The Victorious Attitude
The Victorious AttitudeCHAPTER I THE VICTORIOUS ATTITUDECHAPTER II "ACCORDING TO THY FAITH"CHAPTER III DOUBT THE TRAITORCHAPTER IV MAKING DREAMS COME TRUECHAPTER V A NEW ROSARYCHAPTER VI ATTRACTING THE POORHOUSECHAPTER VII MAKING YOURSELF A PROSPERITY MAGNETCHAPTER VIII THE SUGGESTION OF INFERIORITYCHAPTER IX HAVE YOU TRIED LOVE'S WAY?CHAPTER X WHERE YOUR SUPPLY ISCHAPTER XI THE TRIUMPH OF HEALTH IDEALSCHAPTER XII YOU ARE HEADED TOWARD YOUR IDEALCHAPTER XIII HOW TO MAKE THE BRAIN WORK FOR US DURING SLEEPCHAPTER XIV PREPARING THE MIND FOR SLEEPCHAPTER XV HOW TO STAY YOUNGCHAPTER XVI OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFECopyright
The Victorious Attitude
Orison Swett Marden
CHAPTER I THE VICTORIOUS ATTITUDE
Go boldly; go serenely, go augustly;Who can withstand thee then!Browning.What a grasp the mind would have if we could always hold the
victorious attitude toward everything! Sweeping past obstacles and
reaching out into the energy of the universe it would gather to
itself material for building a life in its own image.To be a conqueror in appearance, in one's bearing, is the
first step toward success. It inspires confidence in others as well
as in oneself. Walk, talk and act as though you were a somebody,
and you are more likely to become such. Move about among your
fellowmen as though you believe you are a man of importance. Let
victory speak from your face and express itself in your manner.
Carry yourself like one who is conscious he has a splendid mission,
a grand aim in life. Radiate a hopeful, expectant, cheerful
atmosphere. In other words, be a good advertisement of the winner
you are trying to be.Doubts, fears, despondency, lack of confidence, will not only
give you away in the estimation of others and brand you as a
weakling, a probable failure, but they will react upon your
mentality and destroy your self-confidence, your initiative, your
efficiency. They are telltales, proclaiming to every one you meet
that you are losing out in the game of life. A triumphant
expression inspires trust, makes a favorable impression. A
despondent, discouraged expression creates distrust, makes an
unfavorable impression.If you don't look cheerful and appear and act like a winner
nobody will want you. Every man will turn a deaf ear to your plea
for work. No matter if you are jobless and have been out of work
for a long time you must keep up a winning appearance, a victorious
attitude, or you will lose the very thing you are after. The world
has little use for whiners, or long-faced failures.It is difficult to get very far away from people's estimate
of us. A bad first impression often creates a prejudice that it is
impossible afterwards wholly to remove. Hence the importance of
always radiating a cheerful, uplifting atmosphere, an atmosphere
that will be a commendation instead of a condemnation. Not that we
should deceive by trying to appear what we are not, but we should
always keep our best side out, not our second best or our worst.
