that you’ve come to believe you can’t. Remember that success or failure is merely a state of mind. Believe you cannot do a thing — and you can’t. Know that you can do it — and you will. You must see yourself doing it.
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t;
If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t;
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will —
It’s all in the state of mind.
Full many a race is lost
Ere even a race is run,
And many a coward fails
Ere even his work’s begun.
Think big, and your deeds will grow,
Think small and you fall behind,
Think that you can, and you will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise;
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battle doesn’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.
There’s a vast difference between a proper understanding of one’s own ability and a determination to make the best of it — and offensive egotism. It is absolutely necessary for every man to believe in himself, before he can make the most of himself. All of us have something to sell. It may be our goods, it may be our abilities, it may be our services. You’ve got to believe in yourself to make your buyer take stock in you at par and accrued interest. You’ve got to feel the same personal solicitude over a customer lost, as a revivalist over a backslider, and hold special services to bring him back into the fold. You’ve got to get up every morning with determination, if you’re going to go to bed that night with satisfaction.
There’s mighty sound sense in the saying that the entire world loves a booster. The one and only thing you have to win success with is MIND. For your mind to function at its highest capacity, you’ve got to be charged with good cheer and optimism. No one ever did a good piece of work while in a negative frame of mind. Your best work is always done when you are feeling, happy and optimistic.
And a happy disposition is the result — not the cause — of happy, cheery thinking. Health and prosperity are the results primarily of optimistic thoughts. You make the pattern. If the impress you have left on the world about you seems faint and weak, don’t blame fate — blame your pattern! You will never cultivate a brave, courageous demeanor by thinking cowardly thoughts. You cannot gather figs from thistles. You will never make your dreams come true by choking them with doubts and fears. You’ve got to put foundations under your air castles, foundations of UNDERSTANDING and BELIEF. Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your BELIEF in yourself.
Are your surroundings discouraging? Do you feel that if you were in another’s place success would be easier? Just bear in mind that your real environment is within you. All the factors of success or failure are in your inner world. You make that own inner world — and through it your outer world. You can choose the material from which to build it. If you’ve not chosen wisely in the past, you can choose again now the material you want to rebuild it. The richness of life is within you. No one has failed so long as he can begin again.
Start right in and do all those things you feel you have it in you to do. Ask permission of no man. Concentrating your thought upon any proper undertaking will make its achievement possible. Your belief that you can do the thing gives your thought forces their power. Fortune waits upon you. Seize her boldly, hold her — and she is yours. She belongs rightfully to you. But if you cringe to her, if you go up to her doubtfully, timidly, she will pass you by in scorn. For she is a fickle jade who must be mastered, who loves boldness, who admires confidence.
A Roman boasted that it was sufficient for him to strike the ground with his foot and legions would spring up. And his very boldness cowed his opponents. It is the same with your mind. Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is started, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance, if you attack in earnest and meet each obstacle with resolution. But you have got to start things.
“The Lord helps them that help themselves” is a truth as old as man.
It is, in fact, plain common sense. Your subconscious mind has all power, but your conscious mind is the watchman at the gate. It has got to open the door. It has got to press the spring that releases the infinite energy. No failure is possible in the accomplishment of any right object you may have in life, if you but understand your power and will perseveringly try to use it in the proper way.
The men who have made their mark in this world all had one trait in common-they believed in themselves! “But,” you may say, “how can I believe in myself when I have never yet done anything worthwhile, when everything I put my hand to seems to fail?” You can’t, of course. That is, you couldn’t if you had to depend upon your conscious mind alone. But just remember what one far greater than you said — “I can of mine own self do nothing. The Father that is within me — He doeth the works.”
That same “Father” is within you. And it is by knowing that He is in you, and that through Him you can do anything that is right, that you can acquire that belief in yourself which is so necessary. Certainly the Mind that imaged the heavens and the earth and all that they contain has all wisdom, all power, and all abundance. With this Mind to call upon, you know there is no problem too difficult for you to undertake. The knowing of this is the first step. Faith. But St. James tells us — “Faith without works is dead.” So go on to the next step. Decide on the one thing you want most from life. No matter what it may be. There is no limit, you know, to Mind. Visualize this thing that you want. See it, feel it, BELIEVE in it. Make your mental blueprint, and begin to build!
Suppose some people DO laugh at your idea. Suppose Reason does say — “It can’t be done!” People laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Henry Ford. Reason contended for countless ages that the earth was flat. Reason said — or so numerous automotive engineers argued — that the Ford motor wouldn’t run. But the earth is round — and the twelfth or fifteenth million Ford is on the road.
Let us start right now putting into practice some of these truths that you have learned. What do you want most of life right now? Take that one desire, concentrate on it, and impress it upon your subconscious mind.
Psychologists have discovered that the best time to make suggestions to your subconscious mind is just before going to sleep, when the senses are quiet and the attention is lax. So
