The most positive response

Will Smith - An Actor with great positive outlook.

The most positive response by Ralph Marson, Tell yourself often that problems can be transformed into opportunities. Challenge yourself to find and to appreciate examples in the real world around you.

Then, when a difficult problem drops into your own life, you'll be ready. You'll instinctively seek out the most positive, effective and valuable response.

Imagine being able to draw real value out of every situation. Imagine it consistently, and you will begin to do it.

Though you don't know exactly what they will be, you do know that the challenges will come. So how do you prepare?

Develop and strengthen the belief that whatever may come, you can make something good out of it. Then you'll be ready to do precisely that. Instead of being overwhelmed, be ready. When the time comes, you'll know just what do do, and more importantly, you'll do without a second thought.

Thoughts Become Things

Mike Dooley - A motivational speaker.

Let your world be wonderful, cited by Ralph Marson, What dream would you now like to make into reality? What joy do you now wish to experience? What beauty will you behold before this day is finished? What feeling would you feel best to you right now? Breathe in the sweetness of all that is good in this bright moment. Taste the possibilities that arise from endless abundance. Though the challenges and concerns are real, so are the most magnificent of possibilities. Imagine the best of what can be, and find true delight in making it real.

Let your world be wonderful today. Let your moments be filled with life and passion and purpose. Do you see how extraordinary this day can be? See it, live it, and it is..

Positive Mental Attitude

Jeffrey Gitomer - A Motivator.

Positive Advantage by Ralph Marson, Put your energy where it will do the most good. Put your energy into those things you can do right now to make a difference.

Worry will get you nowhere and will drain the value out of your moments.

Achieving the status of victim is not an achievement worth having.

Instead, take the challenges and use them to positive advantage. With the very real power of your thoughts, bend your life's energy so that it flows ever forward.

There is enough time and there are plenty of resources for creating true greatness on your own terms. Fully feel the possibilities and bring them steadily to life.

Make thankful use of what you have when you have it. Focus what is, through your imagination, into the best of what you know you can be.

See the immense value of who you are and what you have right now. Transform that value into a living expression now, and it will always be with you.

Doing Your Best

Jeffrey Gitomer - A Motivator.

Feel Encouraged by Ralph Marson, The world will not always offer you encouragement. Often you must supply your own.

Many times you'll have good reason to feel sorry for yourself. Yet you can just easily choose to feel encouraged about yourself.

Reach deep inside and find the goodness that is always there, the goodness you may have forgotten about. Feel the positive purpose that nothing can take away from you.

You are worthy and relevant, effective and capable of the very best. Remind yourself often.

Keep in mind that every disappointment is temporary. Every frustration can be overcome.

There is every reason to persist, to endure and to move forward with the most positive of expectations. Because deep within, you know you can.

Positive Mental Attitude

Napoleon Hill - An American Author.

Napoleon Hill was an American Author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. "What the mind man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's Hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books.

How to Break the Worry Habit

Norman Vincent Peale - Inspirational writer of a generation

How to Break the Worry Habit, You do not need to be a victim of worry. Reduced to its simplest form, what is worry? It is simply an unhealthy and destructive mental habit. You were not born with the worry habit. You acquired it. And because you can change any habit and any acquired attitude, you can cast worry from your mind. Since aggressive, direct action is essential in the elimination process, there is just one proper time to begin an effective attack on worry, and that is now. So let us start breaking your worry habit at once.

Why should we take the worry problem this seriously? The reason is clearly stated by Dr. Smiley Blanton, eminent psychiatrist, "Anxiety is the great modern plague."

A famous psychologist asserts that "fear is the most disintegrating enemy of human personality," and a prominent physician declares that "worry is the most subtle and destructive of all human diseases." Another physician tells us that thousands of people are ill because of "dammed-up anxiety." These sufferers have been unable to expel their anxieties which have turned inward on the personality, causing many forms of ill-health. The destructive quality of worry is indicated by the fact that the word itself is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to choke." If someone were to put his fingers around your throat and press hard, cutting off the flow of vital power, it would be a dramatic demonstration of what you do to yourself by long-held and habitual worry.