Our personal appearance is our show window where we insert what we
have for sale, and we are judged by what we put there.The victorious idea of life, not its failure side, its
disappointed side; the triumphant, not the thwarted-ambition side,
is the thing to keep ever uppermost in the mind, for it is this
that will lead you to the light. You must give the impression that
you are a success, or that you have qualities that will make you
successful, that you are making good, or no recommendation or
testimonial however strong will counteract the unfavorable
impression you make.So much of our progress in life depends upon our reputation,
upon making a favorable impression upon others, that it is of the
utmost importance to cultivate mental forcefulness. It is the mind
that colors the personality, gives it its tone and character. If we
cultivate will power, decision, positive instead of negative
thinking, we cannot help making an impression of masterfulness, and
everybody knows that this is the qualification that does things. It
is masterfulness, force, that achieves results, and if we do not
express it in our appearance people will not have confidence in our
achieving ability. They may think that we can sell goods behind a
counter, work under orders, carry out some mechanical routine with
faithfulness and precision, but they will not think we are fitted
for leadership, that we can command resources to meet possible
crises or big emergencies.Never say or do anything which will show the earmarks of a
weakling, of a nobody, of a failure. Never permit yourself to
assume a poverty-stricken attitude. Never show the world a gloomy,
pessimistic face, which is an admission that life has been a
disappointment to you instead of a glorious triumph. Never admit by
your speech, your appearance, your gait, your manner, that there is
anything wrong with you. Hold up your head. Walk erect. Look
everybody in the face. No matter how poor you may be, or how shabby
your clothes, whether you are jobless, homeless, friendless even,
show the world that you respect yourself, that you believe in
yourself, and that, no matter how hard the way, you are marching on
to victory. Show by your expression that you can think and plan for
yourself, that you have a forceful mentality.The victorious, triumphant attitude will put you in command
of resources which a timid, self-depreciating, failure attitude
will drive from you.This was well illustrated by a visitor to the Athenæum
Library in Boston. Ignorant of the fact that members only were
entitled to its special privileges, this visitor entered the place
with a confident bearing, seated herself in a comfortable window
seat, and spent a delightful morning reading and writing letters.
In the evening she called on a friend and in the course of
conversation, referred to her morning at the Athenæum."Why, I didn't know you were a member!" exclaimed the
friend."A member! No," said the lady. "I am not a member. But what
difference does that make?"The friend, who held an Athenæum card of membership, smiled
and replied:"Only this, that none but members are supposed to enjoy the
privileges of which you availed yourself this
morning!"Our manner and our appearance are determined by our mental
outlook. If we see only failure ahead we will act and look like
failures. We have already failed. If we expect success, see it
waiting for us a little bit up the road, we will act and look like
successes. We have already succeeded. The failure attitude loses;
the victorious attitude wins.Had the lady in Boston had any doubt of her right to enter
the Athenæum and freely to use all its conveniences, her manner
would have betrayed it. The library attendants would have noticed
it at once, and have asked her to show her card of membership. But
her assured air gave the impression that she was a member. Her
victorious attitude dominated the situation, and put her in command
of resources which otherwise she could not have
controlled.The spirit in which you face your work, in which you grapple
with a difficulty, the spirit in which you meet your problem,
whether you approach it like a conqueror, with courage, a vigorous
resolution, with firmness, or with timidity, doubt, fear, will
determine whether your career will be one grand victory or a
complete failure.It is a great thing so to carry yourself wherever you go that
when people see you coming they will say to themselves, "Here comes
a winner! Here is a man who dominates everything he
touches."Thinking of yourself as habitually lucky will tend to make
you so, just as thinking of yourself as habitually unlucky and
always talking about your failures and your cruel fate will tend to
make you unlucky. The attitude of mind which your thoughts and
convictions produce is a real force which builds or tears down. The
habit of always seeing yourself as a fortunate individual, the
feeling grateful just for being alive, for being allowed to live on
this beautiful earth and to have a chance to make good will put
your mind in a creative, producing attitude.We should all go through life as though we were sent here
with a sublime mission to lift, to help, to boost, and not to
depress and discourage, and so discredit the plan of the Creator.
