Lesson Three - Self Confidence / Stress Management

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SELF-CONFIDENCE

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BEFORE approaching the fundamental principles upon which this lesson is founded it will be of benefit to you to keep in mind the fact that it is practical - that it brings you the discoveries of more than one hundred twenty five years of research-that it has the approval of the leading scientific men and women of the world who have tested every principle involved.

 

Skepticism is the Deadly Enemy of Progress and Self-Development.

 

You might as well lay this course on success aside and stop right here as to approach this lesson with the feeling that it was written by some degenerate theorist who had never tested the principles upon which the lesson is based.

 

Surely this is no age for the skeptic, because it is an age in which we have seen more of Nature's laws uncovered and harnessed than had been discovered in all past history of the human race.

 

We have witnessed

1. the mastery of the air;

2. explored the ocean;

3. all but annihilated distances on the earth and traveled to the moon and back;

4. harnessed lightning and made it turn the wheels of industry;

5. made seven blades of grass grow where but one grew before;

6. instantaneous communication between the nations of the world.

 

Truly, this is an age of illumination and unfoldment, but we have as yet barely scratched the surface of knowledge.

 

However, when we shall have unlocked the gate that leads to the secret power which is stored up within us it will bring us knowledge that will make all past discoveries pale into oblivion by comparison.

 

Thought is the most highly organized form of energy known to man, and this is an age of experimentation and research that is sure to bring us into greater understanding of that mysterious force called thought, which reposes within us.

 

We have already found out enough about the human mind to know that a man may throw off the accumulated effects of a thousand generations of fear, through the aid of the principle of Auto-suggestion.

 

We have already discovered the fact that fear is the chief reason for poverty and failure and misery that takes on a thousand different forms.

 

We have already discovered the fact that the man who masters fear may march on to successful achievement in practically any undertaking, despite all efforts to defeat him.

 

The development of self-confidence starts with the elimination of this demon called fear, which sits upon a man's shoulder and whispers into his ear, "You can't do it - you are afraid to try - you are afraid of public opinion - you are afraid that you will fail - you are afraid you have not the ability."

 

This fear demon is getting into close quarters. Science has found a deadly weapon with which to put it to flight, and this lesson on self-confidence has brought you this weapon for use in your battle with the world-old enemy of progress, fear.

 

THE SIX BASIC FEARS OF MANKIND: Every person falls heir to the influence of six basic fears. Under these six fears may be listed the lesser fears.

 

The six basic or major fears are here enumerated and the sources from which they are believed to have grown are described.

 

The six basic fears are:

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1. - The fear of Poverty

2. - The fear of Old Age

3. - The fear of Criticism

4. - The fear of Loss of Love of Someone.

5. - The fear of Ill Health

6. - The fear of Death

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In truth, no man knows, and no man has ever known, what heaven or hell is like, or if such places exist, and this very lack of definite knowledge opens the door of the human mind to the charlatan to enter and control that mind with his stock of legerdemain and various brands of trickery, deceit and fraud.

 

The truth is this - nothing less and nothing more - That NO MAN KNOWS NOR HAS ANY MAN EVER KNOWN WHERE WE COME FROM AT BIRTH OR WHERE WE GO AT DEATH. Any person claiming otherwise is either deceiving himself or he is a conscious impostor who makes it a business to live without rendering service of value, through play upon the credulity of humanity.

 

Be it said, in their behalf, however, the majority of those engaged in "selling tickets into heaven" actually believe not only that they know where heaven exists, but that their creeds and formulas will give safe passage to all who embrace them.

 

This belief may be summed up in one word - CREDULITY!

 

Religious leaders, generally, make the broad, sweeping claim that the present civilization owes its existence to the work done by the churches. This author, as far as he is personally concerned, is willing to grant their claims to be correct, if, at the same time he be permitted to add that even if this claim be true the theologians haven't a great deal of which to brag.

