Success Strategy: The Seven Steps to Self-Confidence
Deep within your mind is a powerful sleeping genius. It sleeps quietly waiting for the only thing that may awaken it: the exercise of Self-Confidence. When it is once aroused, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. You will surprise all who knew you before your transformation took place. You will brush aside all obstacles and sweep on to victory, backed by an invisible force which recognizes no obstacles.
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How to Build Self-Confidence to Succeed
As the study of Success moved from the theoretical and the philosophical to the practical, particularly in the 19th century with the New Thought movement, one of the many fundamental principles that has been established as a prerequisite to Succeed is that of attaining, cultivating and executing Self-Confidence. Generally, the greater one’s Self-Confidence, the greater the Success. How often have we heard the maxim that Success goes to “the man who thinks he can?” That is, the person who has the Self-Confidence in his or her ability to Succeed is the one who Succeeds.
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Nelson Crag near Mt. Washington of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Photo by Brian Post. November 2, 2000.
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A careful analysis of the most Successful individuals of the world shows that the dominating quality that they ALL possessed was Self-Confidence. Napoleon Hill, one of the greatest Success Masters of all time, knew this principle more than anyone. Dr. Hill studied the lives of thousands of Successful individuals and found that, without exception, each possessed a highly developed sense of Self-Confidence. Without an esteemed Self-Confidence in one’s own ability, Success will prove elusive. Nobody can bring you Success except yourself, and whether or not Success is attained is a function of your Self-Confidence. Period.
As Dr. Hill noted in one of his articles, “How to Build Self-Confidence,” published well before any of his books, the one and only person in this world through whose efforts you can be supremely happy under all circumstances, and through whose labor you can accumulate all the material wealth that you can use legitimately, is yourself.
When you come into a full realization of this great truth, a new, vibrant feeling of inspiration will seize you, and you will become conscious of a tremendous amount of vitality and power which you did not know that you possessed before. Full awareness of this truth is incredibly empowering.
First, you will accomplish more simply because you will dare to undertake more. You will realize, possibly for the first time in your life, that YOU possess the ability to accomplish anything that YOU wish to accomplish. You will realize how little your Success in any undertaking will depend upon others and how much it will depend upon you. Now that is powerful.
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In the development of Self-Confidence, one of the first steps you must take is to dispel forever the feeling that you cannot accomplish anything you undertake. Fear is the chief negative emotion that stands between you and Self-Confidence. Eliminate fear from your thinking and sub-conscious conditioning, and you are half-way there. Moreover, as demonstrated in our Seven Steps to Self-Confidence, below, fear not only may be scientifically eliminated, but it may be replaced with COURAGE – its polar opposite. Talk about a paradigm shift in the way we see ourselves functioning in our world.
Deep within your mind is a powerful sleeping genius. It sleeps quietly waiting for the only thing that may awaken it: the exercise of Self-Confidence. When it is once aroused, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. You will surprise all who knew you before your transformation took place. You will brush aside all obstacles and sweep on to victory, backed by an invisible force which recognizes no obstacles.
The purpose of the following Seven Steps to Self-Confidence is to demonstrate how you may, through application of “auto-suggestion” and concentration, place any Thought or Desire in your conscious mind and hold it there until it becomes crystallized into reality. These principles are scientific and accurate. They have been tested thousands of times by leading scientists of the world. To prove their accuracy, you have only to try them out – as literally tens of thousands have done since they were first published more than eighty years ago – by memorizing the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence and implementing them into your daily life.
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The Seven Steps to Self-Confidence
Read each Step carefully and emotionalize what you read. Accept it. Believe it. Feel it. Live it.
- I know that I have the ability to accomplish all that I undertake. I know that to Succeed, I have only to establish this belief in myself and follow it with vigorous, aggressive action. I will establish it.
- I realize that my thoughts eventually reproduce themselves in material form and substance and become real in the physical state. Therefore, I will concentrate upon the daily task of thinking of the person I intend to be and of drawing a mental picture of this person and of transforming this picture into reality. (Here describe in detail your “Chief Aim” or the life-work you have selected.)
- I am studying with the firm intention of mastering the fundamental principles through which I may attract to me the desirable things of life. Through this study, I am becoming more self-reliant and more cheerful. I am developing more sympathy for my fellow men, and I am becoming stronger, both mentally and physically. I am learning to smile the smile that plays upon the heart as well as upon the lips.
