Dr. Norman Vincent Peale – Enthusiasm Makes the Difference
Gurikos Notes
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Positive thinking is how you think about a problem.
Enthusiasm is how you feel about a problem.
And the two together determine what you do about a problem.
Dedicated to:
Barack Obama
Quintus Curtius
Mike Cernovich
Scott Adams
Who is Norman Vincent Peale?
Norman Vincent Peale is one of the most influential clergymen of his time, is the author of forty-six books, including the international bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking. Dr. Peale's legacy continues today through the Peale Center for Christian Living, the Outreach Division of Guideposts.
Why did you decide to make this thread?
Two years have passed since I have first discovered the Red Pill, the Manosphere and the Alt-Right. A lot of things have changed since then; I’ve changed in a lot ways since then. It’s been and continues to be a wild ride, thanks to you.
I read a lot, weight-lifted a lot, polished up my relationships, started to dress properly and studied dutifully to become a Man worthy of the word. But something was missing in my life. My body was trained, my skull in order, my heart in the right place but I was lacking something.
I could feel it on my lips but I couldn’t spell it out, I could feel it tingling within my mind but I could not visualize it, it was a maddening feeling with which I learned to live until I saw myself in the mirror one day while I was shaving. I did not see myself as much as I took a deep gaze into myself and it struck me – my eyes were cold as ice. They were alive but dead at the same time. I saw no spark, no fire, I only saw nothingness.
I lacked enthusiasm. There was no project on my schedule which made me jump up at 4 AM in the morning with joy. No adrenaline inducing task which would make my juices go flowing into overdrive as my heart tried to pump with fervor.
I’ve remembered Thoreau and laughed at myself and my situation as I’ve been living a life of quiet desperation. Not anymore. I sat down before my computer, half shaven, with water droplets dropping onto my desk and making a mess, and typed into Amazon the word ‘enthusiasm’.
Enthusiasm Makes the Difference by Norman Vincent Peale was the first hit on the list. I’ve acquired it without really researching if it was a good book and started reading immediately.
Automatically I started taking notes. More and more notes until I’ve finished up with the text you are seeing before you right now. Why? Honestly, just, because. I got sucked in, I felt a connection, I just started doing and did not start asking questions of the ‘why’ kind.
Funny story actually because as I was plowing through this book I also read MAGA Mindset: Making You and America Great Again by our very own Mike Cernovich and not long before I read How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind Of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame in which he espouses the positive effect of affirmations.
Why is it a funny story? Because after I started writing down my affirmations I reread The Art of the Deal by The Don.
Here is a quote from MAGA Mindset which I will use to illustrate as to why Norman Vincent Peale’s books (and my notes) can and will be of use to you for your life.
As one of the world’s few experts on mindset, I recognized Trump’s behavior during the Republican primaries was not random, as many pundits had erroneously claimed, but in fact was based on a deep background in mindset.
Later evidence confirmed that this was the case, as during a campaign speech in Iowa, Trump mentioned that he had studied under, and attended church with, Norman Vincent Peale, the ground-breaking author of The Power of Positive Thinking.
Trump’s mindset training began at an early age, as he grew up in the Presbyterian Church during the positive thinking movement led by Peale. In a speech during the Iowa primary campaign, Trump told the audience: “I went to Sunday school. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking, was my pastor. To this day one of the great speakers I’ve seen. You hated to leave church. You hated when the sermon was over. That’s how great he was at Marble Collegiate Church.”
I never heard of Norman Vincent Peale before and now I find his writings after needing a big dose of energy and here I am reading in another bestseller released days ago in which I discover how heavily The Don supposedly was influenced by the teachings of Mr. Peale.
Coincidence, luck, mere chance? Probably, but I like to think otherwise. It makes for a nice, little, funny story. And we all love nice, little, funny stories.
I believe this booklet to be a tremendous work of practical art and importance. It lit up a fire under my ass which keeps me MAGA levels of energized.
It is my sincerest hope that it will also serve as a spark for you to get up from your ass and do that project you’ve been delaying off due to reasons.
Norman Vincent Peale is a clergyman and God, Jesus, Christianity and patriotism are his favorite cup of tea. If they are not yours I (and he) respect that. Replace God with the Universe, Jesus Christ with the Energy of the Universe and Christianity with the Way. You can’t replace America though, ha-ha, nothing can for Freedom itself is irreplaceable.
This book and my notes are not meant to convert or preach but to offer help and support.
Why should I read your notes? Why shouldn’t I just read the book instead?
You should read the book. Go read the book. Honestly. It’s fantastic.
I made the notes for myself to find certain passages within the text that I find truly inspiring and have helped me push through difficult days.
Three chapters I’ve literally retyped word, by word because I was astonished at how much the problems stayed the same even though almost half a century passed since then. You’ll recognize them by the phrase ‘Important!’
The History of Humankind is truly a Circle, a Cycle. Everything stems from the fact that the Left/Globalists are always attacking and demanding while the Right/Nationalists are defending and giving.
Mike Cernovich explains our current quagmire succinctly in his article titled ‘Why the Left has been Winning and How to Beat them’.
It’s time to flip the script. It’s time to start attacking, start demanding, start pushing because if there is one thing I’ve learned after reading this book is that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE (Free Speech is also not free, remember?), it must be fought for over and over again.
It’s a never ending cycle we’ll have to accept lest we get pushed into oblivion by the lunatics which are the Left/Globalists.
At the end of my notes you will see a collection of quotes and works of other authors mentioned within this book.
If you hate everything about my post then I’d recommend to at least give the quotes a try because I’ve been reading and rereading them from the moment I finished the book: they are, simply put, like sparks which kindle the fire within my Soul into a raging inferno which if focused into a laser can tear down any and all enemies on my path, internal and external.
I share my notes with you, fellow RVF Brothers, hoping that they may also help you, even in the smallest of ways. I believe that well applied enthusiasm can help you in every project you decide to undertake: gaming, making money, traveling, job prospects, relationships… everything.
1. What Enthusiasm can do For You
a. Modern Youth in Rebellion
-People nowadays lack drive and vitality --> they have never been awakened.
-Only when one has been awakened can he realize his full potential.
-Enthusiasm makes the difference between success and failure.
-People who achieve most in life are activated by enthusiasm.
-Enthusiasm has never been part of a negative cult.
-Pessimists are eager to be able to say: ‘I told you so.’ Such people seldom if ever are constructive, which could be the reason they hope you won’t be either.
-Enthusiasm breeds faith and faith stimulates action.
b. Little Goals Add Up
-Little goals --> the attainment of one small goal gives a feeling of success and teaches us technique.
-Do not attempt too much too fast, only to end up in defeat and exhaustion.
-Only those who take the chance will ever attain complete creativity.
-Enthusiasm --> lifts living out of the depths and makes it mean something.
c. He could not care less, he said, but he did
-I could not care less --> people who pride themselves on indifference to the normal way of life --> jaded and bored it is their defense against living because life demands total commitment and commitment is apt to bring pain as well as challenge.
-The most important question: ‘What is next?’
-Unsatisfied hunger of humans – the hunger for God.
-Whenever a person consciously or unconsciously desires spiritual rejuvenation and begins working toward it on a simple and genuine basis, amazing things do begin happening.
-Become the ball of fire --> sparked by enthusiasm.
d. Enthusiasm – the Spice of Life
-Basic elements of enthusiasm: heat, intelligence and profound motivation which drives off apathy and cynicism.
-Fight and win over all obstacles and enjoy doing it.
-Do not simply exist – LIVE!
e. Enthusiasm Rebuild a Collapsed Personality
-Spiritual power as a source of living.
2. Enthusiasm that Never Runs Down
-Never call yourself a Nobody!
-Acquire real Enthusiasm and Self-Confidence!
-Anybody can change from a Nobody to an Enthusiastic Somebody.
a. Enthusiasm Will Improve Your Personality
-You can make yourself into an optimist --> you can develop enthusiasm, and of a type that is continuous and joyous in nature.
-KEY POINT!
•A person can make of himself just about what he wants to, provided he wants to badly enough and correctly goes about it.
•Decide specifically what particular characteristic you desire to possess.
•Hold that image firmly in your consciousness.
•Proceed to develop it by acting as if you actually possessed the desired characteristic.
•Believe and repeatedly affirm that you are in the process of self – creating the quality you have undertaken to develop.
-Remember Scott Adams and Mike Cernovich! Self – affirmations and patterns!
-As If principle --> if you want a quality, act as if you already had it --> it is a proven law of human nature that as you imagine yourself to be and as you act on the assumption that you are what you see yourself as being, you will in time strongly tend to become, PROVIDED you persevere in the process --> THE LAW OF SELF-ASSUMED PERSONAL CHANGE!
-If you are afraid --> discipline yourself as if you had courage, if you are tense deliberately act as if calm and assured --> remember Shakespeare and Hamlet (Act III): ‘Assume a virtue if you have it not.’
b. Mental Ventilation Lets in Enthusiasm[/b]
-Importance of Mental Ventilation by Mr. A. E. Russ --> keeping your mind free of darkness is a day to day job: ‘If you allow dark thoughts, regrets, resentments and the like to accumulate, your whole psychology can in time be so adversely affect that a major effort may be required to bring it back to a normal state of balance.’
-[i]Remember Quintus Curtius --> GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT! Physical and mental garbage!
-One can do practically anything he wants with his thoughts provided he consistently continues the effort.
•Lump and dump technique --> empty your mind every day.
•Recapitulate unpleasant incidents that had occurred during the day (from words to acts), review your own mistakes, errors or stupidities; add disappointments, frustrations and every form of unhappiness that had clouded the preceding hours.
•Hold them in a strong mental view --> draw from them all the experience and understanding they can give.
•Lump them together and drop them out of your consciousness.
•Remember Philippians 3:13: ‘Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.’
•Make your mind obey YOU!
c. Tell Yourself All the Good News You Know
-A vital element in developing Enthusiasm --> the manner in which you start the day (remember Scott Adams!).
-That which the minds receives upon awakening tends to influence and to a considerable degree determine what your day will be.
-Before breakfast have quiet time --> read a brief or inspirational piece, followed by three or four minutes of quiet during which you affirm and practice a quiet state of mind --> regardless of how busy program for the day is, in those few minutes no hurry or haste is permitted, EVEN IN THOUGHT! Picture every person you expect to contact during the day and pray or think good thoughts for each one.
d. Every Morning a New Set of Facts
-‘A reversal is not a disaster, merely an incident in a total business career.’
-You get a new set of facts each morning, take them, be happy with them and do something constructive with them.
-Sustaining high – level enthusiasm --> the policy of holding new facts each morning.
-Principle of two handles --> each morning you can either grab hold of the handle of anxiety or enthusiasm --> continued choice of handle determines the character of your multiplying days.
e. How to Have Continuing Enthusiasm
-How to have continuing enthusiasm when life batters you down --> deterioration of life force need not occur --> it only happens if you allow it to happen.
-Nothing can destroy the precious gift of enthusiasm if you do not let it.
-Remember Huxley and carry the spirit of the child into old age!
-It is the rejuvenation of the mind that keeps enthusiasm alive and, as a matter of fact, restrains aging in spirit and mind, perhaps even body.
-Enthusiasm can be perpetual, that it need never run down.
f. Keep the Fire of Enthusiasm Burning Under Your Goals
-Set yourself a goal that you have got to reach and build under it the fire of anticipation and keep it burning --> you will acquire enthusiasm and never lose it for the goal will forever chant: ‘Come and get me,’ until you get it. Then you set a new goal.
-New goals and fresh objective --> self perpetuating motivators of enthusiasm.
-Work like Americans in the Old Days.
-It was aspiration for a better way of life, enthusiasm that never weakened because it was subject to constant renewal.
-Possessed of enthusiasm one is a citizen of the present regardless of how many years he has dwelt upon Earth. Such a vitalized person cannot possibly become a has – been. He is perpetually the is – now type. Remember Mike Cernovich – LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT!
g. Enthusiasm and Finger Lickin’ Good
-Ephesians 4:23: ‘Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’
3. Enthusiastic Persuasion
-Find a Need and Fill It (but also remember Steve Jobs who advocated to Create Needs and Fill Them).
-Become a need – watcher, a situation – handler, a condition – rectifier, a requirement – filler.
