The Power of Positive Thinking

by Norman Vincent Peale

The greatest secret for eliminating the inferiority complex, which is another term for deep and profound self-doubt, is to fill your mind to overflowing with faith. Develop a tremendous faith in God and that will give you a humble yet soundly realistic faith in yourself. The acquiring of dynamic faith is accomplished by prayer, lots of prayer, by reading and mentally absorbing the Bible and by practising its prayer techniques.

This incident illustrates a profound truth which is expressed in a very important statement made by the famous psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger. He said: “Attitudes are more important than facts.” That is worth repeating until its truth grips you. Any fact facing us, however difficult, even seemingly hopeless, is not so important as our attitude towards that fact. How you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You may permit a fact to overwhelm you mentally before you start to deal with it actually. On the other hand, a confident and optimistic thought pattern can modify or overcome the fact altogether.

One of the most powerful concepts, one which is a sure cure for lack of confidence, is the thought that God is actually with you and helping you. This is one of the simplest teachings in religion; namely, that Almighty God will be your companion, will stand by you, help you, and see you through. No other idea is so powerful in developing self confidence as this simple belief when practised. To practice it simply affirm “God is with me; God is helping me; God is guiding me.” Spend several minutes each day visualising His presence. Then practise believing that affirmation. Go about your business on the assumption that what you have affirmed and visualised is true. Affirm it, visualise it, believe it, and it will actualise itself. The release of power which this procedure stimulates will astonish you.

Emerson declared a tremendous truth: “They conquer who believe they can.” And he added: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” Practise confidence and faith and your fears and insecurities will soon have no power over you.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding.

Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every so-called obstacle. Minimise them.

Do not be awe-struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can.

Put yourself in God’s hands.

Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you now RECEIVE power from Him.

One of the quotations which he used is from a sixteenth-century mystic: “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient.”

Thomas Carlyle said: “Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves.”

God is in you. It you are going at one rate and God at another, you are tearing yourself apart.

The formula is: (1) PRAYERISE, (2) PICTURISE, (3) ACTUALISE.

I have a habit, which I often use, of praying for people as I pass them.

When the New Testament says: “The kingdom of God is within you,” (Luke 17:21) it is informing us that God our Creator has laid up within our minds and personalities all the potential powers and ability we need for constructive living. It remains for us to tap and develop these powers.

Dr. Laubach believes that actual power is generated by prayer. One of his methods is to walk down the street and ‘shoot’ prayers at people. He calls this type of praying, ‘flash prayers’.

It is my practice before making a speech to any audience to pray for the people present and to send out thoughts of love and goodwill towards them. Sometimes I select out of the audience one or two people who seem to be either depressed or even antagonistic and send my prayer thoughts and goodwill attitude specifically towards them.

The happiness habit is developed by simply practising happy thinking. Make a mental list of happy thoughts and pass them through your mind several times every day. If an unhappiness thought should enter your mind, immediately stop, consciously eject it, and substitute a happiness thought. Every morning before arising, lie relaxed in bed and deliberately drop happy thoughts into your conscious mind. Let a series of pictures pass across your mind of each happy experience you expect to have during the day. Savour their joy. Such thoughts will help cause events to turn out that way. Do not affirm that things will not go well that day. By merely saying that, you can actually help to make it so. You will draw to yourself every factor, large and small, that will contribute to unhappy conditions. As a result, you will find yourself asking: “Why does everything go badly for me? What is the matter with everything?”

When you arise, say out loud three times this one sentence: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) Only personalise it and say: “I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Repeat it in a strong, clear voice and with positive tone and emphasis.

“Where love is,” said Tolstoy, “God is,” and, we might add, where God and love are, there is happiness. So a practical principle in creating happiness is to practise love.

“‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’ (Mark ix.23.)

People are defeated in life not because of lack of ability, but for lack of wholeheartedness. They do not whole-heartedly expect to succeed.

Emerson said: “Beware of what you want for you will get it.”