 

But, it is not - cannot be - true that civilization has grown out of the efforts of the organized churches and creeds, if by the term "civilization" is meant the uncovering of the natural laws and the many inventions to which the world is the present heir.

 

If the theologians wish to claim that part of civilization which has to do with man's conduct toward his fellow man they are perfectly welcome to it, as far as this author is concerned; but, on the other hand, if they presume to gobble up the credit for all the scientific discovery of mankind the author begs leave to offer vigorous protest.

 

It is hardly sufficient to state that social heredity is the method through which man gathers all knowledge that reaches him through the five senses.

 

It is more to the point to state HOW social heredity works, in as many different applications as will give the student a comprehensive understanding of that law.

 

Let us begin with some of the lower forms of animal life and examine the manner in which they are affected by the law of social heredity.

 

Shortly after this author began to examine the major sources from which men gather the knowledge which makes them what they are he discovered the nest of a ruffed grouse. The nest was so located that the mother bird could be seen from a considerable distance when she was on the nest.

 

With the aid of a pair of field glasses the bird was closely watched until the young birds were hatched out. It happened that the regular daily observation was made but a few hours after the young birds came out of the shell. Desiring to know what would happen, the author approached the nest. The mother bird remained near by until the intruder was within ten or twelve feet of her, then she disarranged her feathers, stretched one wing over her leg and went hobbling away, making a pretense of being crippled.

 

Being somewhat familiar with the tricks of mother birds, the author did not follow, but, instead, went to the nest to take a look at the little ones. Without the slightest signs of fear they turned their eyes toward him, moving their heads first one way and then another. He reached down and picked one of them up. With no signs of fear it stood in the palm of his hand. He laid the bird back in the nest and went away to a safe distance to give the mother bird a chance to return.

 

The wait was short. Very soon she began cautiously to edge her way back toward the nest until she was within a few feet of it, when she spread her wings and ran as fast as she could, uttering, meanwhile, a series of sounds similar to those of a hen when she has found some morsel of food and wishes to call her brood to partake of it.

 

She gathered the little birds around and continued to quiver in a highly excited manner, shaking her wings and ruffling her feathers. One could almost hear her words as she gave the little birds their first lesson in self-defense, through the law of SOCIAL HEREDITY: "You silly little creatures! Do you not know that men are your enemies? Shame on you for allowing that man to pick you up in his hands. It's a wonder he didn't carry you off and eat you alive! The next time you see a man approaching make yourselves scarce. Lie down on the ground, run under leaves, go anywhere to get out of sight, and remain out of sight until the enemy is well on his way."

 

The little birds stood around and listened to the lecture with intense interest. After the mother bird had quieted down the author again started to approach the nest. When within twenty feet or so of the guarded household the mother bird again started to lead him in the other direction by crumpling up her wing and hobbling along as if she were crippled. He looked at the nest, but the glance was in vain. The little birds were nowhere to be found! They had learned rapidly to avoid their natural enemy, thanks to their natural instinct.

 

Again the author retreated, awaited until the mother bird had reassembled her household, then came out to visit them, but with similar results. When he approached the spot where he last saw the mother bird not the slightest signs of the little fellows were to be found.

 

When a small boy, the author captured a young crow and made a pet of it. The bird became quite well satisfied with its domestic surroundings and learned to perform many tricks requiring considerable intelligence. After the bird was big enough to fly it was permitted to go wherever it pleased. Sometimes it would be gone for many hours, but it always returned home before dark.

 

One day some wild crows became involved in a fight with an owl in a field near the house where the pet crow lived. As soon as the pet heard the "caw, caw, caw" of its wild relatives it flew up on top of the house, and with signs of great agitation, walked from one end of the house to the other. Finally it took wing and flew in the direction of the "battle." The author followed to see what would happen.

 

In a few minutes he came up to the pet. It was sitting on the lower branches of a tree and two wild crows were sitting on a limb just above, chattering and walking back and forth, acting very much in the same fashion that angry parents behave toward their offspring when chastising them.

