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The Power Of Positive Thinking
Highlights
The Power Of Positive Thinking: Book Review
The Power Of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale contains encouraging and positive suggestions that we, as a reader, can use to our benefit.
Being a preacher by profession, he has a lot of knowledge and guides the reader to overcome the mentality of defeat and transform the thoughts for better use. He has mentioned many experiences and events he witnessed in his lifetime as evidence for his suggestions, and I believe these events are credible.
When you read The Power Of Positive Thinking, you will find different topics serving you in polishing your thinking. Reading these topics was quite an experience, and I recommend you read them sincerely and with an open mind.
You might pick a topic or two which can help you.
The whole purpose of picking up The Power Of Positive Thinking is to unleash the hidden power inside you, entrapped under a lot of nervousness and fear of failure.
Reading up on the solutions that can make a difference in your life feels exciting. I am sure you will voluntarily devote extra time to coming up with solutions based on this book’s principles to tackle the problem you are facing.
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The Power Of Positive Thinking: Book Summary in 3 sentences
- Your mind can shape your future.
- Do not worry about the things that are out of your control.
- Success is a habit. You have to slowly build it.
Who Should Read It?
This is a all season book. If you are into reading, you should pick up this book atleast once in your lifetime.
Top 3 Quotes
- Learn to expect, not to doubt.
- Attitudes are more important than facts.
- A man who is selfreliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes his work with the assurance of success magnetizes his condition. He draws to himself the creative powers of the universe.
The Power Of Positive Thinking Notes
1. Believe in yourself
- Develop the habit of confidence and doing everything with interest.
- Fill your mind with positive thoughts.
Think defeat and you are bound to feel defeated. But practice thinking confident thoughts, make it a dominating habit, and you will develop such a strong sense of capacity that regardless of what difficulties arise you will be able to overcome them.
- Have faith in what you are doing and utilise your mind to do tasks with best of your ability. The “Can Do” Attitude is missing a lot these days and we just need to have a proper mental approach and a good utilisation of time at our hand to deliver on our needs.
- Like any other habit, it is crucial to develop the habit of thinking positively in tough situations as this habit enables you to look for the solution rather sit and fret about the loss and the pain.
- Find some interesting methods at the end of this chapter.
2. A Peaceful Mind Generates Power
- Learn to calm your mind by using motivational phrases or discussing things with people that care about you.
- A suggestion recommended in this chapter is to practise emptying the mind at least twice a day. This is rather new but an intriguing suggestions as to visualising yourself emptying your mind with negative thoughts which can cause harm to your thought process and your body.
- Use positive and affirmative words to create a serene environment and mentality.
- Another suggestion in this chapter is to practise suggestive articulation. In this habit, you frequently repeat positive words that create a positive effect on your mind. I found this suggestion to be of particularly useful as this is based on the concept of autosuggestions where you feed your mind with things you expect for yourself and then you work your way towards it
There are other practical ways by which you can develop serenity and quite attitudes. One way is through your conversation. Depending upon the words we use and the tone in which we use them, we can talk ourselves into being nervous, high strung and upset. We can talk ourselves into either negative or positive results. By our speech we can also achieve quite reactions. Talk peaceful to be peaceful.
- Remember the beautiful moments that bring peace to you.
3. How to Have Constant Energy
This chapter is a collection of the scientific ideas along with the involvement of spirituality. According to the author, a balance of these two can assist in having a great supply of energy that is required to fulfil our tasks.
- Understand the source of the infinite energy exists and can be achieved by being a spiritual individual. Align your thoughts to think positive and exciting things to keep your brain active.
How we think we feel has a definite effect on how we actually feel physically. If your mind tells you that you are tired, the body mechanism, the nerves, and the muscle accepts the fact.
- Connect yourself with the supreme force by constant interaction with it through your prayers.
- Relax and enjoy after a good quality of work, recharge yourself.
Our physical condition is determined very largely by our emotional condition, and our emotional life is profoundly regulated by our thought life.
- Be excited in doing what you do. Find interesting work for you.
The surest way not to become tired is to lose yourself in something in which you have a profound conviction.
The above idea is experienced by everyone reading this blog. You must remember those times when you were so deeply engaged in a task that you lost track of your time. Such kind of activity is where your interest falls.
Get interested in something. Get absolutely enthralled in something. Throw yourself into it with abandon. Get out of yourself. Be somebody. Do something. Don’t sit around moaning about things, reading the paper and saying, “Why don’t they do something?” The man who is out doing something isn’t tired. You’re disintegrating. You’re deteriorating. You’re dying on the vine. The more your lose yourself in something bigger than yourself. the more energy you will have. You don’t have time to think about yourself and get bogged down in your emotional difficulties.
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4. Try Prayer Power
In this chapter, you will discover the power that your prayer contains. The author being a clergyman has so much faith in this mechanism but also the events provided here supports various claims of his. To be honest I am not actively involved in regular prayers, but this chapter has compelled me to at least experiment it.
You can check out some of the methods to apply them in real life.
- Prayers possess great power when done regularly and with a clean mind.
- Set aside a few minutes everyday. Do not say anything. Simply practice thinking about God. This will make your mind spiritually receptive.
- Do not pray only in time of failure. Make the habit a regular part. In prosperity and in trouble.
5. How To Create Your Happiness
- You are the manufacturer of your own happiness. How you feel is the manifestation of the thoughts within your mind. This chapter spreads the message similar to the one in As a Man thinketh, which proposes that, whatever you think about, gets manifested into reality.
- Say out the following words before getting up from bed. Start your day with a positive tone and you will see the difference for yourself. I too find this technique to be of great value. And I make it a habit to read some positive texts early in the morning.
