Feeling good by david burns pdf free download

Life Crafting Sharpen your sense of purpose by defining and committing to your goals. Body Scan Meditation Feeling tense? Feel your body relax as you try this practice. Gratitude Letter Write a letter expressing thanks, and deliver it in person.

Honesty Nudges for Kids How your conversations with adults can encourage honesty in your children. Gratitude Letter for Students Help students write a letter of thanks and deliver it in person. Gratitude Questions for Kids Have a discussion to deepen your child's experience of gratitude. Eight Essentials When Forgiving Key principles to help you forgive and achieve peace of mind.

Introducing Kids to Forgiveness Help children understand what it means to forgive. Putting a Human Face on Suffering How to elicit kindness by making problems personal.

Savoring Walk How a stroll outside can help build lasting happiness. Fierce Self-Compassion Break Cultivate the clarity and courage to protect yourself from harm. Loving-Kindness Meditation Strengthen feelings of kindness and connection toward others.

Awe Walk Find wonder and inspiration through a simple stroll. Awe Narrative A writing exercise that makes you feel awesome. Walking Meditation Turn an everyday action into a tool for mindfulness and stress reduction. Three Funny Things Get happier by seeing the humor in life. Noticing Nature Pay attention to nature to boost feelings of connection. Time Capsule Rediscovering ordinary experiences can bring unexpected joy. Self-Compassionate Letter Stop beating yourself up for flaws and mistakes.

Deliberate Practice for Kids Teach kids how to practice to help them achieve their goals. Common Humanity Meditation Build compassion and interconnection by seeing your similarities with others.

Give It Up A trick to bring yourself lasting happiness. Goal Visualization A way to tackle a daunting task. Gratitude Journal for Students Help students count their blessings and enjoy school more.

Active Listening Connect with a partner through empathy and understanding. Gaining Perspective on an Argument Think about conflict differently to improve your relationship. Letting Go of Anger Through Compassion To foster resilience, think about a hurtful event in a different way.

Capitalizing on Positive Events Use good news to strengthen your bonds with friends or family. Gratitude Meditation Feel grateful as you reflect on all the gifts in your life. Finding Silver Linings Change your outlook on a negative event — and enjoy less stress. Three Good Things for Students Help students tune in to the positive events in their lives. Feeling Supported Recalling how others have comforted us can make us more compassionate.

Reminders of Connectedness A subtle way to induce kindness, particularly in kids. Best Possible Self for Relationships Build the kind of relationships you want by fostering optimism. Meaningful Photos A creative way to build happiness and meaning in life.

Pleasant Events Calendar for Kids Help children cultivate self-compassion by planning enjoyable activities.

Overcoming a Fear To reduce stress, try facing your fears head-on. Mental Subtraction of Relationships How to appreciate a loved one by imagining your life without them. Raisin Meditation Cultivate mindfulness, reduce stress, and enjoy everyday pleasures.

Expressive Writing A simple, effective way to work through an emotional challenge. Feeling Connected A writing exercise to foster connection and kindness. Compassion Meditation Strengthen feelings of concern for the suffering of others. Gaining Perspective on Negative Events Take a step back and analyze your feelings without ruminating. Random Acts of Kindness How to feel happier by doing things for others.

Awe Video A way to lift yourself out of the mundane. Identify Common Goals A way to forge connections across lines of difference. Gratitude Journal Count your blessings and enjoy better health and happiness. Use Your Strengths Tap into your positive traits and enjoy greater happiness. Talk with Teens about Purpose Help adolescents start exploring and reflecting on meaningful life goals. Making an Effective Apology A good apology involves more than saying "sorry.

Generosity Stories for Kids Encourage young kids to be giving by reading inspiring books. Mental Subtraction of Positive Events How to appreciate what you have by imagining your life without it. Humility Reflection for Teens Help teens understand and practice being humble. Ask for Help at Work Overcome your reluctance and discover how kind other people are. The Greater Good Toolkit Made in collaboration with Holstee, this tookit includes 30 science-based practices for a meaningful life.

