Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Pushing Up the Faculty
Develop a specific talent or faculty by deliberately willing it into its highest, fullest action every time you use it — ‘will it with all there is in you’ — and by redirecting every stray feeling and desire into that effort.
Every time you use the faculty you want to develop, deliberately will it up to its highest action — apply it with all there is in you. Whenever you act, put your whole soul into it; that turns on the full current of the will, and the will grows. Don’t spend energy on idle desires — redirect every stray feeling and desire into the work (redirect, don’t suppress). Root the will deep so a stray remark can’t knock it off. Strong will is calm, deep, persistent — never domineering.
What it is
Larson’s method for developing a specific talent, and he singles it out as “by far the most important” function of the will, though “ignored.” His model: a faculty (musical ability, business sense, writing) does nothing until the will “wills it into action,” and the strength of that willing sets how fully the faculty performs.
“When a faculty is backed up with a powerful will, it easily doubles its capacity and efficiency… it is pushed up to a higher state of action.” So the practice is to will each faculty you use up to its highest point of efficiency every time you use it — what he calls “pushing up” the faculty — plus a constant redirection discipline: every stray feeling and desire is taken hold of by the will and turned into the work rather than wasted.
Crucially, Larson’s strong will is not force or strain: “a domineering will is weak… A strong will is deep, continuous, and persistent.”
The Method
- Will the faculty up while you use it. “Use the will consciously as frequently as possible in pushing up your faculties to the highest point of efficiency; that is, when you are applying those faculties that you employ in your work, try to will them into stronger and larger actions.” (For a talent: “if your will was so strong that you could push up your musical faculty to its very highest point… you would soon find yourself on the verge of musical genius.”)
- Will it with all there is in you. “Whenever you will to do anything, will it with all there is in you. If no other practice than this were taken, the power of the will would be doubled in a month.”
- Redirect every stray desire into the work. “When a certain desire comes up that you do not care to entertain, turn your attention at once upon some favourable desire, and give all the power of your will to that new desire… the average person wastes more than half of their energy entertaining desires… of no value.”
- Redirect feeling, don’t suppress it. “Do not give in to any feeling or desire until you succeed in directing that feeling or desire as you like. Feel only the way you want to feel, and then feel with all the feeling that is in you.” Take hold of whatever comes up “and direct it so as to produce even greater results.”
- Put your whole soul into every action. “Whenever you act, act with all there is in you. Make every action firm, strong, positive and determined… put your whole soul into everything that you feel, think or do” — this “turns on the full current of the will,” which is what makes it grow.
- Place the will deep, not on the surface. “Try to deepen every action of mind and thought… think and act with your deeper mental life.” A surface will is “easily thwarted by the suggestion of someone else”; a deeply-rooted will can’t be disturbed. Feel that it is the “I Am” exercising the will.
Source & Lineage
Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912), Chapter XII, “The Development of the Will.” (The same chapter diagnoses what weakens the will — alcohol, “psychical excess,” emotional excess, mental dependence, intemperance — which Larson says to avoid.) Christian D. Larson (1874-1962). → (larson christian d).
Common refinements
Mistaking force for strength. Larson: “a domineering will is weak.” Strain and white-knuckling burn out fast; aim for deep, calm, sustained application.
- Suppressing feeling. The method is redirect feeling into the work, not crush it — “feel only the way you want to feel, then feel with all the feeling that is in you.”
- Surface willing. Effort that’s easily knocked off by someone’s remark is shallow; root the intention deeply so it holds.
- Generic effort, no target faculty. Pick the specific faculty your work needs and push that one up each time you use it.
- Ignoring the drains. Larson is serious that intemperance and emotional excess undercut the will; the development side works better when the depleting habits are reduced.