 

As the author approached, the two wild crows flew away, one of them circling around the tree a few times, meanwhile letting out a terrible flow of most abusive language, which, no doubt, was directed at its foolish relative who hadn't enough sense to fly while the flying was good.

 

The pet bird was called by the other crows, but it paid no attention.

 

That evening it returned home, but would not come near the house. It sat on a high limb of an apple tree and talked in crow language for about ten minutes, saying, no doubt, that it had decided to go back to the wild life of its fellows, then flew away and did not return until two days later, when it came back and did some more talking in crow language, keeping at a safe distance meanwhile.

 

It then went away and never returned. Social heredity had robbed the author of a fine pet!

 

The only consolation he got from the loss of his crow was the thought that it had shown fine sportsmanship by coming back and giving notice of its intention to depart. Many farm hands had left the farm without going to the trouble of this formality.

 

It is a well known fact that a fox will prey upon all manner of fowl and small animals with the exception of the skunk. No reason need be stated as to why Mr. Skunk enjoys immunity. A fox may tackle a skunk once, but never twice! For this reason a skunk hide, when nailed to a chicken roost, will keep all but the very young and inexperienced foxes at a safe distance.

 

The odor of a skunk, once experienced, is never to be forgotten. No other smell even remotely resembles it.

 

It is nowhere recorded that any mother fox ever taught her young how to detect and keep away from the familiar smell of a skunk, but all who are informed on "fox lore" know that foxes and skunks never seek lodgment in the same cave.

 

But one lesson is sufficient to teach the fox all it cares to know about skunks.

 

Through the law of social heredity, operating via the sense of smell, one lesson serves for an entire life-time.

 

A bullfrog can be caught on a fish-hook by attaching a small piece of red cloth or any other small red object to the hook and dangling it in front of the frog's nose. That is, Mr. Frog may be caught in this manner, provided he is hooked the first time he snaps at the bait, but if he is poorly hooked and makes a getaway, or if he feels the point of the hook when he bites at the bait but is not caught, he will never make the same mistake again.

 

The author spent many hours in stealthy attempt to hook a particularly desirable specimen which had snapped and missed, before learning that but one lesson in social heredity is enough to teach even a humble "croaker" that bits of red flannel are things to be let alone.

 

The author once owned a very fine male Airedale dog which caused no end of annoyance by his habit of coming home with a young chicken in his mouth. Each time the chicken was taken away from the dog and he was soundly switched, but to no avail; he continued in his liking for fowl.

 

For the purpose of saving the dog, if possible, and as an experiment with social heredity, this dog was taken to the farm of a neighbor who had a hen and some newly hatched chickens. The hen was placed in the barn and the dog was turned in with her. As soon as everyone was out of sight the dog slowly edged up toward the hen, sniffed the air in her direction a time or two (to make sure she was the kind of meat for which he was looking), then made a dive toward her.

 

Meanwhile Mrs. Hen had been doing some "surveying" on her own account, for she met Mr. Dog more than halfway; moreover, she met him with such a surprise of wings and claws as he had never before experienced. The first round was clearly the hen's. But a nice fat bird, reckoned the dog, was not to slip between his paws so easily; therefore he backed away a short distance, then charged again. This time Mrs. Hen lit upon his back, drove her claws into his skin and made effective use of her sharp bill! Mr. Dog retreated to his comer, looking for all the world as if he were listening for someone to ring the bell and call the fight off until he got his bearings.

 

But Mrs. Hen craved no time for deliberation; she had her adversary on the run and showed that she knew the value of the offensive by keeping him on the run. One could almost understand her words as she flogged the poor Airedale from one corner to another, keeping up a series of rapid-fire sounds which for all the world resembled the remonstrations of an angry mother who had been called upon to defend her offspring from an attack by older boys.

 

The Airedale was a poor soldier! After running around the barn from corner to corner for about two minutes he spread himself on the ground as flat as he could and did his best to protect his eyes with his paws. Mrs. Hen seemed to be making a special attempt to peck out his eyes.

