The Victorious Attitude

by Orison Swett Marden

Say to yourself constantly, "Happiness is my birthright. I was made to exult in life, not to go about with a long, sad, dejected face as though it had been a bitter disappointment, as though I were a misfit in the world. I was made to radiate joy and gladness and to go through life as a conqueror. If I am indeed a child of the Creator (and I know that I am), it is a positive insult to Him to go through the world as though I were a beggar, a slave. I bear the image of the King of kings, and it is my business to make all men see the likeness. It is my duty to prove my divine heritage by radiating royal manhood."

I know of no practice which will do more for one's growth and life-enlargement than the habit of rising above one's moods and discouragements through perpetual affirmation of one's divinity. If, for example, you get up in the morning feeling negative, blue and discouraged; if you don't feel like working at anything, just go off alone and have a good heart to heart talk with yourself something like this: "Now, look here, young man (or young woman), none of this: you are going to do a grand day's work to-day; you are going to get right out of this condition; you have had enough of it. If you are a real man (or woman) you will rise above your mood and wring victory out of this day, even though it looks so unpromising.

"It does not matter what comes or what goes, what happens or what does not happen, there is one thing I am sure of, and that is, I am going to be positive, creative, to get the most possible out of to-day; I am not going to allow anything to rob me of my happiness, or of my right to live this day through from beginning to end, and not merely to exist.

"I do not care what comes, I shall not allow any annoyance, any happening, any circumstance which may cross my path to rob me of my power and peace of mind. I will not be unhappy to-day, no matter what occurs. I am going to enjoy it to its fullest capacity. This shall be a complete day in my life. I shall not allow the enemies of my happiness to mar it. No misfortune in the past, nothing which has happened to me in days gone by, which has been disagreeable or tragic, no enemies of my efficiency, shall be guests in my spirit's sacred enclosure to-day. Only happy thoughts, joy thoughts, friend thoughts shall find entertainment in my soul this day. No negative thoughts, none of my enemies shall gain admittance to scrawl their hideous autographs on the walls of my mind. There shall be 'no admittance' to-day, except to the friends of my best moods. I will tear down all black, sable pictures and hang in their place pictures of joy and gladness, of things which will encourage, cheer, and increase my power. Everything which ever handicapped my life, which has made me uncomfortable and unhappy, shall be expelled from my mental kingdom this day and every coming day."

If you make a resolve like this every morning and live up to it during the day, you cannot help being positive, productive, creative.

The positive mind repels all thought enemies that would hinder progress. Doubt, fear, despair, worry, these have no place in the creative brain. They are products of the negative mind. The man who would bend circumstances to his will can not afford to harbor them.

Hold negative, despondent, discouraged thoughts and your surroundings will be negative, unpropitious. Hold positive, confident, hopeful, cheerful thoughts and a congenial environment will manifest itself.

It is wonderful what right thinking can accomplish even in a naturally weak, negative mind. The insistent and persistent holding of the positive thought, the assurance thought, the self-confidence, the self-faith thought; the determined effort to think and act for oneself, to direct one's own forces will gradually change a negative non-productive mentality into a positive, creative one.

I have known very timid, sensitive people who scarcely dared to say their souls were their own before others, to so cure their habit of self-effacement and so strengthen their weak self-confidence by constant audible affirmation of their own strength, that in a very few months they had largely overcome this weakness.

Fear is negative; courage is positive, affirmative. If we would make our lives effective, we must root out all of the things which keep us in discord, all negative elements, and give ourselves over to the power of affirmation.