-Sales enthusiasm based on a sincere belief, that such goods and services are needed and will meet people’s needs with validity, is the kind of enthusiasm that does succeed, and it is entitled to do. It will succeed if it isn’t overpressed. Overpressing creates resistance. Sincere enthusiasm creates attracts confidence. Remember Donald J. Trump. He always bought things he believed in!
-What you sell you must believe in and it must be right. For if it is not right then it is wrong, not half – right or half – wrong. Get with the right, get with the good.
-A strange fact about human nature – people are not always aware of their needs. Communication and persuasion is required!
-Important! Communication and persuasion – these are the two absolutely essential qualities that every human being must have if he desires to affect the lives of other people; to get them to buy a product, accept an idea, share a conviction or walk with him toward a goal!
a. How to be a Real Salesman
I.Find a need and fill it. It’s pretty hard to sell something that no one needs. Believe that you are selling what people really need.
II.Since you must sell yourself even before selling your goods, it’s important to sell yourself on yourself. So believe in yourself.
III.Want to sell. Get the thrill of selling desirable goods and services.
IV.Get full of enthusiasm, the kind that keeps you excited about your job and about people.
V.Don’t ride enthusiasm so hard that you become offensively high pressure. All that will get you is resistance and no sale.
VI.Develop the powerful motivation that comes from deep inner enthusiasm that never runs down.
VII.Don’t be a half – a – minder. Be an all – out, not a half – out. Give you whole mind, your whole self. That will provide the impact that achieves results – real results.
VIII.Concentrate – think – concentrate – think. Keep your mind working and keep your mind on your selling. Thinking produces ideas and ideas sell.
IX.Learn to communicate. Develop rapport with people. Know people and like them. They will like you and buy what you have to sell.
X.Ask God to guide you in your planning. Then plan your work and work your plan.
XI.Believe that being a salesman is the greatest, most important job in the American economy. Believe that you are a trustee of free enterprise and freedom. Be proud you are a Salesman.
b. Enthusiasm Persuades and Persuasion Sells
-Love your goods. To you they must be the best.
-Be patient and treat your customers well even advising them to make a visit to the competition if you truly cannot accommodate for that will build trust.
-Learn how to sell and keep on selling --> the key is honesty and integrity.
-Do not be a sycophant; communicate with strong mind and will, with enthusiasm, honesty and integrity. Establish yourself as an undisputed preeminence in your field. Then you will become a salesman extraordinaire.
-We live in a world where we sell ideas! Remember Gerry Spence – it’s a war out there! A war about ideas! Pattern!
-Neomasculinity and Gorilla Mindset --> for the preaching and teaching of neomasculinity and Gorilla Mindset as a way of thinking and living is a form of salesmanship. By these approaches one tries to get people to accept the message and persuade them to walk a road of agreement with him.
c. I Sell Aluminum Pots and Pans
d. Enthusiasm and the Good Life
-Mothers and fathers are salespeople, their job being to sell vibrant, creative life to their children. If they do not sell it to them, then some long – haired, sad misfit may sell their children the Big Lie: that the United States and Life itself are big flops and turn them to the LSD route or some other dead – end failure pattern. THIS IS WHAT THE Mainstream Media DOES! Bash and denigrate the idea on which the United States was founded on!
-We are living in a time when many of those who have been favored with education and opportunity, beneficiaries of the wealth and culture produced by centuries of sacrifice and toil, have now concluded that life is meaningless and devoid of value.
e. Takes Guts to Practice Enthusiasm
-Enthusiasm runs contrary to the present day so called American intellectual thought. Believe yourself to be one of the mass of American people whose simple faith is that life can be good.
f. Enthusiasm Equals Love
-How does one have enthusiasm in life? Cultivate the ability to love living! Love people, love the sky under which you live, love beauty and love God! The person who loves becomes enthusiastic, filled with the sparkle and the joy of life. And then he goes on to fill life full of meaning. If you are not enthusiastic, begin today to cultivate the love of living.
-Make people feel that life is good!
-Do not depreciate life by enumerating all the things that are wrong with it. Things are wrong, and something has to be done about them. But focus mentally upon all that is right about life; life is mighty good, a lot better than not having it. A lifetime on this wonderful Earth does not last very long either. It is here today and gone tomorrow. So love it while you can, and be full of enthusiasm.
g. He had Psychosclerosis!
-Psychosclerosis --> the condition of a great many people who have lost their interest and whose thinking has become hard and fixed. One of the greatest antidotes to this disease of the spirit is enthusiasm.
-A lot of people who fail in selling, in management, indeed in any kind of leadership, because they are victims of psychosclerosis, hardening of the thoughts. New methods, progressive ideas, adjustment to changing times and situations just cannot break through rigid old patterns.
-Nobody ever raised money, sold goods, helped anyone get a better life or get a wife who did not ask.
-Remember the Bible: ‘Ask and ye shall receive.’
-Enthusiastic persuasion will never persuade unless and until the objective is definitely sought.
-Direction – purpose – objective --> these are the qualities that measure success.
-You’ve got to be All – out too!
h. Do not be a Half Minder
-Definition of a Half – Minder --> someone who does everything with only half a mind.
-To be successful requires the giving of your whole self, your whole mind! Remember from Mike Cernovich --> laser – like focus and the importance of Testosterone for focus! Alpha – posture techniques!
-The greatest and most challenging selling job --> to sell yourself on yourself. To bring yourself to an enthusiastic acceptance of yourself is one of the biggest feats of all. To make yourself believe, really believe, in yourself, in your abilities, talents and capacities.
-Too many people have an inferiority complex that distorts the proper self image.
-There is a great market for selling people on themselves and it is remarkable how he can be sold on a proper realization of his worth.
i. Airplane Washroom Episode
-Use all of your height --> remember the Alpha Posture Exercises!
-Importance of DAILY Self – Affirmations!
-Importance of spirituality and prayers.
j. Champion Golfers and Positive Thinking
-Visualize, pray and actualize.
-The Big Three: Faith, Education and Physical Fitness.
k. Four Steps to Achievement or the Eight P Plan
-Plan Purposefully.
-Prepare Prayerfully.
-Proceed Positively.
-Pursue Persistently.
-Believe in yourself, if you think you can, YOU CAN!
4. How Enthusiasm Cancels Fear and Worry
-Deal with problems. Right down to the Bedrock.
a. The Power of Creative Spiritual Silence
-Consciously let go of the problem, drop it into a ‘pool’ of spiritual silence created when hundreds focus in prayer and spirit.
-‘Let go of this fear and let God take it.’
-Anything can happen when one deeply wants something and when enthusiasm and honest – hard work is given a chance to make it happen.
b. Fear is Removable
-Anger, depression, fear – anything disruptive to human happiness and well-being and the human spirit is removable.
-Do not assume because your loved ones lived in anxiety and fear that you must to. You need only have what you are willing to have.
-The process of removal requires something which is not popular today – SELF DISCIPLINE!
-You can do positively anything with yourself that you deeply desire if you have what it takes to discipline yourself accordingly.
-Deep within you the power of self – discipline exists, waiting, only to be used.
-Importance of willpower --> depreciation of willpower will produce a generation of Americans in which the incidence of neurotic states will likely reach a new high. PROPHETIC WORDS SO MANY YEARS AGO!
-How to cancel out worry --> deliberate assiduous use of enthusiasm and self – discipline.
-In order to have enthusiasm – act enthusiastic.
-How to attack destructive emotions --> frontally or oblique via psychological substitution (replace worry with enthusiasm).
-Importance of mental energy --> do not waste it on frivolous matters, use it on constructive endeavors.
c. Five – Point Program for Attacking Worry
I.Carefully practice listening to yourself.
II.Start being absolutely honest.
III.Adopt the practice of saying exactly the opposite of what is usually said and note how much better the new utterances sound. One might become a hypocrite, but hypocrisy is nothing new.
IV.Keep track of everything that happens during this procedure – even the smallest results.
V.Practice putting the best construction on every person and every action each day.
d. I Almost Walk Out of a Church
-Principle of the Best Connotation --> better state of mind, which escalates feelings of enthusiasm for people in general.
-Small victories make great changes possible.
-The Miracle of Change
e. Don’t be Afraid of Other People
-Keep your enthusiasm for people and you will fear them no more.
-‘Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid… for the Lord thy God is with you whithersoever you go.’
-Do not be afraid of Big people.
-Be articulate.
-Principle Fear – Of – Nobody!
-Do not be overawed – never by people; only by facts. Be rational and your fear of people will vanish.
-Love people, see the best in them and you will forget about yourself. As you will forget about yourself you will never fear another person because they cannot hurt you anymore.
-Worry – fear sickness --> abnormal preoccupation with the self --> get outside of yourself!
-Enthusiasm --> mechanism for developing an outgoing personality.
-Do not strangulate your personality via fear!
f. Worry and You Choke and Strangle
-Meaning of worry --> to choke or strangle.
-By worrying you choke and strangle your creative abilities.
-Worry can make one sick.
g. Walk Your Worries Away and Build Enthusiasm
-Our brain has an upper and lower half. We worry with the upper and walk with the lower. Thus walk vigorously and float your worries away. Remember the Boron Letters and the importance of Roadwork!
h. Formula for Handling a Worry Problem
I.Practice vigorous walking!
II.Engage in disciplined regular human service.
III.Develop an awakened concern, even love for the unfortunate.
IV.Find new meaning in pray and actual reality of God’s presence.
i. Enthusiasm Makes Hard Days Good Days
-Worry can have no control over an enthusiasm – conditioned person.
-The importance of getting a job, without pull or influence.
-Keep enthusiastic and worry will never have a chance to get its grip on you --> anyone who keeps the light of enthusiasm burning and at all times, dissipates that darkness of the mind in which worry grows.
-Worry and enthusiasm CANNOT occupy the same mind at the same time. They are utterly incompatible.
-Isaiah 35:4: ‘Say to them that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not.’
5. Try Enthusiasm on Your Job
-Enthusiasm for Victory.
-Relationship between Sports Competitions and the Problems of Life.
-Built in Power within Men.
-The Essence of Nature for Men is to compete – if not with others, at least with themselves.
-The highest form of competition --> competing with oneself and trying to improve over present performance. Pattern – importance of self development!
-Unhappily many men live and die without ever drawing out that extra power, from which comes excellence and higher achievement.
a. The Boy Who Used Enthusiasm as a Stepping Stone
-Like responsibility.
-Your objective must be precise and sharply defined, not fuzzy or hope – to – get – somewhere – someday.
-Apply enthusiasm to your job and the job itself will become alive with exciting new possibilities.
b. How Fred Hill Went Enthusiastic
c. Vital Center for Creative Living
-Personality Revamping.
-Irritation and hate is a definite impediment to the creative enthusiasm.
-Constructive principle --> deliberately send out kindly thoughts to people you see in your daily life but do not know them. Do not see them as an exasperating mob, but each as an individual trying to live meaningfully.
-Change of depth does not happen overnight.
-How one develops the capacity of trying enthusiasm creatively on the job:
•Learn enthusiasm or go no further in work.
•See yourself objectively as you are – well equipped but lacking in motivational power.
•Rid yourself of an accumulated mass of well – concealed but ill – controlled complaints, hate and resentment. These effectively block the enthusiasm one greatly requires.
•Expose yourself to scientific and spiritual treatment.
d. Come Alive With Enthusiasm
-Dale Carnegie trick for reinstating enthusiasm: ‘I would deliberately imagine that I had lost everything: job property, reputation, family, everything I valued. I would sit in the deepest possible gloom. Then I would start adding up what I had not lost, which included the entire list in reverse; and presto the old enthusiasm for the job was back and at a new high. Try that sometime. It really works,’ and it really does.
e. What Would an Imaginative Person Do With Your Job?
Often enthusiasm is the bridge between poverty and prosperity.
-Ask yourself what someone else might see in this job. Jot down on paper what you think that person might do if he had your position. Apply to your work those skills you think that man would use if he were in your shoes. Because you’ve had the experience in the job, there are within you hidden qualities, both of knowledge and experience, which he lacks.
-There is always something new and imaginative that you can bring even to a familiar job. This fresh approach will inspire you with unexpected strength and enthusiasm for the task.
-All too quick we accept notions from predecessors which are neither capable nor optimistic in nature, so we dismiss ideas, convincing ourselves that nothing can be done.
