03
Jan

Think Your New Year Into Being: The Legacy of Dr Forrest C Shaklee

A Gift of “Thoughtsmanship”

Have you ever written down your personal philosophy of life–the “rules” you live by?

If you’re like me, you’ve been too busy living to think much about the underpinnings of that living except at the beginning of each new year. New years and birthdays are a gift of time to reflect on how we’ve been living and what we’d like to improve in all areas of our lives. What’s newly possible in the work we do, the relationships we have, our health, our wealth, our service, our legacy? What’s working? What isn’t? Lots of us come up with resolutions after listening to wise ones who make sense to us, people whose philosophies sync with our own.

In 1993 the personal philosophy of Dr Forrest C Shaklee made a lot of sense to me. I had started using health products from the corporation he founded and was given a little booklet to read. His Thoughsmanship: 10 Rules for Happiness and Contentment starts this way. I immediately wanted to learn more:

“Daydreams are wonderful! They build castles in the air but there they stay, up in the air, until you build a thought foundation under them. Don’t think for one moment that your daydreams are beyond your power of accomplishment.” -Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee

A Thought Foundation Can Make Dreams Come True

I was astonished that he was encouraging daydreams. He used the word “castles” so I knew he was talking about wealth and noble living and adventure. He was even saying that MY daydreams were not beyond my “power of accomplishment” if I would simply build a thought foundation under them. I trusted that he knew what he was talking about because I saw all around me proof that his philosophy is working even though he is no longer living.

I was impressed by the integrity of the company he founded in 1956, by its massive effort to be in harmony with Nature and good health, and by the scientific underpinning of the products that started working in a major way for me and my family. Most impressive was that the people associated with the company on every level were clearly living by the Golden Rule and were happy and contented. I’d lived long enough to see that not all corporations operated that way. Certainly not all communities were as welcoming and supportive.

Join Me in Making Thoughtmanship Work for You

Because I was eager to add whatever his writing might suggest to my own thought foundation, I began steeping myself in his philosophy. I listened to audios, watched interviews of people who’d known him, read his biography, reflected on writings, and incorporated actionable guidelines into my own life. I even started my own home-based business in partnership with Shaklee Corporation, trusting that working within the context of the powerful Shaklee philosophy I would make my own daydreams come true.

In this blog I’ll be exploring his philosophy, the rules underpinning it, and its practical daily applications. In the meantime, you might want to watch the 1994 movie that was made about Dr Shaklee’s early life, a hundred years after he was born. Like contemporaries he met and talked with–Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone–he was a trailblazer in the mind mastery revolution chronicled by Napoleon Hill in his Think and Grow Rich. Dr. Shaklee made ample time to think, observe, form a philosophy, and apply it through both misfortune and success until it became a living legacy. Watch it here.