Our conduct should show that we are on this earth to play a
magnificent part in life's drama, to make a splendid contribution
to humanity.The majority of people seem to take it for granted that life
is a great gambling game in which the odds are heavily against
them. This conviction colors their whole attitude, and is
responsible for innumerable failures.In the betting machines used by horse racing gamblers the
bettors make the odds. If, for example, five hundred persons bet on
a certain horse, and a hundred bet on another, then the first horse
automatically becomes a five to one choice, and the odds in favor
of his winning are five to one. In the game of life most of us
start out by putting the odds on our failure.In horse race gambling the judgment that forms the basis of
belief as to the winning horse has a comparatively secure
foundation in a knowledge of the qualifications of the different
racers. In life gambling it is merely the unsupported opinion or
viewpoint of the individual that puts the odds against himself. The
majority of people look on the probability of their winning out in
the life game in any distinctive way as highly improbable. When
they look around and see how comparatively few of the multitudes of
men and women in the world are winning they say to themselves, "Why
should I think that I have a greater percentage of chance in my
favor than others about me? These people have as much ability as I
have, perhaps more, and if they can do no more than grub along from
hand to mouth, of what use is it for me to struggle against
fate?"When people believe and figure that they cannot, and
therefore never will, be successes, and conduct themselves
according to their conviction: when they take their places in life
not as probable winners, but as probable losers, is it any wonder
that the odds are heavily against them?"Mad! Insane! Eccentric!" we say when some miserable recluse
dies in squalor and wretchedness,—"Starved," the coroner's inquest
finds, although bank books revealing large deposits, or else hoards
of gold, are discovered hidden away in nooks and crannies of the
wretched miser's quarters.Are such persons, whom we call mad, insane, eccentric, who
stint and save, and hoard in the midst of plenty, refusing even to
buy food to keep them alive, any worse than those who face life in
a poverty-stricken, failure attitude, refusing to see and enjoy the
riches, the glories all around them? Is it any wonder that life is
a disappointment to them? Is it any wonder that they see only what
they look for, get only what they expect?What would you think of an actor who was trying to play the
part of a great hero, but who insisted on assuming the attitude of
a coward, and thinking like one; who wore the expression of a man
who did not believe he could do the thing he had undertaken, who
felt that he was out of place, that he never was made to play the
part he was attempting? Naturally you would say the man never could
succeed on the stage, and that if he ever hoped to win success, the
first thing he should do would be to try to think himself the
character, as well as to look the part, he was trying to portray.
That is just what the great actor does. He flings himself with all
his might into the rôle he is playing. He sees himself as, and
feels that he is actually, the character he is impersonating. He
lives the part he is playing on the stage, whether it be that of a
beggar or a hero. If he is playing the part of a hero he acts like
a hero, thinks and talks like a hero. His very manner radiates
heroism. And vice versa, if the part he takes is that of a beggar,
he dresses like one, thinks like one, bows, cringes and whines like
a beggar.Now, if you are trying to be successful you must act like a
successful person, carry yourself like one, talk, act and think
like a winner. You must radiate victory wherever you go. You must
maintain your attitude by believing in the thing you are trying to
do. If you persist in looking and acting like a failure or a very
mediocre or doubtful success, if you keep telling everybody how
unlucky you are, and that you do not believe you will win out
because success is only for a few, that the great majority of
people must be hewers of wood and drawers of water, you will be
about as much of a success as the actor who attempts to personate a
certain type of character while looking, thinking and acting
exactly like its opposite.By a psychological law we attract that which corresponds with
our mental attitude, with our faith, our hopes, our expectations,
or with our doubts and fears. If this were fully understood, and
used as a working principle in life, we would have no poverty, no
failures, no criminals, no down-and-outs. We would not see people
everywhere with expressions which indicate that there is very
little enjoyment in living; that it is a serious question with them
whether life is really worth while, whether it really pays to
struggle on in a miserable world where rewards are so few and
uncertain and pains and penalties so numerous and so
certain.Every boy, every girl should be taught to assume the
victorious attitude toward life. All through a youth's education
the idea should be drilled into him that he is intended to be a
winner in life, that he is himself a prince, a god in the making.
