The exercise for the Week One of The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel is seemingly such easy exercise!

Yet, I’ve received countless emails asking questions about it.

Here is what Mr. Haanel wrote about the exercise.

Select a room where you can be alone and undisturbed. Sit erect, comfortably, but do not lounge. Let your thoughts roam where they will but be perfectly still for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Continue this for three or four days or for a week until you secure full control of your physical being.

Basically, you are to sit still for fifteen minutes.

Here are some tips that may answer questions you may be asking about how to do it properly. Follow this advice and you will be practicing it perfectly.

First, while you don’t need a “perfect” room or location, try to find a place that provides as much solitude as possible. I know that’s not possible for some people. Sometimes you have to make-do with what you have or what you can find.

Technically, this exercise can be practiced just about anywhere …

… sitting in a waiting room …

… on a bus …

… at work …

… on a plane …

… anywhere you have a place to sit and no one is bothering you.

It is best, though, if you have a place where you can return to regularly, especially as we get into the later exercises. You want the place to be comfortable to you.

If you have a little office space for yourself, that would be best.

If not, then make-do with what you have at your disposal.

This exercise (and all of the exercises in The Master Key System) are made to be done while you’re sitting. Don’t make the mistake of lying in bed or on a couch. Sit as Haanel described.

At the same time, you’re not to sit rigidly erect. Sit as you would if you were driving a car or sitting at a dinner table.

You will close your eyes as you practice this exercise. This will prevent you from blinking.

Avoid or refuse major movements, such as scratching your nose, shifting your weight, or unclasping your hands. When Haanel wrote to sit and remain “perfectly still,” he meant it.

That being the case, minor, uncontrollable movements are fine: breathing, small tics, perhaps a nose twitch. Don’t chastise yourself because your chest is moving with your breathing. It’s supposed to do that.

Keep your hands palm-down on your thighs as you sit. Intertwining your fingers will lead to them falling asleep and producing some pain.

Finally, don’t over-think this exercise (or any of the exercises, for that matter). They are all pretty straight-forward. Just follow the directions.

These exercises aren’t magical.

They’re not meditation.

You won’t see God or transmute lead into gold by doing these exercises.

Approach them like math homework problems.

Or working-out in a gym.

You do them so that you can increase your skills in math or to increase your physical health. Likewise, you’re doing these exercises to increase your skills in thinking …

… in focusing …

… in cutting through the noise of the world.

Approach them with that in mind and you’ll see true and impressive results.

Even with this seemingly simple first one.

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Sit. Then stand. Then click here because it’s what comes next.