To work on oneself from the conviction of sin puts the Work into negative parts of centers, and to work in a negative way can lead to a worse state of oneself than not to work at all. Some tend to take the Work in this heavy way. But no one can fathom the delight people take in making themselves miserable and in enjoying their negative states.

To become No. 5 or 6 or 7 Man or Woman, you must first become No. 4 Man or Woman—that is, Balanced Man or Woman, one in whom all your centers work rightly—Intellectual, Emotional, Instinctive-Moving. Now to become balanced you must begin to notice what center in you predominates and interferes with the proper development of your other centers.

In making decisions in the Work the mind must be free from its bondage to mechanical attitudes. Otherwise you will make decisions always from your Personality, from what you have been taught as being right and wrong. This freeing of the mind only begins when you let the Work enter into your mind and so change your mind.

All real effort—that is, intelligent effort— is about developing the undeveloped sides of ourselves. Each of us has a machine that is only developed to a small extent on one side of itself. All intelligent Work-effort is about developing all the sides of the machine to which we are connected and bringing it to a right state of working.

Aim can come from right or wrong places in us. Aim may be right and come from a wrong place, and aim may be wrong and yet come from a right place. In order to understand what this means, we have to turn back to centers and parts of centers and also speak a little about Attention once more.