– by Orison Swett Marden, published in 1910
Chapter 1
The Divinity of Desire
Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do. When the mind has once formed the habit of holding cheerful, happy, prosperous pictures, it will not be easy to form the opposite habit.
It does not matter how improbable or how far away this realization may see, or how dark the prospects may be, if we visualize them as best we can, as vividly as possible, hold tenaciously to them and vigorously struggle to attain them, they will gradually become actualized, realized in the life. But a desire, a longing without endeavor, a yearning abandoned or held indifferently will vanish without realization.
It is only when desire crystallized into resolve, however, that it is effective.
Think and say only that which you wish to become true.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the outline of the image itself; the real substance, not merely a mental image. What we believe is coming to us is a tremendous creative motive. Your whole thought current must be set in the direction of your life purpose.
Whatever comes to us in life, we create first in our mentality.
Chapter 2
Success And Happiness Are For You
No man has a right, unless he can not help himself, to remain where he will be constantly subjected to the cramping, ambition-blighting influences and great temptations of poverty. His self-respect demands that he should get out of such an environment. It is his duty to put himself in a position of dignity and independence where he will not be liable at any moment to be a burden to his friends in case of sickness or other emergencies, or where those depending on him may suffer.
Prosperity begins in the mind and is impossible with a mental attitude which is hostile to it. We can not attract opulence mentally by a poverty-stricken attitude which is driving away what we long for. We must think prosperity before we can come to it.
Our circumstances in life, our financial condition, our poverty or our wealth, our friends or lack of them, our condition of harmony or discord, are all very largely the offspring of our thought.
Success comes through a perfectly scientific mental process. The man who becomes prosperous believes that he is going to be prosperous. He has faith in his ability to make money. He does not start out with his mend filled with doubts and fears, and all the time talk poverty and think poverty, walk like a pauper and dress like a pauper. He turns his face towards the thing he is trying for and is determined to bet, and will not admit its opposite picture in his mind.
The man who expects prosperity is constantly creating money in his mind, building his financial structure mentally. There must be a mental picture of the prosperity first; the building around it is comparatively easy.
To be prosperous we must put ourselves in the prosperous attitude. We must think opulently, we must feel opulent in thought; we must exhale confidence and assurance in our very bearing and manner. Our mental attitude towards the thing we are striving for and the intelligent effort we put forth to realize it, will measure our attainment.
Chapter 3
Working For One Thing And Expecting Something Else
The man who would succeed must think success, must think upward. He must think progressively, creatively, constructively, inventively, and, above all, optimistically.
The mental attitude which we hold toward our work or our aim has everything to do with what we accomplish.
Many positive minds become negative by influences which destroy their self-confidence. They gradually lose faith in themselves.
The whole philosophy of efficiency and happiness consist in the vigorous, consistent affirmation of the thing we are trying to be, and trying to do.
Chapter 4
Expect Great Things Of Yourself
Faith is an optimist because it sees the way out. Doubt is a pessimist, can not see the way ahead and fears because not conscious of being able to cope with the uncertain.
Faith is the divine messenger sent to guide man, blinded by doubt and sin.
Your own estimate of yourself, of your ability, your standing, the weight you carry, and of the figure you cut in the world, will be out-pictured in your appearance, in your manner.
Confidence is the very basis of all achievement. There is a tremendous power in the conviction that we can do a thing. The man who has great faith in himself is relived from a great many uncertainties as to whether he is in his right place, from doubts as to his ability, and from fears regarding his future.
Freedom is essential to achievement. No once can do his greatest work when his mind is cramped with worry, anxiety, fear, or uncertainty, any more than he can do his best physical work with his body in a cramped position. Absolute freedom is imperative for the best brain work. Uncertainty and doubt are great enemies of that concentration which is the secret of all effectiveness.
We are told that it is faith that doubles one’s power and multiples one’s ability, and that without it we can do nothing. How quickly a strong man is stripped of his power the moment he loses confidence in himself or his ability!
The habit of dwelling on difficulties and magnifying them weekends the character and paralyzes the initiative in which a way as to hinder one from ever daring to undertake great things. The man who does things is the man who sees the end and defies the obstacles.
Many people never seem to come to themselves until they have received a great humiliating defeat. This seems to touch a spring deep in their nature,, setting free dynamic forces which enable them to do marvels. When a man who has got the right stuff in him as made a slip and feels that he is down and out, when he sees those that know him regarding him as a failure, calling him a “bas been”, he makes a resolve to redeem himself from the disgrace and every red blood corpuscle in him helps him to make good.
Chapter 5