Customer Reviews

The Power of Concentration

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Why a book on concentration? Well, there are countless self-help books which just encourage you to pursue your desires, some of them with specific advices in some domains. However, the basis of all this is your innate power - and such books try to make you aware and get you to DO instead of thinking about it. This book isn't different in this regard, however, what is different is the explanation that the power to pursue your ideals comes from the power of concentration, for such pursue is the focusing of your bodily, emotional and mental abilities on doing that, a concentration power which can, needs and should be awakened through training. Concentration is of utmost importance, for without it becomes difficult to follow what such other books teach. This is an important lesson - master your mind and all the world is yours, and the way to get there is to train it. My comment - this is after all the purpose of such practices as yoga - mind control, your own mind, this is all that matters.
Most of this book deals with aspects on how concentration could help you every way of life, why you should do it, you are encouraged to go ahead, pursue your desires, enhance and strenghen your mind. Once you have made that decision, you will start to control your life, and maybe other people when you become skillfull enough. Opportunities don't come to us, we must seek them, not give up. The second part provides practical exercises on getting there gradually.

Books are good only to awaken you, to make you aware of your innate power. Look for good things, for you will get back what you offer. Positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, reverse is also true. My comment: this seems to be same as the Karmic law in Asian spiritual traditions.
If you want something, just go ahead and do it, for this is the only way to get it done, no one will help you until you start helping yourself. The greater the task, the greater your reward will be. The men that suceed don't have more talent, they have more will to pursue. Is your manager better than you? Do not give up; obstacles that can be here today, might not be here tomorrow, or some that aren't today will appear next month; but just keep on doing, and you will succeed. For sure, being afraid of obstacles is much more overwhelming than fighting them somehow, for the greatest thing to fear is fear.
Everyone is capable of some concentration, for without it wou would be unable to say or do anything - what is different is the duration of the concentration on some subject or thought. Don't take anyone's opinions about what you can do (by perservering) as granted - they don't know what you can do. The truth is, you don't know what you can do until you try it. When you say "I can't do it", you actually say "I won't try".

Will power is a better asset than money (this is an important lesson). The mind that cannot concentrate is weak; same for the mind which cannot draw itself from a subject or thought (e.g. thinking about work issues at home). Slowness in making decisions (this is me!!!) means weakness of will power.
When you eat, concentrate on eating, when you walk, concentrate on your walk, when you listen to music, concentrate on music, etc. Master all your daily minor activities, so that you are prepared and able to master your demeanor when important things happen in your life.
Control your body movements, for everything you do is controlled by your mind - before you move your arm, you think about it with your mind (focus a part of your mind on that thought). Learn to listen, not talk - listening is more difficult to master and much more rewarding. Control your talking, use it wisely, because it consumes some of your mental energy, which could be used toward accomplishing your ideal. My comment: there is a similar concept in Tibetan tradition, where "energy" and "speech" share the same word. Those that are impulsive, excited, or very emotional waste their mental energy. Everyone has the same power, but those who focus it on one or a very limited number of subjects are able to accomplish much more. Successful people don't do many things, but instead focus on only some - read their biographies. Try to cultivate friendship of people with character, at least until you are strong enough to not be influenced by others.
It is just as easy to surround your life with what you want as it is with what you don't want - it is to be decided by your will. What you have today is the result of what your will decided in the past. What you will have in the future depends on what you think and do now. Sure, it won't be an easy trip, but if you are confident and pursue it you will succeed.

Dumont talks about the benefits of powerful concentration in all walks of life: gives mental poise, can overcome bad habits (concentrating on its opposite), gets business results, provides the courage to do, gives you wealth and so on.

The second part of the book - the exercises - disappointed me somewhat. Maybe this means I didn't learn the lesson - answer is not reading more doing (cultivating the intellect), but doing exercises, cultivating the will, and pursuing my ideals. Still, there are probably enough exercises, ranging from controlling your body, your movements, going to focusing on some subjects. However, in my opinion they aren't that gradual, and actually he doesn't suggest a plan, and this is exactly where such book would have been more helpful. The book was published in 1913, and in this age, people need exact strategies.

