THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING (1952)

(The following are excerpts from one of the world renowned preachers, Dr. Norman Vince Peale. His book, “The Power of Positive Thinking” which was first published in 1952, still carries some principles for living a dynamic life in the 21^st century. This article is reprinted in honor of Peale’s 115^th birthday. He was born on May 31, 1898 on Bowersville, Ohio and died on December 24, 1993 in Pawling, New York at age 95.)

1. Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own power, you cannot be successful or happy.
2. Make a true estimate of your ability, and then raise it 10%. Believe in your own God-released powers.
3. If you feel that you are defeated and have lost confidence in your ability to win, sit down, take a piece of paper and make a list---not of the factors that are against you but those that are for you.
4. Feelings of confidence depend upon the type of thoughts that habitually occupy your mind. Think defeat and you are bound to feel defeated. But practice thinking confidence thoughts, make it a dominating habit, and you will develop such strong sense of capacity that regardless of what difficulties arise, you will be able to overcome them.
5. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never let it fade. Never think of yourself as failing; never doubt the reality of the mental image. That is the most dangerous, for the mind always tries to complete what it pictures. So always picture “success” no matter how badly things seem to be going.
6. Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can. Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance, as scared as you are.
7. Ten times a day, repeat these dynamic words:” If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Stop reading and repeat them NOW, slowly and confidently.)
8. Get a competent counselor to help you understand why you do what you do. Learn the origin of your inferiority-feeling and self-doubt, which often begin in childhood. Self-knowledge leads to cure.
9. Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you now have received power from God.
10. For those who call themselves Christians, remember what St. Paul said: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”