We are told that worry is not infrequently a factor in arthritis. Physicians who have analyzed the causes of this prevalent disease assert that the following factors, at least some of them, are nearly always present in arthritic cases: financial disaster, frustration, tension, apprehension, loneliness, grief, long-held ill will, and habitual worry.

A clinic staff is said to have made a study of one hundred seventy-six American executives of the average age of forty-four years and discovered that one half had high blood pressure, heart disease, or ulcers. It was notable in every case of those thus afflicted that worry was a prominent factor.

The worrier, so it seems, is not likely to live as long as the person who learns to overcome his worries. The Rotarian magazine carried an article entitled "How Long Can You Live?" The author says that the waistline is the measure of your life line. The article also declares that if you want to live long, observe the following rules: (1) Keep calm. (2) Go to church. (3) Eliminate worry.

A survey shows that church members live longer than non-church members. Married people, according to the article, live longer than single people. Perhaps this is because a married couple can divide the worry. When you are single, you have to do it all alone.

A scientific expert on length of life made a study of some 450 people who lived to be one hundred years of age. He found that these people lived long and contented lives for the following reasons: (1) They kept busy. (2) They used moderation in all things. (3) They ate lightly and simply. (4) They got a great deal of fun out of life. (5) They were early to bed and early up. (6) They were free from worry and fear, especially fear of death. (7) They had serene minds and faith in God.

Haven't you often heard a person say, "I am almost sick with worry," and then add with a laugh, "But I guess worry never really makes you ill." But that is where he is wrong. Worry can make you ill.

Dr. George W. Crile, famous American surgeon, said, "We fear not only in our minds but in our hearts, brains, and viscera, that whatever the cause of fear and worry, the effect can always be noted in the cells, tissues, and organs of the body."

But do not be discouraged, for you can overcome your worries.

There is a remedy that will bring you sure relief. It can help you break the worry habit. And the first step to take in breaking it is simply to believe that you can. Whatever you believe you can do, you can do, with God's help.

Here, then, is a practical procedure which will help to eliminate abnormal worry from your experience.

Practice emptying the mind daily. This should be done preferably before retiring at night to avoid the retention by the consciousness of worries while you sleep. During sleep, thoughts tend to sink more deeply into the subconscious. The last five minutes before going to sleep are of extraordinary importance, for in that brief period the mind is most receptive to suggestion. It tends to absorb the last ideas that are entertained in waking consciousness.

Expect the Best and Get It

Norman Vincent Peale - Inspirational writer of a generation

Expect the Best and Get It, "WHY DOES MY boy fail in every job he gets?" asked a puzzled father about his thirty-year-old son.

It was indeed difficult to understand the failure of this young man, for seemingly he had everything. Of good family, his educational and business opportunities were beyond the average. Nevertheless, he had a tragic flair for failure. Everything he touched went wrong. He tried hard enough, yet somehow he missed success. Presently he found an answer, a curiously simple but potent answer. After practicing this newfound secret for a while he lost the flair for failure and acquired the touch of success. His personality began to focus, his powers to fuse.

Not long ago at luncheon I could not help admiring this dynamic man at the height of his power. "You amaze me," I commented. "A few years ago you were failing at everything. Now you have worked up an original idea into a fine business. You are a leader in your community. Please explain this remarkable change in you."

"Really it was quite simple," he replied. "I merely learned the magic of believing. I discovered that if you expect the worst you will get the worst, and if you expect the best you will get the best. It all happened through actually practicing a verse from the Bible."

"And what is that verse?"

"If though canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.' (Mark 9:23) I was brought up in a religious home," he explained, "and heard that verse many times, but it never had any effect upon me. ONe day in your church I heard you emphasize those words in a talk. In a flash of insight I realized that the key I had missed was that my mind wa not trained to believe, to think positively, to have faith in either God or myself. I followed your suggestion of putting myself in God's hands and practiced your outlined techniques of faith. I trained myself to think positively about everything. Along with that I try to live right." He smiled and said, "God and I struck up a partnership. When I adopted that policy, things began to change almost at once for me. I got into the habit of expecting the best, not the worst, and that is the way my affairs have turned out lately. I guess it's a kind of miracle, isn't it?" he asked as he concluded his fascinating story.