-Do not be paralyzed by negative over-thinking.
-Is there are a virgin territory in your job that can be turned similarly into a veritable goldmine?
-Remember --> enthusiasm for possibilities increases those possibilities and so in turn increases enthusiasm itself!
-Always question and reexamine your methods in order to develop more imaginative and creative means of reaching the greatest possible number of people.
-Importance of timing --> the art of doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Those who are negative sacrifice the delicate sense of timing.
-No matter how well a task has been done previously, it can be improved by the application of the imagination and enthusiasm and timing.
-The World offers us unending possibilities of search and the consequent satisfaction of discovery.
-Inject excitement into the structure of a job and compound its interest.
-No work need be dull or unproductive, if you make up your mind and find the potentials in the job and develop them.
-Do not fear that there are no responsibilities in for those who are stuck at the lowest end of the job scale.
-Before you turn to the government for help, assert your sense of independence for the final attempt at improving your condition.
-Pray, think, work with enthusiasm, no matter how inconsequential the job!
-Often enthusiasm is the bridge between poverty and prosperity.
f. What Enthusiasm Did for a Porter
-A man who believes, who thinks confidently, who is full of faith in God, and who will work and study can accomplish amazing results.
-Oppose those dreary prophets of gloom, who usually blame the American way of life for their own personal failure!
-As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.
g. How a Piece of Pie Activated Enthusiasm
-What matters in a product --> original homemade quality and the personal touch.
-Expand your enthusiasm from yourself to your community.
h. Enthusiasm Brings Good Days
-Religion is designed to provide strength and enthusiasm for people living in a difficult world.
-Remember Jesus Christ: ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full,’ and, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.’
-Christianity can put joy and enthusiasm into people’s minds for the purpose of helping them to live creatively in this trying world.
-Good days are ahead for the very good reason that we will make them good days.
-‘God himself gave us power and authority over every day to make it either good or bad. Every morning we have the choice whether it shall be a good or bad day. As for me I decide every morning that with God’s help I will make it a good day. I can tell you that as a result my days, while not always easy, are still good.’ Remember Mike Cernovich’s podcast when he talks about the importance of the fact that it will never get easier, but better!
i. Formula For Making Any Day Good
I.Think a good day.
II.Thank a good day --> thank and affirm!
III.Plan a good day.
IV.Put good into the day --> garbage in garbage out! Remember Quintus Curtius!
V.Pray a good day --> begin each day with the powerful affirmation from Psalm 118:24: ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’ Start the day with prayer and finish it the same way.
VI.Fill the day with Enthusiasm --> give the day all you’ve got and it will give you all it’s got. Remember Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
6. Tense? Nervous? Let Enthusiasm Come to Your Aid
With so much tension in modern life one must occasionally retreat FROM the world, in order to live effectively in the world.
-Two kinds of tension --> the good type (puts directed drive into a person) and the bad type (shakes a man to pieces).
-Tension thrives in an acute state of self-reference and ultra-sensitivity, the less conscious one is of himself, the weaker the hold of tension upon him is likely to be.
-When enthusiasm declines, tension rises.
-With so much tension in modern life one must occasionally retreat FROM the world, in order to live effectively in the world.
-In silence you may rediscover yourself and God. Remember Isaiah 30:15: ‘In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’
-Silence leads to confidence. Confidence lead to strength. Strength to competence. Competence to happiness.
-The secret of overcoming tension is a controlled mental attitude and this often depends on spiritual factors. REMEMBER Mike Cernovich and Gorilla Mindset!
-It is not necessary to settle for being tense, even in an age of anxiety. You can live without tension, and one way to do so is through the development of enthusiastic attitudes and techniques.
[i]a. Business Man Healed of Tension
-Any person can be helped if he really wants to be, and if he will study, believe in and practice techniques that have proved beneficial to others with similar problems.
b. The Healing Power of Enthusiastic Faith
The magical threesome --> think, believe and practice!
-Be the All – Out Type --> take faith and go all – out with it.
-Be conditioned to the psychology of belief and possess the quality of humility.
-A tremendous combination --> all – outness together with humility.
-Become simple, humble and unaffected, with a childlike belief that nothing is too good to be true and it will be possible for you to enter into the greatest blessings of this life.
-Practice God’s or a Spiritual presence --> ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.’
-Relieving tension shows progress when you strongly affirm your beliefs.
-Lessen tension and encourage enthusiasm to take hold. Boundless excitement and vitality shall take hold.
-Remember Tolstoy: ‘To know God is to live.’
-The magical threesome --> think, believe and practice!
-In order to relieve tension you must substitute it with a more powerful thought pattern! God and stoicism!
-‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’
-‘Lord, I shall be very busy today. I may forget thee, but do not thou forget me.’
-Flash prayers and mantras to use as guiding friends.
-Do things and then forget about them. Do not put yourself through tense post-mortems! Learn to do and learn to forget!
-Tension is a problem of the self-centered for they are mentally undisciplined!
-People with organized outgoing minds, the mentally well-controlled are able to live in an urbane manner without tension!
c. Forget Yourself and Tension Forgets You
-Tension is not in the air, but in the minds of the people who breathe the air!
-Tension is a sickness brought by self – emphasis as well as by pressure.
-Pray or meditate, ask for direction and then try to say and do what seems best.
-Remember Dr. Hans Seelye, the pioneering endocrinologist who said that stress is the root cause of all disease!
-Master tension and stress!
d. Enthusiasm is Good Medicine
-Wrong thinking can have physically devastating effects.
-Treat the patient AND the disease!
-‘The wages of sin is death.’
-Hope, optimism, enthusiasm is on the side of health and well being!
e. Worry Beads, Fidget Stones and Twisted Paper Clips
-Tension is not permanently relieved via the use of fingers on Worry Beads of the Middle East, Fidget stones made out of jade or Twisted Paper Clips in a thousand shapes formed by nervous businessmen.
-Tension is permanently relieved in controlled and cultivatable mental attitudes. Only in the deeper levels of the mind can peacefulness be found.
f. To Stop being Tense – STOP!
Four step program for enthusiasm – E – G – P – P --> ‘Live Enthusiastically. Receive Gratefully. Face failure Phlegmatically. And take whatever it takes Philosophically.’
-There must come a moment when one actually decides to substitute controlled emotional reactions for those of an undisciplined nature.
-Perhaps not everyone is strong enough to employ this disciplinary method, but you are. More than you realize!
-No matter how much psychiatric counseling one receives, and regardless the quality of such guidance, the ultimate fact is that every person, on his own, by himself, with God’s help, must take that final decisive step that activates the cure of unhealthy mental patterns!
-Be in complete control of your emotions, but not cold. Be a Man of vast enthusiasm and warm deep feeling. But emotional control must become your middle name!
-Stop flying into great rages. Rather fly into a great calm.
-Enthusiasm in its deeper meaning is a calm and practiced attitude of mind that exercises quiet control.
-Four step program for enthusiasm – E – G – P – P --> ‘Live Enthusiastically. Receive Gratefully. Face failure Phlegmatically. And take whatever it takes Philosophically.’
g. Daily Anti – Tension Technique
-Healing statements to voice and to meditate upon daily throughout the week:
•Monday --> Peace I give unto you… Let not your heart be troubled.
•Tuesday --> Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed in thee.
•Wednesday --> My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
•Thursday --> Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, fret not thyself.
•Friday --> Come unto me, all yee that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
•Saturday --> Let the Peace of God rule in your heart.
•Sunday --> He maketh me lie down in green pastures: he headeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
h. Just a Final Word
-Tension is not altogether undesirable --> it is designed to key you up to a creative level which is vital for above-average accomplishment.
-Steel without tension lacks in quality, a person without tension is innocuous and flabby.
-Attain relaxed power.
-Learn how to relax your body, your mind and your soul. The modern generation has woefully and totally forgotten about the importance of the Soul.
7. Enthusiasm Work Miracles in Problems
-Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.
a. Enthusiasm Equal to the Toughest Problems
-Enthusiasm --> a strong, rugged mental attitude that is hard to achieve, difficult to maintain, but powerful, so powerful!
-Enthusiasm --> from the Greek ‘entheos’ which means God in you or full of God --> now you need only to discover how to apply efficiency, enthusiasm and right thinking to your problems.
b. Outsmarting a Gold Digger
-In his wife a man needs not a mother but the woman he fell in love with.
c. He got Himself a New Wife
-Enthusiasm, prayer and strategy will solve any problem, however tough. In fact, they just don’t make problems tough enough for this powerful combination.
-Enthusiasm can work miracles in its problems.
d. The Philosophy of Enthusiasm
Only those who are DEAD are without problems!
-The problem which the modern generation pests today is a lack of a sound and workable philosophy.
-Why are problems considered a bad thing? Something to be avoided? Problems are a good thing!
-Only those who are DEAD are without problems!
-Problems constitute a sign of life. The more problems you have, the more alive you are. Of course it matters what KIND of problems you have – if they have been put onto you justly or unjustly but a Man who has 10 good Man-sized problems is twice as alive as the apathetic character who only has 5 problems.
-If you have 0 problems you are on your way out!
-Prophetic words spoken almost 50 years ago --> problems nowadays are treated as inherently evil. In the social services, a genial idea has gained currency that human well-being can be served only by relieving people of all problems.
-False! Instead of relieving people of their problems we must teach people how to DEAL with their problems or we produce lazy parasites!
-No intellectual calls himself an intellectual, only pseudo-intellectuals do and they always have that concerned-sour look. Learn to realistically size people up!
-Christianity or those who believe in another system releases them from conflicts and misery for they have experienced victories in their lives and learned that within them lies the power to handle all problems.
-Interesting note --> Christians long ago abandoned the sour look which has become currently the hallmark of the modern pretentious intellectual.
-Importance of appearance --> learn how to dress yourself stylishly!
e. Not a Hair on His Chest and not a Positive Thought in His Head
-Learn how to dress yourself, groom yourself and maintain yourself! Read Masculine Style!
-Definition of a Positive Thinker --> a tough, rugged person who sees every difficulty and faces all facts realistically. But he is not licked by what he sees. He practices the philosophy of optimism which holds that the good in life outbalances the evil thereof, and he believes that in every difficulty there is inherent good which he intends to find.
-A person must be somewhat of a man to be a positive thinker which makes it difficult for some people.
-Do not be troubled by the problems of this world. Know that difficulty contains all kinds of creative possibilities. The world is full of trouble and problems, but the world is also full of the overcoming of trouble and the solving of problems.
f. Struggle is a Part of Nature
If any politician or preacher tells you that all problems are going to be eliminated from this world through some panacea, do not fall for it. The constitution of the universe does not support it. The world is made on the basis of struggle; and struggle is inevitably attended by difficulty, often by pain plus hardship.
-The world is full of deep troubles and grievous problems. It always will be so.
-If any politician or preacher tells you that all problems are going to be eliminated from this world through some panacea, do not fall for it. The constitution of the universe does not support it.
-The world is made on the basis of struggle; and struggle is inevitably attended by difficulty, often by pain plus hardship.
-Remember what the Bible says, Job 5:7: ‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.’ St. John 16:33: ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ and ‘Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’
-We can overcome all that the world throws at us.
-The essence of religion --> it does NOT blithely promise some sort of no-trouble, no-problem, no-poverty world; but rather a spirit, a power, an enthusiasm that endows every one with the ability to overcome ANY and ALL of it.
-Out of struggle we produce better conditions.
-Troubles and problems… you can count on them all your life.
-‘The chief duty of a human being is to endure life.’ --> half-true for the chief duty of a human being is to master life!
-Enthusiasm is an attitude of mind, and mental attitude in a difficult situation is the important factor of its solution.
-‘Attitudes are more important than facts. Those are the facts all right, and they are indeed tough. But I never yet saw a set of facts to which there was not a solution. Perhaps some facts cannot be changed, but maybe I can bypass or weave them into a new pattern or readjust my strategy. If necessary I can live with them and ultimately use them to advantage.’
g. The Magic of Believing
-Have a receptacle for incoming mail, a receptacle for outgoing mail and a third receptacle for all matter for which no solution had been determined yet and label it Matthew 19:26: ‘With God All Things are Possible.’
-Mark 9:23: ‘All things are possible to him that believeth.’
