I guess my imagination wasn’t working very well because all I could see was the insufficient but actual 40,000.

Then she turned to my old friend Raymond Thornburg who has been blessed with a gloriously victorious personality, and she said, calling him by his nickname, “Pinky, can you visualize 100,000 subscribers?”

I rather doubted that Pinky would see them. He is a rubber manufacturer who gives his time freely from his own business to help advance this inspirational, non-profit magazine, and you would not ordinarily think that a rubber manufacturer would respond to this type of thinking. But he has the faculty of creative imagination. I noticed by the fascinated look on his face that she had him. He was gazing straight ahead with rather a look of wonder when she asked, “Do you see the 100,000 subscribers?”

“Yes,” he cried with eagerness, “yes, I do see them.”

Electrified, I demanded, “Where? Point them out to me.”

Then I, too, began to visualize them.

“Now,” continued our friend, “let us bow our heads and together thank God for giving us 100,000 subscribers.”

Frankly I thought that was pushing the Lord rather hard, but it was justified by a verse in the Scriptures where it says, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive them.” (Matthew 21:22) That means when you pray for something, at the same time visualize what you pray for. Believe that if it is God’s will and is worth while, not selfishly sought after, but for human good, that it is at that moment given you.

If you have difficulty in following this reasoning, let me tell you that from that moment until the present writing Guideposts never lacked for anything. It has found wonderful friends and has had fine support. It has been able always to meet its bills, purchase needed equipment, finance itself, and as I write these words Guideposts is nearing the half million mark and more subscriptions are coming in regularly, sometimes as many as three or four thousand per day.

I recite this instance not for the purpose of advertising Guideposts, although I strongly recommend this magazine to all my readers, and if you would like to be a subscriber, write to Guideposts, Pawling, New York, for information. But I tell the story because I was awed by this experience, realizing that I had stumbled upon a law, a tremendous law of personal victory. I decided to apply it thereafter to my own problems and wherever I have done so can report a marvelous result. Wherever I have failed to do so, I have missed great results.

It is as simple as this—put your problem in God’s hands. In your thoughts rise above the problem so that you look down upon it, not up at it. Test it according to God’s will. That is, do not try to get success from something that is wrong. Be sure it is right morally, spiritually, and ethically. You can never get a right result from an error. If your thinking is wrong, it is wrong and not right and can never be right so long as it is wrong. If it is wrong in the essence it is bound to be wrong in the result.

Therefore be sure it is right, then hold it up in God’s name and visualize a great result. Keep the idea of prosperity, of achievement, and of attainment firmly fixed in your mind. Never entertain a failure thought. Should a negative thought of defeat come into your mind, expel it by increasing the positive affirmation. Affirm aloud, “God is now giving me success. He is now giving me attainment.” The mental vision which you create and firmly hold in consciousness will be actualized if you continually affirm it in your thoughts and if you work diligently and effectively. This creative process simply stated is: visualize, prayerize, and finally actualize.

People in all walks of life who accomplish notable achievements know the value of this law in their experience.

Henry J. Kaiser told me that at one time he was building a levee along a riverbank, and there came a great storm and flood which buried all his earth-moving machinery and destroyed the work that had been done. Upon going out to observe the damage after the water receded, he found his workers standing around glumly looking at the mud and the buried machinery.

He came among them and said with a smile, “Why are you so glum?”

“Don’t you see what has happened?” they asked. “Our machinery is covered with mud.”

“What mud?” he asked brightly.

“What mud!” they repeated in astonishment. “Look around you. It is a sea of mud.”

“Oh,” he laughed, “I don’t see any mud.”

“But how can you say that?” they asked him.

“Because,” said Mr. Kaiser, “I am looking up at a clear blue sky, and there is no mud up there. There is only sunshine, and I never saw any mud that could stand against sunshine. Soon it will be dried up, and then you will be able to move your machinery and start all over again.”

