Chapter 5
- The Great Truth
- Learn What You Need
- You Are Responsible
- All Causation Is Mental
- The Law Of Belief
- The Law Of Expectations
- The Law Of Attraction
- The Law Of Correspondence
- Take Charge Of Your Life
- It’s A Wonderful World
- Action Exercise
The Great Truth
“You can learn anything you need to learn, to accomplish any goal you can set for yourself.”
Generally speaking, no one is smarter than you, and no one is better than you. Just because someone is doing better than you doesn’t mean that he is better than you. It usually means that he has just learned how to succeed in his particular field before you have. (77)
Learn What You Need
Every time I entered into a new field, I went out and learned everything I possibly could about that field., and then applied it as fast as I could. At first, I checked out the books from the local library. Then, I bought my own books and built my own library. I listened to every audiocassette I could but on the subject, and attended every seminar. (78)
I became devoted to the concept of learning. (78)
The Great Mystery
Most people, by their own admission, were working at jobs they didn’t like, earning salaries far below their potentials, staying in relationships they didn’t enjoy, and living lives that gave them no satisfaction.
Feeling Trapped
People feel that they can’t lose weight, can’t get a better job, can’t improve or change their relationships, can’t increase their incomes, can’t upgrade their knowledge and skills, and can’t do many other things that they really want to. They have tried unsuccessfully so many times in the past that they have come to conclude automatically that there is very little they can do to change the future. They become passive and accepting of their situations.
Their lives consist of getting up in the morning, going to work, socializing a bit, coming home, eating dinner, watching television for four or five hours, and then going off to bed.
Neutralizing Your Fears
The antidotes to fear and ignorance are desire and knowledge. The only real limitation on what you can accomplish is the level of intensity of your desire. If you really want something badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve. And the more you learn about any subject, the greater will be your desire to accomplish something in your area. As your knowledge grows, you become more confident in taking the necessary steps to make your goals a reality.
If you believe you can do a thing, or you believe you cannot, in either case, you are probably right.
You Are Responsible
My first big breakthrough in life came when I discovered that I could learn anything I needed to learn achieve any goal I could set for myself. My second breakthrough was when I realized that I was completely responsible for myself and everything that happened to me. No one was going to do anything for me. If I wanted something, it was completely up to me to do whatever was necessary to get it.
All Causation Is Mental
My third breakthrough came when I learned that all causation is mental. Everything you create in your material world begins with a thought of some kind. If you want to change something on the outside, you have to begin by changing it first on the inside. You have to change your thinking if you want to change your life. This is the greatest discovery of all.
You create your world with the continuous stream of thoughts, feelings, and images passing through your own mind. You control and determine your future by the thoughts you think in the present. Nothing around you has any meaning except for the meaning you give it by the thoughts and emotions you attach to it. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
The Law Of Belief
Remember, whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.
If you absolutely believe that you are a good person with tremendous abilities and that you are going to do remarkable things with your life, that belief will express itself through all your actions and will eventually become your reality. The biggest responsibility you have to yourself is to change your beliefs on the inside so that they are consistent with the realities you wish to enjoy on the outside.
You always express your true values in your actions.
By using the Law of Reversibility, you can develop within yourself the values, beliefs, and qualities you most admire by acting as if you already had them, whenever they are called for by the circumstances of your life.
The Law Of Expectations
The Law of Expectations says that whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy. You are continually telling your own fortune when you talk about how you think things are going to turn out in a particular area. Your expectations then determine your attitude, and your attitude causes people to behave toward you in a way that reflects what you are thinking inside. (84)
If you expect to be successful, you will eventually be successful. If you expect to be happy and popular, you will be happy and popular. If you expect to be healthy and prosperous, admired and respected by the people around you, that is what will happen.
You can tell your true expectations by listening to the words you use to describe an upcoming event. Always think and talk positively about the future. Start every morning by saying, “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.” Then throughout the day, expect the best. Be open and alert to the possibility that each thing that happens, positive or negative, contains something good. You will be amazed at the effect this approach to life has on your attitude, and on the way you are treated by the people around you.
The Law Of Attraction
The Law of Attraction is considered by many people to be the most important law of all in explaining both success and failure. This law says that you are a “living magnet” and that you inevitably attract the people and circumstances into your life that harmonize with your dominant thoughts, especially those thoughts that you emotionalize strongly.
By this law, or natural force, the more you think about something you want, the more excited you will become about achieving it. The more excited or convinced you become, the more you will attract that goal into your life,
like a magnet that attracts iron filings. Your thoughts will create a force field of energy that will attract the people, circumstances, ideas, opportunities, and resources that you need to achieve your goals.
When you change your thinking about yourself and your possibilities, you will attract into your life the forces necessary to turn those big thoughts and ideas into real-life experiences.
The Law Of Correspondence
This law says your outer world corresponds to your inner world, that what you experience on the outside is a reflection of your inner world.
To have happier relationships, you must become a more loving person, not in thought alone, but genuinely, in your heart. As you become a more loving person on the inside, your outer world of relationships will change, and sometimes immediately. To become more financially prosperous on the outside, you must become more prosperous on the inside. To be healthier and fitter in your body, you must think like a healthy and fit person in your mind.
“The greatest revolution of my generation is the discovery that individuals, by changing their inner attitudes of mind, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
Take Charge Of Your Life
There is only one thing over which you have complete control, and that is the content of your mind. Only you can decide what you are going to think, and how you are going to think about it.
This power, this control, is all you need to create a wonderful life for yourself.
The Law of Belief, Expectations, Attraction, and Correspondence, used consciously and deliberately , are the keys to your accomplishing wonderful things in your life. When you begin to change your thinking about your goals and possibilities, your beliefs and actions will change. You will find yourself doing more of the things you need to do to make your dreams come true.
It’s A Wonderful World
There are no limits to what you can accomplish except for the limits that you put on yourself with your own thinking. (87)
You translate your dreams into concrete realities by turning them into goals. You decide exactly what you want, write it down, set a deadline, and determine the efforts you are going to have to make to achieve it. Make written plans of action to achieve your goal and then do something every day to move toward it. Resolve in advance that you will never give up.
When I began to set goals and make plans for their accomplishment, I felt in control of my life and my future. When I began learning what I needed to know to achieve my goals, I felt more confident and competent in other parts of my life as well.
Action Exercise
1. Resolve today to accept 100 percent responsibility for everything you are or will ever be. Instead of making excuses, decide to make progress.
2. Identify one area where you use the words “I can’t” when you think of the need to change or do something different. Now imagine that your limitations in that area are all in your mind.
3. In what parts of your life have you become comfortable, so much that you resist change, even if it would be an improvement? What could you do to get out of this comfort zone?
4. Identify one area where fear and doubt are holding you back from doing something that you want to do. Imagine that you were absolutely guaranteed success in that area. What would you do differently?
5. What are your favourite excuses for not making the decisions or taking the actions you need to if you want to achieve al your goals? What if your excuses were not true?
6. Desire and knowledge are the antidotes to fear and doubt. What could you do immediately to increase your knowledge in an area where you want to take action?
7. Identify one key area of your life that you have created with your own thinking. How could you change your thinking in that area to be more successful?