Overall, this is a helpful book, and it has some interesting ideas, that's why I give it four stars (I wanted to give it three, for what I've explained just before). I would say the "why" part is much bigger than the "how" part, he actually says that you could make up your own concentration exercises and do something. This is an rather old book, so AFAIK it has no copyright, thus you can find it on the web.

One more thing: he says that in order to summarize books or articles in very few words, you need power of concentration. As you can see from the length of my reviews so far, I'm just a beginner :). Good luck with the concentration exercises.

You all know times when you've thought of a great idea that you abandoned after you allowed negative thoughts to tear it to shreds. Or perhaps you began an important task but didn't complete it because you just couldn't keep focused. Maybe you've found it difficult succeeding in business or advancing in your career because of indecision, timidity, or lack of mental poise.

Dumont writes that the three reasons you cannot concentrate are 1) Deficiency of the motor centers; 2) An impulsive and emotional mind; and 3) An untrained mind. He teaches why concentration is so important and provides several exercises in improving concentration and will power.

"Success is assured when you are able to concentrate for you are then able to utilize for your good all constructive thoughts and shut out all destructive ones. It is of the greatest value to be able to think only that which will be beneficial."

The chapters are:

1. Concentration Finds the Way
2. The Self-Mastery: Self-Directing Power of Concentration
3. How to Gain what You Want through Concentration
4. Concentration: The Silent Force that Produces Results in All Business
5. How Concentrated Thought Links All Humanity Together
6. The Training of the Will to Do
7. The Concentrated Mental Demand
8. Concentration Gives Mental Poise
9. Concentration Can Overcome Bad Habits
10. Business Results Gained through Concentration
11. Concentrate on Courage
12. Concentrate on Wealth
13. You Can Concentrate, But Will You?
14. Art of Concentrating with Practical Exercise
15. Concentrate So You Will Not Forget
16. How Concentration Can Fulfill Your Desire
17. Ideals Develop by Concentration
18. Mental Control Through Concentration
19. Concentrated Will Development
20. Concentration Reviewed

After reading this book I could not help but identify a large number of similarities between it and the best selling phonom 'The Secret'. In short this book tells us that the power to do well and take control of our lives resides in our ability to properly focus our mental facilties and identifying our own shortcomings and then make a concious effort to deafeat them via sustained mental effort. While this may seem inate, it is a simple principal that is often difficult for people to apply to there own lives. In general this is a very good text which I believe is the precursor to the best selling 'The Secret'. Inspirational and satisfyling.

I bought this book in the hope that it would offer hands-on techniques to improve my concentration. What I got was a book full of platitudes that are either obvious or of very dubious quality. It reads like something a self published author puts out via a vanity press: preachy, not very well written, and containing very little of any value, at least to me. I was going to add this to my pile of books to give away, but that seems unfair to the recipient, so in the trash it goes. Sigh. Bottom line: before you buy, look through the version that allows you to read parts of the book first! I wish I had.

This book was very useful however I was not a fan of it's writing style. Sporadic comments that didn't seem to "flow" It was like a pep talk sort of say.

The book was only 64 pages however it contained useful exercises to practice in the future.

In summary this book explains the benefits concentration has and how it'll materialize desires in the future.

Concentration is the ability to shut out all irrelevant thoughts, noises and activities. Ability to concentrate is a key to being successful in just about any task. So when I saw this book I was immediately interested.

The book promises to improve concentration if one follows exercises in the book. The book is divided in 20 lessons.

INTRODUCTION.
LESSON 1. CONCENTRATION FINDS THE WAY.
This chapter can be summarized as "Do not let a setback stop you."

