The Power of Positive Thinking

The Power of Positive Thinking will show you that the roots of success lie in the mind and teach you how to believe in yourself, break the habit of worrying, and take control of your life by taking control of your thoughts and changing your attitude.

Norman Vincent Peale was an American minister and author and one of the world’s most widely recognized motivational speakers in the 20th century. His most popular book, The Power of Positive Thinking, has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and takes a Christian perspective and real-world approach to positive psychology.

Here are 3 lessons to help you think more positively:

1. Start with confidence and watch your problems shrink.

2. Your world is nothing more than the thoughts you have about your experiences.

3. To live worry-free, first imagine a worry-free life.

Lesson 1: Believe in yourself and visualize your goals to see how small your problems are

Yes, confidence is important, because if you feel inferior, you’ll act inferior. We know confidence alone doesn’t solve all problems. After all, it’s not the same as competence, and telling a kid who’s horrible at math that she’s great won’t make her study more for the next test.

However, the case for believing in yourself, that Peale makes, is one we’ve all experienced: the self-fulfilling prophecy. 

When you start a new job and go in on the first day, thinking no one will like you, that you’ll probably screw up and not fit in well, well guess what, you’ll behave in a way that makes sure it comes true! Even worse, when you then get the feedback that “you were right” this drives even more negative thoughts, thus starting a vicious cycle.

It is up to you to actively change your thoughts and believe that you can bring value wherever you go. Peale suggests an exercise to help you do that, which happens to be backed by science.

Visualize your goals and the positive outcomes you want. What should your life look like in 6 months? Which goals do you want to achieve? Then, contrast those by visualizing the problems and obstacles that you might face along the way.

This is called mental contrasting and has been proven to cause changes in behavior that last for weeks with as little as a few minutes’ worth of exercise.

Lesson 2: Your attitude determines your entire life

Your world is nothing more than the thoughts you have about your experiences.

Of course, all the problems in your life are real. And yes, some of them might take a few years to solve, like debt, or a serious illness. But how you react to those problems is entirely up to you. You might not be able to solve those problems at the push of a button, but your attitude is something you can change from one second to the next.

Your world, your reality, is only determined by what you think about everything you experience in life.

For example, if you leave your house tomorrow morning, and are almost hit by a car, which breaks at the last second, you can treat this as a bad sign and spend the rest of the day walking around afraid of anything and everything. Alternatively, you can take this experience as a wonderful gift, a miracle event, and live your life to the fullest, enjoying every single second of the day and being grateful.

Don’t choose negative thoughts when you can choose positive ones. Ever.

Lesson 3: Imagine your life free of worry to become less concerned about the future.

Here’s a super meta hack for worrying less: Imagine yourself as a worry-free person in the future. Just imagining that it is possible for you to live without worry will take a lot of your current worries away.

Worry is a major source of stress, and thus often leads to heart disease, arthritis, and other sicknesses which cause your life expectancy to go down. So it is in your best interest to eliminate it, wherever possible.

Close your eyes, look into the future, and imagine yourself a few months or years from now, living free from all the worries that currently plague you, and you’ll feel much better when you open your eyes again.

Peale calls this draining your mind and it’s especially helpful before going to sleep because then positive thoughts will sink into your subconscious, instead of negative ones.

Positive thinking tips

Mindset has a strong impact on decision-making to reach our goals. Our motivation depends on positive thinking.

With a fixed mindset, you can:

have a critical “inner” voice. This self-criticism is sometimes hard to catch. If you feel like you have this inner voice, try to be aware the next time you are unmotivated to do something. Is there a voice telling you “No,” or a strong feeling — such as anxiety, or fear?  Feel unable to make choices and that things simply “happen” to you — instead of you being the one to “make things happen.” A fixed mindset means you believe you have fixed talents and abilities.

When you change to a growth mindset, you can:

View self-criticism as a way for you to change your perception of self. This step is a powerful way of becoming a more positive person. A positive attitude can help bring wisdom and enlightenment — and with enlightenment, there will be less negative self-talk and unnecessary anxiety and more opportunities for positive self-talk. One of these approaches that can be practiced daily is called positive affirmations.

Understand the power of choice. You can choose how you interpret feelings, wants, desires, and goals. You can take responsibility for your actions and how much effort you put into yourself and your goals, as well as other aspects of your life.

practice self-love! Many people who love themselves can do so and still maintain the ability to think positively and logically while maintaining emotional stability. Treat yourself well and change your outlook by making decisions that you know will make you happy and motivated.

What are some other ways you can change your mindset?

Source: From the Book by Norman Vincent Peale