Belief, the "I'm-positive-I-can" attitude, generates the power, skill, and energy needed to do. When you believe I-can-do-it, the how-to-do-it develops.
DEVELOP THE POWER OF BELIEF
Think success, don't think failure. At work, in your home, substitute success thinking for failure thinking. When you face a difficult situation, think, "I'll win," not "I'll probably lose." When you compete with someone else, think, "I'm equal to the best," not "I'm outclassed." When opportunity appears, think "I can do it," never "I can't." Let the master thought "I will succeed" dominate your thinking process. Thinking success conditions your mind to create plans that produce success. Thinking failure does the exact opposite. Failure thinking conditions the mind to think other thoughts that produce failure.
Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a super-intellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn't based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never, yes, never--sell yourself short.
Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Big ideas and big plans are often no more difficult than small ideas and small plans.
CURE YOURSELF OF EXCUSITIS
Refuse to talk about your health.
Refuse to worry about your health.
Be genuinely grateful that your health is as good as it is.
Remind yourself often, "It's better to wear out than rust out."
BUILD CONFIDENCE AND DESTROY FEAR
Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear. Put the action principle to work. Next time you experience big fear or little fear, steady yourself. Then search for an answer to this question: What kind of action can I take to conquer my fear?
To think confidently, act confidently. Act the way you want to feel. Below are five confidence-building exercises.
Be a front seater.
Practice making eye contact.
Walk 25 percent faster.
Practice speaking up. Make it a rule to speak up at every open meeting you attend. Speak up, say something voluntarily at every business conference, committee meeting, community forum you attend. Make no exception. Comment, make a suggestion, ask a question. And don't be the last to speak. Try to be the icebreaker, the first one in with a comment.
Smile big.
HOW TO THINK BIG
Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others. To think big, we must use words and phrases that produce big, positive mental images.
Use big, positive, cheerful words and phrases to describe how you feel. When someone asks, "How do you feel today?" and you respond with an "I'm tired (I have a headache, I wish it were Saturday, I don't feel so good)," you actually make yourself feel worse. Practice this: it's a very simple point, but it has tremendous power. Every time someone asks you, "How are you?" or "How are you feeling today?" respond with a "Just wonderful! thanks, and you?" or say "Great" or "Fine." Say you feel wonderful at every possible opportunity, and you will begin to feel wonderful--and bigger, too. Become known as a person who always feels great. It wins friends.
Use bright, cheerful, favorable words and phrases to describe other people. Make it a rule to have a big, positive word for all your friends and associates. When you and someone else are discussing an absent third party, be sure you compliment him with big words and phrases like "He's really a fine fellow;" "They tell me he's working out wonderfully well." Be extremely careful to avoid the petty cut-him-down language. Sooner or later third parties hear what's been said, and then such talk only cuts you down.
Use positive language to encourage other people personally at every opportunity. Everyone you know craves praise. Have a special good word for your wife or husband every day. Notice and compliment the people who work with you. Praise, sincerely administered, is a success tool. Use it! Use it again and again and again. Compliment people on their appearance, their work, their achievements, their families.
Use positive words to outline plans to others. When people hear something like this: "Here is some good news. We face a genuine opportunity..." their minds start to sparkle. But when they hear some thing like "Whether we like it or not, we've got a job to do," the mind movie is dull and boring, and they react accordingly. Promise victory and watch eyes light up. Promise victory and win support. Build castles, don't dig graves.
Practice Adding Value
Practice adding value to things. Look for ideas to make things worth more. A thing--whether it be a vacant lot, a house, or a business--has value in proportion to the ideas for using it.
Practice adding value to people. As you move higher and higher in world of success, more and more of your job becomes "people development." Ask, "What can I do to add value to my subordinates? What can I do to help them to be come more effective?" Remember, to bring out the best in a person, you must first visualize his best.
Practice adding value to yourself. Conduct a daily interview with yourself. Ask, "What can I do to make myself more valuable today?" Visualize yourself not as you are but as you can be. Then specific ways for attaining your potential value will suggest themselves.
HOW TO THINK AND DREAM CREATIVELY
Ask yourself daily, "How can I do better?" There is no limit to self-improvement. When you ask yourself, "How can I do better?" sound answers will appear. Try it and see.
Ask yourself, "How can I do more?" Capacity is a state of mind. Asking yourself this question puts your mind to work to find intelligent shortcuts. The success combination in business is: Do what you do better (improve the quality of your output), and: Do more of what you do (increase the quantity of your output).
Practice asking and listening. Ask and listen, and you'll obtain raw material for reaching sound decisions. Remember: Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking.
Stretch your mind. Get stimulated. Associate with people who can help you think of new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE
Look important. It helps you think important. Never leave home without feeling certain you look like the kind of person you want to be. Remember: Your appearance talks to you and it talks to others. Make certain it says, "Here is a person who has self-respect. He's important. Treat him that way."
Think your work is important. Practice uplifting self-praise. Don't practice belittling self-punishment. You are what you think you are. Think more of yourself and there is more of you.
Upgrade your thinking. Think like important people think. In all of life's situations, ask yourself, "Is this the way an important person thinks?" Then obey the answer.
MANAGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT: GO FIRST CLASS
How we think is directly affected by the group we're in. Be sure you're in the flock that thinks right.
Do circulate in new groups. Restricting your social environment to the same small group produces boredom, dullness, dissatisfaction; equally important, remember that your success-building program requires that you become an expert in understanding people. Trying to learn all there is to know about people by studying one small group is like trying to master mathematics by reading one short book.
Do select friends who have views different from your own. In this modern age, the narrow individual hasn't much future. Responsibility and positions of importance gravitate to the person who is able to see both sides. Associate with opposites. But just be sure they are persons with real potential.
Do select friends who stand above petty, unimportant things. Folks who are more concerned with the square footage of your home or the appliances you have or don't have than with your ideas and your conversation are inclined to be petty. Guard your psychological environment. Select friends who are interested in positive things, friends who really do want to see you succeed. Find friends who breathe encouragement into your plans and ideals. If you don't, if you select petty thinkers as your close friends, you'll gradually develop into a petty thinker yourself.
THINK RIGHT TOWARD PEOPLE
We are lifted to higher levels by those who know us as likable, personable individuals. Every friend you make lifts you just one notch higher. And being likable makes you lighter to lift. Take the initiative in building friendships--leaders always do.
GET THE ACTION HABIT
Be an activationist. Be someone who does things. Be a doer, not a don't-er.
Don't wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and difficulties and solve them as theyarise.
Remember, ideas alone won't bring success. Ideas have value only when you act upon them.
Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Do what you fear, and fear disappears. Just try it and see.
Start your mental engine mechanically. Don't wait for the spirit to move you. Take action, dig in, and you move the spirit.
Think in terms of now. Tomorrow, next week, later, and similar words often are synonymous with the failure word, never. Be an "I'm starting right now" kind of person.
Get down to business--pronto. Don't waste time getting ready to act. Start acting instead.
Seize the initiative. Be a crusader. Pick up the ball and run. Be a volunteer. Show that you have the ability and ambition to do.
HOW TO TURN DEFEAT INTO VICTORY
Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time.
Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them. This makes you a professional.
Stop blaming luck. Research each setback. Find out what went wrong. Remember, blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go.
Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don't beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment.
Remember; there is a good side in every situation. Find it. See the good side and whip discouragement.