-Acts 1:8: ‘Ye shall receive power…’
-Enjoy problems thrown at you and you will be better at solving them.
h. Self Motivators as Problem Solvers
-Emotions are not always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action (mental and physical). Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.
-Importance of self – motivators --> affirmations, self – commands, platitudes or symbols deliberately used as a self-suggestion to move yourself to desirable action. Repeat a verbal self-motivator 50 times in the morning, 50 times at night for a week, to imprint the words indelibly in your memory.
-Different Self – Motivators for different problems:
•Serious personal problem --> God is always a good God!
•Business problem --> you have a problem, that is good!
•Within every adversity there is a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
•What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
•Find one good idea that will work and work that one good idea!
•Do it now!
•To be enthusiastic, ACT enthusiastically!
i. He Could Take any Problem Apart and Put it Together Right
‘Every problem has a soft spot. Boy, what an opportunity you’ve got. The only question is whether you can handle it. But you can, because God will help you. And I will too if you need me.’
-Nature designed everything in pairs and polarity!
-‘Always be glad when there is trouble on the Earth, for it means there is movement in heaven; and this indicates great things are about to happen.’
-‘Always be glad when you’ve got a big, tough problem. That means things are happening, that you’re on the move.’
-‘Don’t you know that God has a sense of humor? God likes to play hiding games. When he wants to give you some big wonderful value, do you know what He does? He hides it in a big tough problem. Then he hands you that problem and says, ‘Let me see you find that value I’ve hidden there.’ And He watches with interest, pulling for you all the time. When finally you find that wonderful value, is He happy? He sure is.’
-‘Now, look, son, the first thing is to pray about it. What do our little minds know about it anyway? So let’s ask God for guidance. Now, son, God is working with us, so let’s start thinking. Get that sad look of your face. Get enthusiastic, for something big and wonderful is about to happen.’
-‘Every problem has a soft spot. Boy, what an opportunity you’ve got. The only question is whether you can handle it. But you can, because God will help you. And I will too if you need me.’
-Enthusiasm works miracles with problems:
I.Don’t panic. Keep calm. Use your head. You’ll need all your wits.
II.Don’t be overwhelmed by your problem. Don’t get dramatic about it. Just tell yourself confidently: ‘God and I can handle it.’
III.Practice de-confusion. A problem generally becomes surrounded by confusion. So de-confuse it. Take a paper and pencil and write down every element of the problem.
IV.Skip the post mortems. Don’t say, ‘Why did I do that? Why didn’t I do this?’ Take the problem from where you now are.
V.Look for a solution, not for the whole problem but for the next step. One step leads to another and so on to the complete solution. So be content with tackling that next step.
VI.Practice creative listening.
VII.Always ask yourself what is the right thing to do in a given situation. If what you do isn’t the right thing, then it is the wrong thing. Nothing wrong ever turned out right. So do the right thing and you’ll come out right.
VIII.Keep praying. Keep thinking. Keep believing. And keep enthusiasm going, for it works miracles on problems.
8. Enthusiasm – Powerful Motivation that Makes Things Happen
-Imagine, pray, have faith, think positively, be enthusiastic and motivated.
-‘You can change your thinking and thereby change your life. You can do this by deliberately imaging into your subconscious good ideas, positive images, instead of negative ones. You are constantly in a state of becoming. And you do become what you think. This philosophy does not mean, of course, that your life will be without problems. What it means is that feeling the presence of God within you and about you, you will be able to meet any problem that life presents, full of confidence that God will give you the courage and strength to face, and that He is standing ready to help you solve it. You need only ask – and believe!’
a. Good Losers Become Steady Losers
-‘Carry the image of victory in your heart. In our society of today, we seem to go to extremes. For a while there was an overwhelming emphasis on the importance of winning. It went all the way down to the kiddie leagues. Then a reaction set in. ‘We’re not being realistic,’ intelligent parents would say. ‘Our children must learn how to lose, for isn’t defeat a part of life?’ Quite true. Winning can be overstressed. We need to know how to lose gracefully. But then the extreme comes. Kids who think too much about being good losers forget that the purpose of sports, and life too, is to succeed at what they are doing. You show me a good loser, and I will show you a steady loser.’
-‘Learn from your successes, rather than from your failures!’
-Enthusiasm – that’s what makes great men who make great things happen.
b. Put Up a Real Fight – Enthusiasm Will Go For You
‘Abe, be somebody.’
-Get the good old tough competitive spirit going. Rugged enthusiasm will motivate you to put up a real fight in life. Human beings have in them by nature the creative instinct, the desire to excel. To deny this is actual suicide of personality.
-One of the basic statements made in American history, one that will forever hold a high spot in Americana, was made by the sweet but tough-minded mother of Abraham Lincoln. In the poverty and hardship of the western wilderness, she said to the gangling boy in whom she instinctively sensed a strange greatness: ‘Abe, be somebody.’
-Times have changed. ‘Be nobody,’ seem to be the concept of the far-out-left-wing of our time. But the be-nobody concept won’t last since it is a false notion running counter to human nature.
-Even as a seed put in the ground naturally grows upward toward the sun, so does a human being in the essence of his nature want to move up – always up.
-BE A SOMEBODY AND STOP DELUDING YOURSELF THAT IT IS NICE TO BE NOTHING!
-Life is a struggle, a fight, no matter how much emphasis is put on reducing the harsh, hard elements. To lift burdens off the back of humans, or at least to ease them; to improve the lot of all mankind; to wipe out ghettos and slums; to overcome injustice; and to improve race relations – these are all important objectives.
-Even when all these are accomplished life will still not be one grand, sweet song, one continual happy party.
-Whoever wants to be somebody and have good things happen had better figure on the element of struggle in his life program. If he has enthusiasm, he will possess the powerful motivation that will help him ‘fight the good fight’ in order to make those things happen.
-Never forget the plain downright courage that went into making of this country. This nation was created by a breed of people who practiced the 5 G’s: GRIT, GUMPTION, GUTS, GRACE and GOD!
-It can be maintained only by the same kind of people.
-‘It will not always be this way!’
-Remember the words from Wise Men of Ancient Times: ‘This too, shall pass!’
-Isaiah 41:17-18: When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.’
-‘If there is Family Strength, that old Depression’s not going to get us.’
c. One of the World’s Greatest Positive Thinkers
-I asked this amazing man what kept him going, kept him believing when everyone said it couldn’t be done: ‘There was no alternative. It had to be done, God helped me.’
-The thrilling facts is that there are people who have a sound, solid, irrepressible enthusiasm for real value and are willing to give all of themselves to attain the goal they’ve enthusiastic about.
d. Enthusiasm and the First Motor
‘I learned many things. I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances but the master of them. I learned that, as a Christian, I had an obligation to use the talents God had given me to make life better for others.’
-What you are enthusiastic about can happen.
-Invariably someone comes up with the pious reproof that it is wrong to encourage people to hope for something they cannot attain, that only the gifted, the well-favored can attain the goals.
-Such individuals are wrong, as usual the plain fact being that any person, however seemingly impossible his circumstances, who develops enthusiasm for something and the fortitude to carry it out can make the most utterly astonishing things happen.
-‘I learned many things. I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances but the master of them. I learned that, as a Christian, I had an obligation to use the talents God had given me to make life better for others.’
-‘I gradually realized that it would be only in America that I would receive the training and opportunities to prepare myself to emulate these men on my own land, to be, like them, a leader, perhaps, even the president of my country.
-Proverbs 3:5: ‘Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Then shalt thou walk in thy way.’
-Godless schools educate godless men and women.
-Men are not perfect, as long as they strive to be they will be pleasing to God. The American effort, I felt, was why the land was so blessed.
-When God has put an impossible dream in your heart, He means to help you fulfill it. I believed this to be true when, as an African bush boy, I felt compelled to become an American college graduate. This became true when I graduated from the University of Washington. And if God has given me the dream of becoming president of Nyasaland, this too, will become true.’
-‘It is when we resist God that we remain nothing. When we submit to Him, whatever the sacrifice or hardship, we can become far more than we dare dream.’
-So many could be spared the dullness of mediocrity, the frustration of failure, the loss of hope, if only they would cultivate the amazing power of enthusiasm.
9. Enthusiasm Builds Power Under Your Difficulties
a. He Hit the Bottom With a Bang
b. A Hobo Who Knew His Stuff
-What is a sham breaks down.
c. He Stopped Running From Himself
-‘For the past 25 years I had been running from something, mostly from myself. You can’t run from anything, particularly yourself. As I sat there the first two or three days I was nervous and jittery, until all of a sudden a Bible verse came to my mind: ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ My nervousness left me and I haven’t had it since. During those days of whittling at Pine Mountain, I made the greatest discovery of my life. I discovered a man named Arch Avary from whom I had been running for many years. When I really got to know him, I found out that basically he was a fairly decent person who had been on the wrong track for a long time.’
-‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’
-‘Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.’
-Combine faith with positive thinking!
d. First Alcoholism Then Cancer
-Have the confidence to open a new vista to dark outlooks --> the courage to face unpleasant things.
-Remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians: ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’
e. The Worst Trouble Comes to the Best Men
-The worst trouble comes to the best men because they can handle it.
-Never settle for any defeat. Stand up to your difficulty courageously with lots of faith, and let enthusiasm put power under it. With God’s help you can lick your difficulties and problems.
-God himself is on the side of the enthusiastic believer. That being true, how can you lose.
-Difficulties or no difficulties, intend to be champion!
f. Don’t Be an If Thinker – be a How Thinker!
-The If thinker: ‘If I hadn’t done that. If it had not happened to me. If only I’d had a better break.’ --> one hopeless If after another!
-Bypass the Ifs and emphasize the Hows!
-How do I compensate? How do I become?
-You will only make it when you have suffered long enough. You will only make it when you’ve been hungry enough. You will only make when you’ve been defeated enough.
-You need enough trouble and enthusiasm to make the difference. It takes struggle, a goal, and enthusiasm to make a champion.
-It is a fact that difficulty does help to make strong people, and happy ones, because in the long run no one can be either strong or happy or efficient who has not had rough spots knocked off by the refining process of living.
g. Enthusiasm and the Tumbling Barrel
Men are tumbled through life! We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. As we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in the tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities.
-What is a tumbling barrel? A tumbling barrel is an industrial device for smoothing newly made pieces of metal full of burrs. As they tumble and spill against each other and are rubbed by the abrasive, the burrs disappear and the rough edges are smoothed. They are then in shape to function properly.
-Men are tumbled through life! We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. As we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in the tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities.
-There are well-meaning people who believe that life is too harsh. They are the ones who would like to plan and arrange the world so that no one need suffer.
-But without struggle how could the end product of personality be achieved? How could a person become rounded and strong?
-When you realize that not only are trouble and suffering inevitable, but serve a definite creative purpose as well, you are upgrading your philosophy of human existence. You no longer waste time complaining or pitying yourself, getting resentful or giving in to discouragement. You gradually learn to take difficulties as part of the maturing process. So when the going gets tough, take the attitude that rough spots are being knocked off, that you are being shaped for the real purpose of your life.
-This shaping process makes Men. As tough and unpleasant as difficulty may be, it is the source of potential development.
-Surround every difficulty with prayer, with faith and with straight thinking. Then let enthusiasm build power under it.
-On this basis, you can handle any situation that can ever develop.
h. Airline Hostess Faces Death – But!
-Blow your brains UP instead of OUT! Get your brains blow up, full of enthusiasm!
-The real secret of dealing with difficulties is a proper conditioning of the mind. Anyone can make his mind perform as desired by conditioning it to thoughts of faith, courage, enthusiasm and joy. I do not minimize the harsh, cruel and extremely difficult experiences that people have. But if while depending on the help of God you really try to build a dynamic spirit of victory under your problems, you will gain a new power over them.
-Dr. Paul Dubois and his therapy of words --> say the words which suit you most over and over again when you experience difficulty and nothing can defeat you --> indomitable, acquiescence, imperturbable, rugged.
-Remember these sentences from the Scripture:
•Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?
•I can do all things through Christ who strengthenth me.
•If God be for us, who can be against us.
•In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
-Your mind will give you back exactly what you put into it.
-If over a long period, you put defeat in your mind, your mind will give you back defeat.
-If over a long period you put into your mind great words of faith, your mind will give them back to you.
-Remember Quintus Curtius: garbage in garbage out!
