In the latter half of the 1800s, when the telegraph was still "high tech," a young man in Baltimore, Maryland, woke up one summer morning giddy with excitement. In fact, it had taken him half the night to get to sleep at all.

Today was the day he'd apply for his first job! But what was really exciting was that, if he were lucky enough to be chosen for the position, he'd actually be getting PAID for something that absolutely enthralled him. He'd be a real, bona fide telegraph operator!

His mind was so filled with wonderful pictures of himself sending and receiving important messages, communicating with people miles away— even clear across the country — that the possibility of NOT getting the job couldn't get a foot in the door.

He didn't even mind wearing a stiff collar and tie. After all, this was an important job, and he liked the idea of looking the part. Giving his shoes one last buffing, he dashed out the door and raced downtown to the telegraph office.

Inside, the office was already bustling with activity and noise, including the sound of the telegraph clattering away in the background. Several other applicants were seated in the waiting area, hunched over paperwork. Our young man saw a stack of job applications with a sign instructing candidates to take one, fill it out, and then wait to be called into the Director's office for an interview. So he eagerly grabbed one and sat down.

The form itself took only a few minutes to complete, and as he finished and started to look around at the other job hopefuls in the room ...

... the young man suddenly jumped from his chair and with his paperwork in hand, marched over to the Director's office door and went right in without even knocking!

"Did you see that?" one of the other jobseekers snorted. "We're supposed to wait until we're called, and that rube barges in like he owns the place."

"Yeah, that's some nerve, but it just cuts down the competition," said another, and they all laughed.

Moments later the laughter and comments stopped as the Director's door opened and both he and the beaming young man came out into the waiting area.

"Gentlemen," the Director said, "thank you for coming, and I wish you all well. The job has been filled."

Stunned into silence, no one said anything for a moment. Then, the fellow who had started the derisive comments sputtered, "Now wait a minute. This isn't fair! We were here first but we never even got a chance, and he gets the job just like that?"

The others grumbled in agreement, but the Director put up his hand. "Here's the thing," he said.

"All this time you were sitting here, the telegraph has been clicking away, saying: 'If you can understand this, come on into the office right now. You've got the job.'

As he clapped his hand on the young man's shoulder, he smiled broadly and said, "This young fellow was the only one of you who heard or understood the message."

Why did this young man alone
hear and understand the message?

Listen to what Scottish psychologist R. D. Laing had to say on this subject:

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change -- until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."

You'll probably need to read that a couple of times. (I sure did!) Then just let it sink in a bit.

Now, wouldn't it be great if you could just put on a special pair of glasses that would magically cause all the opportunities that come your way every single day to stand out from all the background "noise?" To jump into sharp relief against what Mr. Wattles calls "mere appearances" so that you could notice them?

Just imagine that for a minute. Everything looks normal one moment— all the everyday hassles, the BIG problems, the regular stresses and frustrations, and so on. Life going on all around, as usual.

And then you put on your magic specs (which, by the way, are extremely cool and you look fabulous in them!), and — wow! — the entire world looks SO different!

Suddenly you see connections you hadn't noticed before. Suddenly what previously looked like a HUGE problem you were trying to put off dealing with has magically morphed into a lucky break.

And people look different, too — even some of the grumpy, disagreeable ones are starting to shape up.

Yeah, wouldn't it be great if you could do that?

Well, you can!

And you don't need magic glasses any more than the young man in our story above needed a special hearing aid.

Why did he, and he alone, hear opportunity knocking?

• It couldn't be because he was the only one interested in the job. There were other applicants sitting there with him.
• It couldn't be because he was the only one who knew Morse code. After all, it was a telegrapher's job they were after.
• It couldn't be because he was more experienced. This was his first job.
• And it wasn't for any of those other reasons Mr. Wattles tells us don't really matter (right there in Chapter 2).

Have you figured out why our hero heard the message? Well, here's a clue from Mr. Wattles in The Science of Getting Rich:

"Contemplate your picture in your leisure hours until your consciousness is so full of it that you can grasp it instantly. You will become so enthused with its bright promises that the mere thought of it will call forth the strongest energies of your whole being."

Bingo! There it is!

His mind was so filled with his clear mental image of himself as a telegraph operator that he could see, hear, smell, and taste that "image." He really wanted it and could vividly imagine himself having it. It was REAL to him — as real as if it were already true.

And it called forth the strongest energies of his whole being. It allowed him to hear what others couldn't.

When your mind is so focused in this way, you are STRONGLY impressing your image on the Formless and causing that image to move toward you, to move into physical reality. You become so attuned that your senses are heightened and your awareness expands. You can see and hear and notice things that totally escaped you before.

Your brain's special 'pay attention to this!' system

Did you know your brain even has a special area that handles this whole area of "noticing?" It's called the Reticular Activating System (RAS), and part of what it does is cause you to notice things that were ALWAYS there before unnoticed until you somehow clue it in about what to start noticing.

For example, did you ever get a new car (or even just think a LOT about getting one) and then it suddenly seemed that EVERYONE must have just bought one? Suddenly, that very same model — even the same color — is showing up EVERYWHERE?

That's the RAS at work.

It's filtering all the zillions of messages your five senses are constantly passing along and deciding which ones are important — important enough for you to consciously notice. (It's determining also what goes into your subconscious mind where the belief system that runs your life is built.) And one way you "program" your RAS to send up a "hey, look at this!" signal is by what you focus on by CHOICE.

It's what we're referring to when we say that what you see around you depends on what you're looking for — in experiences, circumstances, in other people, and on and on. And it works just as well when you put your focus, faith, and feeling on what you do NOT want, too. It's totally neutral, and it's on the job in your every waking moment.

With a new car, of course, the novelty wears off fairly soon, your interest fades, and so the RAS stops signalling you to notice all the lime green Volkswagen Beetle convertibles whizzing by.

But when you follow Mr. Wattles' advice, you're giving the RAS steady instructions to keep its radar going. And the result is like wearing those magic glasses:

"Imagine an environment and a financial condition exactly as you want them, and live all the time in that mental environment and financial condition until they take physical shape.

"See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time. See yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you will use them when they are your tangible possessions.

"Dwell upon your mental picture until it is clear and distinct, and then take the mental attitude of ownership toward everything in that picture. Take possession of it, in mind, in the full faith that it is actually yours. Hold to this mental ownership. Do not waiver for an instant in the faith that it is real."

When you do this, when you enthusiastically and steadily hold your vision — like the young man in our story — you'll be amazed at what you start to notice and astonished at how you seem to hear and see wonderful opportunities where others do not!

---