Order the Toolkit. Create your account to start building happiness, save and try practices, leave reviews, and more! Login here. There are some errors in your form. Submit Cancel. Welcome back! Login to your account using the options below. Sign in using your email address:. Lost password? You can't wish yourself into an executive suite. Nor can you. You can't wish yourself into a position of leadership. But you can move a mountain with belief. You can win suc- cess by believing you can succeed.

There is nothing magical or mystical about the power of belief. Belief works this way. Belief, the 'Tm-positive-I-can" atti- tude, generates the power, skill, and energy needed to do.

When you believe I-can-do-it, the how-to-do-it develops. Every day all over the nation young people start working in new jobs. Each of them "wishes" that someday he could enjoy the success that goes with reaching the top.

But the majority of these young people simply don't have the belief that it takes to reach the top rungs. And they don't reach the tOp. Theil' behavior remains that of the "average" person. But a small number of these young people really believe they will succeed. They approach their work with the 'Tm-going-to- the-top" attitude. And with substantial belief they reach the top.

Believing they will succeed-and that it's not impossible-these folks study and observe the behavior of senior executives. They observe the attitudes of successful people. The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes. A young woman I'm acquainted with decided two years ago that she was going to establish a sales agency to sell mobile homes. She was advised by many that she shouldn't-and couldn't-do it.

But this young lady had belief in herself and her ability to succeed. She quickly admitted that she lacked capital, that the business was very competitive, and that she lacked experience.

On top of that, I've studied my competition. I know I can do a better job of merchan- dising trailers than anybody else in this town. I expect to make some mistakes, but I'm going to be on top in a hurry. She had little trouble getting capital. Her absolutely unquestioned belief that she could succeed with this business won her the confidence of two investors. And armed with complete belief, she did the "impossible"-she got a trailer manufacturer to advance her a limited inventory with no money down.

And believing you can succeed makes others place confidence in you. Most people do not put much stock in belief. But some, the residents of Successfulville, U. Just a few weeks ago a friend who is an oftlcial with a state highway department in a mid- western state related a "mountain-moving" experience to me. The four largest decided right away to submit proposals. The other seventeen companies were small, having ,only three to seven engineers each.

The size of the project scared off sixteen of these seventeen, They went over the project, shook their heads, and said, in effect, 'It's too big for us. I wish I thought we could handle it, but it's no use even trying: "But one of these small firms, a company with only three engineers, studied the plans and said, 'We can do it.

We'll submit a proposal. The most essential element-in fact, the essential element-in our space explorations today is belief that space can be mastered, Without firm, unwavering belief that man can travel in space, our scientists would not have the courage, interest, and enthusiasm to proceed.

Currently, there is some talk of building a tunnel under the English Channel to connect England with the Continent. Whether this tunnel is ever built depends on whether responsible people believe it can be built. Belief in great results is the driving force, the power behind all great books, plays, scientific discoveries.

Belief in success is behind every successful business, church, and political organiza- tion. Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingre- dient of successful people.

Believe, really believe, you can succeed, and you will. Over the years I've talked with many people who have failed in business ventures and in various careers. I've heard a lot of reasons and excuses for failure. Something especially signifi- cant unfolds as conversations with failures develop. Disbelief is negative power. When the mind disbelieves or doubts, the mind attracts "reasons" to support the disbelief.

Doubt, disbelief, the subconsciolls will to fail, the not really wanting to succeed, is responsible for most failures. Think doubt and fail. Think victory and succeed. A young fiction writer talked with me recently about her writing ambitions. The name of one of the top writers in her field came up. X is a wonderful writer, but of course, I can't be nearly as successful as he is.

He is not sllperintelligent nor super- perceptive, nor super-anything else except superconfident. He believes he is among the best, and so he acts and performs the best. It is well to respect the leader.

Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don't worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers. Look at it this way. Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life.

Study the fellow who is shuffling down there in mediocrity. He believes he is worth little, so he receives little. He believes he can't do big things, and he doesn't. He believes he is unimponant, so everything he does has an unimportant mark.

