Hey LTW Family!! Recently I finished a great book – The Magic of Thinking Big. I highlighted so much of this book and we will be reading it with the team.

This particular section was extremely powerful (especially in our current world) so I wanted to share the notes with you. Interesting that this was written in 1959 and it STILL applies to modern time.

I’ve found that some of the best books have timeless advice and this book is one of them.

  • Fear is real. Fear is success enemy number one. Fear stops people from capitalizing on opportunity; fear wears down physical vitality; fear actually makes people sick, causes organic difficulties, shortens life, fear closes your mouth when you want to speak.
  • Fear – uncertainty, lack of confidence – explains why we still have economic recessions. Fear explains why millions of people accomplish little and enjoy little. Truly, fear is a powerful force. In one way or another fear prevents people from getting what they want in life.
  • All confidence is acquired. It’s developed. No one is born with confidence. Those people you know who radiate confidence, who have conquered worry, who are at ease everywhere and all the time, acquired their confidence, every bit of it. You can too!
  • Jot this down – ACTION CURES FEAR.

Here are two specific things you can do to build your confidence…

  • #1) Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Let’s face it squarely, everyone encounters plenty of unpleasant, embarrassing and discouraging situations. But successful people and unsuccessful people deal with them in opposite ways. Unsuccessful people take them to heart. They dwell on unpleasant situations, thereby implanting them in their memory.
  • Confident, successful people, on the other hand “don’t give it another thought.” Successful people specialize in putting positive thoughts into their memory bank.
  • Here’s an excellent plan. Just before you go to sleep, deposit good thoughts in your memory bank. Count your blessings. Recall the many good things you have to be thankful for – your wife or husband, your children, your friends, your health. Recall the good things you saw people do today. Recall your little victories and accomplishments. Go over the reasons why you are glad to be alive
  • #2) Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank. Most individuals I try to help are operating their own museum of mental horror. My clients obviously cannot see where their trouble lies. It’s my job to uncover and explain the source of their difficulty to them and help them to see what a triviality it is.
  • A person can make a mental monster out of almost any unpleasant happening. A job failure, a jilted romance, a bad investment, disappointment in the behavior of teenage children – these are common monsters I have helped people to destroy.
  • I’ve learned that any negative thought, if fertilized with repeated recall, can develop into a real mind monster, breaking down confidence and paving the way to serious physiological damage.
  • Don’t build mental monsters. Refuse to withdraw the unpleasant thoughts from your memory bank. When you remember situations of any kind, concentrate on the good part of the experience, forget the bad. Bury it.

If you enjoyed these books notes and would like me to post more, let me know in the comments below!