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Week Eight is my favorite part of The Master Key System. Specifically, it’s the exercise for Week Eight that is my favorite. I hope that when I explain it and its place in the sequence of exercises that Haanel has outlined for us that this will also become one of your favorites as well. I am highly confident that I will show you that it is not only powerful within the “System,” but it is a powerful exercise to practice in and of itself.

Before we get into the exercise, let’s review some of the point that Haanel put forth this week. We are now one-third of the way through the book and things are really beginning to “heat up.” Many of Haanel‘s points are coming together and by now you should have a clear idea of what Haanel is instructing.

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but I think by now it should be obvious that the items I averred in the first episode of this Teleseminar series — focus, thinking correctly, solving problems, seeing things as they really are — to be the real points of The Master Key System rather than it being a manual or how-to primer on the Law of Attraction. Frankly, if you had any doubts about my views, what is contained in this week — both the points Haanel makes and the exercise — should put them to rest.

In Week Eight, Haanel continues to work with cultivating our imagination. In doing so, Haanel explained the difference between using one’s imagination and day dreaming. He wrote

Day dreaming is a form of mental dissipation, while imagination is a form of constructive thought that must precede every constructive action.

In building our mental images — visualization or using the “constructive imagination” — we are seeing the things we want: how we want our business to look, the end result toward which we are working, the solution to a problem, the effect we ultimately want.

Day dreaming entails none of that. It is entering a fantasy world that, for all practical purposes, cannot be. While sometimes the difference between the two are slight, they are differences based on the facts that one will eventually provide a blueprint for its attainment whilst the other will not.

That being said, I made a point during the call about day dreaming that I’d like to impart to you. To one degree or another, Haanel implied that day dreaming is bad: it’s wasteful, indulgent, and not a good thing to do.

I agree, but not totally. While working with some Master Key Coaching clients, I have found that a little daydreaming can be an effective way for a person to discover what it is they want to do as well as to put them in a “state” that encourages them to pursue a course of action (or stay on a course of action).

Regarding the latter, day dreaming, as we all well know, is relaxing and sometimes uplifting. Who doesn’t listen to a Rolling Stones‘ song and imagine themselves as Mick Jagger gyrating on the stage? (OK … Perhaps I’m the only one … :-P) Who doesn’t imagine themselves at times doing something ridiculously amazing — discovering the cure for cancer, being the ultimate titan of business, presenting a multi-million gift to the world — and receiving the adulations and praise that comes from it?

We all do at one time or another. It’s a human thing to do. It’s fun, relaxing, and at times it is energizing. It “pumps us up.”

It’s also dangerous. It is far too easy to get “trapped” in that fantasy world. Thus, instead of utilizing our constructive imagination — that “hard mental labor” to which Haanel often refers — we get seduced by the immediate gratification of our fantasy world. That is not a good thing. So we must note and know the difference and realize that day dreaming can be “addictive” to one degree or another and we must entertain those thoughts sparingly.

I’ve also used day dreaming to help Master Key Coaching clients discover their “passions” and help devise some courses of action they should follow. It works like this: When you day dream, in what fantasies do you often find yourself? Perhaps you can take those fantasies and with a little mental work, begin using your constructive imagination to bring perhaps an aspect of them into reality. You may not be a world-class singer or musician, but you can explore that path doing everything from local theater to management (working with the acts) to teaching. You might not become the titan of industry that you see yourself as in your day dream, but you can start a business — and it might even become a big one!

Use this method sparingly, though. If at all possible, use it only with the guidance of a Master Key Coach.

Now, why do we use the creative imagination? We’ve answered this in many ways before this, but Haanel wrote this week

The cultivation of the imagination leads to the development of the ideal out of which your future will emerge.

In other words, we’re seeing the end we want in order to make the plans to accomplish and attain it.

We do this because

The ideal held steadily in mind attracts the necessary conditions for its fulfillment.

As Haanel has written, our thoughts lead to actions that attract the people and circumstances that lead to the attainment of our goal — our vision.