So saying, the editor pulled a well-worn card from his wallet and said: “I repeat this quotation every day of my life. It has become my dominating thought.” I copied it and am giving it to you: “A man who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes his work with the assurance of success magnetises his condition. He draws to himself the creative powers of the universe.” It is indeed a fact that the person who thinks with positive self-reliance and optimism does magnetise his condition and releases power to attain his goal. So expect the best at all times. Never think of the worst. Drop it out of your thought, relegate it. Let there be no thought in your mind that the worst will happen. Avoid entertaining the concept of the worst, for whatever you take into your mind can grow there. Therefore take the best into your mind, and only that. Nurture it, concentrate on it, emphasise it, visualise it, prayerise it, surround it with faith. Make it your obsession. Expect the best, and spiritually creative mind-power aided by God power will produce the best.

You can overcome any obstacle. You can achieve the most tremendous things by faith power. And how do you develop faith power? The answer is: to saturate your mind with the great words of the Bible.

If you are thinking thoughts of defeat, I urge you to rid yourself of such thoughts, for as you think defeat you tend to get it. Adopt the “I don’t believe in defeat” attitude.

“What attitude would I take towards these obstacles? Why, I would just remove them, that’s all, and then I would forget them.”

The technique used by this man is based on the primary fact about an obstacle which is—don’t be afraid of it. Practise believing that God is with you and that in combination with Him you have the power to handle it.

General Tudor knew how to stand up to an obstacle. Just stand up to it, that’s all, and don’t give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won’t be you, it will be the obstacle. You can do this when you have faith, faith in God and faith in yourself. Faith is the chief quality you need. It is enough. In fact, it is more than enough.

Practically speaking, there are only a few human stories and they have all been enacted previously. This is a fact that you must never forget—there are people who have overcome every conceivable difficult situation, even the one in which you now find yourself and which to you seems utterly hopeless. So did it seem to some others, but they found an out, a way up, a path over, a pass through.

But remember that your subconscious mind in a sense is one of the greatest liars in existence.

A fundamental doctrine of Emerson is that the human personality can be touched with Divine power and thus greatness can be released from it. William James pointed out that the greatest factor in any undertaking is one’s belief about it. Thoreau told us that the secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.

‘The prayer my father used is as follows: “‘I believe I am always divinely guided. “‘I believe I will always take the right turn of the road. “‘I believe God will always make a way where there is no way.’”

In all of the investigations I have made into successful cases of healing, there seems to be certain factors present. First, a complete willingness to surrender oneself into the hands of God. Second, a complete letting go of all error such as sin in any form and a desire to be cleansed in the soul. Third, belief and faith in the combined therapy of medical science in harmony with the healing power of God. Fourth, a sincere willingness to accept God’s answer, whatever it may be, and no irritation or bitterness against His will. Fifth, a substantial, unquestioning faith that God can heal.

The psychologist, William James, said: “One of the deepest drives of human nature is the desire to be appreciated.” The longing to be liked, to be held in esteem, to be a sought-after person, is fundamental in us.

The fact is that popularity can be attained by a few simple, natural, normal, and easily mastered techniques. Practise them diligently and you can become a well-liked person. First, become a comfortable person, that is, one with whom people can associate without a sense of strain. Of some persons it is said: ‘You can never quite get next to him’. There is always a barrier that you can’t get over. A comfortable person is easy-going and natural. He has a pleasant, kindly, genial way about him. Being with him is not unlike wearing an old hat or an old pair of shoes, or an easy old coat. A stiff, reserved, unresponsive individual never meshes into the group. He is always just a bit out of it. You never quite know how to take him or how he will react. You just aren’t easy-like with him.

Christianity, however, teaches that one basic trait will go far toward getting people to like you. That trait is a sincere and forthright interest in and love for people. Perhaps if you cultivate this basic trait, other traits will naturally develop.

Still another important factor in getting people to like you is to practise building up the ego of other persons. The ego, being the essence of our personalities, is sacred to us. There is in every person a normal desire for a feeling of self-importance. If I deflate your ego and therefore your self-importance, though you may laugh it off, I have deeply wounded you. In fact, I have shown disrespect for you, and while you may exercise charity towards me, even so, unless you are finely developed spiritually, you are not going to like me very well. On the other hand, if I elevate your self-respect and contribute to your feeling of personal worth, I am showing high esteem for your ego. I have helped you to be your best self and therefore you appreciate what I have done. You are grateful to me. You like me for it.

There is a Higher Power, and that Power can do everything for you. Draw upon it and experience its great helpfulness. Why be defeated when you are free to draw upon that Higher Power? State your problem. Ask for a specific answer. Believe that you are getting that answer. Believe that now, through God’s help, you are gaining power over your difficulty.