 

The owner of the hen then stepped in and retrieved her - or, more accurately stating it, he retrieved the dog - which in no way appeared to meet with the dog's disapproval.

 

The next day a chicken was placed in the cellar where the dog slept. As soon as he saw the bird he tucked his tail between his legs and ran for a corner! He never again attempted to catch a chicken. One lesson in social heredity, via the sense of "touch," was sufficient to teach him that while chicken-chasing may offer some enjoyment, it is also fraught with much hazard.

 

All these illustrations, with the exception of the first, describe the process of gathering knowledge through direct experience.

 

Observe the marked difference between knowledge gathered by direct experience and that which is gathered through the training of the young by the old, as in the case of the ruffed grouse and her young.

 

The most impressive lessons are those learned by the young from the old, through highly colored or emotionalized methods of teaching. When the mother grouse spread her wings, stood her feathers on end, shook herself like a man suffering with the palsy and chattered to her young in a highly excited manner, she planted the fear of man in their hearts in a manner which they were never to forget.

 

The term "social heredity," as used in connection with this lesson, has particular reference to all methods through which a child is taught any idea, dogma, creed, religion or system of ethical conduct, by its parents or those who may have authority over it, before reaching the age at which it may reason and reflect upon such teaching in its own way; estimating the age of such reasoning power at, let us say, seven to twelve years.

 

There are myriads of forms of fear, but none are more deadly than the fear of poverty and old age.

 

We drive our bodies as if they were slaves because we are so afraid of poverty that we wish to hoard money for – what - old age!

 

This common form of fear drives us so hard that we overwork our bodies and bring on the very thing we are struggling to avoid.

 

What a tragedy to watch a man drive himself when he begins to arrive along about the forty-year mile post of life-the age at which he is just beginning to mature mentally.

 

At forty a man is just entering the age in which he is able to see and understand and assimilate the handwriting of Nature, as it appears in the forests and flowing brooks and faces of men and little children, yet this devil fear drives him so hard that he becomes blinded and lost in the entanglement of a maze of conflicting desires.

 

The principle of organized effort is lost sight of, and instead of laying hold of Nature's forces which are in evidence all around him, and permitting those forces to carry him to the heights of great achievement, he defies them and they become forces of destruction.

 

Perhaps none of these great forces of Nature are more available for man's unfoldment than is the principle of Auto-suggestion, but ignorance of this force is leading the majority of the human race to apply it so that it acts as a hindrance and not as a help.

 

Let us here enumerate the facts which show just how this misapplication of a great force of Nature takes place: Here is a man who meets with some disappointment; a friend proves false, or a neighbor seems indifferent. Forthwith he decides (through selfsuggestion) all men are untrustworthy and all neighbors unappreciative.

 

These thoughts so deeply imbed themselves in his subconscious mind that they color his whole attitude toward others.

 

Go back, now, to what was said in Lesson One, about the dominating thoughts of a man's mind attracting people whose thoughts are similar. Apply the Law of Attraction and you will soon see and understand why the unbeliever attracts other unbelievers.

 

Reverse the Principle: Here is a man who sees nothing but the best there is in all whom he meets. If his neighbors seem indifferent he takes no notice of that fact, for he makes it his business to fill his mind with dominating thoughts of optimism and good cheer and faith in others.

 

If people speak to him harshly he speaks back in tones of softness.

 

Through the operation of this same eternal Law of Attraction he draws to himself the attention of people whose attitude toward life and whose dominating thoughts harmonize with his own.

 

Tracing the principle a step further: Here is a man who has been well schooled and has the ability to render the world some needed service. Somewhere, sometime, he has heard it said that modesty is a great virtue and that to push himself to the front of the stage in the game of life savors of egotism.

 

So, he quietly slips in at the back door and takes a seat at the rear while other players in the game of life boldly step to the front. He remains in the back row because he fears "what they will say."