How right he is. If your eyes are looking down in the mud and you feel a sense of failure, you will create defeat for yourself. Optimistic visualization combined with prayer and faith will inevitably actualize achievement.

Another friend of mine who started from the lowliest beginnings has performed some outstanding achievements. I remember him in his schooldays as an awkward, unpreposssessing, very shy country boy. But he had character and one of the keenest brains I have ever encountered. Today he is an outstanding man in his line. I asked him, “What is the secret of your success?”

“The people who have worked with me across the years and the unlimited opportunity given any boy in the United States of America,” he replied.

“Yes, I know that is true, but I am sure you must have some personal technique, and I would be interested in having it,” I said.

“It all lies in how you think about problems,” he replied. “I attack a problem and shake it to pieces with my mind. I put all the mental power I have upon it. Second, I pray about it most sincerely. Third, I paint a mental picture of success. Fourth, I always ask myself, ‘What is the right thing to do?’ for,” he said, “nothing will be right if it is wrong. Nothing that is wrong will ever come out right. Fifth, I give it all I’ve got. But let me emphasize again,” he concluded, “if you’re thinking defeat, change your thoughts at once. Get new and positive thoughts. That is primary and basic in overcoming difficulties and in achieving.”

At this very minute, as you read this book, potential ideas are in your mind. By releasing and developing these ideas you can solve your financial problem, your business situation, you can care for yourself and your family, and attain success in your ventures. A steady inflow and practical use of these creative thoughts can remake your life and you along with it.

There was a time when I acquiesced in the silly idea that there is no relationship between faith and prosperity; that when one talked about religion he should never relate it to achievement, that it dealt only with ethics and morals or social values. But now I realize that such a viewpoint limits the power of God and the development of the individual. Religion teaches that there is a tremendous power in the universe and that this power can dwell in personality. It is a power that can blast out all defeat and lift a person above all difficult situations.

We have seen the demonstration of atomic energy. We know that astonishing and enormous energy exists in the universe. This same force of energy is resident in the human mind. Nothing on earth is greater than the human mind in potential power. The average individual is capable of much greater achievement than he has ever realized.

This is true regardless of who is reading this statement. When you actually learn to release yourself you will discover that your mind contains ideas of such creative value that you need not lack anything. By the full and proper use of your power stimulated by God power, you can make your life successful.

You can make just about anything of your life—anything you will believe or will visualize, anything you will pray for and work for. Look deeply into your mind. Amazing wonders are there.

Whatever your situation may be, you can improve it. First, quiet your mind so that inspirations may rise from its depths. Believe that God is now helping you. Visualize achievement. Organize your life on a spiritual basis so that God’s principles work within you. Hold firmly in your mind a picture not of failure but of success. Do these things and creative thoughts will flow freely from your mind. This is an amazing law, one that can change anybody’s life including your own. An inflow of new thoughts can remake you regardless of every difficulty you may now face, and I repeat—every difficulty.

In the last analysis the basic reason a person fails to live a creative and successful life is because of error within himself. He thinks wrong. He needs to correct the error in his thoughts. He needs to practice right thinking. When the 23rd Psalm says, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness,” it not only means the paths of goodness, but the paths of right-mindedness as well. When Isaiah says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:7) it not only means that a person is to depart from evil and do good, but that he is to change his thinking from wrong to right, from error to truth. The great secret of successful living is to reduce the amount of error in oneself and increase the amount of truth. An inflow of new, right, health-laden thoughts through the mind creatively affects the circumstances of life, for truth always produces right procedures and therefore right results.

Years ago I knew a young man who for a while was one of the most complete personality failures in my entire experience. He had a delightful personality, but he failed at everything. A person would employ him and be enthusiastic about him, but soon his enthusiasm would cool and it was not long until he was out of that position. This failure pattern was repeated many times. He was a failure as a person as well as an employee. He missed connections with everything. He just couldn’t do anything right, and he used to ask me, “What is wrong with me that everything goes wrong?”