Gurikos Notes
Positive thinking is how you think about a problem.
Enthusiasm is how you feel about a problem.
And the two together determine what you do about a problem.
Dedicated to:
Barack Obama
Quintus Curtius
Mike Cernovich
Scott Adams
Who is Norman Vincent Peale?
Norman Vincent Peale is one of the most influential clergymen of his time, is the author of forty-six books, including the international bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking. Dr. Peale's legacy continues today through the Peale Center for Christian Living, the Outreach Division of Guideposts.
Why did you decide to make this thread?
Two years have passed since I have first discovered the Red Pill, the Manosphere and the Alt-Right. A lot of things have changed since then; I’ve changed in a lot ways since then. It’s been and continues to be a wild ride, thanks to you.
I read a lot, weight-lifted a lot, polished up my relationships, started to dress properly and studied dutifully to become a Man worthy of the word. But something was missing in my life. My body was trained, my skull in order, my heart in the right place but I was lacking something.
I could feel it on my lips but I couldn’t spell it out, I could feel it tingling within my mind but I could not visualize it, it was a maddening feeling with which I learned to live until I saw myself in the mirror one day while I was shaving. I did not see myself as much as I took a deep gaze into myself and it struck me – my eyes were cold as ice. They were alive but dead at the same time. I saw no spark, no fire, I only saw nothingness.
I lacked enthusiasm. There was no project on my schedule which made me jump up at 4 AM in the morning with joy. No adrenaline inducing task which would make my juices go flowing into overdrive as my heart tried to pump with fervor.
I’ve remembered Thoreau and laughed at myself and my situation as I’ve been living a life of quiet desperation. Not anymore. I sat down before my computer, half shaven, with water droplets dropping onto my desk and making a mess, and typed into Amazon the word ‘enthusiasm’.
Enthusiasm Makes the Difference by Norman Vincent Peale was the first hit on the list. I’ve acquired it without really researching if it was a good book and started reading immediately.
Automatically I started taking notes. More and more notes until I’ve finished up with the text you are seeing before you right now. Why? Honestly, just, because. I got sucked in, I felt a connection, I just started doing and did not start asking questions of the ‘why’ kind.
Funny story actually because as I was plowing through this book I also read MAGA Mindset: Making You and America Great Again by our very own Mike Cernovich and not long before I read How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind Of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame in which he espouses the positive effect of affirmations.
Why is it a funny story? Because after I started writing down my affirmations I reread The Art of the Deal by The Don.
Here is a quote from MAGA Mindset which I will use to illustrate as to why Norman Vincent Peale’s books (and my notes) can and will be of use to you for your life.
As one of the world’s few experts on mindset, I recognized Trump’s behavior during the Republican primaries was not random, as many pundits had erroneously claimed, but in fact was based on a deep background in mindset.
Later evidence confirmed that this was the case, as during a campaign speech in Iowa, Trump mentioned that he had studied under, and attended church with, Norman Vincent Peale, the ground-breaking author of The Power of Positive Thinking.
Trump’s mindset training began at an early age, as he grew up in the Presbyterian Church during the positive thinking movement led by Peale. In a speech during the Iowa primary campaign, Trump told the audience: “I went to Sunday school. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking, was my pastor. To this day one of the great speakers I’ve seen. You hated to leave church. You hated when the sermon was over. That’s how great he was at Marble Collegiate Church.”
I never heard of Norman Vincent Peale before and now I find his writings after needing a big dose of energy and here I am reading in another bestseller released days ago in which I discover how heavily The Don supposedly was influenced by the teachings of Mr. Peale.
Coincidence, luck, mere chance? Probably, but I like to think otherwise. It makes for a nice, little, funny story. And we all love nice, little, funny stories.
I believe this booklet to be a tremendous work of practical art and importance. It lit up a fire under my ass which keeps me MAGA levels of energized.
It is my sincerest hope that it will also serve as a spark for you to get up from your ass and do that project you’ve been delaying off due to reasons.
Norman Vincent Peale is a clergyman and God, Jesus, Christianity and patriotism are his favorite cup of tea. If they are not yours I (and he) respect that. Replace God with the Universe, Jesus Christ with the Energy of the Universe and Christianity with the Way. You can’t replace America though, ha-ha, nothing can for Freedom itself is irreplaceable.
This book and my notes are not meant to convert or preach but to offer help and support.
Why should I read your notes? Why shouldn’t I just read the book instead?
You should read the book. Go read the book. Honestly. It’s fantastic.
I made the notes for myself to find certain passages within the text that I find truly inspiring and have helped me push through difficult days.
Three chapters I’ve literally retyped word, by word because I was astonished at how much the problems stayed the same even though almost half a century passed since then. You’ll recognize them by the phrase ‘Important!’
The History of Humankind is truly a Circle, a Cycle. Everything stems from the fact that the Left/Globalists are always attacking and demanding while the Right/Nationalists are defending and giving.
Mike Cernovich explains our current quagmire succinctly in his article titled ‘Why the Left has been Winning and How to Beat them’.
It’s time to flip the script. It’s time to start attacking, start demanding, start pushing because if there is one thing I’ve learned after reading this book is that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE (Free Speech is also not free, remember?), it must be fought for over and over again.
It’s a never ending cycle we’ll have to accept lest we get pushed into oblivion by the lunatics which are the Left/Globalists.
At the end of my notes you will see a collection of quotes and works of other authors mentioned within this book.
If you hate everything about my post then I’d recommend to at least give the quotes a try because I’ve been reading and rereading them from the moment I finished the book: they are, simply put, like sparks which kindle the fire within my Soul into a raging inferno which if focused into a laser can tear down any and all enemies on my path, internal and external.
I share my notes with you, fellow RVF Brothers, hoping that they may also help you, even in the smallest of ways. I believe that well applied enthusiasm can help you in every project you decide to undertake: gaming, making money, traveling, job prospects, relationships… everything.
1. What Enthusiasm can do For You
a. Modern Youth in Rebellion
-People nowadays lack drive and vitality --> they have never been awakened.
-Only when one has been awakened can he realize his full potential.
-Enthusiasm makes the difference between success and failure.
-People who achieve most in life are activated by enthusiasm.
-Enthusiasm has never been part of a negative cult.
-Pessimists are eager to be able to say: ‘I told you so.’ Such people seldom if ever are constructive, which could be the reason they hope you won’t be either.
-Enthusiasm breeds faith and faith stimulates action.
b. Little Goals Add Up
-Little goals --> the attainment of one small goal gives a feeling of success and teaches us technique.
-Do not attempt too much too fast, only to end up in defeat and exhaustion.
-Only those who take the chance will ever attain complete creativity.
-Enthusiasm --> lifts living out of the depths and makes it mean something.
c. He could not care less, he said, but he did
-I could not care less --> people who pride themselves on indifference to the normal way of life --> jaded and bored it is their defense against living because life demands total commitment and commitment is apt to bring pain as well as challenge.
-The most important question: ‘What is next?’
-Unsatisfied hunger of humans – the hunger for God.
-Whenever a person consciously or unconsciously desires spiritual rejuvenation and begins working toward it on a simple and genuine basis, amazing things do begin happening.
-Become the ball of fire --> sparked by enthusiasm.
d. Enthusiasm – the Spice of Life
-Basic elements of enthusiasm: heat, intelligence and profound motivation which drives off apathy and cynicism.
-Fight and win over all obstacles and enjoy doing it.
-Do not simply exist – LIVE!
e. Enthusiasm Rebuild a Collapsed Personality
-Spiritual power as a source of living.
2. Enthusiasm that Never Runs Down
-Never call yourself a Nobody!
-Acquire real Enthusiasm and Self-Confidence!
-Anybody can change from a Nobody to an Enthusiastic Somebody.
a. Enthusiasm Will Improve Your Personality
-You can make yourself into an optimist --> you can develop enthusiasm, and of a type that is continuous and joyous in nature.
-KEY POINT!
•A person can make of himself just about what he wants to, provided he wants to badly enough and correctly goes about it.
•Decide specifically what particular characteristic you desire to possess.
•Hold that image firmly in your consciousness.
•Proceed to develop it by acting as if you actually possessed the desired characteristic.
•Believe and repeatedly affirm that you are in the process of self – creating the quality you have undertaken to develop.
-Remember Scott Adams and Mike Cernovich! Self – affirmations and patterns!
-As If principle --> if you want a quality, act as if you already had it --> it is a proven law of human nature that as you imagine yourself to be and as you act on the assumption that you are what you see yourself as being, you will in time strongly tend to become, PROVIDED you persevere in the process --> THE LAW OF SELF-ASSUMED PERSONAL CHANGE!
-If you are afraid --> discipline yourself as if you had courage, if you are tense deliberately act as if calm and assured --> remember Shakespeare and Hamlet (Act III): ‘Assume a virtue if you have it not.’
b. Mental Ventilation Lets in Enthusiasm[/b]
-Importance of Mental Ventilation by Mr. A. E. Russ --> keeping your mind free of darkness is a day to day job: ‘If you allow dark thoughts, regrets, resentments and the like to accumulate, your whole psychology can in time be so adversely affect that a major effort may be required to bring it back to a normal state of balance.’
-[i]Remember Quintus Curtius --> GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT! Physical and mental garbage!
-One can do practically anything he wants with his thoughts provided he consistently continues the effort.
•Lump and dump technique --> empty your mind every day.
•Recapitulate unpleasant incidents that had occurred during the day (from words to acts), review your own mistakes, errors or stupidities; add disappointments, frustrations and every form of unhappiness that had clouded the preceding hours.
•Hold them in a strong mental view --> draw from them all the experience and understanding they can give.
•Lump them together and drop them out of your consciousness.
•Remember Philippians 3:13: ‘Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.’
•Make your mind obey YOU!
c. Tell Yourself All the Good News You Know
-A vital element in developing Enthusiasm --> the manner in which you start the day (remember Scott Adams!).
-That which the minds receives upon awakening tends to influence and to a considerable degree determine what your day will be.
-Before breakfast have quiet time --> read a brief or inspirational piece, followed by three or four minutes of quiet during which you affirm and practice a quiet state of mind --> regardless of how busy program for the day is, in those few minutes no hurry or haste is permitted, EVEN IN THOUGHT! Picture every person you expect to contact during the day and pray or think good thoughts for each one.
d. Every Morning a New Set of Facts
-‘A reversal is not a disaster, merely an incident in a total business career.’
-You get a new set of facts each morning, take them, be happy with them and do something constructive with them.
-Sustaining high – level enthusiasm --> the policy of holding new facts each morning.
-Principle of two handles --> each morning you can either grab hold of the handle of anxiety or enthusiasm --> continued choice of handle determines the character of your multiplying days.
e. How to Have Continuing Enthusiasm
-How to have continuing enthusiasm when life batters you down --> deterioration of life force need not occur --> it only happens if you allow it to happen.
-Nothing can destroy the precious gift of enthusiasm if you do not let it.
-Remember Huxley and carry the spirit of the child into old age!
-It is the rejuvenation of the mind that keeps enthusiasm alive and, as a matter of fact, restrains aging in spirit and mind, perhaps even body.
-Enthusiasm can be perpetual, that it need never run down.
f. Keep the Fire of Enthusiasm Burning Under Your Goals
-Set yourself a goal that you have got to reach and build under it the fire of anticipation and keep it burning --> you will acquire enthusiasm and never lose it for the goal will forever chant: ‘Come and get me,’ until you get it. Then you set a new goal.
-New goals and fresh objective --> self perpetuating motivators of enthusiasm.
-Work like Americans in the Old Days.
-It was aspiration for a better way of life, enthusiasm that never weakened because it was subject to constant renewal.
-Possessed of enthusiasm one is a citizen of the present regardless of how many years he has dwelt upon Earth. Such a vitalized person cannot possibly become a has – been. He is perpetually the is – now type. Remember Mike Cernovich – LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT!
g. Enthusiasm and Finger Lickin’ Good
-Ephesians 4:23: ‘Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’
3. Enthusiastic Persuasion
-Find a Need and Fill It (but also remember Steve Jobs who advocated to Create Needs and Fill Them).
-Become a need – watcher, a situation – handler, a condition – rectifier, a requirement – filler.