From his cradle up he should be taught to hold his head high, and
to look on himself as a son of the King of kings, destined for
great things.No child is properly reared and educated until he or she
knows how to lead a victorious life. This is what true education
means—victory over self, victory over conditions.It always pains me to hear a youth who ought to be full of
hope and high promise express a doubt as to his future career. To
hear him talk about his possible failure sounds like treason to his
Creator. Why, youth itself is victory. Youth is a great prophecy,
the forerunner of a superb fulfillment. A young man or a young
woman talking about failure is like beauty talking about ugliness;
like superb health dwelling upon weakness and disease; like
perfection dwelling upon imperfection. Youth means victory, because
everything in the life of the healthy boy or girl is looking
upward. There is no downgrade in normal youth; it is its nature to
climb, to look up. Its very atmosphere should breathe hope, superb
promise of the future.If all children were reared with such a triumphant conception
of life, with such an unshakable belief in their heritage from God,
that nothing could discourage them, we would hear no talk of
failure; we would soon sight the millenium. If they were made to
understand that there is only one failure to be feared,—failure to
make good, the failure of character, the failure to keep growing,
to ennoble and enrich one's life,—this world would be a
paradise.Just think what would happen if all of the down-and-outs
to-day, all of the people who look upon themselves as failures or
as dwarfs of what they ought to be, could only get this victorious,
this triumphant, idea of life, if they could only once glimpse
their own possibilities and assume the triumphant attitude! They
would never again be satisfied to grovel. If they once got a
glimpse of their divinity, once saw themselves in the sublime robes
of their power, they never again would be satisfied with the rags
of their poverty.But instead of trying to improve their condition, to get away
from their failure, poverty-stricken atmosphere, they cling the
more closely to it and sink deeper and deeper in the quagmire of
their own making. Everywhere we find whining, miserable people
grumbling at everything, complaining that "life is not worth
living," that "the game is not worth the candle," that "life is a
cheat, a losing game."Life is not a losing game. It is always victorious when
properly played. It is the players who are at fault. The great
trouble with all failures is that they were not started right. It
was not drilled into the very texture of their being in youth that
what they would get out of life must be created mentally first, and
that inside the man, inside the woman, is where the great creative
processes of life are carried on.That which man does with his hands is secondary. It is what
he does with his brain that counts. That is what starts things
going. Some of us never learn how to create with our minds. We
depend too much upon creating with our hands, or on other people to
help us. We depend too much on the things outside of us when the
mainspring of life, the power that moves the world of men and
things, is inside of us.There are times when we cannot see the way ahead, when we
seem to be completely enveloped in the fogs of discouragement,
disappointment and failure of our plans, but we can always do the
thing that means salvation for us, that is persistently,
determinedly, everlastingly to face towards our goal whether we can
see it or not. This is our only chance of overcoming our
difficulties. If we turn about face, turn our back on our goal, we
are headed toward disaster.No matter how many obstacles may block your path, or how dark
the way, if you look up, think up, and struggle up, you can't help
succeeding. Whatever you do for a living, whatever fortune or
misfortune may come to you, hold the victorious attitude and push
ahead.A captain might as well turn about his ship when he strikes a
fog bank, because he cannot see the way ahead of him, and still
expect to make his distant harbor, as for you to drop your
victorious attitude and face the other way just because you have
run into a fog bank of disappointment or failure. The only hope of
the captain's reaching his destination is in being true to the
compass that guides him in the fog and darkness as well as in the
light. He may not see the way, but he can follow his compass. That
we also can do by holding the victorious attitude towards life, the
only attitude that can insure safety and bring us into
port.