Still he had a lot of conceit. He was cocky and smug, and had the irritating habit of blaming everybody but himself. Something was wrong with every office with which he was connected or every organization that employed him. He blamed everybody else for his failures—never himself. He would never look inside himself. It never occurred to him that anything could be wrong with him.

One night, however, he wanted to talk with me, and as I had to make a drive of about a hundred miles to deliver a speech he drove there and back with me. On our return we stopped along about midnight at a roadside stand for a hamburger and a cup of coffee. I don’t know what was in that hamburger sandwich, but since this incident I have had a new respect for hamburgers, for of a sudden he shouted, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

“You’ve got what?” I asked in astonishment.

“I’ve got the answer. Now I know what’s the trouble with me. It’s that everything goes wrong with me because I myself am wrong.”

I clapped my hand on his back and said, “Boy, at last you are on your way.”

“Why, it’s as clear as a crystal,” he said. “I have been thinking wrong, and as a result I have created wrong outcomes.”

By this time we were out in the moonlight standing alongside my car, and I said to him, “Harry, you must go one step further and ask God to make you right inwardly.” I quoted this passage from the Bible, “‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” (John 8:32) Get the truth into your mind and you will be free of your failures.

He became an enthusiastic practicing follower of Jesus Christ. Through real faith and a complete change of thoughts and personal habits, wrong thinking and wrong acting were removed from his nature. He straightened out by developing a right (or righteousness) pattern instead of an error pattern. When he was made right, then everything began to go right for him.

Following are seven practical steps for changing your mental attitudes from negative to positive, for releasing creative new thoughts, and for shifting from error patterns to truth patterns. Try them—keep on trying them. They will work.

1. For the next twenty-four hours, deliberately speak hopefully about everything, about your job, about your health, about your future. Go out of your way to talk optimistically about everything. This will be difficult, for possibly it is your habit to talk pessimistically. From this negative habit you must restrain yourself even if it requires an act of will.

2. After speaking hopefully for twenty-four hours, continue the practice for one week, then you can be permitted to be “realistic” for a day or two. You will discover that what you meant by “realistic” a week ago was actually pessimistic, but what you now mean by “realistic” is something, entirely different; it is the dawning of the positive outlook. When most people say they are being “realistic” they delude themselves: they are simply being negative.

3. You must feed your mind even as you feed your body, and to make your mind healthy you must feed it nourishing, wholesome thoughts. Therefore, today start to shift your mind from negative to positive thinking. Start at the beginning of the New Testament and underscore every sentence about Faith. Continue doing this until you have marked every such passage in the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Particularly note Mark 11, verses 22, 23, 24. They will serve as samples of the verses you are to underscore and fix deeply in your consciousness.

4. Then commit the underscored passages to memory. Commit one each day until you can recite the entire list from memory. This will take time, but remember you have consumed much more time becoming a negative thinker than this will require. Effort and time will be needed to unlearn your negative pattern.

5. Make a list of your friends to determine who is the most positive thinker among them and deliberately cultivate his society. Do not abandon your negative friends, but get closer to those with a positive point of view for a while, until you have absorbed their spirit, then you can go back among your negative friends and give them your newly acquired thought pattern without taking on their negativism.

6. Avoid argument, but whenever a negative attitude is expressed, counter with a positive and optimistic opinion.

7. Pray a great deal and always let your prayer take the form of thanksgiving on the assumption that God is giving you great and wonderful things; for if you think He is, He surely is. God will not give you any greater blessing than you can believe in. He wants to give you great things, but even He cannot make you take anything greater than you are equipped by faith to receive. “According to your faith (that is, in proportion to) be it unto you.” (Matthew 9:29)

The secret of a better and more successful life is to cast out those old, dead, unhealthy thoughts. Substitute for them new, vital, dynamic faith thoughts. You can depend upon it—an inflow of new thought will remake you and your life.