as the first law of gain is desire, so the formula of success is BELIEF. Believe that you have it — see it as an existent fact — and anything you can rightly wish for is yours. Belief is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
You have seen men, inwardly no more capable than yourself accomplish the seemingly impossible. You have seen others, after years of hopeless struggle; suddenly win their most cherished dreams. And you’ve often wondered, “What is the power that gives new life to their dying ambitions, that supplies new impetus to their jaded desires, that gives them a new start on the road to success?”
That power is belief — faith. Someone, something, gave them a new belief in themselves and a new faith in their power to win — and they leaped ahead and wrested success from seemingly certain defeat.
Do you remember the picture Harold Lloyd was in two or three years ago, showing a country boy who was afraid of his shadow? Every boy in the countryside bedeviled him. Until one day his grandmother gave him a talisman that she assured him his grandfather had carried through the Civil War and which, so she said, had the property of making its owner invincible. Nothing could hurt him, she told him, while he wore this talisman. Nothing could stand up against him. He believed her. And the next time the bully of the town started to cuff him around, he wiped up the earth with him. And that was only the start. Before the year was out he had made a reputation as the most daring soul in the community.
Then, when his grandmother felt that he was thoroughly cured, she told him the truth — that the “talisman” was merely a piece of old junk she’d picked up by the roadside — that she knew all he needed was faith in himself, belief that he could do these things.
The Talisman of Napoleon
Stories like that are common. It is such a well-established truth that you can do only what you think you can, that the theme is a favorite one with authors. I remember reading a story years ago of an artist — a mediocre sort of artist — who was visiting the field of Waterloo and happened upon a curious lump of metal half buried in the dirt, which so attracted him that he picked it up and put it in his pocket. Soon thereafter he noticed a sudden increase in confidence, an absolute faith in himself, not only as to his own chosen line of work, but in his ability to handle any situation that might present itself. He painted a great picture — just to show that he could do it. Not content with that, he envisioned an empire with Mexico as its basis, actually led a revolt that carried all before it — until one day he lost his talisman. And immediately his bubble burst.
I instance this just to illustrate the point that it is your own belief in yourself that counts. It is the consciousness of dominant power within you that makes all things attainable. You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door to welfare. Keep it open — by expecting to gain everything that is right.
You are entitled to every good thing. Therefore expect nothing but good. Defeat does not need to follow victory. You don’t have to “knock wood” every time you congratulate yourself that things have been going well with you. Victory should follow victory — and it will if you “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” it is the mind that means health and life and boundless opportunity and recompense. No limitation rests upon you. So don’t let any enter your life. Remember that Mind will do every good thing for you. It will remove mountains for you.
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Bring all your thoughts, your desires, your aims, your talents, into the Storehouse — the Consciousness of Good, the Law of Infinite supply — and prove these blessings. There is every reason to know that you are entitled to adequate provision. Everything that is involved in supply is a thing of thought. Now reach out, stretch your mind, and try to comprehend unlimited thought, unlimited supply.
Do not think that supply must come through one or two channels. It is not for you to dictate to Universal Mind the means through which It shall send Its gifts to you. There are millions of channels through which It can reach you. Your part is to impress upon Mind your need, your earnest desire, your boundless belief in the resources and the willingness of Universal Mind to help you. Plant the seed of desire. Nourish it with a clear visualization of the ripened fruit. Water it with sincere faith. But leave the means to Universal Mind.
Open up your mind. Clear out the channels of thought. Keep yourself in a state of receptivity. Gain a mental attitude in which you are constantly expecting good. You have the fundamental right to all good, you know. “According to your faith, be it unto you.”
The trouble with most of us is that we are mentally lazy. It is much easier to go along with the crowd than to break trail for ourselves. But the great discoverers, the great inventors, the great geniuses in all lines have been men who dared to break with tradition, who defied precedent, who believed that there is no limit to what Mind can do — and who stuck to that belief until their goal was won, in spite of all the sneers and ridicule of the wiseacres and the “It-can’t-be-done’rs.”
Not only that, but they were never satisfied with achieving just one success. They knew that the first success is like the first olive out of the bottle. All the others come out the more easily for it. They realized that they were a part of the Creative Intelligence of the Universe, and that the part shares all the properties of the whole. And that realization gave them the faith to strive for any right thing, the knowledge that the only limit upon their capabilities was the limit of their desires. Knowing that, they couldn’t be satisfied with any ordinary success. They had to keep on and on and on.
Edison didn’t sit down and fold his hands when he gave us the talking machine or the electric light. These great achievements merely opened the way to new fields of accomplishment.
Open up the channels between your mind and Universal Mind, and there is no limit to the riches that will come pouring in. Concentrate your thoughts on the particular thing you are most interested in, and ideas in abundance will come flooding down, opening up a dozen ways of winning the goal you are striving for.
But don’t let one success — no matter how great — satisfy you. The Law of Creation, you know, is the Law of Growth. You can’t stand still. You must go forward — or be passed by. Complacency — self-satisfaction — is the greatest enemy of achievement. You must keep looking forward. Like Alexander, you must be constantly seeking new worlds to conquer. Depend upon it, the power will come to meet the need. There is no such thing as failing powers, if we look to Mind for our source of supply. The only failure of mind comes from worry and fear — or from disuse.
William James, the famous psychologist, taught that “The more mind does, the more it can do.” For ideas release energy. You can do more and better work than you have ever done. You can know more than you know now. You know from your own experience that under proper mental conditions of joy or enthusiasm, you can do three or four times the work without fatigue that you can ordinarily. Tiredness is more boredom than actual physical fatigue. You can work almost indefinitely when the work is a pleasure.
You’ve seen sickly persons, frail persons, who couldn’t do an hour’s light work without exhaustion, suddenly buckle down when heavy responsibilities were thrown upon them, and grow strong and rugged under the load. Crises not only draw upon the reserve power you have, but they help to create new power.
“It Couldn’t Be Done”
It may be that
