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.