A friend asked me where to find ideas on building self confidence, something most of us can use. Therefore I wrote down the following notes from The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. These are just reminders of what the original says much better, so check out the original. They are part of an overall thought management program (p. 22) that Schwartz recommends for achieving self confidence and success.
p. 17-22
“Your mind is a thought factory … producing countless thoughts in one day.” Mr. Triumph is the foreman who “specializes in producing reasons why you can, why you’re qualified, why you will.” Mr. Defeat produces negative thoughts. “All you need to do to signal either foreman is to give the slightest mental beck-and-call. If the signal is positive Mr. Triump will step forward and go to work.” “He’ll show you how to succeed.” “The more work you give either of these two foreman, the stronger he becomes … and takes up more space in your mind.”
“Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are.”
“Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do.”
Belief can be summed up briefly as a thought in your mind. (1) Another way to say this is that a belief is a thought, fertilized by repetition, that is not resisted by another thought or feeling.
p. 27-28
“Intelligence excusitis or ‘I lack brains’ is common. In fact, it’s so common that perhaps as many as 95 per cent of the people around us have it in varying degrees.” “Not many will admit openly … Rather , they feel it deep down inside.”
“We underestimate our own brain power, and we overestimate the other fellow’s brain power. Because of these errors many people sell themselves short.” “What really matters is not how much intelligence you have but how you use what you do have.”
“Many of the most important people in history had an IQ of no higher than average. Their achievements and greatness were due to their ability to use and direct their mental powers. They had superior PMA quotients! You have unlimited mental capacities, but it is up to you to use this power of your mind to think positively, so that they all work to your advantage.”
p. 27 Napoleon Hill’s Keys to Positive Thinking
p. 31
“Don’t sell yourself short. … Manage your brains instead of worrying about how much IQ you’ve got.”
“Remind yourself several times daily, ‘My attitudes are more important than my intelligence.’”
p.29
“The real reason is attitudes” per the director of Admissions from a large college who was asked why only 50% graduate from college.
“It’s a rare case when we pass up a young fellow because he lacks brains. Nearly always it’s attitude.” per a business executive explaining why the door to top-flight executive positions is closed to many young junior executives.
p.30
From studying thousands of personnel files to determine why the top 25% of insurance agents sold 75% and the bottom 25% sold 5% … “the difference finally reduced to differences in attitudes, or thought management. The top group worried less, was more enthusiastic, had a sincere liking for people.”
“We can’t do much to change the native ability, but we can certainly change the way we use what we have.”
“Never build a case against yourself.” link This statement helped Norman Vincent Peal “realize I was going at life with an entirely wrong attitude, one that could only end in a negative result. Therefore, I decided to do a mental about-face.”
p. 40-44
“Much lack of self confidence can be traced directly to mis-managed memory. Your mind is very much like a bank. Every day you make thought deposits in your mind bank. These thought deposits grow and become your memory”
“1. Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank.”
“2. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank.”
“It is clear 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 psychological difficulties.”
“Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition” p. 24.
p. 91-93
Build your own ’sell yourself on yourself’ 60-second commercial and then use it resell yourself on yourself three times daily. The half-alive person is no longer sold on his most important product, himself. He needs to be resold on himself.
“The people who make Coca Cola are continually reselling you on Coke and for a good reason. If they stopped reselling you , chances are you’d grow luke-warm and eventually cold to Coke.” “But the Coca Cola company isn’t going to let this happen. They resell you and resell you and resell you on Coke.”
p. 100
“Birds of a feather do flock together.” “Be sure you’re in the flock that thinks right.”
“Don’t let negative thinkers pull you down to their level.” Often their remarks “are merely a projection of the speaker’s own feeling of failure and discouragement.”
“Be careful about your source of advice.”
related posts:
book: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwarz repeats some sections above since confidence is one of the themes of the book.
notes:
1. p. 5 The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
