A positive mental attitude is a ‘must’ for all who wish to make life pay off on their own terms. Nothing great was ever achieved without a positive mental attitude.
Recognize that your mental attitude is the one and only thing over which you, and you alone, have complete control, and exercise the privilege of taking possession of and directing your mind with a positive mental attitude.
Realize, and prove to your own satisfaction, that every adversity, failure, defeat, sorrow and unpleasant circumstance, whether of your own making or otherwise, carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit which may be transmuted into a blessing of great proportions.
Learn to close the door of your mind on all the failures and unpleasant circumstances of the past, and clear your mind so that it can operate in a positive mental attitude.
Find out what you want most in life and begin getting it, right where you now stand, by helping others to acquire similar benefits, thus putting into action that magic success principle: the habit of going the extra mile.
Select the person who, in your opinion, is the finest person in all the world, past or present, and make that person your pacemaker for the remainder of your life, emulating him or her in every possible way.
Determine how great a supply of material riches you require, set up a plan for acquiring it, and then adopt the principle of not too much, not too little by which to govern your future ambition for material things. Greed for an over-abundance of material things has destroyed more people than any other cause.
Form the habit of saying or doing something every day which will make another person, or persons feel better. You can do this by a phone call, a kind word in passing, dropping a postal card, or by doing some other kindness for another. A good inspirational book placed in the hands of one who needs it could, for example, work wonders in the life of that person.
Make yourself understand that it isn’t defeat which whips you, but your mental attitude toward it, and then train yourself to look for the seed of equivalent benefit in each defeat which may come your way.
Keep in mind the fact that these instructions are for the purpose of teaching you how to condition your mind so that it will automatically express a positive mental attitude at all times.
You should find out what you like best to do – discover a labor of love – and do it with your heart and soul, even if it is only a hobby. Idle hands and idle minds are said to be the favorite tools of Satan to keep peoples’ minds negative.
Learn that often when you have searched in vain for a solution to your own personal problem, you can find that solution by helping someone else solve his or her problem. By the time you have helped the other person find his solution, the solution to your own problem will have been revealed to you.
Read Emerson’s “Essay on Compensation” once a week until you understand and assimilate it. You will discover that it will rank high on the scale of influences by which you can help yourself to maintain a positive mental attitude.
Take a complete inventory of every asset you possess, and discover that your greatest asset is a sound mind with which you can shape your own destiny by the simple process of taking full possession of it and directing it to the ends of your own choice.
You either ride life or it rides you. Your mental attitude determines who is rider and who is “horse.”
Communicate with anyone whom you know you have unjustly offended, and offer adequate apologies, asking forgiveness. The more bitter this assignment may seem the greater will be your rewards for carrying it out.
Recognize that the space you occupy in this world is in exact ratio to the quality and the quantity of the service you render for the benefit of others, plus the mental attitude in which you render it.
…
Learn the difference between wishing, hoping, desiring and-having a burning desire to achieve your purposes in life. A burning desire is a driving, motivating force which is more compelling than wishing, hoping and ordinary desires all rolled into one. And a burning desire can be kept alive only by the aid of a positive mental attitude.
…
Finally, a reference table on successful conversation:
Adopt a face-to-face method.
Do not interrupt.
Be responsible.
Modulate the voice.
Omit unfavorable references to the past.
Give advice only when it is requested.
Avoid negative comparisons.
Applaud what you like and ignore what you don’t.
Never argue over unimportant details, for if you win, you will have gained no advantage.
Guard your words and your words will guard you.
Source: PMA: Science of Success by Napoleon Hill