 

Public opinion, or that which he believes to be public opinion, has him pushed to the rear and the world hears but little of him. His schooling counts for naught because he is afraid to let the world know that he has had it. He is constantly suggesting to himself (thus using the great force of Auto-suggestion to his own detriment) that he should remain in the background lest he be criticized, as if criticism would do him any damage or defeat his purpose.

 

Here is another man who was born of poor parents. Since the first day that he can remember he has seen evidence of poverty. He has heard talk of poverty. He has felt the icy hand of poverty on his shoulders and it has so impressed him that he fixes it in his mind as a curse to which he must submit.

 

Quite unconsciously he permits himself to fall victim of the belief "once poor always poor" until that belief becomes the dominating thought of his mind. He resembles a horse that has been harnessed and broken until it forgets that it has the potential power with which to throw off that harness.

 

Auto-suggestion is rapidly relegating him to the back of the stage of life. 

 

Finally he becomes a quitter. Ambition is gone. Opportunity comes his way no longer, or if it does he has not the vision to see it. He has accepted his FATE!

 

It is a well established fact that the faculties of the mind, like the limbs of the body, atrophy and wither away if not used. Self-confidence is no exception. It develops when used but disappears if not used.

 

One of the chief disadvantages of inherited wealth is the fact that it too often leads to inaction and loss of Self-confidence.

 

Some years ago a baby boy was born to Mrs. E. B. McLean, in the city of Washington. His inheritance was said to be around a hundred million dollars. (A very considerable amount for 1920).

 

When this baby was taken for an airing in its carriage it was surrounded by nurses and assistant nurses and detectives and other servants whose duty was to see that no harm befell it.

 

As the years passed by this same vigilance was kept up. This child did not have to pick out his own clothes; he had servants who did that. Servants watched over him while he slept and while he was at play.

 

He was not permitted to do anything that a servant could do for him.

 

He had grown to the age of ten years. One day he was playing in the yard and noticed that the back gate had been left open. In all of his life he had never been outside of that gate alone, and naturally that was just the thing that he wished to do.

 

During a moment when the servants were not looking he dashed out at the gate, and was run down and killed by an automobile before he reached the middle of the street.

 

He had used his servants' eyes until his own no longer served him as they might have done had he learned to rely upon them.

 

Twenty years ago the man whom I served as secretary sent his two sons away to school.

 

One of them went to the University of Virginia and the other to a college in New York.

 

Each month it was a part of my task to make out a check for $100.00 for each of these boys. This was their "pin money," to be spent as they wished.

 

How profitably I remember the way I envied those boys as I made out those checks each month. I often wondered why the hand of fate bore me into the world in poverty. I could look ahead and see how these boys would rise to the high stations in life while I remained a humble clerk.

 

In due time the boys returned home with their "sheep-skins." Their father was a wealthy man who owned banks and railroads and coal mines and other property of great value.

 

Good positions were waiting for the boys in their father's employ. But, twenty years of time can play cruel tricks on those who have never had to struggle. Perhaps a better way to state this truth would be that time gives those who have never had to struggle a chance to play cruel tricks on themselves!

 

At any rate, these two boys brought home from school other things besides their sheep-skins. They came back with well developed capacities for strong drink - capacities which 'they developed because the hundred dollars which each of them received each month made it unnecessary for them to struggle.

 

Theirs is a long and sad story, the details of which will not interest you, but you will be interested in their "finis".

 

As this lesson is being written, the year 1920, I have on my desk a copy of the newspaper published in the town where these boys lived. Their father has been bankrupted and his costly mansion, where the boys were born, has been placed on the block for sale.

 

One of the boys died of delirium tremens and the other one is in an insane asylum.

 

Not all rich men's sons turn out so unfortunately, but the fact remains, nevertheless, that inaction leads to atrophy and this, in turn, leads to loss of ambition and self-confidence, and without these essential qualities a man will be carried through life on the wings of uncertainty, just as a dry leaf may be carried here and there on the bosom of the stray winds.