CHAPTER II "ACCORDING TO THY FAITH"
"Where there is Faith there is Love,Where there is Love there is Peace,Where there is Peace there is God,Where there is God there is no need."There is a divine voice within us which only speaks when
every other voice is hushed,—only gives its message in the
silence."I shall study law," said an ambitious youngster, "and those
who are already in the profession must take their
chances!"The divine self-confidence of youth, the unshaken faith that
believes all things possible, often makes cynics and world-weary
people smile. Yet it is the grandest, most helpful attribute of
man, the finest gift of the Creator to the race. If we could retain
through life the faith of ambitious, self-confident, untried youth,
its unquestioning belief in its ability to carve out its ideal in
the actual, what wonders we should all accomplish! Such faith would
enable us literally to remove mountains.All through the Scriptures faith is emphasized as a
tremendous power. It was by faith that Moses led the children of
Israel out of Egypt, through the waters of the Red Sea, and through
the wilderness. It was by faith that Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, and
all of the great prophets performed their miracles.Faith was the great characteristic of Christ Himself. The
word was constantly on His lips, "According to thy faith be it unto
thee." He often referred to it as the measure of what we receive in
life, also as the great healer, the great restorer. Whenever He
healed He laid the entire emphasis upon the faith of the healer and
the one healed. "Thy faith hath made thee whole," "Believe only and
she shall be made whole," "Thy faith hath saved thee." Or He
reproved His disciples for the lack of faith which prevented them
from healing, as when He addresses them, "O faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer
you."Faith believes; doubt fears. Faith creates; doubt destroys.
Faith opens the door to all things desirable in life; doubt closes
them. Faith is an arouser, an awakener of our creative forces. It
opens the door of ability and arouses creative energies. Faith is
the link in the Great Within which connects man with his Maker. It
is the divine messenger sent to guide men, blinded by doubt and
sin. Our faith puts us in touch with Infinite Power, opens the way
to unbounded possibilities, limitless resources. No one can rise
higher than his faith. No one can do a greater thing than he
believes he can. The fact that a person believes implicitly that he
can do what may seem impossible to others, shows there is something
within him that has gotten a glimpse of power sufficient to
accomplish his purpose.Men who have achieved great things could not account for
their faith; they could not tell why they had an unflinching belief
that they could do what they undertook. But the mere fact of such
belief was evidence that they had had a glimpse of interior
resourcefulness, reserve power and possibilities which would
warrant that faith; and they have gone ahead with implicit
confidence that they would come out all right, because this faith
told them so. It told them so because it had been in communication
with something that was divine, that which had passed the bounds of
the limited and had veered into the limitless.Men and women who have left their mark on the world have been
implicit followers of their faith when they could see no light; but
their unseen guide has led them through the wilderness of doubt and
hardship into the promised land.When we begin to exercise self-faith, self-confidence, we are
stimulating and increasing the strength of the faculties which
enable us to do the thing we have set our heart on doing. Our faith
causes us to concentrate on our object, and thus develops power to
accomplish it. Faith tells us that we may proceed safely, even when
our mental faculties see no light or encouragement ahead. It is a
divine leader which never misdirects us. But we must always be sure
that it is faith, and not merely egotism or selfish desire that is
urging us. There is a great difference between the two, and no one
who is true to himself can possibly be deceived.When we are doing right, when we are on the right track, our
faith in the divine order of things never wavers. It sustains in
situations which drive the self-centered egoist to despair. The man
who does not see the Designer behind the design everywhere, who
does not see the mighty Intelligence back of every created thing,
cannot have that sublime faith which buoys up the great achievers
and civilization-builders.Our supreme aim should be to get the best from life, the best
in the highest sense that life has to give, and this we cannot do
without superb faith in the Infinite. What we accomplish will be
large or small according to the measure of this faith. It is the
man who believes in the one Source of All who believes most in
himself; it is the man who sees good in everything, who sees the
divine in his fellow-man, who has faith in everybody, who is the
master man. The skeptic, the pessimist, has no bulwark of faith,
