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Thinking does make it so. Others see in us what we see in ourselves. We receive the kind of treatment we think we deserve.
To gain the respect of others, you must first think you deserve respect. And the more respect you have for yourself, the more respect others will have for you.
Rule: Remember, your appearance “talks.” Be sure it says positive things about you. Never leave home without feeling certain you look like the kind of person you want to be.
Think you’re weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second-class—think this way, and you are doomed to mediocrity. But think instead, I am important. I do have what it takes. I am a first-class performer. My work is important. Think this way, and you’re headed straight to success.
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.
On the bright side, companionship with people with big ideas raises the level of our thinking; close contact with ambitious people gives us ambition.
Because big men do not laugh at big ideas.
People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment. The opinions of these people can be poison. Develop a defense against people who want to convince you that you can’t do it. Accept negative advice only as a challenge to prove that you can do it.
Be extra, extra cautious about this: don’t let negative-thinking people—“negators”—destroy your plan to think yourself to success. Negators are everywhere, and they seem to delight in sabotaging the positive progress of others.
You are judged by the company you keep. Birds of a feather do flock together. Fellow workers are not all alike. Some are negative, others positive. Some work because they “have to”; others are ambitious and work for advancement. Some associates belittle everything the boss says or does; others are much more objective and realize they must be good followers before they can be good leaders. How we think is directly affected by the group we’re in. Be sure you’re in the flock that thinks right.
Cling to people who think progressively. Move upward with them.
There’s a lot of incorrect thinking that successful people are inaccessible. The plain truth is that they are not. As a rule, it’s the more successful people who are the most humble and ready to help.
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. Make new friends, join new organizations, enlarge your social orbit. Then too, variety in people, like variety in anything else, adds spice to life and gives it a broader dimension. It’s good mind food.
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.
Do select friends who stand above petty, unimportant things.
Go first class: that is an excellent rule to follow in everything you do, including the goods and services you buy.
How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.
1. Grow the attitude of I’m activated. 2. Grow the attitude of You are important. 3. Grow the attitude of Service first.
To activate others, to get them to be enthusiastic, you must first be enthusiastic yourself.
Results come in proportion to enthusiasm applied. Enthusiasm is simply “This is great!” Here’s why. Here is a three-step procedure that will help you to develop the power of enthusiasm. 1. Dig into it deeper.
Dig into it deeper, and you’ll develop enthusiasm. Put this principle to work next time you must do something you don’t want to do. Put this principle to work next time you find yourself becoming bored. Just dig in deeper and you dig up interest.
2. In everything you do, life it up.
3. Broadcast good news.
Broadcasting good news activates you, makes you feel better. Broadcasting good news makes other people feel better too.
people do more for you when you make them feel important.
When you help others feel important, you help yourself feel important too.
You must feel important to succeed. Helping others to feel important rewards you because it makes you feel more important. Try it and see. Here’s how to do it: 1. Practice appreciation.
2. Practice calling people by their names.
3. Don’t hog glory, invest it instead.
What’s puzzling about money is the backward approach so many people use in trying to make it. Everywhere you see people with a “money-first” attitude. Yet these same people always have little money. Why? Simply this: People with a money-first attitude become so money conscious that they forget money can’t be harvested unless they plant the seeds that grow the money. And the seed of money is service. That’s why “put service first” is an attitude that creates wealth. Put service first, and money takes care of itself.
Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.
1. Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing. 2. Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe kind of individual. 3. Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you. 4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all. 5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you. 6. Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.
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Take the initiative in building friendships—leaders always do.
Take the initiative. Be like the successful. Go out of your way to meet people. And don’t be timid. Don’t be afraid to be unusual. Find out who the other person is, and be sure he knows who you are.
Thoughts breed like thoughts. There is real danger that if you listen to negative comments about another person, you too will go negative toward that person.
Remember this: how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
Excellent ideas are not enough. An only fair idea acted upon, and developed, is 100 percent better than a terrific idea that dies because it isn’t followed up.
The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise, but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise. We must be willing to make an intelligent compromise with perfection lest we wait forever before taking action. It’s still good advice to cross bridges as we come to them.
give your ideas value by acting on them. Regardless of how good the idea, unless you do something with it, you gain nothing.
Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Here’s something to remember. Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone.
Action must precede action. That’s a law of nature. Nothing starts itself, not even the dozens of mechanical gadgets we use daily.
A humorist once said the most difficult problem in life was getting out of a warm bed into a cold room. And he had a point. The longer you lie there and think how unpleasant it will be to get up, the more difficult it becomes. Even in such a simple operation as this, mechanical action, just throwing off the covers and putting your feet on the floor, defeats dread.
People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit.
* Now is the magic word of success. Tomorrow, next week, later, sometime, someday often as not are synonyms for the failure word, never. Lots of good dreams never come true because we say, “I’ll start someday,” when we should say, “I’ll start now, right now.”
Initiative is a special kind of action. It’s doing something worthwhile without being told to do it. The person with initiative has a standing invitation to join the high income brackets in every business and profession.
It is possible to match every Mr. Skid Row with a Mr. Mediocre and a Mr. Success on every score—age, intelligence, background, nationality, you name it—with one exception. The one thing you can’t match them on is their response to defeat.
It is not possible to win high-level success without meeting opposition, hardship, and setback. But it is possible to use setbacks to propel you forward.
We can turn setbacks into victories. Find the lesson, apply it, and then look back on defeat and smile.
Defeat is only a state of mind, and nothing more.
Decide right now to salvage something from every setback. Next time things seem to go wrong on the job or at home, calm down and find out what caused the trouble. This is the way to avoid making the same error twice. Being licked is valuable if we learn from it.
