W Clement stone - Believe and Achieve: W. Clement Stones 17 Principles of Success

Contents

E very normal person has a brain and nervous system and is, therefore, endowed with great mental capacities. Few of them, however, use and develop their natural abilities sufficiently to reach the many goals they could achieve. Most people simply arent willing to pay the price: the effort of learning the art of motivation with a positive mental attitude (PMA).

You can be different.

You can develop your abilities to their fullest...

If you are motivated to pay the price.

Specifically, you must be willing to make regular investment in study, thinking, and planning time followed up by action. Work, in other words. There is no substitute. It will be an effort. You will not have everything you want next week. You will make sacrifices.

When endeavoring to come to any decision concerning your future, you may ask yourself, Is it worth it?

By paying the price, you will be able to make discoveries about the human mind that have helped countless thousands transform their lives for the better. Much of what you will come to understand is beyond what is taught in schools or bandied about on the evening news, such as:

• How to, through your conscious mind, tap the powers of your subconscious as it pertains to instincts, passions, emotions, feelings, moods, attitudes, the formation of desirable habits, and the elimination of the undesirable.

• How to influence yourself and others in a desirable directionfor this is the essence of the art of motivation with PMA.

There will be other rewards, but these two alone should be enough to excite your interest.

What a thrill it is to know that you possess the greatest machine ever conceivedso awesome that it could only be created by God Himselfa brain, nervous system, and the ineffable human mind! And even more exciting: you can learn to operate and use this machine effectively to deliberately direct your thoughts, control your emotions, and achieve any worthwhile goal that doesnt violate the laws of God or the rights of others.

Motivation is that which induces action or determines choice. A motive is an urge within the individual, such as an instinct, emotion, habit, impulse, desire, or idea, that incites him to action. It is the hope or other force that moves the individual to attempt to produce specific results. When you can motivate yourself and others, the world is no longer a place where something always stands in the way of success.

My greatest discovery was that the secrets to success are so obvious they arent seen. Once recognized, however, they are easy to teach and easy to learn. They were revealed to me in reading self-help action books, and tested through trial and error and... trial and success. I learned:

• How to recognize, relate, assimilate, and apply principles rather than only learn facts.
• How to develop a positive mental attitude and eliminate the negative.
• How to motivate oneself and others to desirable action at will, and succeed in achieving worthwhile goals.
• How to avoid harmful emotional disturbances, mental illness, and maintain good mental and moral health.
• How to acquire wealth even though one earns a small salary.
• How to acquire the true riches of life.

Inspirational self-help action books have inspired and motivated millions of persons through the world, and they can motivate you as well. This book is a wonderful place to begin; dont let it be the place where you end.

To get the most out of any book, you must take the time to analyze the ideas you encounter. If you judge them worthy, you must assimilate those ideas into your way of thinking. Just as important, you must then be willing to act in accordance with what you have learned and embraced. This deliberate effort is a significant part of the price of success.

This deliberate effort is also what holds most people back from doing anything significant with their lives. They never get off the dime, so to speak. Armchair quarterbacking is great fun on a Sunday afternoon; its part of the pleasure of watching a football game. But life is not a football game to be watched. Youre not in your living room. Youre out on the field and you will never score a down, let alone a goal, if you know what needs to be done but you dont do it.

Memorize the self-motivator, DO IT NOW! The habit can easily be established by repeating, DO IT NOW! several times in the morning, several times in the evening for a week or ten days, to indelibly imprint the suggestion in your subconscious mind. When faced with the need to act, DO IT NOW! will flash from your subconscious to your conscious mind and propel you to action.

Also memorize the two following self-motivators that have helped countless thousands of persons motivate themselves to desirable action:

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve for those who have PMA, and, AIM HIGH!

These two key phrases will energize your mind against doubt, which along with procrastination, is one of the greatest enemies of human achievement.

The Positive Mental Attitude approach to success has helped millions around the world take charge of their lives, realize their potential, and reach the loftiest goals they have set for themselves. Many of todays leaders in government, education, business, entertainment, and the arts, and in virtually every other field of endeavor, are living testimonials to the value of the PMA philosophy of success and its seventeen principles of success.

A Positive Mental Attitude is necessary for achieving worthwhile success. Achievement is attained through some combination of PMA and definiteness of purpose with one or more of the other 15 success principles. A few illustrations on how you can develop PMA:

• Strive to understand and apply the golden rule.
• Be considerate and sensitive to the reactions of others.
• Be sensitive to your own reactions by controlling your emotional responses to environmental influences.
• Be a good-finderlook for the positive elements of any situation or person, no matter how hard it may seem.
• The harder you have to look, the more important it will be to find those positive elements.
• Believe that any goal that doesnt violate the laws of God or the rights of your fellow men can be achieved.

Definiteness of purpose combined with PMA is the starting point to all worthwhile achievement. Some authors use the term singleness of purpose to indicate definiteness of purpose. However expressed, it means that you should have one high, desirable, outstanding goal and keep it ever before you. You can have many other goals that are non-conflicting which help you to reach your major definite goal. It is, in fact, highly advisable to have immediate, intermediate, and distant objectives. When you set a definite major goal, you are apt to recognize that which will help you achieve it.

Only you know what your definite major goal is. Whatever it may be, it must be something you can pursue with passion, with a burning desire that will give you strength when you are weary and the odds are long. Admitting a burning desire requires a kind of courage, for once you recognize what you want most, you will never be satisfied until you know you are on your way to achieving it. Giving up complacency is part of the price of success.