I believe this is going to be a wonderful day. I believe I can successfully handle all problems that will arise today. I feel good physically, mentally, emotionally It is wonderful to be alive. I am grateful for all that I have had, for all that I now have, and for all that I shall have. Things aren’t going to fall apart. God is here and He is with me and He will see me through. I thank God for every good thing.
- You have the capacity to decide how you wish to act. The mood is dependent on your thoughts. Make sure they are the positive ones.
6. Stop Fuming and Fretting
- Live your life at your own pace. We have been trained to become the best. Do more and more things and be at the top. But this comes with some problems also. Unwanted pace in life can create unwanted obstacles which can negatively impact you. Take it slow.
Many people are destroying their physical bodies by this pace, but what is even more tragic, they are tearing their minds and souls to shreds as well. It is possible for a person to live a quiet existence physically and yet maintain a high tempo emotionally.
- Slow down and cherish the important moments in life.Do not overwork yourself.
I have a bookmark that says,” Do things at your own pace. Life is not a race.” I think this perfectly sums up this chapter and offers you the idea to take things slowly and enjoying as you go along.
One way to do this is to sit quietly and pass a series of peaceful thoughts through the mind. For example, pass through the thoughts the memory of a lofty mountain, a misty valley, a sun-speckled trout stream, silver moonlight on water.
7. Expect The Best And Get It
- Always think about the outcome you looking for. Do not think about the failure as it will prevent you from using all your resources to make it successful.
This is a new idea for thinking as I myself have been trained to chalk out the “what ifs” of any project and I think this type of process can help me eliminate many moments where I get bogged down due to the visualisations of those what ifs.
- Have faith on your work and put efforts that can add value to your work.
Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that insures the successful outcome of your venture.
- How To Learn To Expect: A major key to success in this life, to attaining that which you deeply desire, is to be completely released and throw all there is of yourself into your job or any project in which you are engaged. In other words, whatever you are doing, give it all you’ve got. Give every bit of yourself. Hold nothing back. Life cannot deny itself to the person who gives life his all. But most people, unfortunately, don’t do that. In fact, very few people do, and this is a tragic cause of failure, or, if not failure, it is the reason we only half attain.
You can reach your goal, your best dreams can come true, you can get where you want to go only if you know what your goal is. Your expectation must have a clearly defined objective. Lots of people get nowhere simply because they do not know where they want to go. They have no clear-cut, precisely defined purpose. You cannot expect the best if you think aimlessly.
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8. I Don't Believe in Defeat
- Stand up to the obstacles and face it with full force.
Don't go crawling through life on your hands and knees half-defeated. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.
- Build your attitude to never succumb to the defeat. Condition your mind to find the solutions not further problems.
- You’re defeat attitude is guided by your thoughts in subconscious which are actively being passed on from your conscious thoughts. Practise saying positive words over and over again.
9. How To Break The Worry Habit
- Your habit of worry affects your body and your health.
- Worry has been found as one of the many causes of physical problems such as arthritis.
- Program your mind to voluntarily remove the worries and fear from your mind and fill it with more appealing and influential thoughts.
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.
- Surround yourself with bright people who involve in positive and progressive conversation.
- Make a daily ritual of ending your day and not thinking about it and taking it to the next day.
10. Power To Solve Personal Problems
- The solutions to your problems lie in within yourself.
- Actualise a plan and work on it for solving a problem.
- Keep calm. Tension blocks the flow of thought power. Your brain cannot operate efficiently under stress. Go at your problem easy-like.
11. When Vitality Sags, Try This Health Formula
- A third of the illness in the world is due to the misguided emotions.
- If you are able to manage and streamline your emotions, many of the prevailing diseases would not happen to you.
- Deep rooted negative emotions can often manifest itself into a physical disease.
- Let go of the anger and envious emotions to keep yourself healthy.
12. Inflow Of New Thoughts Can Remake You
- You act according to the mental state of your body. Mind filled with positivity creates a positive atmosphere around you and vice versa.
- Use positive and motivated statement in verbal discussions to allow your subconscious mind to act the same. Fill your mind with fresh, new creative thoughts of faith, love, and goodness.
When you read some of the texts in this book, it mentions about the benefits of being religiously inclined, having faith in God and I know some will not buy it. And that is fine. But maybe, just maybe, this is the type of the thing that the author is trying to say in this chapter. Even if you do not believe it and that is completely alright but you still can find some new ideas which can help in your life. It doesn’t hurt to try. Does it?
- Do not feel defeated with your work. Analyse the situation and determine what more could be done from the existing work. Find out the positives.
- Avoid arguments, but whenever a negative attitude is expressed, counter with a positive and optimistic opinion.
The secret of a better and more successful life is to cast out those old, dead, unhealthy thoughts. Substitute for them new, vital, dynamic faith thoughts.
13. Relax For Easy Power
- The rush and the speed in life has made people forget to relax. People no longer have any time for themselves and their body. This leads to the development of mental and physical disorders for the human body.
- Practise the art of relaxing. Consciously decide to take out time for giving rest to the body, thinking about the good things in life and being grateful for them.
Plan your work- work your plan. Lack of system produces that “I’m Swamped” feeling.
The similar thought can be found in the Atomic Habit book, where you will find the benefits of having a well constructed system that will improve your productivity.
- Don’t try to do everything at once. Do not press yourself into over doing. This can cause fatigue and tiredness.
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14. How To Get People To Like You
One of the deepest drives of human nature is the desire to be appreciated.
- Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing.
- Acquire the qualities of relaxed easy-goingness so that things do not ruffle you.
- Don’t be egotistical. Guard against giving impression that you know it all. Be naturally and normally humble.
If you have gone through life up to this point without having established satisfactory human relationships, do not assume that you cannot change, but it will be necessary to take very definite steps toward solving your problem.
Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
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