none of the divine enthusiasm that faith gives, none of the zeal
that carries the man of faith unscathed through the most terrible
trials.Without confidence in the beneficence of the great universal
plan we can not have much confidence in ourselves. To get the best
out of ourselves we must believe that there is a current running
heavenward, however much our surroundings may seem to contradict
this. We must believe that the Creator will not be foiled in His
plan, and that everything will work together for good, however much
wars and crime, poverty, suffering and wretchedness all about us
may seem to deny this.The abiding faith in a Power which will bring things out
right in the end, which will harmonize discord, has always been
strong in men and women who have done great things in the world,
especially in those who have achieved grand results in spite of the
most severe trials and tribulations.It takes sublime faith to enable a man to fight his way
through "insuperable" difficulties, to bear up under
discouragements, afflictions and seeming failure without losing
heart; and it is just such faith that has characterized every great
soul that has ever made good. Whatever other qualities they may
have lacked, great characters have always had sublime faith. They
have believed in human nature. They have believed in men. They have
believed in the beneficent Intelligence running through the
universe.Some of the most important reforms in history have been
brought about by very fragile, delicate men and women, not only
without outside encouragement, but in the teeth of the most
determined opposition. They have agitated and agitated, hoped and
hoped, and struggled and struggled, until victory came. No one
could even attempt the herculean tasks they accomplished without
that instinctive, abiding faith in a Power superior to their own,—a
Power which would work in harmony with honesty, with earnestness,
with integrity of purpose, in a persistent struggle for the right,
but which would never sanction wrong.Think of what the faith of St. Paul enabled him to do for the
world! Think of what Christ's little band of chosen disciples
succeeded in accomplishing in spite of the might of the Roman
empire pitted against them! The power of the greatest benefactors
of the race came largely from the inspiration of faith in their
mission, their belief that they were born to deliver a certain
message to the world, that they were to make an important
contribution to civilization. Think of what the faith of the
inventor has done! It has kept him at his task, kept him nerved and
encouraged in the face of starvation, kept him at his work when his
family had gone back on him, when his neighbors had denounced him,
and called him insane. Think of what the faith of Columbus, of
Luther, of the Wesleys, has accomplished for mankind! It has ever
been men with indomitable faith that have moved the world. They
have been the great pioneers of progress.An instinctive faith in the Divine Force which permeates the
universe, which is friendly to the right and antagonistic to the
wrong, has ever been the unseen helper that supported, encouraged,
and stimulated men and women to accomplish the "impossible," or
that which to lower natures seems beyond human capacity. It is this
which sustains brave souls in adversity and enables them to bear
up, to believe and hope and struggle on when everything seems to go
against them. It is the same principle which supported the martyr
at the stake and enabled him to smile when the flames were licking
the flesh from his bones.Faith has ever been the greatest power in civilization. It
has built our railroads, has revealed the secrets of nature to
science, has led the way to all our inventions and discoveries, and
has brought success out of the most inhospitable conditions and
iron environments. In fact, we owe everything that has been
accomplished to faith, and yet when we come to its practical
application in our everyday affairs how few of us avail ourselves
of this tremendous force! The vast majority are looking for some
power outside to help, when we ourselves hold the key which has
ever unlocked, and ever will unlock, all barred doors to aspiring
souls.If people could only realize what a potent building, creative
force faith is, and would exercise it in their daily lives, we
should have very few paupers, very few failures, very few sickly,
diseased or criminal among us. If, by some magic, a strong,
vigorous faith could be injected into the men and women of the
great failure army to-day, the larger part of them would get out of
this army and get into the army of the successful.It is not alone in our life work, or in great or special
undertakings that faith is necessary. We need it every moment of
our lives, in everything, great and small, that concerns us. It is
just as necessary to your health as it is to your success. To build
up the faith habit, faith in human nature, the habit of believing
in yourself, in your ability, of believing that you are sane,
sound, and level headed, that you have good judgment and good horse
sense, that you are victory organized and that you are going to
