HOW TO BUILD YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
The scientific principles outlined in this lesson have brought
success and happiness to millions of people. This particular
treatise on ‘‘How to Build Self-Confidence’’ was written more than seven years ago as a part of a general course in applied psychology.
Later it was published in booklet form, and more than three
hundred thousand of the booklets have been distributed. One large industrial concern presented a copy of it to every employee on its payrolls, several thousand people.
The lesson which you are about to read has an interesting history. I have evidence of more than a hundred cases of men and women
finding their proper bearings in life through the aid of that which you are about to read.
The most striking example of immediate transformation of failure into success, through the aid of this article, happened about four years ago, during the war. One day a tramp came to my office. When I
looked up at him, he was standing in the door with his cap in his hands, looking as if he wanted to apologize for being on earth.
I was about to offer him a quarter when he startled me by pulling a little brown-covered booklet out of his pocket. It was a copy of How to Build Self-Confidence. He said, ‘‘It must have been the hand of fate that slipped this little booklet into my pocket yesterday afternoon. I was on my way to punch a hole in Lake Michigan when someone gave me An attractive personality is something that is always found near a heart that beats with kindness and sympathy for struggling humanity. this book. I read it. It caused me to stop and think, and now I am satisfied that, if you will, you can put me back on my feet again.’’
I looked the tramp over again. He was about the worst-looking specimen of humanity I have ever seen. He wore a two weeks’ growth of beard. His clothes were unpressed and ragged. He wore no collar. His shoes were run down at the heels. But, he had come to me for help that I could not refuse. I asked him to come in and sit down. Frankly, I had not the slightest idea that I could do anything for him, but I did not have the heart to tell him so.
I asked him to tell me his story, to tell me what brought him down to that station in life. He told me his story. Briefly, it was this: Prior to the war, he was a successful manufacturer up in the state of Michigan. The war caused his factory to fail. It wiped out his savings and his business, and the blow broke his heart. It undermined his faith in himself, so he left his wife and children and went out and became a beggar.
After I had heard this story, I thought of a plan for helping him. I said to him, ‘‘I have listened to your story with a great deal of interest, and I wish I could do something for you, but there is absolutely
nothing that I can do.’’ I watched him for a few seconds. He turned white and looked as if he were about to faint. Then I said, ‘‘But, there is a man in this building to whom I will introduce you, and that man can put you back on your feet in less than six months if you will rely upon him.’’ He stopped me and said, ‘‘For God’s sake, lead me to him.’’ I took him out into my laboratory and stood him in front of what looked to be a curtain over a door.
I reached over and pulled the curtain aside, and he stood face to face with the person to whom I had promised to introduce him, looking himself squarely in the face, in a tall looking glass. I pointed my finger at the glass and said, ‘‘There is the only person on earth who can help you, sir; and unless you sit down and become acquainted with the strength back of that personality, you might just as well go ahead and ‘punch a hole in Lake Michigan’ because you will be no good to yourself or to anyone else.’’ He walked over real close to the glass, rubbed his bewhiskered face, then stepped back, and tears began to trickle down his cheeks. I led him to the elevator and sent him away, never expecting to see him again.
About four days later, I met him on the streets of Chicago. A complete transformation had taken place. He was walking at a rapid pace with his chin up in the air at a forty-five-degree angle. He was
dressed from head to foot with new clothes. He looked like success, and he walked as if he felt like success. He saw me and came over and shook hands.
He said, ‘‘Mr. Hill, you have changed the whole course of my life. You have saved me from myself by introducing me to myself—to my real self—the one I did not know before—and one of these days, I am coming back to see you again. When I do, I am going to be a successful man. I am going to bring you a check. Your name will be filled in at the top, and my name will be filled in at the bottom. The amount will be left blank, for you to fill in, because you have marked the biggest turning point in my life.’’ He turned and disappeared in the crowded streets of Chicago. As I watched him go, I wondered if I would ever see him again. I wondered if he would really make good. I just wondered and wondered. It seemed almost like reading some tale from the Arabian
Nights. Which brings me to the end of my introductory remarks, and to an appropriate place to say that this man has come back to see me again. He made good. If I mentioned his name in these columns, you would recognize it immediately, because he has attained phenomenal success and placed himself at the head of a business that is known from coast to coast.