 

Far from being a disadvantage, struggle is a decided advantage, because it develops those qualities which would forever lie dormant without it. Many a man has found his place in the world because of having been forced to struggle for existence early in life.

 

Lack of knowledge of the advantages accruing from struggle has prompted many a parent to say, "I had to work hard when I was young, but I shall see to it that my children have an easy time!" Poor foolish creatures.

 

An "easy" time usually turns out to be a greater handicap than the average young man or woman can survive.

 

There are worse things in this world than being forced to work in early life. Forced idleness is far worse than forced labor.

 

Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control and strength of will and content and a hundred other virtues which the idle will never know.

 

Not only does lack of the necessity for struggle lead to weakness of ambition and will-power, but, what is more dangerous still, it sets up in a person's mind a state of lethargy that leads to the loss of Self confidence.

 

The person who has quit struggling because effort is no longer necessary is literally applying the principle of Auto-suggestion in undermining his own power of Self-confidence.

 

Such a person will finally drift into a frame of mind in which he will actually look with more or less contempt upon the person who is forced to carry on. The human mind, if you will pardon repetition, may be likened to an electric battery. It may be positive or it may be negative.

 

Self-confidence is the quality with which the mind is re-charged and made positive.

 

Let us apply this line of reasoning to salesmanship and see what part Self-confidence plays in this great field of endeavor.

 

One of the greatest salesmen this country has ever seen was once a clerk in a newspaper office. It will be worth your while to analyze the method through which he gained his title as "the world's leading salesman." He was a timid young man with a more or less retiring sort of nature. He was one of those who believe it best to slip in by the back door and take a seat at the rear of the stage of life.

 

One evening he heard a lecture on the subject of this lesson, Selfconfidence, and that lecture so impressed him that he left the lecture hall with a firm determination to pull himself out of the rut into which he had drifted.

 

He went to the Business Manager of the paper and asked for a position as solicitor of advertising and was put to work on a commission basis.

 

Everyone in the office expected to see him fail, as this sort of salesmanship calls for the most positive type of sales ability. He went to his room and made out a list of a certain type of merchants on whom he intended to call.

 

One would think that he would naturally have made up his list of the names of those whom he believed he could sell with the least effort, but he did nothing of the sort. He placed on his list only the names of the merchants on whom other advertising solicitors had called without making a sale.

 

His list consisted of only twelve names.

 

Before he made a single call he went out to the city park, took out his list of twelve names, read it over three times, saying to himself as he did so, "You will purchase advertising space from me before the end of the month." Then he began to make his calls.

 

The first day he closed sales with three of the twelve "impossibilities."

 

During the remainder of the week he made sales to two others.

 

By the end of the month he had opened advertising accounts with all but one of the merchants that he had on the list.

 

For the ensuing month he made no sales, for the reason that he made no calls except on this one obstinate merchant. Every morning when the store opened he was on hand to interview this merchant and every morning the merchant said "No."

 

The merchant knew he was not going to buy advertising space, but this young man didn't know it.

 

When the merchant said No the young man did not hear it, but kept right on coming.

 

On the last day of the month, after having told this persistent young man No for thirty consecutive times, the merchant said: "Look here, young man, you have wasted a whole month trying to sell me; now, what I would like to know is this - why have you wasted your time?" "Wasted my time nothing," he retorted; "I have been going to school and you have been my teacher. Now I know all the arguments that a merchant can bring up for not buying, and besides that I have been drilling myself in Self-confidence."

 

hen the merchant said: "I will make a little confession of my own. I, too, have been going to school, and you have been my teacher. You have taught me a lesson in persistence that is worth money to me, and to show you my appreciation I am going to pay my tuition fee by giving you an order for advertising space."

 

And that was the way in which the Philadelphia North American's best advertising account was brought in.

 

Likewise, it marked the beginning of a reputation that has made that same young man a millionaire. He succeeded because he deliberately charged his own mind with sufficient Self-confidence to make that mind an irresistible force.