attain your ambition, is to blaze a path to success.A man begins to deteriorate, to go toward failure, not when
he loses all of his material possessions, not when he fails in his
undertakings, but when he loses faith in himself, in his ability to
make his dreams come true.When we remember that self-faith characterizes successful
people, and lack of it the mediocres and the failures, one would
think that everybody would cultivate this divine quality which by
itself alone has done so much for the individual and for the
world.The reason why faith works such marvels is that it is the
leader of all the other mental faculties. They will not proceed
until faith goes ahead. It is the basis of courage, of initiative,
of enthusiasm. Much of Napoleon's power and early success came from
his tremendous faith in his mission, the conviction that he was a
man of destiny, that he was born under a lucky star, born to
conquer. Shorn of his mighty belief in his star, stripped of the
faith that he was born to rule, he would have been no more of a
power in human affairs than the dullest private in the ranks of his
army. When warned by his generals not to expose himself to the
enemy, he would reply that the bullet or the cannon had not been
cast which could kill Napoleon. This invincible belief in his
destiny added wonderfully to his natural powers.It was her conviction that she was chosen of God to free
France from its enemies that made Joan of Arc, the simple, ignorant
peasant girl of Domrèmy, the saviour of her country. Her mighty
faith in her divine mission gave her a dignity and a miraculous
force of character, a positive genius, that made all the commanders
of the French army obey her as private soldiers obey their superior
officers. Faith in herself and in her mission transformed the
peasant maiden into the greatest military leader of her
time.There is no doubt that every human being comes to this earth
with a mission. We are not accidental puppets thrown off to be
buffetted by luck or chance or cruel fate. We are a part of the
great universal plan. We were made to fit into this plan, to play a
definite part in it. We come here with a message for humanity which
no one else but ourselves can deliver, and faith in our mission,
the belief that we are important factors in the great creative
plan, that we are, in fact, co-creators with God, will add
wonderfully to the dignity and effectiveness of our lives, will
enable us to perform the "impossible."If every child were brought up in the firm belief that he was
made for health, happiness, and success; if it were impressed on
him that he should never entertain a doubt of his power to attain
them, as a man he would be infinitely stronger in his powers of
self-assertion and in his self-confidence; and these qualities
strengthen the ability, unify the faculties, clarify the vision,
and make the attainment of what the heart yearns for a hundred per
cent. more probable than if he had not been thus
reared.A child's faith is instinctive, and if not tampered with,
destroyed by wrong training, would continue through life. We see
this sort of instinctive faith illustrated by the lower animals.
Take the birds, or the domestic hen, for example. See how patiently
she sits on the eggs week after week until the chickens are
hatched. She cannot see the chickens when she begins to sit, but
her belief that they will come if she does her part induces her to
give up her liberty for weeks, and to go sometimes for days without
food, that she may keep the eggs at the right temperature in order
to produce the chickens.The trouble with most of us is that we do not have sufficient
faith in the creative power of the vigorous determination to do a
thing, in the persistent endeavor backed by self—faith to
accomplish what we desire. We give up too easily under
discouragement. We haven't sufficient stamina and grit to push on
under disheartening conditions. We want to see clear through from
the beginning to the end of whatever we undertake. We refuse to
have faith. Yet much of the time throughout life we may have to
work without any goal in sight, or at least without any clear light
to see it, but if the mental attitude is right we know that,
somehow, we shall attain our heart's desire. We have merely been
shown a program which we are capable of carrying out, a table of
contents of our capabilities, the signs of the corresponding
realities, for faith is not an idle dream, an illusive picture of
the imagination. We have not been mocked by ideals and aspirations,
soul-yearnings and heart-longings for the things which have no
possible realities. Faith is not a cheat. There is ability to match
the faith.There is something about devotion to one's inward vision, the
intense desire and concentrated effort to fulfill what we believe
to be our mission here, that has a solidifying influence upon the
character, gives poise and peace of mind and also helps us to
realize our vision.The probabilities are that the iceberg which sent theTitanic, with sixteen hundred souls,
to the bottom of the ocean did not even feel a tremor at the shock.