I am trying to get him to tell his own story in these columns, that others may profit by his example. I hope I will succeed, because there are millions of others who have lost faith in the only person on this
earthly plane who can do anything for them, just as this man had done, who might find themselves through his own story. In the meantime, following is the article which brought about this unusual transformation in a man who had fallen to the lowest depths of despondency.
This can prove to be the most valuable book you ever read. It shows you how to make application of the principles of autosuggestion and concentration in developing the most necessary of all qualities for success, self-confidence. There are two great objects for which all humanity seems to be striving. One is to attain happiness, and the other is to accumulate material wealth—money! You will begin to see the importance of developing self-confidence when you stop to realize that neither of these two chief objects of life can be achieved without it.
Try as hard as you wish, and you cannot be happy unless you believe in yourself! Work with all the strength at your command, and you cannot accumulate more than barely enough to live on unless you
believe in yourself! The one and only person in all this world through whose efforts you can be supremely happy under all circumstances, and through whose labor you can accumulate all the material wealth that you can use legitimately, is yourself.
When you come into a full realization of this great truth, a new, vibrant feeling of inspiration will seize you, and you will become conscious of a tremendous amount of vitality and power which you
did not know that you possessed before. You will accomplish more because you will dare to undertake more! You will realize, possibly for the first time in your life, that you possess the ability to accomplish anything that you wish to accomplish! You will realize how little your success in any undertaking will depend upon others and how much it will depend upon you.
We recommend that you purchase a copy of Emerson’s Essays and read ‘‘Self-Reliance.’’ It will fill you with new inspirations, enthusiasm, and determination. Then, after you have read the essay on self-reliance, read the one on compensation. In these two essays, you will find some remarkably
helpful truths. In the development of self-confidence, one of the first steps you must take is to dispel forever the feeling that you cannot accomplish anything you undertake. Fear is the chief negative that stands between you and self-confidence, but we shall show you how to scientifically eliminate fear and develop courage in its place.
Reposing in your brain is a sleeping genius which can never be aroused except through the exercise of self-confidence. When it is once aroused, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. You will surprise all who knew you before your transformation took place. You will brush aside all obstacles and sweep on to victory, backed by an invisible force which recognizes no obstacles.
A careful analysis of the successful men of the world shows that the dominating quality which they all possessed was self-confidence.
The purpose of this chart is to show you how you may, through the principles of auto-suggestion and concentration, place any thought or desire in your conscious mind and hold it there until it becomes crystallized into reality. These principles are scientific and accurate. They have been tested thousands of times by leading scientists of the world. To prove their accuracy, you have only to try them out, as hundreds of others are doing, by memorizing the following chart:
1. I know that I have the ability to accomplish all that I undertake. I know that to succeed, I have only to establish this belief in myself and follow it with vigorous, aggressive action. I will establish it.
2. I realize that my thoughts eventually reproduce themselves in material form and substance and become real in the physical state. Therefore, I will concentrate upon the daily task of thinking of the person I intend to be and of drawing a mental picture of this person and of transforming this picture into reality. (Here describe in detail your ‘‘chief aim’’ or the life-work you have selected.)
3. I am studying with the firm intention of mastering the fundamental principles through which I may attract to me the desirable things of life. Through this study, I am becoming more self-reliant and more cheerful. I am developing more sympathy for my fellow men, and I am becoming stronger, both
mentally and physically. I am learning to smile the smile that plays upon the heart as well as upon the lips.
4. I am mastering and overpowering the habit of starting something that I do not finish. From this time forward, I will first plan all that I wish to do, making a clear mental picture of it, and then I will let nothing interfere with my plans until I have developed them into realities.
