Creative Mind and Success: Part I: Action

This is a short motivational/self-help essay from 1919, written in the New Thought tradition — a movement that held that mind and divine intelligence are the source of all reality and that right thinking produces material success. Holmes argues that outward activity is the necessary expression of inner mental alertness: a business succeeds not through strain or worry, but because the proprietor's confident, active mindset manifests visibly in movement and energy, which customers instinctively sense and are drawn to. The central claim is that thought and physical action are inseparable — an inactive body always betrays an inactive mind — and that aligning oneself with what Holmes calls "the Law" (a universal, infallible intelligence) makes one's efforts certain rather than anxious. Practically, Holmes urges constant novelty and movement: rearrange your store's goods, change routines, avoid ruts, because stagnation closes the mind to new ideas. The essay is notably optimistic and anti-anxiety in tone, explicitly rejecting doubt and fear as obstacles, framing commercial success as a spiritual cooperation with an infinite Power rather than a product of personal willpower alone. Someone deciding whether to read it should know it is brief, prescriptive, and light on argument — more exhortation than analysis, aimed at small business owners and clerks seeking both practical uplift and a metaphysical framework for prosperity.

Creative Mind and Success: Part I: Action

Related pages View as graph →