 

When he sat down to make up that list of twelve names he did something that ninety-nine people out of a hundred would not have done - he selected the names of those whom he believed it would be hard to sell, because he understood that out of the resistance he would meet with in trying to sell them would come strength and Self-confidence.

 

He was one of the very few people who understand that all rivers and some men are crooked because of following the path of least resistance.

 

I am going to digress and here break the line of thought for a moment while recording a word of advice to those in a relationship. 

 

From having analyzed more than 16,000 people, the majority of whom were married, I have learned something that may be of value to you. Let me state my thought in these words: You have it within your power to send your "significant other" away to his/her work or business or his /her profession each day with a feeling of Self-confidence that will carry him / her successfully over the rough spots of the day and bring him / her home again, at night, smiling and happy.

 

One of my acquaintances of former years married a woman who had a set of false teeth. One day his wife dropped her teeth and broke the plate. The husband picked up the pieces and began examining them. He showed such interest in them that his wife said: "You could make a set of teeth like those if you made up your mind to do it." This man was a farmer whose ambitions had never carried him beyond the bounds of his little farm until his wife made that remark.

 

She walked over and laid her hand on his shoulder and encouraged him to try his hand at dentistry. She finally coaxed him to make the start, and today he is one of the most prominent and successful dentists in the state of Virginia. I know him well, for he is my father!

 

No one can foretell the possibilities of achievement available to the man whose wife stands at his back and urges him on to bigger and better endeavor, for it is a well known fact that a woman can arouse a man so that he will perform almost superhuman feats.

 

It is your right and your duty to encourage your mate and urge him / her on in worthy undertakings until he / she shall have found his / her place in the world.

 

You can induce him / her to put forth greater effort than can any other person in the world.

 

Make him / her believe that nothing within reason is beyond his power of achievement and you will have rendered him a service that will go a long way toward helping him / her win in the battle of life.

 

One of the most successful men in his line in America gives entire credit for his success to his wife. When they were first married she wrote a creed which he signed and placed over his desk.

 

This is a copy of the creed:

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• I believe in myself.

• I believe in those who work with me.

• I believe in my employer.

• I believe in my friends.

• I believe in my family.

• I believe that God will lend me everything I need with which to succeed if I do my best to earn it through faithful and honest service.

• I believe in prayer and I will never close my eyes in sleep without praying for divine guidance to the end that

• I will be patient with other people and tolerant with those who do not believe as I do.

• I believe that success is the result of intelligent effort and does not depend upon luck or sharp practices or double-crossing friends, fellow men or my employer.

• I believe I will get out of life exactly what I put into it, therefore I will be careful to conduct myself toward others as I would want them to act toward me.

• I will not slander those whom I do not like.

• I will not slight my work no matter what I may see others doing.

• I will render the best service of which I am capable because I have pledged myself to succeed in life and I know that success is always the result of conscientious and efficient effort.

• Finally, I will forgive those who offend me because I realize that I shall sometimes offend others and I will need their forgiveness. Signed …………………………………………………

 

The woman who wrote this creed was a practical psychologist of the first order. With the influence and guidance of such a woman as a helpmate any man could achieve noteworthy success.

 

Analyze this creed and you will notice how freely the personal pronoun is used. It starts off with the affirmation of Self-confidence, which is perfectly proper. No man could make this creed his own without developing the positive attitude that would attract to him people who would aid him in his struggle for success.

 

This would be a splendid creed for every salesman to adopt.

 

It might not hurt your chances for success if you adopted it. Mere adoption, however, is not enough. You must practice it! Read it over and over until you know it by heart. Then repeat it at least once a day until you have literally transformed it into your mental make-up.

 

Keep a copy of it before you as a daily reminder of your pledge to practice it. By doing so you will be making efficient use of the principle of Auto-suggestion as a means of developing Self-confidence. Never mind what anyone may say about your procedure.

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Lesson Three - Self Confidence / Stress Management

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