-Sales enthusiasm based on a sincere belief, that such goods and services are needed and will meet people’s needs with validity, is the kind of enthusiasm that does succeed, and it is entitled to do. It will succeed if it isn’t overpressed. Overpressing creates resistance. Sincere enthusiasm creates attracts confidence. Remember Donald J. Trump. He always bought things he believed in!
-What you sell you must believe in and it must be right. For if it is not right then it is wrong, not half – right or half – wrong. Get with the right, get with the good.
-A strange fact about human nature – people are not always aware of their needs. Communication and persuasion is required!
-Important! Communication and persuasion – these are the two absolutely essential qualities that every human being must have if he desires to affect the lives of other people; to get them to buy a product, accept an idea, share a conviction or walk with him toward a goal!
a. How to be a Real Salesman
I.Find a need and fill it. It’s pretty hard to sell something that no one needs. Believe that you are selling what people really need.
II.Since you must sell yourself even before selling your goods, it’s important to sell yourself on yourself. So believe in yourself.
III.Want to sell. Get the thrill of selling desirable goods and services.
IV.Get full of enthusiasm, the kind that keeps you excited about your job and about people.
V.Don’t ride enthusiasm so hard that you become offensively high pressure. All that will get you is resistance and no sale.
VI.Develop the powerful motivation that comes from deep inner enthusiasm that never runs down.
VII.Don’t be a half – a – minder. Be an all – out, not a half – out. Give you whole mind, your whole self. That will provide the impact that achieves results – real results.
VIII.Concentrate – think – concentrate – think. Keep your mind working and keep your mind on your selling. Thinking produces ideas and ideas sell.
IX.Learn to communicate. Develop rapport with people. Know people and like them. They will like you and buy what you have to sell.
X.Ask God to guide you in your planning. Then plan your work and work your plan.
XI.Believe that being a salesman is the greatest, most important job in the American economy. Believe that you are a trustee of free enterprise and freedom. Be proud you are a Salesman.
b. Enthusiasm Persuades and Persuasion Sells
-Love your goods. To you they must be the best.
-Be patient and treat your customers well even advising them to make a visit to the competition if you truly cannot accommodate for that will build trust.
-Learn how to sell and keep on selling --> the key is honesty and integrity.
-Do not be a sycophant; communicate with strong mind and will, with enthusiasm, honesty and integrity. Establish yourself as an undisputed preeminence in your field. Then you will become a salesman extraordinaire.
-We live in a world where we sell ideas! Remember Gerry Spence – it’s a war out there! A war about ideas! Pattern!
-Neomasculinity and Gorilla Mindset --> for the preaching and teaching of neomasculinity and Gorilla Mindset as a way of thinking and living is a form of salesmanship. By these approaches one tries to get people to accept the message and persuade them to walk a road of agreement with him.
c. I Sell Aluminum Pots and Pans
d. Enthusiasm and the Good Life
-Mothers and fathers are salespeople, their job being to sell vibrant, creative life to their children. If they do not sell it to them, then some long – haired, sad misfit may sell their children the Big Lie: that the United States and Life itself are big flops and turn them to the LSD route or some other dead – end failure pattern. THIS IS WHAT THE Mainstream Media DOES! Bash and denigrate the idea on which the United States was founded on!
-We are living in a time when many of those who have been favored with education and opportunity, beneficiaries of the wealth and culture produced by centuries of sacrifice and toil, have now concluded that life is meaningless and devoid of value.
e. Takes Guts to Practice Enthusiasm
-Enthusiasm runs contrary to the present day so called American intellectual thought. Believe yourself to be one of the mass of American people whose simple faith is that life can be good.
f. Enthusiasm Equals Love
-How does one have enthusiasm in life? Cultivate the ability to love living! Love people, love the sky under which you live, love beauty and love God! The person who loves becomes enthusiastic, filled with the sparkle and the joy of life. And then he goes on to fill life full of meaning. If you are not enthusiastic, begin today to cultivate the love of living.
-Make people feel that life is good!
-Do not depreciate life by enumerating all the things that are wrong with it. Things are wrong, and something has to be done about them. But focus mentally upon all that is right about life; life is mighty good, a lot better than not having it. A lifetime on this wonderful Earth does not last very long either. It is here today and gone tomorrow. So love it while you can, and be full of enthusiasm.
g. He had Psychosclerosis!
-Psychosclerosis --> the condition of a great many people who have lost their interest and whose thinking has become hard and fixed. One of the greatest antidotes to this disease of the spirit is enthusiasm.
-A lot of people who fail in selling, in management, indeed in any kind of leadership, because they are victims of psychosclerosis, hardening of the thoughts. New methods, progressive ideas, adjustment to changing times and situations just cannot break through rigid old patterns.
-Nobody ever raised money, sold goods, helped anyone get a better life or get a wife who did not ask.
-Remember the Bible: ‘Ask and ye shall receive.’
-Enthusiastic persuasion will never persuade unless and until the objective is definitely sought.
-Direction – purpose – objective --> these are the qualities that measure success.
-You’ve got to be All – out too!
h. Do not be a Half Minder
-Definition of a Half – Minder --> someone who does everything with only half a mind.
-To be successful requires the giving of your whole self, your whole mind! Remember from Mike Cernovich --> laser – like focus and the importance of Testosterone for focus! Alpha – posture techniques!
-The greatest and most challenging selling job --> to sell yourself on yourself. To bring yourself to an enthusiastic acceptance of yourself is one of the biggest feats of all. To make yourself believe, really believe, in yourself, in your abilities, talents and capacities.
-Too many people have an inferiority complex that distorts the proper self image.
-There is a great market for selling people on themselves and it is remarkable how he can be sold on a proper realization of his worth.
i. Airplane Washroom Episode
-Use all of your height --> remember the Alpha Posture Exercises!
-Importance of DAILY Self – Affirmations!
-Importance of spirituality and prayers.
j. Champion Golfers and Positive Thinking
-Visualize, pray and actualize.
-The Big Three: Faith, Education and Physical Fitness.
k. Four Steps to Achievement or the Eight P Plan
-Plan Purposefully.
-Prepare Prayerfully.
-Proceed Positively.
-Pursue Persistently.
-Believe in yourself, if you think you can, YOU CAN!
4. How Enthusiasm Cancels Fear and Worry
-Deal with problems. Right down to the Bedrock.
a. The Power of Creative Spiritual Silence
-Consciously let go of the problem, drop it into a ‘pool’ of spiritual silence created when hundreds focus in prayer and spirit.
-‘Let go of this fear and let God take it.’
-Anything can happen when one deeply wants something and when enthusiasm and honest – hard work is given a chance to make it happen.
b. Fear is Removable
-Anger, depression, fear – anything disruptive to human happiness and well-being and the human spirit is removable.
-Do not assume because your loved ones lived in anxiety and fear that you must to. You need only have what you are willing to have.
-The process of removal requires something which is not popular today – SELF DISCIPLINE!
-You can do positively anything with yourself that you deeply desire if you have what it takes to discipline yourself accordingly.
-Deep within you the power of self – discipline exists, waiting, only to be used.
-Importance of willpower --> depreciation of willpower will produce a generation of Americans in which the incidence of neurotic states will likely reach a new high. PROPHETIC WORDS SO MANY YEARS AGO!
-How to cancel out worry --> deliberate assiduous use of enthusiasm and self – discipline.
-In order to have enthusiasm – act enthusiastic.
-How to attack destructive emotions --> frontally or oblique via psychological substitution (replace worry with enthusiasm).
-Importance of mental energy --> do not waste it on frivolous matters, use it on constructive endeavors.
c. Five – Point Program for Attacking Worry
I.Carefully practice listening to yourself.
II.Start being absolutely honest.
III.Adopt the practice of saying exactly the opposite of what is usually said and note how much better the new utterances sound. One might become a hypocrite, but hypocrisy is nothing new.
IV.Keep track of everything that happens during this procedure – even the smallest results.
V.Practice putting the best construction on every person and every action each day.
d. I Almost Walk Out of a Church
-Principle of the Best Connotation --> better state of mind, which escalates feelings of enthusiasm for people in general.
-Small victories make great changes possible.
-The Miracle of Change
e. Don’t be Afraid of Other People
-Keep your enthusiasm for people and you will fear them no more.
-‘Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid… for the Lord thy God is with you whithersoever you go.’
-Do not be afraid of Big people.
-Be articulate.
-Principle Fear – Of – Nobody!
-Do not be overawed – never by people; only by facts. Be rational and your fear of people will vanish.
-Love people, see the best in them and you will forget about yourself. As you will forget about yourself you will never fear another person because they cannot hurt you anymore.
-Worry – fear sickness --> abnormal preoccupation with the self --> get outside of yourself!
-Enthusiasm --> mechanism for developing an outgoing personality.
-Do not strangulate your personality via fear!
f. Worry and You Choke and Strangle
-Meaning of worry --> to choke or strangle.
-By worrying you choke and strangle your creative abilities.
-Worry can make one sick.
g. Walk Your Worries Away and Build Enthusiasm
-Our brain has an upper and lower half. We worry with the upper and walk with the lower. Thus walk vigorously and float your worries away. Remember the Boron Letters and the importance of Roadwork!
h. Formula for Handling a Worry Problem
I.Practice vigorous walking!
II.Engage in disciplined regular human service.
III.Develop an awakened concern, even love for the unfortunate.
IV.Find new meaning in pray and actual reality of God’s presence.
i. Enthusiasm Makes Hard Days Good Days
-Worry can have no control over an enthusiasm – conditioned person.
-The importance of getting a job, without pull or influence.
-Keep enthusiastic and worry will never have a chance to get its grip on you --> anyone who keeps the light of enthusiasm burning and at all times, dissipates that darkness of the mind in which worry grows.
-Worry and enthusiasm CANNOT occupy the same mind at the same time. They are utterly incompatible.
-Isaiah 35:4: ‘Say to them that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not.’
5. Try Enthusiasm on Your Job
-Enthusiasm for Victory.
-Relationship between Sports Competitions and the Problems of Life.
-Built in Power within Men.
-The Essence of Nature for Men is to compete – if not with others, at least with themselves.
-The highest form of competition --> competing with oneself and trying to improve over present performance. Pattern – importance of self development!
-Unhappily many men live and die without ever drawing out that extra power, from which comes excellence and higher achievement.
a. The Boy Who Used Enthusiasm as a Stepping Stone
-Like responsibility.
-Your objective must be precise and sharply defined, not fuzzy or hope – to – get – somewhere – someday.
-Apply enthusiasm to your job and the job itself will become alive with exciting new possibilities.
b. How Fred Hill Went Enthusiastic
c. Vital Center for Creative Living
-Personality Revamping.
-Irritation and hate is a definite impediment to the creative enthusiasm.
-Constructive principle --> deliberately send out kindly thoughts to people you see in your daily life but do not know them. Do not see them as an exasperating mob, but each as an individual trying to live meaningfully.
-Change of depth does not happen overnight.
-How one develops the capacity of trying enthusiasm creatively on the job:
•Learn enthusiasm or go no further in work.
•See yourself objectively as you are – well equipped but lacking in motivational power.
•Rid yourself of an accumulated mass of well – concealed but ill – controlled complaints, hate and resentment. These effectively block the enthusiasm one greatly requires.
•Expose yourself to scientific and spiritual treatment.
d. Come Alive With Enthusiasm
-Dale Carnegie trick for reinstating enthusiasm: ‘I would deliberately imagine that I had lost everything: job property, reputation, family, everything I valued. I would sit in the deepest possible gloom. Then I would start adding up what I had not lost, which included the entire list in reverse; and presto the old enthusiasm for the job was back and at a new high. Try that sometime. It really works,’ and it really does.
e. What Would an Imaginative Person Do With Your Job?
Often enthusiasm is the bridge between poverty and prosperity.
-Ask yourself what someone else might see in this job. Jot down on paper what you think that person might do if he had your position. Apply to your work those skills you think that man would use if he were in your shoes. Because you’ve had the experience in the job, there are within you hidden qualities, both of knowledge and experience, which he lacks.
-There is always something new and imaginative that you can bring even to a familiar job. This fresh approach will inspire you with unexpected strength and enthusiasm for the task.
-All too quick we accept notions from predecessors which are neither capable nor optimistic in nature, so we dismiss ideas, convincing ourselves that nothing can be done.
-Do not be paralyzed by negative over-thinking.
-Is there are a virgin territory in your job that can be turned similarly into a veritable goldmine?