As times goes by, lack of belief in himself shows through in the way the fellow talks, walks, acts. Unless he readjusts his thermostat forward, he shrinks, grows smaller and smaller, in his own estimation. And, since others see in us what we see in ourselves, he grows smaller in the estimation of the.

Now look across the way at the person who is advancing forward. He believes he is wonh much, and he receives much. He believes he can handle big, difficult assiguments-and he does. Everything he does, the way he handles himself with people, his character, his thoughts, his viewpoints, all say, "Here is a professional.

He is an important person. Believe Big. Adjust your thermostat forward. Believe big and grow big. Several years ago after addressing a group of businessmen in Detroit, I talked with one of the gentlemen who approached me, introduced himself, and said, "I really enjoyed your talk.

Can you spare a few minutes? I'd like very much to discuss a personal experience with you. I've never explained to anyone how I lifted myself out of the world of mediocrity, but I'd like to tell you about it. I made a decent living by average standards. But it was far from ideal. Our home was much too small, aid there was no money for those many things we wanted. My wife, bless her, didn't complain much, but it was written all over her that she was more resigned to her fate than she was happy.

Inside I grew more and more dissatisfied. When I let myself see how I was failing my good wife and two children, I really hurt inside.

There's no more worry about whether we can send the kids to a good college, and my wife no longer has to feel guilty every time she spends money for some new clothes.

We're really living. We were living in Cleveland at the time. I decided to look into it, hoping I could make a Jittle more money. I got here early on Sunday evening, but the interview was not until Monday.

Why am I trying to get ajob that represe. Two were former neighbo'rs who had moved away to fme -subdivisions. I compared myself with them on inteiligence, but I honestly couldn't see that they excelled in the brains department. Here I hated to admit it, but I had to. On this point my record showed I waS far below that of my successful friends.

I was seeing my weak point for the first time. I discovered that I had held back. I had always carried a little stick. I dug into myself deeper and deeper and found the reason I lacked initiative was because I didn't believe inside that I was worth very much. I found I had been preaching to myself why I couldn't get ahead instead of why I could. I had been selling myself short. I found this streak of self-depreciation showed through in everything I did. Then it dawned on me that no one else was going to believe in me until I believed in myself.

From here on in I'm not going to sell myself short. During the job interview I gave my newfound confidence its fll'st test. And I got it. I sold myself because after that one long night of self-analysis I found things in myself that made me a lot more salable.

Then we went into a recession. This made me still more valuable because I was one of the best business-getters in the industry. The company was reorganized and I was given a substantial amount of stock plus a lot more pay. Production in your thought factory is under the charge of two foremen, one of whom we will call Mr. Triumph and the other Mr.

Triumph is in charge of manufacturing positive thoughts. He specializes in producing reasons why you can, why you're qualified, why you will. The other foreman, Mr. Defeat, produces negative, depre- cating thoughts. He is your expert in developing reasons why you can't, why you're weak, why you're inadequate. His specialty is the "why-you-will-fail" chain of thoughts.

Both Mr. Triumph and Mr. Defeat are intensely obedient. They snap to attention immediately. All you need do to signal either foreman is to give the slightest mental beck and call. If the signal is positive, Mr. Triumph will step forward and go to work. Likewise, a negative signal brings Mr. Defeat forward.

To see how these two foremen work for you, try this exam- ple. Tell yourself, "Today is a lousy day. Defeat into action, and he manufactures some facts to prove you are right. He suggests to you that it's too hot or it's too cold, business will be bad today, sales will drop, other people will be on edge, you may get sick, your wife will be in a fussy mood.

Defeat is tremendously efficient. In just a few moments he's got you sold. It is a bad day. Before you know it, it is a heck of a bad day. But tell yourself, "Today is a fme day," and Mr.