How to Create Your Own Happiness

Norman Vincent Peale - Inspirational writer of a generation

How to Create Your Own Happiness, Who decides whether you shall be happy or unhappy? The answer - you do!

A television celebrity had as a guest on his program an aged man. And he was a very rare old man indeed. His remarks were entirely unpremeditated and of course absolutely unrehearsed.

They simply bubbled up out of a personality that was radiant and happy. And whenever he said anything, it was so naive, so apt, that the audience roared with laughter. They loved him. The celebrity was impressed, and enjoyed it with the others.

Finally he asked the old man why he was so happy. "You must have a wonderful secret of happiness," he suggested.

"No," replied the old man, "I haven't any great secret. It's just as plain as the nose on your face. When I get up in the morning," he explained, "I have two choices - either to be happy or to be unhappy, and what do you think I do? I just choose to be happy, and that's all there is to it."

That may seem an oversimplification, and it may appear that the old man was superficial, but I recall that Abraham Lincoln, whom nobody could accuse of being superficial, said that people were just about as happy as they made up their minds to be. You can be unhappy if you want to be. It is the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. Just choose unhappiness. Go around telling yourself that things aren't going well, that nothing is satisfactory, and you can be quite sure of being unhappy. But say to yourself, "Things are going nicely. Life is good. I choose happiness," and you can be quite certain of having your choice.

A Peaceful Mind Generates Power

Norman Vincent Peale - Inspirational writer of a generation

A Peaceful Mind Generates Power, At breakfast in a hotel dining room three of us fell to discussing how well we had slept the night before, a truly momentous topic. One man complained of a sleepless night. He had tossed and turned and was about as exchausted as when he retired. "Guess I'd better stop listening to the news before going to bed,"he observed. "I tuned in last night and sure got an ear full of trouble"

That is quite a phrase, "an ear full of trouble." Little wonder he had a disturbed night. "Maybe the coffee I drank before retiring had something to do with it, " he mused.

The other man spoke up, "As for me, I had a grand night, I got my news from the evening paper and from an early broadcast and had a chance to digest it before I went to sleep. Of course," he had a chance to digest it before I went to sleep. Of course, " he continued, "I used my go-to-sleep plan which never fails to work."

I prodded him for his plan, which he explained as follows: "When I was a boy, my father, a farmer, had the habit of gathering the family in the parlor at bedtime and he read to us out of the Bible. I can hear him yet. In fact, every time I hear those Bible verses I always seem to hear them in the tone of my father's voice. After prayers I would go up to my room and sleep like a top. But when I left home I got away from the Bible reading and prayer habit.

"I must admit that for years practically the only time I ever prayed was when I got into a jam. But some months ago my wife and I, having a number of difficult problems, decided we would try it again. We found it a very helpful practice, so now every night before going to bed she and I together read the Bible and have a little session of prayer. I don't know what there is about it, but I have been sleeping better and things have improved all down the line. In fact, I find it so helpful that even out on the road, as I am now, I still read the Bible and pray. Last night I got into bed and read the 23rd Psalm. I read it out loud and it did me a lot of good."

He turned to the other man and said, "I didn't go to bed with an ear full of trouble. I went to sleep with a mind full of peace."

Well, there are two cryptic phrases for you - "an ear full of trouble" and "a mind full of peace." Which do you choose?

The essence of the secret lies in a change of mental attitude. One must learn to live on a different thought basis, and even though thought change requires effort, it is much easier than to continue living as you are. The life of strain is difficult. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. The chief struggle then in gaining mental peace is the effort of revamping your thinking to the relaxed attitude of acceptance of God's gift of peace.

As an illlustration of taking a relaxed attitude and therefore receiving peace, I always think of an experience in a certain city where I lectured one evening. Prior to going on the platform I was sitting backstage going over my speech when a man approached and wanted to discuss a personal problem.