More than seven-eighths of its huge bulk was below the water, deep
down in the eternal calm of the sea, beyond the reach of storm or
tempest. Like the giant iceberg, faith reaches down into the serene
within of us, into the eternal calm of the soul. It is not
disturbed by the surface commotions. A life poised in faith rides
steadily, triumphantly, through the tempests and the hurricanes of
existence.You will constantly be confronted with things which tend to
destroy faith in God and faith in yourself. There are many times in
life when about all we can do is to hold on to the hand of the
Divine Guide until we have run through the storm zone. We have to
learn to turn away from the heart-breaks of life and to face toward
the light. We have to disregard the criticisms and the
discouragement of others, as well as the assaults of fear and
doubt, and press on to our goal.If you go in business for yourself, if you are struggling to
get an education, if you are making desperate efforts to realize
your ambition, whatever it is, you will find plenty of pessimists
who will predict your failure. They will tell you that you never
can build up a business without a lot of capital and outside help
in these times of terrific competition, that you cannot work your
way through college, that you can never be whatever you are
dreaming of and longing to be. You will meet plenty of obstacles
and much opposition, and it will take a very stiff backbone, a lot
of sand and grit to keep pushing on towards your goal against great
odds, but faith is more than a match for all these. Nothing else
will enable you to win out.Remember it is not other people's faith in you but your faith
in yourself that counts most. It is a good thing to have other
people's good opinion, to have their confidence in us, their faith
in the success of our efforts, but it is not imperative. Our own
is. No man ever gets anywhere or does anything great in this world
without faith in himself, without a superb belief that he is on the
right track, that he is doing the thing he was made to do, that he
is going to stick to it through thick and thin to the end. It takes
faith to look beyond obstacles, to see the way over difficulties,
to brave opposition and to allow nothing to swerve us from our
course.You cannot keep any one from succeeding who has an unshakable
faith in his mission. You cannot crush the faith that wrestles with
difficulties, that never weakens under trials or afflictions, that
pushes on when everybody else turns back, that gets up with greater
determination every time it is knocked down.In the sacred Confucian scriptures we are told that a very
devoted disciple of Confucius, on a pilgrimage to his master, was
stopped on his journey by a broad river. As he could not swim and
could not procure a boat, the zealous disciple resolved that he
would walk on the water. Believing that the necessity of seeing his
master was most urgent, and being filled with zeal in the
performance of his mission, he boldly made the attempt—and
succeeded. The record of this miracle is supposed by followers of
Confucius to be just as authentic as the Bible account of the
walking of Christ on the water.If, like this zealot, you have faith in your power to
overcome difficulties, nothing can keep you from your goal. If,
like Joan of Arc, you believe you are appointed by God to perform a
certain work, it will help you wonderfully to make good. It will
dignify your life and your efforts, and thus save you from a
thousand temptations to waste your time in frivolous pursuits. It
will put a higher value upon your importance to the world. To feel
that you have a divine mission that no one else can perform, that
you came here with a sacred message for mankind, and that it is up
to you to deliver it will add a wonderful motive for effectiveness
in your life work. The consciousness that you are keeping faith
with your Creator and with yourself, that you are keeping faith
with your fellowmen and earning their respect and love, that you
are keeping faith with a splendid life purpose, with your holiest
vision, gives a satisfaction which nothing else can
afford.Cling to your faith no matter what happens. It is your best
friend. Like the magnetic needle on the ship's deck, which will
find the north star, no matter how dense the fog, how dark the
night, or how threatening the tempest, your faith, even though you
cannot see, will find the way. It sees the open road, beyond the
mountain of difficulties which shuts out the vision of the other
faculties.Some time ago, during one of our periodical business crises,
some newspapers made merry over a statement of President Wilson
that the condition of the United States, illustrated by the fact
that eighty thousand freight cars were at the time side-tracked
along the lines of one of our great railroads alone, could be
changed by psychology. One of these papers sarcastically suggested
that if we should take a dose of the psychology remedy and go to
sleep somewhere in the misty, cloudy lands of theory, and dream
that those eighty thousand empty freight cars were moving, we
should see them move.