We feed our constructive imagination with knowledge. We must be continually growing and learning. This is important because

Keen analytical observation leads to the development of imagination, insight, perception, and sagacity.

“Keen analytical observation” is looking at things logically, soundly, and with an eye to learning from them. That is what the exercise for this week is about. I am going to put here the exercise in full.

Last week you created a mental image—you brought it from the invisible into the visible. This week I want you to take an object and follow it back to its origination, see of what it really consists. If you do this you will develop imagination, insight, perception, and sagacity. These come not by the superficial observation of the multitude, but by a keen analytical observation which sees below the surface.

Take the same position as heretofore and visualize a Battleship. See the grim monster floating on the surface of the water; there appears to be no life anywhere about; all is silence; you know that by far the largest part of the vessel is under water; out of sight; you know that the ship is as large and as heavy as a twenty-story skyscraper; you know that there are hundreds of men ready to spring to their appointed task instantly; you know that every department is in charge of able, trained, skilled officials who have proven themselves competent to take charge of this marvelous piece of mechanism; you know that although it lies apparently oblivious to everything else, it has eyes which see everything for miles around, and nothing is permitted to escape its watchful vision; you know that while it appears quiet, submissive and innocent, it is prepared to hurl a steel projectile weighing thousands of pounds at an enemy many miles away; this and much more you can bring to mind with comparatively no effort whatever. But how did the battleship come to be where it is; how did it come into existence in the first place? All of this you want to know if you are a careful observer.

Follow the great steel plates through the foundries and see the thousands of men employed in their production. Go still further back and see the ore as it comes from the mine, see it loaded on barges or cars, see it melted and properly treated. Go back still further and see the architect and engineers who planned the vessel; let the thought carry you back still further in order to determine why they planned the vessel; you will see that you are now so far back that the vessel is something intangible, it no longer exists, it is now only a thought existing in the brain of the architect; but from where did the order come to plan the vessel? Probably from the Secretary of War; but probably this vessel was planned long before the war was thought of, and that Congress had to pass a bill appropriating the money; possibly there was opposition, and speeches for or against the bill. Whom do these Congressmen represent? They represent you and me, so that our line of thought begins with the Battleship and ends with ourselves, and we find in the last analysis that our own thought is responsible for this and many other things, of which we seldom think, and a little further reflection will develop the most important fact of all and that is, if someone had not discovered the law by which this tremendous mass of steel and iron could be made to float upon the water, instead of immediately going to the bottom, the battleship could not have come into existence at all.

This law is that, “the specific gravity of any substance is the weight of any volume of it, compared with an equal volume of water.” The discovery of this law revolutionized every kind of ocean travel, commerce, and warfare, and made the existence of the battleship possible.

You will find exercises of this kind invaluable. When the thought has been trained to look below the surface everything takes on a different appearance, the insignificant becomes significant, the uninteresting interesting; the things which we supposed to be of no importance are seen to be the only really vital things in existence.

Do you see what Haanel is doing here? Do you understand the significance? Do you see how powerful this exercise can be in your daily life? Do you see how it will open the doors of knowledge and understanding? Do you see how when done thoroughly and properly you will be able to see the world as it really is rather than seeing its shadow?

You can — and should! — use this exercise on everything that you see. Imagine the process by which your computer came into existence. How about your car? A book on your shelf? The pen you may be holding?

When you do this exercise, you are exploring the process of creation: from thought to form.

You can even do this on intangible things such as ideas and philosophies and mores.

This exercise is the reason why I often implore people to read more history books and biographies. One sees beyond the personas and rumors and sees the actual mechanisms and methods that brought the people, things, and events of history into existence.

When you listen to this week’s episode, you’ll have the opportunity to do an exercise I put forth in The Master Key Workbook that will help you to put to use this exercise immediately. Have your pen and paper ready!

You will gain knowledge from doing this exercise — real knowledge that you can put to work for you. Then, instead of walking through life relying on chance and happenstance, you’ll have “insight, perception, and sagacity.”

And those are powerful allies indeed.

Until next week, get for yourself the best of everything.