-Remember --> enthusiasm for possibilities increases those possibilities and so in turn increases enthusiasm itself!
-Always question and reexamine your methods in order to develop more imaginative and creative means of reaching the greatest possible number of people.
-Importance of timing --> the art of doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Those who are negative sacrifice the delicate sense of timing.
-No matter how well a task has been done previously, it can be improved by the application of the imagination and enthusiasm and timing.
-The World offers us unending possibilities of search and the consequent satisfaction of discovery.
-Inject excitement into the structure of a job and compound its interest.
-No work need be dull or unproductive, if you make up your mind and find the potentials in the job and develop them.
-Do not fear that there are no responsibilities in for those who are stuck at the lowest end of the job scale.
-Before you turn to the government for help, assert your sense of independence for the final attempt at improving your condition.
-Pray, think, work with enthusiasm, no matter how inconsequential the job!
-Often enthusiasm is the bridge between poverty and prosperity.
f. What Enthusiasm Did for a Porter
-A man who believes, who thinks confidently, who is full of faith in God, and who will work and study can accomplish amazing results.
-Oppose those dreary prophets of gloom, who usually blame the American way of life for their own personal failure!
-As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.
g. How a Piece of Pie Activated Enthusiasm
-What matters in a product --> original homemade quality and the personal touch.
-Expand your enthusiasm from yourself to your community.
h. Enthusiasm Brings Good Days
-Religion is designed to provide strength and enthusiasm for people living in a difficult world.
-Remember Jesus Christ: ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full,’ and, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.’
-Christianity can put joy and enthusiasm into people’s minds for the purpose of helping them to live creatively in this trying world.
-Good days are ahead for the very good reason that we will make them good days.
-‘God himself gave us power and authority over every day to make it either good or bad. Every morning we have the choice whether it shall be a good or bad day. As for me I decide every morning that with God’s help I will make it a good day. I can tell you that as a result my days, while not always easy, are still good.’ Remember Mike Cernovich’s podcast when he talks about the importance of the fact that it will never get easier, but better!
i. Formula For Making Any Day Good
I.Think a good day.
II.Thank a good day --> thank and affirm!
III.Plan a good day.
IV.Put good into the day --> garbage in garbage out! Remember Quintus Curtius!
V.Pray a good day --> begin each day with the powerful affirmation from Psalm 118:24: ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’ Start the day with prayer and finish it the same way.
VI.Fill the day with Enthusiasm --> give the day all you’ve got and it will give you all it’s got. Remember Newton’s Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
6. Tense? Nervous? Let Enthusiasm Come to Your Aid
With so much tension in modern life one must occasionally retreat FROM the world, in order to live effectively in the world.
-Two kinds of tension --> the good type (puts directed drive into a person) and the bad type (shakes a man to pieces).
-Tension thrives in an acute state of self-reference and ultra-sensitivity, the less conscious one is of himself, the weaker the hold of tension upon him is likely to be.
-When enthusiasm declines, tension rises.
-With so much tension in modern life one must occasionally retreat FROM the world, in order to live effectively in the world.
-In silence you may rediscover yourself and God. Remember Isaiah 30:15: ‘In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’
-Silence leads to confidence. Confidence lead to strength. Strength to competence. Competence to happiness.
-The secret of overcoming tension is a controlled mental attitude and this often depends on spiritual factors. REMEMBER Mike Cernovich and Gorilla Mindset!
-It is not necessary to settle for being tense, even in an age of anxiety. You can live without tension, and one way to do so is through the development of enthusiastic attitudes and techniques.
[i]a. Business Man Healed of Tension
-Any person can be helped if he really wants to be, and if he will study, believe in and practice techniques that have proved beneficial to others with similar problems.
b. The Healing Power of Enthusiastic Faith
The magical threesome --> think, believe and practice!
-Be the All – Out Type --> take faith and go all – out with it.
-Be conditioned to the psychology of belief and possess the quality of humility.
-A tremendous combination --> all – outness together with humility.
-Become simple, humble and unaffected, with a childlike belief that nothing is too good to be true and it will be possible for you to enter into the greatest blessings of this life.
-Practice God’s or a Spiritual presence --> ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.’
-Relieving tension shows progress when you strongly affirm your beliefs.
-Lessen tension and encourage enthusiasm to take hold. Boundless excitement and vitality shall take hold.
-Remember Tolstoy: ‘To know God is to live.’
-The magical threesome --> think, believe and practice!
-In order to relieve tension you must substitute it with a more powerful thought pattern! God and stoicism!
-‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’
-‘Lord, I shall be very busy today. I may forget thee, but do not thou forget me.’
-Flash prayers and mantras to use as guiding friends.
-Do things and then forget about them. Do not put yourself through tense post-mortems! Learn to do and learn to forget!
-Tension is a problem of the self-centered for they are mentally undisciplined!
-People with organized outgoing minds, the mentally well-controlled are able to live in an urbane manner without tension!
c. Forget Yourself and Tension Forgets You
-Tension is not in the air, but in the minds of the people who breathe the air!
-Tension is a sickness brought by self – emphasis as well as by pressure.
-Pray or meditate, ask for direction and then try to say and do what seems best.
-Remember Dr. Hans Seelye, the pioneering endocrinologist who said that stress is the root cause of all disease!
-Master tension and stress!
d. Enthusiasm is Good Medicine
-Wrong thinking can have physically devastating effects.
-Treat the patient AND the disease!
-‘The wages of sin is death.’
-Hope, optimism, enthusiasm is on the side of health and well being!
e. Worry Beads, Fidget Stones and Twisted Paper Clips
-Tension is not permanently relieved via the use of fingers on Worry Beads of the Middle East, Fidget stones made out of jade or Twisted Paper Clips in a thousand shapes formed by nervous businessmen.
-Tension is permanently relieved in controlled and cultivatable mental attitudes. Only in the deeper levels of the mind can peacefulness be found.
f. To Stop being Tense – STOP!
Four step program for enthusiasm – E – G – P – P --> ‘Live Enthusiastically. Receive Gratefully. Face failure Phlegmatically. And take whatever it takes Philosophically.’
-There must come a moment when one actually decides to substitute controlled emotional reactions for those of an undisciplined nature.
-Perhaps not everyone is strong enough to employ this disciplinary method, but you are. More than you realize!
-No matter how much psychiatric counseling one receives, and regardless the quality of such guidance, the ultimate fact is that every person, on his own, by himself, with God’s help, must take that final decisive step that activates the cure of unhealthy mental patterns!
-Be in complete control of your emotions, but not cold. Be a Man of vast enthusiasm and warm deep feeling. But emotional control must become your middle name!
-Stop flying into great rages. Rather fly into a great calm.
-Enthusiasm in its deeper meaning is a calm and practiced attitude of mind that exercises quiet control.
-Four step program for enthusiasm – E – G – P – P --> ‘Live Enthusiastically. Receive Gratefully. Face failure Phlegmatically. And take whatever it takes Philosophically.’
g. Daily Anti – Tension Technique
-Healing statements to voice and to meditate upon daily throughout the week:
•Monday --> Peace I give unto you… Let not your heart be troubled.
•Tuesday --> Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed in thee.
•Wednesday --> My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
•Thursday --> Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, fret not thyself.
•Friday --> Come unto me, all yee that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
•Saturday --> Let the Peace of God rule in your heart.
•Sunday --> He maketh me lie down in green pastures: he headeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
h. Just a Final Word
-Tension is not altogether undesirable --> it is designed to key you up to a creative level which is vital for above-average accomplishment.
-Steel without tension lacks in quality, a person without tension is innocuous and flabby.
-Attain relaxed power.
-Learn how to relax your body, your mind and your soul. The modern generation has woefully and totally forgotten about the importance of the Soul.
7. Enthusiasm Work Miracles in Problems
-Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.
a. Enthusiasm Equal to the Toughest Problems
-Enthusiasm --> a strong, rugged mental attitude that is hard to achieve, difficult to maintain, but powerful, so powerful!
-Enthusiasm --> from the Greek ‘entheos’ which means God in you or full of God --> now you need only to discover how to apply efficiency, enthusiasm and right thinking to your problems.
b. Outsmarting a Gold Digger
-In his wife a man needs not a mother but the woman he fell in love with.
c. He got Himself a New Wife
-Enthusiasm, prayer and strategy will solve any problem, however tough. In fact, they just don’t make problems tough enough for this powerful combination.
-Enthusiasm can work miracles in its problems.
d. The Philosophy of Enthusiasm
Only those who are DEAD are without problems!
-The problem which the modern generation pests today is a lack of a sound and workable philosophy.
-Why are problems considered a bad thing? Something to be avoided? Problems are a good thing!
-Only those who are DEAD are without problems!
-Problems constitute a sign of life. The more problems you have, the more alive you are. Of course it matters what KIND of problems you have – if they have been put onto you justly or unjustly but a Man who has 10 good Man-sized problems is twice as alive as the apathetic character who only has 5 problems.
-If you have 0 problems you are on your way out!
-Prophetic words spoken almost 50 years ago --> problems nowadays are treated as inherently evil. In the social services, a genial idea has gained currency that human well-being can be served only by relieving people of all problems.
-False! Instead of relieving people of their problems we must teach people how to DEAL with their problems or we produce lazy parasites!
-No intellectual calls himself an intellectual, only pseudo-intellectuals do and they always have that concerned-sour look. Learn to realistically size people up!
-Christianity or those who believe in another system releases them from conflicts and misery for they have experienced victories in their lives and learned that within them lies the power to handle all problems.
-Interesting note --> Christians long ago abandoned the sour look which has become currently the hallmark of the modern pretentious intellectual.
-Importance of appearance --> learn how to dress yourself stylishly!
e. Not a Hair on His Chest and not a Positive Thought in His Head
-Learn how to dress yourself, groom yourself and maintain yourself! Read Masculine Style!
-Definition of a Positive Thinker --> a tough, rugged person who sees every difficulty and faces all facts realistically. But he is not licked by what he sees. He practices the philosophy of optimism which holds that the good in life outbalances the evil thereof, and he believes that in every difficulty there is inherent good which he intends to find.
-A person must be somewhat of a man to be a positive thinker which makes it difficult for some people.
-Do not be troubled by the problems of this world. Know that difficulty contains all kinds of creative possibilities. The world is full of trouble and problems, but the world is also full of the overcoming of trouble and the solving of problems.
f. Struggle is a Part of Nature
If any politician or preacher tells you that all problems are going to be eliminated from this world through some panacea, do not fall for it. The constitution of the universe does not support it. The world is made on the basis of struggle; and struggle is inevitably attended by difficulty, often by pain plus hardship.
-The world is full of deep troubles and grievous problems. It always will be so.
-If any politician or preacher tells you that all problems are going to be eliminated from this world through some panacea, do not fall for it. The constitution of the universe does not support it.
-The world is made on the basis of struggle; and struggle is inevitably attended by difficulty, often by pain plus hardship.
-Remember what the Bible says, Job 5:7: ‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.’ St. John 16:33: ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ and ‘Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’
-We can overcome all that the world throws at us.
-The essence of religion --> it does NOT blithely promise some sort of no-trouble, no-problem, no-poverty world; but rather a spirit, a power, an enthusiasm that endows every one with the ability to overcome ANY and ALL of it.
-Out of struggle we produce better conditions.
-Troubles and problems… you can count on them all your life.
-‘The chief duty of a human being is to endure life.’ --> half-true for the chief duty of a human being is to master life!
-Enthusiasm is an attitude of mind, and mental attitude in a difficult situation is the important factor of its solution.
-‘Attitudes are more important than facts. Those are the facts all right, and they are indeed tough. But I never yet saw a set of facts to which there was not a solution. Perhaps some facts cannot be changed, but maybe I can bypass or weave them into a new pattern or readjust my strategy. If necessary I can live with them and ultimately use them to advantage.’
g. The Magic of Believing
-Have a receptacle for incoming mail, a receptacle for outgoing mail and a third receptacle for all matter for which no solution had been determined yet and label it Matthew 19:26: ‘With God All Things are Possible.’
-Mark 9:23: ‘All things are possible to him that believeth.’
-Acts 1:8: ‘Ye shall receive power…’
-Enjoy problems thrown at you and you will be better at solving them.
h. Self Motivators as Problem Solvers
-Emotions are not always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action (mental and physical). Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.
