Table of Contents
You are about to start on an adventure that will reward you for the rest of your life ...
If you find yourself in a situation where you seem to be going nowhere, or you feel inadequate and unable to face life with enthusiasm and confidence, this book is for you. If you are disgusted with mediocrity and not content to just drift through life, these pages offer you an alternative.
If you can make yourself open and receptive to new concepts, values, and beliefs, you will discover how you can systematically reorganize your thought processes to awaken the new you!
It makes no difference who you are, what you do, or what your life situation is. Youcanachieve total self-confidence.
Dr. Robert Anthony
Berkley Books by Dr. Robert Anthony
HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE FROM PUBLIC SPEAKING:
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS
think
think again
think On
think and win
THINK TOGETHER
think big
THE UTIMATE SECRETS OF TOTAL SELF-CONFIDENCE
DR. ROBERT ANTHONYS ADVANCED FORMULA
FOR TOTAL SUCCESS
DR. ROBERT ANTHONYS MAGIC POWER
OF SUPER PERSUASION
50 IDEAS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
DOING WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVING WHAT YOU DO
HOW TO MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
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Acknowledgments
No author ever writes a book alone. I have drawn the ideas from many sources including, of course, my own experiences in lecture work and private practice. People in the field of psychology, religion, and metaphysics have assisted me. Many prefer to remain anonymous, content with the fact that their knowledge and experience may help someone gain spiritual and psychological freedom.
It would be difficult to acknowledge everyone from whom I have borrowed ideas but I insist on thanking a few by name. I have been profoundly influenced by Anthony Norvell, my personal teacher and counselor; Marguerite and Willard Beecher for their excellent work in helping others to develop self-reliance; Lilburn Barksdale for his outstanding program and booklets on self-esteem; and the writings of Maxwell Maltz, Joseph Murphy, Emmet Fox, Abraham Maslow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Napoleon Hill, and Ernest Holmes.
DR. ROBERT ANTHONY
Dedication
To every person who wishes to improve the quality of his or her life, I acknowledge you for taking the time to buy and read this book. The time and effort sets you apart from the majority. As you become aware of your unlimited possibilities for creation you will not only prosper and develop yourself but you will gain a great wealth of information that will allow you to help others who can follow your example.
INTRODUCTION
THE UNHAPPY MAJORITY
As you look around at your fellow human beings, you will find it hard to ignore the fact that very few people are happy, fulfilled, and leading purposeful lives. Most of them seem unable to cope with their problems and the circumstances of daily living. The majority, settling for the average, have resigned themselves to just getting by.
Resignation to mediocrity has become a way of life. As a result, feelings of inadequacy cause people, quite humanly, to blame society, other people, circumstances, and surrounding conditions for their failures and disappointments. The idea that people and things control their lives is so thoroughly ingrained in their thinking that they normally will not respond to logical arguments that prove otherwise.
William James, the eminent philosopher and psychologist, once observed that, The greatest discovery of our age has been that we, by changing the inner aspects of our thinking, can change the outer aspects of our lives. Wrapped up in this brief statement is the dynamic truth that we are not victims, but co-creators in the building of our lives and the world around us. Or, as another sage puts it, We arent what we think we are, but what we think, we are!
THE SHEEP STATE OF MIND
A lesson that has taken us far too long to learn is that the opposite of bravery is not cowardliness, but rather conformity. You may have spent valuable, irreplaceable years trying to fit into the parade only to learn, too late, that you will never fit into the parade only to learn, too late, that you will never fit in.
What makes us follow each other like sheep? It is because we are trying to conform to the majority. Its time to break out of this sheep state of mind and stop punishing ourselves because we are different from our family and friends, or anyone else for that matter. Much of our suffering can be eliminated if we refuse to let our lives be marred by conformity.
To think that our lives are controlled in any way by another individual, group, or society imposes a condition of mental slavery that makes us prisoners by our own decrees.
Our thoughts become the blueprints that attract from our subconscious minds all the elements that go into fulfilling our concepts, whether they be positive or negative. What we have in our lives right now is the outward manifestation of what has been going on in our minds. We have literally attracted everything that has come into our lives, good or bad, happy or sad, success or failure. This includes all facets of our experience, including business, marriage, health, or personal affairs.
Think about it! Your surroundings, your environment, and your world all outwardly picture what you think about inwardly. By discovering why you are the way you are, you also find the key to being what you want to be.
THE POWER TO CHANGE
Shakespeare said, We know what we are, but not what we may be.
Does this describe you? Do you concentrate on your limitations, your failures, your blundering way of doing things, seldom stopping to think of what you might be? The problem is that you have been conditioned since childhood by false concepts, values, and beliefs that have prevented you from realizing how truly capable and unique you are.
By virtue of your role as co-creator of your life, you have the power to change any of its aspects. Every great teacher has come to the same conclusion: You cannot look to someone outside yourself to solve your problems. As the Master Teacher reminded us so often, The Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is not in some distant land, and it is not up in the sky. Buddha came to the same realization when he said, Be a lamp unto your own feet and do not seek outside yourself. Self-healing powers are within. Health, happiness, abundance, and peace of mind are natural states of being once you break the bonds of negative thinking.
Unless you perceive your own true worth as a person, you cannot come close to achieving total self-confidence. Only to the degree that you can truly acknowledge your own unique importance will you be able to free yourself from self-imposed limitations.
Yes, I said