Triumph is signaled forward to act. He tells you, "This is a wOl1deifill day. The weather is refieshing. It's good to be alive. Today you can catch up on some of your work. In llke fashion Mr. Smith; Mr. Triumph will show you that you can. Defeat will convince you that you will fail, while Mr. Triumph will dem- onstrate why you will succeed. Defeat will prepare a brilliant case against Tom, while Mr. Triumph will show you more rea- sons why you like Tom.

Now; the more work you give either of these two foremen, the stronger he becomes. If Mr. Defeat is given more work to do, he adds personnel and takes up more space in your mind.

Eventually, he will take over the entire thought-manufacturiug division, and virtually all thought will be of a negative nature. The only wise thing to do is fire Mr. You don't need him. You don't want him around telling you that you can't, you're not up to it, you'll fail, and so on.

Defeat won't help. Use Mr. Triumph percent of the time. When any thought enters your mind, ask Mr. Triumph to go to work for you. He'll show you how you can succeed.

Between now and tomorrow at this time another 11, new consumers will have made their grand eptry into the U. Population is growing at a record rate. In the next ten years the increase is conservatively estimated at 35 million. New industries, new scientific breakthroughs, expanding markets-all spell opportunity. This is good news. This is a most wonderful time to be alive!

All signs point to a record demand for top-level people in every field-people who have superior ability to influence oth- ers, to direct their work, to serve them in a leadership capacity. One of them is you. The guarantee of a boom is not, of course, a guarantee of personal success. Over the long pull, the United States has always been booming.

But just a fast glance shows that millions and mil- lions of people-in fact, a majority of them-struggle but don't really succeed. The majority of folks still plug along in medioc- rity despite the record opportunity of the last two decades. And in the boom period ahead, most people will continue to worry, to be afraid, to crawl through life feeling unimportant, unap- preciated, not able to do what they want to do. As a result, their performance will earn them petty rewards, petty happiness.

Those who convert opportunity into reward and let me say, I sincerely believe you are one of those, else you'd rely on luck and not bother with this book will be those wise people who learn how to think themselves to success. The door to success is open wider than ever before. Put yourself on record now that you are going to join that select group that is getting what it wants from life.

Here is the first step toward success. It's a basic step. It can'tbe avoided. Step One: Believe in yourself, believe you can succeed. Think success, don't think failure. At work, in your home, substitute success thinking for failure thinking. Thinking success conditions your mind to create plans that produce success.

Thinking failure does the e Cact opposite. Failure thinking conditions the mind to think other thoughts that produce failure. Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a superintellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn't based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do.

Never-yes, never-sell yourself short. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Thinklittfe goals and e Cpect litde achieve- ments. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Ralph J. Cordiner, chairman of the board of the General Electric Company, said this to a leadership conference: "We need from every man who aspires to leadership-for him- self and his company-a determination to undertake a personal program of self-development.

Nobody is going to order a man to develop Whether a man lags behind or moves ahead in his specialty is a matter of his own personal application. Nobody can do it for you. COl'diner's advice is sound and practical.

Live it. Persons who reach the top rungs in business management, selling, engi- neering, religious work, writing, acting, and in every other pur- suit get there by following conscientiously and continuously a plan for selfdevelopment and growth. Any training program-and that's exactly what this book , is-must do three things.

It must provide content, the what-to- do. Second, it must supply a method, the how-to-do-it. And third, it must meet the acid test; that is, get results. The what of your personal training program for success is built on the attitudes and techniques of successful people. How do they manage themselves? How d? How do they earn the respect of others? What sets them apart fi'om the ordinary? How do they think? The how. These are found in each chapter. These guides work.

Apply them and see for yourself. What about the most important part of training: results? Wrapped up briefly, conscientious application of the program presented here will bring you success and on a scale that may now look impossible. Broken down into its components, your personal training program for success will bring you a series of rewards: the reward of deeper respect from your family, the reward of admiration from your fi'iends and assoCiates, the reward of feeling useful, of being someone, of having status, the reward of increased income and a higher standard of living.