- I am mastering and overpowering the habit of starting something that I do not finish. From this time forward, I will first plan all that I wish to do, making a clear mental picture of it, and then I will let nothing interfere with my plans until I have developed them into realities. I am completely and totally committed to do whatever it takes to Succeed.
- I have clearly mapped out and planned the work that I intend to follow for the ensuing five years. I have set a price upon my services for each of the five years, a price that I intend to command through strict application of the principle of efficient, satisfactory service.
- I fully realize that genuine Success will come only through strict application of the “Golden Rule” principles. I will, therefore, engage in no transaction which does not benefit alike all who participate in it. I will Succeed by attracting to me the forces that I wish to use. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve them. I will gain the friendship of my fellow men because of my kindness and my willingness to be a friend. I will eliminate from my mind fear by developing in its place courage. I will eliminate skepticism by developing faith. I will eliminate hatred and cynicism by developing love for humanity.
- I will learn to stand upon my feet and express myself in clear, concise, and simple language, and to speak with force and enthusiasm, in a matter that will carry conviction. I will cause others to become interested in me, because I will first become interested in them. I will eliminate selfishness and develop in its place the spirit of service.
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Pay particular attention to Step 2 of the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence. Under this Step, you must clearly and definitely state YOUR “Chief Aim,” and by deliberately placing it in your conscious mind, you are making use of the principle of “auto-suggestion,” and by memorizing these Seven Steps and holding their contents in readiness in your memory – so you may call it into the conscious mind at any minute – and by actually calling it into your consciousness many times a day, you are making use of the Principle of Concentration. This is absolutely vital to proper execution of the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence.
As an analogy, let us consider a digital camera. In similar fashion, your mind may be likened to the digital sensors in that camera. The “Chief Aim” held before your mind (Step 2) may be likened to the object of which you wish to take a picture with the camera. When this picture (your Chief Aim) is imaged permanently to the “sensors” of your subconscious mind, you will notice that every act and every movement of your body will have a tendency toward transforming this picture into a physical reality. This process is known by many names; we prefer to refer to it as “Image Making,” and it has been the subject of earlier posts.
Understand that almost in every situation, your mind first draws a picture of that which it wants, and then it proceeds to direct your bodily activity toward acquiring it. Although we may not realize it, but we engage in this mental process continually throughout our lives. Suppose you want to rearrange the furniture in a room, or possibly redecorate the room. Without question, the first step in that process is the mental visual imagery that takes place as your mind ponders the possibilities, creating first the “castle in the air” before creating the “castle on the ground.” This is precisely what Van Gough meant with his response when asked how he paints so magnificently: “First I dream my painting; then I paint my dream.”
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A critically important note: Keep fear away from your conscious mind as you would keep poison out of your food, for it is the one barrier that will stand between you and Self-Confidence. Allowing fear to enter into and fester within your consciousness is a sure way to kill Self-Confidence in record time.
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After you have committed the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence to memory, make a habit of repeating the Steps ALOUD at least twice a day. When verbalizing aloud the Steps, feel the emotion of all that you say with a deep conviction that what you say is true and that you accept it as true. All of your thoughts have a tendency, within themselves, to produce appropriate or corresponding activities in your body, but thoughts which are followed by affirmation through spoken words will crystallize into reality in much less time than those which are not followed by mere expression in words only. Going still further, thoughts that are followed by both spoken and written words will crystallize into physical reality in still less time than those which are inhibited and merely held in consciousness silently. And, going still further, emotionalizing thoughts that are followed by both spoken and written words – simultaneously while holding a corresponding mental visual image – is by far the most powerful method of using the Seven Steps to build outstanding Self-Confidence.
As such, it is strongly recommend that you not only memorize the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence, but that you also you write them out in a personalized form as they apply to you, repeat them aloud at least twice a day for at least two weeks, and that when repeating the Steps, you do so with deep emotion and conviction and hold a visual image in your mind that embodies what you are verbalizing and emotionalizing. By following these suggestions, you will have taken five decided steps toward realizing your goal:
First, you will have created it in thought.
Second, you will have caused this to produce bodily action tending toward its ultimate transformation into reality, through the muscular action of the vocal organs in speaking aloud.