5. I have clearly mapped out and planned the work that I intend to follow for the ensuing five years. I have set a price upon my services for each of the five years, a price that I intend to command through strict application of the principle of efficient, satisfactory service!
6. I fully realize that genuine success will come only through strict application of the ‘‘Golden Rule’’ principles. I will, therefore, engage in no transaction which does not benefit alike all who participate in it. I will succeed by attracting to me the forces that I wish to use. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve them. I will gain the friendship of my fellow men because of my kindness and my willingness to be a friend. I will eliminate from my mind fear by developing in its
place courage. I will eliminate skepticism by developing faith. I will eliminate hatred and cynicism by developing love for humanity.
7. I will learn to stand upon my feet and express myself in clear, concise, and simple language, and to speak with force and enthusiasm, in a matter that will carry conviction. I will cause others to become interested in me, because I will first become interested in them. I will eliminate selfishness and develop in its place the spirit of service.
Let us particularly direct your attention to the second paragraph of this self-confidence building chart. Under this heading, you must clearly and definitely state the ‘‘chief aim,’’ and by deliberately placing
it in your conscious mind, you are making use of the principle of auto-suggestion, and by memorizing this chart and holding its contents in readiness so you may call it into the conscious mind at any minute, and by actually calling it into your consciousness many times a day, you are making use of the principle of concentration.
Your mind may be likened to the sensitive plate of a camera. The ‘‘chief aim’’ held before your mind, through the foregoing chart, may be likened to the object of which you wish to make a clear, definite
picture. When this picture becomes transferred permanently to the sensitive plates of your subconscious mind, you will notice that every act and every movement of your body will have a tendency toward transforming this picture into a physical reality.
Your mind first draws a picture of that which it wants, and then it proceeds to direct your bodily activity toward acquiring it. Keep fear away from your conscious mind as you would keep poison out of your food, for it is the one barrier that will stand between you and self-confidence. After you have committed this self-confidence building chart to memory, make a habit of repeating it aloud at least twice a day. All of your thoughts have a tendency, within themselves, to produce appropriate or corresponding activities in your body, but thoughts which are There is a sure way to avoid criticism—be nothing and do nothing.
Get a job as a street sweeper and kill out ambition. The remedy never fails. followed by affirmation through spoken words will crystallize into reality in much less time than those which are not followed by expression in words. Going still further, thoughts which are followed by both spoken and written words will crystallize into physical reality in still less time than those which are inhibited and merely held in consciousness silently. Therefore, we not only strongly recommend that you will memorize this self-confidence building chart, but we also suggest that you write it out and repeat it aloud at least twice a day for at least two weeks. By following these suggestions, you will have taken three decided steps toward realizing your goal:
First, you will have created it in thought. Second, you will have caused this to produce bodily action tending toward its ultimate transformation into reality, through the muscular action of the vocal organs in speaking aloud. Third, you will have caused this thought to actually begin the process of transformation into physical reality through the muscular action of your hand in writing it out on paper.
These three steps would complete your task entirely in many lines of work, for example, in architecture. The architect first thinks, paints a clear picture of his building on the sensitive plates of his mind, then transfers this picture to paper with his hand, and lo! his work is completed.
We recommend that you stand before a looking glass where you can see yourself as you repeat the words of the self-confidence building chart. Look yourself squarely in the eyes as though you were
some other person, and talk with vehemence. If there is any feeling of lack of courage, shake your fist in the face of that person you see in the glass and arouse him to a feeling of reaction. Make him want to say something; make him want to do something.
Soon you will actually see the lines on your face begin to change from an expression of weakness to one of strength. You will commence to see strength and beauty in that face which you never saw before, and this wonderful transformation will be quite as noticeable to others. You need not follow the exact wording of the self-confidence building chart, but select words which more appropriately express your desire. As a matter of fact, you may write an entirely new chart if you prefer. The wording is immaterial as long as it clearly defines the picture which you intend to transform into reality.