Your training is self-administered. This book will be your guide, bur only you can understand yourself. Only you can command yourself to apply this training. Only you can evaluate your progress. Only you can bring about corrective action should you slip a little. In short, you are going to train yourself to achieve bigger and bigger success. You already have a fully equipped laboratory in which you can work and study.

Your laboratory is' all around you. Your labo- ratory consists of human beings. This laboratory supplies you with every possible example of human action. And there is no limit to what you can learn once you see yourself as a scientist in your own lab. What's more, there is nothing to buy. There is no rent to pay. There are no fees of any kind.

You can use this laboratory as much as you like for free. As director of your own laboratory. Isn't it surprising to you that most people understand so little about why people act as they do even though they are sur- rounded by people all their lives? Most peopfe are not trained observers. One important purpose of this book is to help you train yourself to observe, to develop deep insight into human action. You'll want to ask yourself questions like 'Why is John so successful and Tom just getting by?

Here are two special suggestions to help you make yourself a trained observer. Notice also how studying the two extremes will help you see the unmistakable wisdom of follow- ing the truths outlined in this book. Each contact you make with another person gives you a chance to see success development principles at work. Your objective is to make successful action habitUal. The more we practice, the. Most of us have fi:iends who grow things for a hobby.

And we've all heard them say something like "It's exciting to watch those plants grow; Just look how they respond to plant food and water.

See how much bigger they are today than they were last week. But it is not one-tenth as fascinating as watching yourself respond to your own carefully administered thought management program.

It's fun to feel yourself growing more confident, more effective, more success- ful day by day, month by month. Nothing-absolutely noth- ing-in this life gives you more satisfaction than kllowing you're on the road to success and achievement. You will study people very caref? And you Want to begin right away. Go deep into your study of people, and you'll discover unsuc- cessful people suffer a mind-deadening thought disease.

We call this disease excusitis. Every failure has this disease in its advanced form. And most "average" persons have at least a mild case of it.

You will discover that excusitis explains the difference between the person who is going places and the fellow who is barely holding his own. You will fuid that the more successful the individual, the less inclined he is to make excuses. But the fellow who has gone nowhere and has no plans for getting anywhere always has a bookful of reasons to explain why. Persons with mediocre accomplishments are qUick to explain why they haven't, why they don't, why they can't, and why they aren't.

Study the lives of successful people and you'll discover this: all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren't made by the successful person.

Roosevelt could have hidden behind his lifeless legs; Truman could have used "no college education"; Kennedy could have said, "I'm too young to be president"; Johnson and Eisenhower could have ducked behind heart attacks. Like any disease, excusitis gets worse if it isn't treated prop- erly. A victim of this thought disease goes through this mental process: "I'm not doing as well as I should. What can I use as an alibi that will help me save face? Let's see: poor health? Then he relies on the excuse to explain to himself and others why he is not going forward.

And each time the victim makes the excuse, the excuse becomes imbedded deeper within his subconsciousness. Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition.

At first the victim of excusitis knows his alibi is more or less a lie. But the more frequently he repeats it, the more con- vinced he becomes that it is completely true, that the alibi is the real reason for his not being the success he should be. Procedure One, then, in your individual program of think- ing yourself to success, must be to vaccinate yourself against eXCJlsitis, the disease of the failures.

Now let's see just how we can pro- tect ourselves from these four common ailments. Millions and millions of people suffer from health excusitis. But is it, in most cases, a legitimate excuse? Think for a moment of all the highiy successful people you know who could-but who don't-use health as an excuse. My physician and sutgeon friends tell me the perfect speci- men of adult life is nonexistent. There is something physically wrong with everybody.

Many surrender in whole or in. Afterwards, ohe fellow; about thirty, asked to speak to me privately for a few minutes. He com- plimented me on the meeting but then said, 'T m afraid your ideas can't do me much good.

He asked me what 1 would suggest he do. First, I'd visit the finest heart specialist I could find and accept his diagnosis as final.