Third, you will have caused this thought to actually begin the process of transformation into physical reality through the muscular action of your hand in writing it out on paper.
Fourth, you will have further moved this process towards its ultimate transformation into reality by emotionalizing the thoughts and planting them into your subconscious mind, thereby shifting your core belief system from what was fundamentally not feasible to what is an accepted truth.
And, finally, fifth, by creating a clear, distinct, mental image of yourself full of vigorous Self-Confidence, you reaffirm in your entire being that you ARE Self-Confident.
Consistently, sincerely and systematically practice these Steps as outlined above, and it is IMPOSSIBLE that you will fail to gain profound Self-Confidence.
An additional recommendation is that you stand before a mirror where you can see yourself as you repeat the words of the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence. Look yourself squarely in the eyes as though you were some other person, and talk with vehemence. If there is any feeling of lack of courage, shake your fist in the face of that person you see in the mirror and arouse the individual to a feeling of reaction. Make the individual want to say something; make the individual want to do something. Evoke deeply-charged emotion!
Soon you will actually see the lines on your face begin to change from an expression of weakness to one of strength. You will commence to see strength and beauty in that face which you never saw before, and this wonderful transformation will be quite as noticeable to others.
You need not follow the exact wording of the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence, but select words which more appropriately express your personal Desire and “Chief Aim.” The wording is immaterial as long as it clearly defines the picture which you intend to transform into reality.
Look upon these Seven Steps to Self-Confidence as being a blueprint or detailed description of the person you intend to be. Record in the blueprint every emotion which you wish to feel, every act which you wish to perform, and a clear description – verbal and mental image – of yourself as you wish others to see you. Remember that these Seven Steps to Self-Confidence is your working plan, and that in time – a very short time at that – you are going to resemble this plan in every detail.
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Let the Seven Steps become your daily prayer, if you are religiously inclined, and repeat them with as much religious fervor as you would with prayer. If you believe in prayer – as you undoubtedly do – you cannot doubt for one moment that your Desires, as expressed through the Steps, will be fully realized. Do you not see what a remarkable position of strength you will be placed in by repeating the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence as a prayer? Do you not see with wonderful clearness just what the added quality of FAITH will do toward quickly and surely transforming your affirmations into physical realities? Do you not see the power of joining, with FAITH, your prayer with the Universal Consciousness of our Creator? Do you not see great possibilities of this method of using the power of the Infinite for the achievement of your Desires?
It makes no difference what your religion may be; this method of self-development in no way conflicts with it. People of all religions recognize prayer as the central power around which their creeds are built. If prayer has the endorsement of all religions, it must be worthy of employment in the achievement of legitimate ends. Surely, the development of Self-Confidence is a legitimate and worthy end.
We may not be able to explain the wonderful phenomenon of prayer, but that should not prevent us from making every possible legitimate use of it. To make use of it in the transformation of the written words of the Seven Steps to Self-Confidence into physical reality surely is a legitimate use, because the purpose of the Steps is the development of man, the greatest and most wonderful handiwork of God.
What could be more worthy purpose than that of freeing the human mind from the greatest of all curses, fear, and building courage in its place?
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You are now in possession of the great pass key that will unlock the door to whatever you wish yourself to be. Consider it in the light of a purely scientific force if you choose; or, look upon it as a Divine Power, belonging to the great mass of unknown phenomena which mankind has not yet fathomed. The result in either case will be the same, Success.
Faith is the foundation upon which civilization rests. Nothing seems impossible when built upon Faith as the cornerstone to your self-confidence building. Make use of it, and your building cannot fall. You will overcome all obstacles, and tear down all resistance in accomplishing your purposes. You will break out of the ranks of that great mass which we call “followers,” and move up into the front row of that select few which we call “leaders.” Leadership only comes through supreme belief in Self, and you know how to develop that belief.
Remember – you can be anything that you deeply and emotionally Desire to be. Strong, deeply seated Desire is the beginning of all human achievement – it is the seed, the germ from which all man’s accomplishments spring.
Emotionalize or vitalize your whole being with any well-fixed, definite desire, and immediately your personality becomes a magnet that will attract to you the object of that Desire.
To doubt is to remain in ignorance.
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Mount Washington image with permission from the Mount Washington Observatory. Thanks, Crew!
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