I informed him that at the moment it was impossible to talk as I was just about to noticed him in the wings nervously pacing up and down, but afterward he was nowhere about. However, he had given me his card, which indicated that he was a man of considerable influence in that city.

Back at my hotel, although it was late, I was still troubled by this man so I telephoned him. He was surprised at my call and explained that he did not wait because obviously I was busy. "I just wanted you to pray with me," he said. " I thought if you would pray with me, perhaps I could get some peace."

"There is nothing to prevent us from praying together on the telephone right now," I said.

Somewhat in surprise, he replied, " I have never heard of praying on the telephone. "

"Why not?" I asked. "A telephone is simply a gadget of communication. You are some blocks from me, but by means of the telephone we are together. Besides, " I continued, " the Lord is with each of us. He is at the both ends of this line and between. He is with you and He is with me."

"All right," he conceded. " I'd like to have you pray for me." So I closed my eyes and prayed for the man over the telepone, and I prayed just as though we were in the same room. He could hear and the Lord could hear. When I finished I suggested, "Won't you pray?" There was no response. Then at the other end of the line I heard sobbing and finally, " I can't talk, " he said.

" Go on and cry for a minuete or two and then pray," I suggested.

"Simply tell the Lord everything that is bothering you. I assume this is a private line, but if not, and if anybody is listening, it won't matter. As far as anyone is concerned, we are just a couple of voices. Nobody would know it is you and I."

Believe in Yourself

Norman Vincent Peale - Inspirational writer of a generation

Believe in Yourself, Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. But with sound self-confidence you can succeed. A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful achievement.

It is appalling to realize the number of pathetic people who are hampered and made miserable by the malady popularly called the inferiority complex. But you need not to suffer from this trouble. When proper steps are taken, it can be overcome. You can develop creative faith in yourself - faith that is justified.

After speaking to a convention of businessmen in a city auditorium, I was on the stage greeting people when a man approached me and with a peculiar intensity of manner asked, "May I talk with you about a matter of desperate importance to me?"

I asked him to remain until the others had gone, then we went backstage and sat down.

"I'm in this town to handle the most important business deal of my life," he explained. "If I succeed, it means everything to me. If I fail, I'm done for."

I suggested that he relax a little, that nothing was quite that final. If he succeeded, that was fine. If he didn't, well, tomorrow was another day.

"I have a terrible disbelief in myself," he said dejectedly. "I have no confidence. I just don't believe I can put it over. I am very discouraged and depressed. In fact, " he lamented, "I'm just about sunk. Here I am, forty years old. Why is that all my life I have been tormented by inferiority feelings, by lack of confidence, by self-doubt? I listened to your speech tonight in which you talked about the power of positive thinking, and I want to ask how I can get some faith in myself."

"There are two steps to take," I replied, "First, it is important to discover why you have these feelings of no power. That requires analysis and will take time. We must approach the maladies of our emotional life as a physician probes to find something wrong physically. This cannot be done immediately, certainly not in our brief interview tonight, and it may require treatment to reach a permanent solution. But to pull you through this immediate problem I shall give you a formula which will work if you use it.

"As you walk down the street tonight I suggest that you repeat certain words which I shall give you. Say them over several times after you get into bed. When you awaken tomorrow, repeat them three times before arising. On the way to your important appointment say them three additional times. Do this with an attitude of faith and you will receive sufficient strength and ability to deal with this problem. Later, if you wish, we can go into an analysis of your basic problem, but whatever we come up with following that study, the formula which I am now going to give you can be a large factor in the eventual cure."

Following is the affirmation which I gave him - "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13) He was unfamiliar with these words so I wrote them on a card and had him read them over three times aloud.

"Now, follow that prescriptions, and I am sure things will come out all night."

He pulled himself up, stood quietly for a moment, then said with considerable feeling, "O.K., Doctor. O.K."

I watched him square his shoulders and walk out into the night. He seemed a pathetic figure, and yet the way he carried himself as he disappeared showed that faith was already at work in his mind.

Subsequently he reported that this simple formula "did wonders" for him and added, "It seems incredible that a few words from the Bible could do so much for a person."