You've already checked with four doctors, and none of them has found anything peculiar with your heart. Let the fifth doctor be your final check. It may very well be you've got a perfectly sound heart. But if you keep on worrying about it, eventually you may have a very serious heart ailment. Looking and looking and look- ing for an illness often actually produces illness. Schindler's great book, How to Live Days a Year. Schindler shows in this book that three out of every four hospital beds are occupied by people who-have Ell-Emotionally Induced Illness.

Imagine, three out of four people who are sick right now would be well if they had learned how to handle their emotions. Read Dr. Schindler's book and develop your program for 'emotions management: "Third, I'd resolve to live until I die. My friend, who now is seventy-eight years old, expresses his philosophy in these words: ''j'm going to live until I die and I'm not going to get life and death confused.

While I'm on this earth I'm going to live. Why be only half alive? Every minute a person spends worrying about dying is just one minute that fellow might as well have been dead. After the noise of the takeoff, I heard a ticking sound.

Rather startled, I glanced at the fellow sitting beside me, for the sound seemed to be coming fi'om him. He smiled a big smile and said, "Oh, it's not a bomb. It's just my heart. Just twenty-one days before, he had undergone an opera- tion tllat involved putting a plastic valve into his heart.

The ticking sound, he explained, would continue for several months, until new tissue had grown over the artificial valve. I asked him what he was going to do. I'm going to study law when I get back to Minnesota. Someday I hope to be in govern- ment work. The doctors tell me I must. The first fellow, not even sure he had anything organically wrong with him, was worried, depressed, on the road to defeat, want- ing somebody to second his motion that he couldn't go forward.

The second individual, after undergoing one of the most difficult of operations, was optimistic, eager to do something. The differ- ence lay in how they thought toward health! I've had some very direct experience with health excusitis. I'm a diabetic. Right after I discovered I had this ailment about 5, hypodermics ago , I was warned, "Diabetes is a physical condition; but the biggest damage results from having a nega- tive attitude toward it.

Worry about it, and you may have real trouble. Let me tell you about two extremes. One fellow who has a very mild case belongs to that fraternity of the living dead.

Obsessed with a fear of the weather, he is usually ridiculously bundled up. He's afi'aid of infection, so he shuns anybody who has the slightest sniffle. He's afraid of overexertion, so he does almost nothing. He spends most of his mental energy worrying about what might happen. He bores other people telling them "how awful" his problem really is. His real ailment is not diabetes.

Rather, he's a victim of health excusitis. He has pitied himself into being an invalid. The other extreme is a division manager for a large publish- ing company. He has a severe case; he takes about thirty times as much insulin as the fellow mentioned above. But he is not living to be sick. He is living to enjoy his work and have fun. One day he said to me, "Sure it is an inconvenience, but so is shaving.

But I'm Hot going to think myself to bed. When I take those shots, I just praise the guys who discovered insulin. Despite his handicap, John is always smiling, always helping others. He's about as optimistic as anyone I know. One day he and I had a long talk about his handicap.

But they just cut off my arm. My spirit is one hundred percent intact. I'm really grateful for that. One day I asked him how he had been able to develop such a near-perfect style with just one arm.

I mentioned that most golfers with two anns can't do nearly as well. His reply says a lot. Think about that for a while. It holds true not only on the golf course but in every facet of life. Refuse to talk about your health. The more you talk about an ailment, even the common cold, the worse it seems to get. Talking about bad health is like putting fertilizer on weeds.

Besides, talking about your health is a bad habit. It bores people. It makes one appear self-centered and old-maidish. Success-minded people defeat the natural tendency to talk, about their "bad" health. One may and let me emphasize the word may get a little sympathy, but one doesn't get respect and loyalty by being a chronic complainer. Refuse to worry about your health. Walter Alvarez, emeritus consultant to the world-famous Mayo Clinic, wrote recehtly, "I always beg worriers to exercise some self- control.

For instance, when I saw this man a fellow who was convinced he had a diseased gallbladder although eight separate X-ray examinations showed that the organ was perfectly normal , I begged him to quit getting his gallblad- der X-rayed. I have begged hundreds of heart-conscious men to quit getting electrocardiogra,ms made.

