The Power Of Positive Thinking

The Power Of Positive Thinking will show you that the roots of success lie in the mind and teach you how to believe in yourself, break the habit of worrying, and take control of your life by taking control of your thoughts and changing your attitude.

Yes, confidence is important, because if you feel inferior, you’ll act inferior. We know confidence alone doesn’t solve all problems. After all, it’s not the same as competence, and telling a kid who’s horrible at math that she’s great won’t make her study more for the next test.

However, the case for believing in yourself, that Peale makes, is one we’ve all experienced: the self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a common idea from self-help books, too, Napoleon Hill already addressed it 80 years ago.

When you start a new job and go in on the first day, thinking no one will like you, that you’ll probably screw up and not fit in well, well guess what, you’ll behave in a way that makes sure it comes true! Even worse, when you then get the feedback that “you were right” this drives even more negative thoughts, thus starting a vicious cycle.

It is up to you to actively change your thoughts and believe that you can bring value wherever you go. Peale suggests an exercise to help you do that, which happens to be backed by science.

Visualize your goals and the positive outcomes you want. What should your life look like in 6 months? Which goals do you want to achieve? Then, contrast those by visualizing the problems and obstacles that you might face along the way.

This is called mental contrasting and has been proven to cause changes in behavior that last for weeks with as little as a few minutes worth of the exercise.

This quote really struck me: Of course all the problems in your life are real. And yes, some of them might take a few years to solve, like debt, or a serious illness. But how you react to those problems is entirely up to you. You might not be able to solve those problems at the push of a button, but your attitude is something you can change from one second to the next. Your world, your reality, is only determined by what you think about everything you experience in life. For example, if you leave your house tomorrow morning, and are almost hit by a car, which breaks at the last second, you can treat this as a bad sign and spend the rest of the day walking around afraid of anything and everything. Alternatively, you can take this experience as a wonderful gift, a miracle even, and live…