-Importance of self – motivators --> affirmations, self – commands, platitudes or symbols deliberately used as a self-suggestion to move yourself to desirable action. Repeat a verbal self-motivator 50 times in the morning, 50 times at night for a week, to imprint the words indelibly in your memory.
-Different Self – Motivators for different problems:
•Serious personal problem --> God is always a good God!
•Business problem --> you have a problem, that is good!
•Within every adversity there is a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
•What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
•Find one good idea that will work and work that one good idea!
•Do it now!
•To be enthusiastic, ACT enthusiastically!
i. He Could Take any Problem Apart and Put it Together Right
‘Every problem has a soft spot. Boy, what an opportunity you’ve got. The only question is whether you can handle it. But you can, because God will help you. And I will too if you need me.’
-Nature designed everything in pairs and polarity!
-‘Always be glad when there is trouble on the Earth, for it means there is movement in heaven; and this indicates great things are about to happen.’
-‘Always be glad when you’ve got a big, tough problem. That means things are happening, that you’re on the move.’
-‘Don’t you know that God has a sense of humor? God likes to play hiding games. When he wants to give you some big wonderful value, do you know what He does? He hides it in a big tough problem. Then he hands you that problem and says, ‘Let me see you find that value I’ve hidden there.’ And He watches with interest, pulling for you all the time. When finally you find that wonderful value, is He happy? He sure is.’
-‘Now, look, son, the first thing is to pray about it. What do our little minds know about it anyway? So let’s ask God for guidance. Now, son, God is working with us, so let’s start thinking. Get that sad look of your face. Get enthusiastic, for something big and wonderful is about to happen.’
-‘Every problem has a soft spot. Boy, what an opportunity you’ve got. The only question is whether you can handle it. But you can, because God will help you. And I will too if you need me.’
-Enthusiasm works miracles with problems:
I.Don’t panic. Keep calm. Use your head. You’ll need all your wits.
II.Don’t be overwhelmed by your problem. Don’t get dramatic about it. Just tell yourself confidently: ‘God and I can handle it.’
III.Practice de-confusion. A problem generally becomes surrounded by confusion. So de-confuse it. Take a paper and pencil and write down every element of the problem.
IV.Skip the post mortems. Don’t say, ‘Why did I do that? Why didn’t I do this?’ Take the problem from where you now are.
V.Look for a solution, not for the whole problem but for the next step. One step leads to another and so on to the complete solution. So be content with tackling that next step.
VI.Practice creative listening.
VII.Always ask yourself what is the right thing to do in a given situation. If what you do isn’t the right thing, then it is the wrong thing. Nothing wrong ever turned out right. So do the right thing and you’ll come out right.
VIII.Keep praying. Keep thinking. Keep believing. And keep enthusiasm going, for it works miracles on problems.
8. Enthusiasm – Powerful Motivation that Makes Things Happen
-Imagine, pray, have faith, think positively, be enthusiastic and motivated.
-‘You can change your thinking and thereby change your life. You can do this by deliberately imaging into your subconscious good ideas, positive images, instead of negative ones. You are constantly in a state of becoming. And you do become what you think. This philosophy does not mean, of course, that your life will be without problems. What it means is that feeling the presence of God within you and about you, you will be able to meet any problem that life presents, full of confidence that God will give you the courage and strength to face, and that He is standing ready to help you solve it. You need only ask – and believe!’
a. Good Losers Become Steady Losers
-‘Carry the image of victory in your heart. In our society of today, we seem to go to extremes. For a while there was an overwhelming emphasis on the importance of winning. It went all the way down to the kiddie leagues. Then a reaction set in. ‘We’re not being realistic,’ intelligent parents would say. ‘Our children must learn how to lose, for isn’t defeat a part of life?’ Quite true. Winning can be overstressed. We need to know how to lose gracefully. But then the extreme comes. Kids who think too much about being good losers forget that the purpose of sports, and life too, is to succeed at what they are doing. You show me a good loser, and I will show you a steady loser.’
-‘Learn from your successes, rather than from your failures!’
-Enthusiasm – that’s what makes great men who make great things happen.
b. Put Up a Real Fight – Enthusiasm Will Go For You
‘Abe, be somebody.’
-Get the good old tough competitive spirit going. Rugged enthusiasm will motivate you to put up a real fight in life. Human beings have in them by nature the creative instinct, the desire to excel. To deny this is actual suicide of personality.
-One of the basic statements made in American history, one that will forever hold a high spot in Americana, was made by the sweet but tough-minded mother of Abraham Lincoln. In the poverty and hardship of the western wilderness, she said to the gangling boy in whom she instinctively sensed a strange greatness: ‘Abe, be somebody.’
-Times have changed. ‘Be nobody,’ seem to be the concept of the far-out-left-wing of our time. But the be-nobody concept won’t last since it is a false notion running counter to human nature.
-Even as a seed put in the ground naturally grows upward toward the sun, so does a human being in the essence of his nature want to move up – always up.
-BE A SOMEBODY AND STOP DELUDING YOURSELF THAT IT IS NICE TO BE NOTHING!
-Life is a struggle, a fight, no matter how much emphasis is put on reducing the harsh, hard elements. To lift burdens off the back of humans, or at least to ease them; to improve the lot of all mankind; to wipe out ghettos and slums; to overcome injustice; and to improve race relations – these are all important objectives.
-Even when all these are accomplished life will still not be one grand, sweet song, one continual happy party.
-Whoever wants to be somebody and have good things happen had better figure on the element of struggle in his life program. If he has enthusiasm, he will possess the powerful motivation that will help him ‘fight the good fight’ in order to make those things happen.
-Never forget the plain downright courage that went into making of this country. This nation was created by a breed of people who practiced the 5 G’s: GRIT, GUMPTION, GUTS, GRACE and GOD!
-It can be maintained only by the same kind of people.
-‘It will not always be this way!’
-Remember the words from Wise Men of Ancient Times: ‘This too, shall pass!’
-Isaiah 41:17-18: When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.’
-‘If there is Family Strength, that old Depression’s not going to get us.’
c. One of the World’s Greatest Positive Thinkers
-I asked this amazing man what kept him going, kept him believing when everyone said it couldn’t be done: ‘There was no alternative. It had to be done, God helped me.’
-The thrilling facts is that there are people who have a sound, solid, irrepressible enthusiasm for real value and are willing to give all of themselves to attain the goal they’ve enthusiastic about.
d. Enthusiasm and the First Motor
‘I learned many things. I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances but the master of them. I learned that, as a Christian, I had an obligation to use the talents God had given me to make life better for others.’
-What you are enthusiastic about can happen.
-Invariably someone comes up with the pious reproof that it is wrong to encourage people to hope for something they cannot attain, that only the gifted, the well-favored can attain the goals.
-Such individuals are wrong, as usual the plain fact being that any person, however seemingly impossible his circumstances, who develops enthusiasm for something and the fortitude to carry it out can make the most utterly astonishing things happen.
-‘I learned many things. I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances but the master of them. I learned that, as a Christian, I had an obligation to use the talents God had given me to make life better for others.’
-‘I gradually realized that it would be only in America that I would receive the training and opportunities to prepare myself to emulate these men on my own land, to be, like them, a leader, perhaps, even the president of my country.
-Proverbs 3:5: ‘Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Then shalt thou walk in thy way.’
-Godless schools educate godless men and women.
-Men are not perfect, as long as they strive to be they will be pleasing to God. The American effort, I felt, was why the land was so blessed.
-When God has put an impossible dream in your heart, He means to help you fulfill it. I believed this to be true when, as an African bush boy, I felt compelled to become an American college graduate. This became true when I graduated from the University of Washington. And if God has given me the dream of becoming president of Nyasaland, this too, will become true.’
-‘It is when we resist God that we remain nothing. When we submit to Him, whatever the sacrifice or hardship, we can become far more than we dare dream.’
-So many could be spared the dullness of mediocrity, the frustration of failure, the loss of hope, if only they would cultivate the amazing power of enthusiasm.
9. Enthusiasm Builds Power Under Your Difficulties
a. He Hit the Bottom With a Bang
b. A Hobo Who Knew His Stuff
-What is a sham breaks down.
c. He Stopped Running From Himself
-‘For the past 25 years I had been running from something, mostly from myself. You can’t run from anything, particularly yourself. As I sat there the first two or three days I was nervous and jittery, until all of a sudden a Bible verse came to my mind: ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ My nervousness left me and I haven’t had it since. During those days of whittling at Pine Mountain, I made the greatest discovery of my life. I discovered a man named Arch Avary from whom I had been running for many years. When I really got to know him, I found out that basically he was a fairly decent person who had been on the wrong track for a long time.’
-‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’
-‘Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.’
-Combine faith with positive thinking!
d. First Alcoholism Then Cancer
-Have the confidence to open a new vista to dark outlooks --> the courage to face unpleasant things.
-Remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians: ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’
e. The Worst Trouble Comes to the Best Men
-The worst trouble comes to the best men because they can handle it.
-Never settle for any defeat. Stand up to your difficulty courageously with lots of faith, and let enthusiasm put power under it. With God’s help you can lick your difficulties and problems.
-God himself is on the side of the enthusiastic believer. That being true, how can you lose.
-Difficulties or no difficulties, intend to be champion!
f. Don’t Be an If Thinker – be a How Thinker!
-The If thinker: ‘If I hadn’t done that. If it had not happened to me. If only I’d had a better break.’ --> one hopeless If after another!
-Bypass the Ifs and emphasize the Hows!
-How do I compensate? How do I become?
-You will only make it when you have suffered long enough. You will only make it when you’ve been hungry enough. You will only make when you’ve been defeated enough.
-You need enough trouble and enthusiasm to make the difference. It takes struggle, a goal, and enthusiasm to make a champion.
-It is a fact that difficulty does help to make strong people, and happy ones, because in the long run no one can be either strong or happy or efficient who has not had rough spots knocked off by the refining process of living.
g. Enthusiasm and the Tumbling Barrel
Men are tumbled through life! We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. As we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in the tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities.
-What is a tumbling barrel? A tumbling barrel is an industrial device for smoothing newly made pieces of metal full of burrs. As they tumble and spill against each other and are rubbed by the abrasive, the burrs disappear and the rough edges are smoothed. They are then in shape to function properly.
-Men are tumbled through life! We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. As we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in the tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities.
-There are well-meaning people who believe that life is too harsh. They are the ones who would like to plan and arrange the world so that no one need suffer.
-But without struggle how could the end product of personality be achieved? How could a person become rounded and strong?
-When you realize that not only are trouble and suffering inevitable, but serve a definite creative purpose as well, you are upgrading your philosophy of human existence. You no longer waste time complaining or pitying yourself, getting resentful or giving in to discouragement. You gradually learn to take difficulties as part of the maturing process. So when the going gets tough, take the attitude that rough spots are being knocked off, that you are being shaped for the real purpose of your life.
-This shaping process makes Men. As tough and unpleasant as difficulty may be, it is the source of potential development.
-Surround every difficulty with prayer, with faith and with straight thinking. Then let enthusiasm build power under it.
-On this basis, you can handle any situation that can ever develop.
h. Airline Hostess Faces Death – But!
-Blow your brains UP instead of OUT! Get your brains blow up, full of enthusiasm!
-The real secret of dealing with difficulties is a proper conditioning of the mind. Anyone can make his mind perform as desired by conditioning it to thoughts of faith, courage, enthusiasm and joy. I do not minimize the harsh, cruel and extremely difficult experiences that people have. But if while depending on the help of God you really try to build a dynamic spirit of victory under your problems, you will gain a new power over them.
-Dr. Paul Dubois and his therapy of words --> say the words which suit you most over and over again when you experience difficulty and nothing can defeat you --> indomitable, acquiescence, imperturbable, rugged.
-Remember these sentences from the Scripture:
•Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?
•I can do all things through Christ who strengthenth me.
•If God be for us, who can be against us.
•In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
-Your mind will give you back exactly what you put into it.
-If over a long period, you put defeat in your mind, your mind will give you back defeat.
-If over a long period you put into your mind great words of faith, your mind will give them back to you.
-Remember Quintus Curtius: garbage in garbage out!
Romans 8:31 - 'What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?'
My notes.
Mike Cernovich Compilation 2015 | 2016
The Gold from Bold
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