LESSON 2. THE SELF-MASTERY. SELF-DIRECTION POWER OF CONCENTRATION.
The main lesson in this chapter is not to get excited or irritable. Speak slowly and deliberately.
This is very relevant for me as I am about to do a major presentation. I have to remember to slow down.

LESSON 3. HOW TO GAIN WHAT YOU WANT THROUGH CONCENTRATION.
This lesson teaches you that in order to succeed in something you need to believe you can accomplish it. If you doubt yourself you are more likely to fail.

LESSON 4. CONCENTRATION, THE SILENT FORCE THAT PRODUCES RESULTS IN ALL BUSINESS.
This chapter had an interesting premise that I am going to try. Te author says that speech interferes with the focusing of the mind, and thus in order to speak well one has to practice in silence.

LESSON 5. HOW CONCENTRATED THOUGHT LINKS ALL HUMANITY TOGETHER.
This chapter is about conquering fear. The author suggests that saying out loud that you are not afraid will diminish the fear.

LESSON 6. THE TRAINING OF THE WILL TO DO.
This chapter is about will power and some exercises that let you exercise it.

LESSON 7. THE CONCENTRATED MENTAL DEMAND.
This chapter is about mental power of perseverance. Developing it is the first element of success.

LESSON 8. CONCENTRATION GIVES MENTAL POISE.
This chapter teaches not to be so absorb in one thought that other things go unnoticed (e.g. work life balance). Concentration is paying attention to the thought of your choosing. And you should have ability to change what your choose.

LESSON 9. CONCENTRATION CAN OVERCOME BAD HABITS.
This chapter gives you control over your bad habits. You can break any habit by strong concentration on its opposite.

LESSON 10. BUSINESS RESULTS GAINED THROUGH CONCENTRATION.
The bottom line lesson here is that you need to plan each day's activities carefully and make sure everything you do is related to achieving the set goals. Don't waste energy and time on unrelated activities.

LESSON 11. CONCENTRATE ON COURAGE.
What is being courageous? It is the will to do the right thing.

LESSON 12. CONCENTRATE ON WEALTH.
Wealth is usually the fruit of achievement. Thousands of persons work hard who never grow wealthy. Because just beingindustrious is often not enough. One needs foresight and good judgement in addition to working hard. This chapter does not tell you how to get wealthy, but it does tell you what you need to avoid if you want to get there.

LESSON 13. YOU CAN CONCENTRATE, BUT WILL YOU?
The bottom line of this lesson that you are in control. We must make things happen and not expect them to shape themselves.

LESSON 14. ART OF CONCENTRATING WITH PRACTICAL EXERCISE.
19 specific exercises to improve your concentration. Can you hold your thought on one thing for 10 minutes?

LESSON 15. CONCENTRATE SO YOU WILL NOT FORGET.
This chapter gives useful tips about mental reminders that can help you remember things.

LESSON 16. HOW CONCENTRATION CAN FULFIL YOUR DESIRE.
Believe in yourself and work hard is the lesson from this chapter.

LESSON 17. IDEALS DEVELOP BY CONCENTRATION.
You choose your own ideals, you can be happy every step of the way or miserable. Your choice.

LESSON 18. MENTAL CONTROL THROUGH CREATION.
This chapter is a lesson on leadership. All great leaders must be able to inspire co-operative spirit. Author offers tips on leadership.

LESSON 19. A CONCENTRATED WILL DEVELOPMENT.
Several exercises on developing will are given.

LESSON 20. CONCENTRATION REVIEWED.
The author closes with a call to practice what we learned in this book. Concentrate on what you do, instead of performing most of your work automatically. Form good habits, and concentration will become easier.


This book was originally written in 1918, and republished in 2011. The original publication date is not included in the latest publication and the old fashioned phraseology made me double check the publication date. Despite the language I found the book useful and insightful. I learned something I can apply in every day life, and that's the reason I recommend this book to others.

Ali Julia review

Concentration is the key to success in all aspects of life. This book is a practicle guide for increasing your power to concentrate.