In “The Power of Positive Thinking”, Norman Vincent Peale writes that unless you have a positive attitude about yourself and your abilities, you cannot be successful or happy.
I believe, you need a positive attitude to be happy. But you can be quite successful if you simply follow the following road to success:
1. Decide exactly what you want
2. Make it a primary goal
3. Establish a series of (yearly, monthly, weekly and daily) objectives to achieve that goal
4. Resist the urge to give up along the way
By doing this, you can achieve almost anything you want in life. But accomplishments don’t convert to happiness. For happiness you need to follow Peale’s advice and start thinking positive thoughts about yourself. Lack of self-confidence, Peale said, is one of the great problems besetting people today. “The blows of life, the accumulation of difficulties, the multiplication of problems tend to sap energy and leave you spent and discouraged,” Peale says. In such situations, “it is easy to lose track of your abilities and powers,” but by re-appraising your personal assets, you can convince yourself that “you are less defeated than you think you are.”
If you go through a serious setback, we say your business failed and you go bankrupt, you might feel you have lost “everything”. You probably have the worst feelings about yourself. But this happens because from the view you are looking at things. In this case I would suggest to take a piece of paper and write down all the values you have left. You probably come up with a similar list that includes these personal assets:
A wonderful wife – and a long lasting marriage
Devoted children
Admiring friends, happy to help you out in such situations
Good physical health
Integrity
That’s not a bad list to start with. If you’re feeling down, focus on positive personal assets that help you overcome the worst feelings you could possibly have about yourself. Enjoy all the wonderful things you have, including the love of your wife, children and friends. I am sure you will make back all the money you lost, and probably more. If not all, who cares?