer.’. . . “The conclusions I came to are i this book: that we are victims to a Wi tu Fail; that unless we see this in tini ami take action against it, we die wit I out accomplishing our intentions; thu there is a way of counteracting tha Will which gives results that seem Jik magic. 1 gave my lecture. What w: really startling to me was to see how was received. Until the notes, 11 I letters, the telephone calls began 1 I conic in, I had thought the report c how one person overcame a dilomni might interest many of the audienc mildly and help two or three hearei who found themselves in somewhat th same plight. But it seemed that in audience, almost to a man, was in 11 1 state I had described, that they a were looking for help to get out uf i I gave the lecture twice more; tl results were the same.” In “Wake up and Live!” she pr< claims her scheme. “We have,” tl: author insists, “as the first tenet ( success: Art as it it were impossibl . >• .7 ~ •.. r . oyr-r .

110 fail. Beginning i<> pul this int| practice, vw discover that, the first d«ii and upon us is that we should reclniin |<;s mii' h as possible ol lhe energy which l I now goes into reverie or into lime kil.** • ing, and devote it to purposcfii mtivily, to aHion tovvard-an-eiui. j “We act by ignoring all memories <4 apprehensions of failure, by refusing i| J attach importance Io temporary disconv fort or past pain. We learn not . court frustration by using an attitudl (•r tone which leaves any opportunty !<<• icl'iiir or non-co-operation. We exercisf our minds in I rial performances .i • order to have them fully under our tort 5 trol when the occasion to use them H (, an expert way arises. With th • imagination we painlessly explore i the possible reaches of our lives, an* ’.constantly provide ourselves wit* prospects of future interests to such a< • extent that we shall not fall back inti day-dreaming. We deliberately maU for ourselves an invigorating mein< - climate, ami in this atmosphere, free< i of doubts and anxieties, we so t.” I j There are many men writers wM . have tackled this problem of • Dorothea Brando has no doubts übou her formula., becausp she started witU • I herself. {She records her own experii fences and those of others whom she hag persuaded to adopt her advice ani “Wake Up and Live!”