Be genuinely grateful that your health is as good as it is. There's an old saying worth repeating often: "1 felt sorry for myself because 1 had ragged shoes until 1met a man who had no feet. Just being grateful for the health you have is powerful vaccination against developing new aches and pains and real illness. Remind yourself often, "It's better to wear out than rust out. Don't waste it. Don't pass up living by thinking yourself into a hospital bed.

In fact, it's so common that perhaps as many as 95 percent of the people around us have it in varying degrees. Unlike most other types of excusitis, people suffering from this particular type of the malady suffer in silence. Not many people will admit openly that they think they lack adequate intelligence. Rather, they feel it deep down inside. Most of us make two basic errors with respect to intelligence: 1.

We underestimate our own brainpower. We overestimate the othei' fellow's brainpower, Because of these errors many people sell themselves short. They fail to tackle challenging situations because it "takes a brain. The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than the quantity of your brainpower. Let me repeat, for this is vitally important: the thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intellige11ce you may have.

In answering the question, "Should your child be a sci- entist? The only point that counts is that the child have a high degree of interest in science. With a positive, optimistic, and cooperative attitude a per- son with an IQ of will earn more money, win more respect, and achieve more success than a negative, pessimistic, uncoop- erative individual with an IQ of Just enough sense to stick with something-a chore, task, project-until it's completed pays off m,!

For stickability is 95 percent of ability. At a homecoming celebration last year I met a college friend whom I had not seen for ten years. Chuck was a very bright student and was graduated with honors. His goal when I last saw him was to own his own business in western Nebraska. I asked Chuck what kind of business he fmally established.

I wouldn't have said this to anyone five years ago or even one year ago, but now I'm ready to talk about it. I learned every conceivable pitfall, every reason why a small busi- ness will fail: 'You've got to have ample capital;' 'Be sure the business cycle is right;' 'Is there a big demand for what you will offer?

But me, I'm just plodding along, auditing freight shipments. Had I been drilled a little more in why a small busi- ness can succeed, I'd be better off in every way today. I've been close for many years to a person who qualifies as a genius, has high abstract intelligence, and is Phi Beta Kappa. Despite this very high native intelligence, he is one of the most unsuccessful people I know.

He has never married lots of marriages end in divorce. He has few friends people bore him. He's never invested in property of any kind he might lose his money. This man uses his great brain- power to prove why things won't work rather than directing his mental power to searching for ways to succeed. Because of the negative thinking that guides his great res- ervoir of brains, this fellow contributes little and creates nothing.

With a changed attitude, he could do great things indeed. He has the brains to be a tremendous success, but not the thought power. How did he spend his three years in the Army? Not as an officer. Not as a staff specialist. Instead, for three years he drove a truck. Because he was fIlled with negative attitudes toward fellow soldiers "I'm superior to them" , toward army methods and procedures "They are stupid" , toward discipline "It's for others, not me" , toward everything, including himself "I'm a fool for not figuring out a way to escape this rap".

This fellow earned no respect fi'om anyone. All his vast store of knowledge lay buried. His negative attitudes turned him into a flunky.

Remember, the thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you have. Not even a Ph. Several years ago I became a close friend of Phil E, one of the senior officers of a major advertising agency.

Phil was direc- tor of marketing research for the agency, and he was doing a bang-up job. Was Phil a 'brain"? Far from it. He knew next to nothing about statis- tics. He was not a college graduate though all the people work- ing for him were. And Phil did not pretmd to know the technical side of research. This: phil was a "human" engineer. Phil was percent positive. Phil could inspire others when they felt low; phil was enthusiastie. He generated enthusiasm; phil understood people, and, because he could really see what made them tick, he liked them.

Out of every persons who enroll in college, fewer than 50 will graduate. I was curious about this so I asked a director of admissions at a large university for his explanation. And it's not money. Anyone who wants to support himself in college today can do so.

