This week, I’ve been working through Part 13 of The Master Key System by Charles Haanel while continuing my daily reading of Scroll III from The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino — the powerful declaration:
“I will persist until I succeed.”
As part of my practice, I crafted a SIT (Silent, Introspective Thought) statement that felt deeply aligned with what both teachings are helping me embody:
“My developments are circling back to me fully and lawfully; everything is moving into place for this outcome.”
When I meditate on this, a childhood memory surfaces with clarity and symbolism.
We had a cat that caught a bird. The bird was still alive, and as children we were upset. My father intervened and managed to free the bird from the cat’s mouth. The bird flew upward — free. But then something surprising happened. The bird circled back, and flew directly into the cat’s mouth again. The cat hadn’t moved, hadn’t chased, hadn’t fought. It simply received.
And that’s when it struck me:
What is truly mine cannot be taken from me. Even when it appears to have flown away.
The Master Key Connection
In Part 13, Haanel emphasizes that results follow naturally and lawfully from thought, intention, and belief:
“Spiritual power depends upon use; use determines its existence. You have already learned that thought is the only reality, conditions are but the outward manifestations; as the thought changes, all outward or material conditions must change in order to be in harmony with their creator, which is thought.”
(Part 13, Paragraph 11)
This idea — that everything is “moving into place” — isn’t just hopeful thinking. It’s lawful.
Haanel continues:
“The difficulty is that we are too anxious; we manifest anxiety, fear, distress; we want to do something; we want to help; we are like a child who has just planted a seed and every fifteen minutes goes and stirs up the earth to see if it is growing.”
(Part 13, Paragraph 15)
Reading this, I realize: I don’t need to stir up the earth. I don’t need to chase my outcomes like the bird in the sky.
I need to remain grounded in certainty, like the cat who simply waited and received.
The Og Mandino Connection
While Haanel speaks to universal law, Og Mandino speaks to personal resolve.
Scroll III of The Greatest Salesman in the World repeats the declaration:
“I will persist until I succeed.”
But what’s important is that Mandino isn’t advocating blind force or relentless effort. He’s teaching a form of gentle, faithful persistence.
“I will ignore obstacles at my feet and keep mine eyes on the goals above my head, for I know where dry desert ends, green grass grows.”
(Scroll III)To me, this is exactly the persistence the cat demonstrated. Not frantic effort. Not attachment. Just consistent readiness. Faith that the return would happen — and it did.
Embodying the Teaching
The memory of the bird and the cat has become a personal symbol. It reminds me that:
- What belongs to me will return, fully and lawfully.
- I don’t need to force or chase. I must persist in my inner certainty.
- I trust the law is working, even if I can’t see it.
- I remain receptive, grounded, and aligned.
When I enter my SIT, I visualize that moment — the bird returning, the cat receiving. I don’t explain the story. I just feel the energy of the return.
And I remind myself:
“My developments are circling back to me fully and lawfully. Everything is moving into place for this outcome.”
I persist. I trust. I receive.
On Reflection
This week has taught me that true persistence isn’t aggressive.
It’s still. It’s certain. It’s rooted in the natural law that as I think, so shall it be.
“I will persist until I succeed.”
And success, it seems, already knows its way back to me.
