Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
The Law of Thinking
Replace random, chaotic, fearful thinking with organized, disciplined, goal-directed thought: define a clear aim, hold it continuously, weed out the contrary thoughts, and plan each day so something definite advances toward it.
Law of Thinking in brief: Stop thinking at random. Set one clear aim, hold it continuously, and plan each day so something definite moves toward it (give chatter a fixed time). When a fear/lack/disease thought appears, don’t fight it — replace it with its opposite and starve the old one of attention. Single-point your desire, persist through slips, keep your eye on the top. Be a builder, not a drifter.
What it is
The opening law of Working with the Law is the Law of Thinking: “We attract only what we think or create.” Its practical teaching is not vague positivity but mental discipline and order.
Holliwell’s diagnosis is that “the average person thinks at random; he has no clear design in his mind,” and that “most of his thinking is beyond control, chaotic, and unorganized” — which is “why disappointment and failure are always near.” His model is Nature (“Nature has no problems because she is orderly and disciplined”) and the hunting lion that “stalks his meal” quietly and deliberately rather than roaring at random.
The method, therefore, is to take your thinking off autopilot and organize it around a defined aim — and to weed out the contrary thoughts (fear, lack, criticism) by deliberately replacing them, since “whatever we think in our minds must grow.”
The Method
Assembled faithfully from Holliwell’s “Law of Thinking” chapter:
- Set a well-defined aim. “Self-control consists of an organized thought direction; that is, we start out with a well defined aim or objective.” Decide exactly what you want — don’t think “at random” with “no clear design.”
- Think toward it continuously — not in occasional bursts. Holliwell’s recurring criticism is the woman who “thought thirty minutes’ silence would do it” and then drifted through her day. The instruction: “think toward it continuously, not just for thirty minutes.” Hold the aim through the day like the climber who “keeps his eye ever on the top.”
- Plan the day so something definite advances the aim. His clearest behavioural step: each day, outline your work mentally and “plan your time and work so that you fill your day so full of constructive duties that there is no room for idle chatter or waste.” Give conversations and interruptions “a definite time, not any length of time.” Be a builder, not a drifter. (His auto-executive example “planned more than the job required so he was always assured of reaching his goal.”)
- Weed out the contrary thought — by replacement, not by fighting it. When you notice a fear, lack, or disease thought, don’t wrestle the negative; substitute its opposite. “If it is fear, replace it with courage. If it is a disease thought, replace it with a healthy thought. If it is a limited thought, think thoughts of plenty.” Holliwell stresses you don’t work with two forces: as with building a fire, “we give our whole thought to those things which tend to create warmth,” and the cold (lack) “will become absorbed or disappear.”
- Refuse to feed what you don’t want. “As long as we allow things to seem real to us, we are putting our energy into it. feeding it. keeping it alive.” Stop dwelling on the obstacle or fear; starve it of attention so it “dies from lack of cultivation.”
- Single-point the desire. “All our thoughts must be directed to that one thing which we desire in order that our desire may be fulfilled.” Arrange your thoughts so they “work together as a single unit.”
- Persist through setbacks toward the top. Expect to “wind around,” “slip back a step or two,” even “fall” and “stop to rest” — but keep “thoughts collected and desire intent upon reaching the top,” and “he will eventually get there.” (Sourcing note: faithful paraphrase with short identifying phrases quoted; no extended passages reproduced.)
Source & Lineage
Dr. Raymond Holliwell (1900–1986), New Thought / Divine Science teacher; Working with the Law (1964). The chapter’s epigraph is Proverbs 23:7 (“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”) and quotes Dr.
John Murray (“We are according to our system of ideas”) and Emerson (“The key to every man is his thought”). The “ocean of thought stuff,” “like attracts like,” and thought-as-substance language descend from Prentice Mulford, Thomas Troward, Charles Haanel (The Master Key System — concentration and orderly thinking), Wallace Wattles, and James Allen (As a Man Thinketh).
The disciplined-attention/daily-planning emphasis prefigures Napoleon Hill’s “definiteness of purpose.”.
The Traditions' versions
Definite purpose / goal-setting (Hill; modern psychology) — a clear, written aim held daily.
- Concentration (Haanel, raja yoga) — training single-pointed attention.,
- Thought-substitution / cognitive reframing (CBT) — the secular, evidence-based version of “replace the weed thought.”
- Daily planning / time-blocking (productivity practice) — Holliwell’s “outline your work mentally each day.”
- As a Man Thinketh (James Allen) — the moral-mental gardening metaphor Holliwell reuses (weeds vs. flowers of the mind).
Common refinements
“Thirty minutes then drift.” Holliwell’s signature error: doing a focused session and then thinking at random all day. The aim must be held through the day and backed by a plan.
- Fighting the negative thought. Don’t wrestle fear or lack head-on; replace it. Direct fighting feeds it (“putting energy into it”).
- No defined aim. Without a clear, single objective, attention scatters; decide exactly what you want first.
- No daily plan. “Whatever comes along” lets housework/interruptions run you. Outline the day so something definite advances the goal.
- Expecting instant results. He explicitly says you build “step by step. stone by stone”; persistence through slips is part of the method.