Look upon this chart as being a blueprint or detailed description of the person you intend to be. Record in the blueprint every emotion which you wish to feel, every act which you wish to perform, and a clear description of yourself as you wish others to see you. Remember that this chart is your working plan, and that in time—a very short time at that—you are going to resemble this plan in every detail.
Let this chart become your daily prayer, if you are religiously inclined, and repeat it as such. If you believe in prayer—as you undoubtedly do—you cannot doubt for one moment that your desires, as expressed through the chart, will be fully realized. Do you not see what a remarkable position of strength you will be placed in by repeating this chart as a prayer? Do you not see with wonderful
clearness just what the added quality of faith will do toward quickly and surely transforming your affirmations into physical realities?
Do you not see great possibilities of this method of using the power of the Infinite for the achievement of your desires? It makes no difference what your religion may be; this method of
self-development in no way conflicts with it. People of all religions recognize prayer as the central power around which their creeds are built. If prayer has the endorsement of all religions, it must be worthy of employment in the achievement of legitimate ends. Surely the development of self-confidence is a legitimate and worthy end.
We may not be able to explain the wonderful phenomenon of prayer, but that should not prevent us from making every possible legitimate use of it. To make use of it in the transformation of the written words of the chart into physical reality surely is a legitimate use, because the purpose of this chart is the development of man, the greatest and most wonderful handiwork of God. What could be more worthy purpose than that of freeing the human mind from the greatest of all curses, fear? And, what is the self-confidence building chart for except to eliminate fear and build courage in its place?
By making use of this chart in the manner indicated, do you not see how one is placed in the anomalous position of being compelled to develop self-confidence or doubt the power of prayer and aspiration? Do you not see what a powerful impetus is given to your undertaking by the added quality of faith which attaches to prayer? You need not confine your chart to the development of self confidence exclusively. Add to it any other quality that you wish to develop, happiness for example, and it will bring you what you order.
To deny this is to deny the power of prayer itself. You are now in possession of the great pass key that will unlock the door to whatever you wish yourself to be. Call this great key whatever you wish. Consider it in the light of a purely scientific force if you choose; or, look upon it as a Divine Power, belonging to the great mass of unknown phenomena which mankind has not yet fathomed. The result in either case will be the same, success. If prayer is good for anything at all, surely it may be used as a medium through which to develop in the human mind the greatest of all blessings, happiness. You will never enjoy greater happiness than that which you will experience through the development of self confidence.
Through this method of self-confidence building, your Creator stands sponsor for your success. Do you not see what a tremendous advantage you are giving yourself through this procedure? Do you not see how impossible it will be for you to fail? Do you not see how prayer itself becomes your chief ally? Faith is the foundation upon which civilization rests. Nothing seems impossible when built upon faith as the cornerstone to your self-confidence building. Make use of it, and your building cannot fall. You will overcome all obstacles, and tear down all resistance in accomplishing your purposes, through this simple plan. Let no prejudices stand in the way of your using this plan. To doubt that
it will bring you that which you desire is the equivalent of doubting prayer.
The great curse of the ages is fear or lack of self-confidence. With this evil removed, you will see yourself being rapidly transformed into a person of strength and initiative. You will see yourself breaking out of the ranks of that great mass which we call followers, and moving up into the front row of that select few which we call leaders. Leadership only comes through supreme belief in self, and you know how to develop that belief.
Remember this as my parting shot at you—that you can be
anything that you deeply and emotionally desire to be. Find out what you desire most, and you have then and there laid the foundation for acquiring it. Strong, deeply seated desire is the beginning of all human achievement—it is the seed, the germ from which all man’s accomplishments spring.
Emotionalize or vitalize your whole being with any well-fixed, definite desire, and immediately your personality becomes a magnet that will attract to you the object of that desire.
To doubt is to remain in ignorance.
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