Leroy W. was born and raised in New York’s Harlem, where he worked as an engineer in its subway system. Five days a week, he took the subway to and from his work, which was three floors below the streets of the city. He hated spending his days underground and wished he could work in the very top of one of the city’s great skyscrapers.
A part of his train route was above ground, and he chose one of the tallest towers as his ideal place of employment because it reminded him of a castle in the sky.
Leroy had been thinking about his castle for some time but only in a kind of now-and-then fashion, for he didn’t know how to go about getting a job that he feared might be beyond his qualifications.
But one day something happened on the subway that put his mind in high gear. The person sitting next to him was reading a book that lay open on her lap, and Leroy noticed that the chapter was entitled “Dream Your Way To The Top.” This so excited his imagination that he felt the message was meant just for him.
Now he began to use every minute of his subway ride to concentrate on his dream. Besides the one hour, going and coming, his thoughts were occupied with his castle during his every free moment.
One day, as he was on his way to work, he noticed the newspaper of his seat companion was opened to the section of classified ads, and in clear view, he read, “Help Wanted, Engineer.”
Recognizing the address of his castle, Leroy’s heart almost jumped into his throat. As he tried to see the telephone number to call, the man hastily folded the paper, rushed toward the exit, and disappeared—but Leroy had seen the address.
Nervous and fearful that someone else might get “his job” before his lunch break, he dashed over to the building and asked an attendant where to find the office of the engineer. In a moment, Leroy was facing his hopeful new boss.
He explained that he was on his way to work and asked if the job could be held open until he returned during his lunch break. The engineer said he expected to interview at least several more applicants before making a decision.
Leroy went on to his job, his heart beating faster in fear that someone else might have higher qualifications and that he might not be the lucky man. His fears mounted throughout the morning; what if this, and what if that, raced through his mind.
At last, it was lunchtime, and Leroy dashed back to his castle in the sky. So great was his eagerness, and so clearly was his heart set on “his job,” that the engineer sensed that anything he might be lacking in experience he would surely acquire in a hurry.
Leroy pleaded his case, but the engineer held his ground, saying that he expected several other hopefuls and would let him know.
Returning to the underground tunnels of his work, Leroy was both excited and scared. Somehow it came to him that his best hope was to pretend that the job was already his and if he could believe it strongly enough, surely his dream would come true.
He decided at once to rise above his fears and pretend that he was happy. Yes, he would inwardly celebrate that it was he whom the engineer had selected, and he tried to sustain the feeling of his desire as already realized.
It was Leroy’s first effort at creative daydreaming, and he wasn’t quite sure that he was going about it right. All he knew was the chapter title “Dream Your Way To The Top”; there hadn’t been time for him to read the HOW.
He knew no other way than to follow his instincts. Every child knows how to daydream, he thought, so it must be instinctive. But assuming that adults were supposed to outgrow their childhood practices, he hadn’t daydreamed in years.
Yet there must be something to it, he decided, for it was written in a book. He would give it his best try, for this was his chance of a lifetime—to go from underground to the top of the city. “Yes,” he vowed, “I’m going to DREAM MY WAY TO THE TOP.”
Several days passed. It was not an easy task to stay above his fear and to be faithful to his assumption that the job was his.
In his mind, he worked in the new place. He imagined himself wearing the uniform of the engineering staff, he mentally rode the elevators basement to roof, he looked out over the great metropolis, and saw the international airport in the distance.
He spent all his free time doing in imagination all that he would be doing were his dream already realized. He carried on silent conversations, heard his boss compliment him on his good work. Twice a day on the subway he spent the hour imagining he was going and coming from his new job.
A few days later, he received a call from the head engineer asking him to return for a final interview. Leroy’s dream came true; not only was he employed in his castle in the sky, but he later succeeded to chief engineer when his boss retired.
To shorten the interval between desire and realization, we should make our “silent time” a real love affair with our project, that we may look forward to our next practice. Soon the effects of this “happy time” will carry over into longer periods of our day, until all we think and feel is established in the new conditions.
Yes, castles in the sky are accessible to each of us if we will build them on the firm foundation of living daily in their happy consequences.
Story from the book “The Magic of the Mind”.