The real reason is attitudes. You would be surprised," he said, "how many young people leave because they don't like their pro- fessors, the subjects they must take, and their fellow students. Sour, negative, pessimistic, depreciating atti- tudes rather than insufficient intelligence hold back thousands of young executives. As one executive told me, "It's a rare case when we pass up a young fellow because he lacks brains. Nearly always it's attitude. Once I was retained by an insurance company to learn why the top 25 percent of the agents were selling over 75 percent of the insurance while the bottom 25 percent of the agents sold only 5 percent of total volume.

Thousands of personnel files were carefully checked. The search proved beyond any question that no significant differ- ence existed in native intelligence. The top group worried less, was more enthusiastic, had a sincere liking for people. We can't do much to change the amount of native ability, but we can certainly change the way we use what we have. Knowledge is power-when you use it constructively.

We often hear that knowledge is power. But this statement is only a half-truth. Knowledge is only potential power. Knowledge is power only when put to use-and then only when the use made of it is constructive. The story is told that the great scientist Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein's reply was "I don't know; Why should I fill my brain with facts I can fmd in two minutes in any standard reference book?

He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts. One time Henry Ford was involved in a libel suit with the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune had called Ford an ignoramus, and Ford said, in effect, "Prove it.

Finally he became quite exasperated and said, "I don't know. How much is a fact man worth? I spent a very interesting evening recently with a friend who is the president of a young but rapidly growing manufacturing concern. The TV set happened to be turned to one of the most popular quiz programs. The fellow being quizzed had been on the show for several weeks.

He could answer questions on all sorts of subjects, many of which seemed nonsensical. After the fellow answered a particularly odd question, some-. I've sized him up. That' expert' can't think. He can only memorize. In fact, maybe that's too much. Never underestimate your own intelligence, and never overestimate the intelligence of others.

Concentrate on your assets. Discover your superior talents. Remember, it's not how many brains you've got that matters. Rather, it's how you use your brains that counts. Manage your brains instead of worrying about how much IQ you've got. Remind yourself several times daily, "My attitudes are more important than my intelligence. See the reasons why you can do it, not the reasons why you can't. Develop an "I'm winning" attitude.

Put your intelligence to creative positive use. Use it to fmd ways to win, not to prove you will lose. Remember that the ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to memorize facts. Use your mind to create and develop ideas, to find new and better ways, to do things. Ask yourself, '11m I using my mental ability to make history, or am I using it merely to record history made by others?

I'm Too Old or Too Young. You've heard hundreds of people of all ages explain their mediocre performance in life something like this: 'Tm too old or too young to break in now. I can't do what I want to do or am capable of doing because of my age handicap. And it's unfortunate. They think their age is wrong, so they don't even bother to try. The 'Tm too old" variety is the most common form of age excusitis.

This disease is spread in subtle ways. TV fiction is produced about the big executive who lost his job because of a merger and can't find another because he's too old. Executive looks for months to find another job, but he can't, and in the end, after contemplating suicide for a while, he decides to rationalize that it's nice to be on the shelf.

Plays and magazine articles on the topic 'Why You Are Washed Up at 40" are popular, not because they represent true facts, but because they appeal to many worried minds looking for an excuse. How to Handle Age Excusitis Age excusitis can be cured. A few years ago, while I was conduct- ing a sales training program, I discovered a good serum that both cures this disease and vaccinates you so you won't get it in the first place.

In that training program there was a trainee named Cecil. And I'm too old for that now. I'm forty. I used the old medicine, "You're oniy as old as you feel," but I found I was getting nowhere. Too often people retort with "But I do feel old! I said, "Cecil, when does a man's productive life begin? Cecil," I saicj, "you're forty, How many years of productive life have you spent? Cecil saw he still had many opportunity- filled years left. He switched from thinking ''I'm already old" to 'Tm still young.

It's one's attitude toward age that makes it a blessing or a barricade. Curing yourself of age excusitis often opens doors to opportunities that you thought were locked tight. Finally, he concluded that the one thing he wanted more than anything else was to be a minis- ter.

But when he thought about it, he found he was too old.