“Well,” you say, “that’s great, but how do you do it?”
I like to suggest three principles for so doing. First, think—really think. Second, believe—really believe. Third, pray—really pray [which Peale explains later is more akin to a form of relaxation or meditation]. Now there you have three dynamic principles, and with those principles, you can, I do believe (in fact, I know), find an answer. The end—the right answer to any human problem.
THINK YOUR WAY TO A SOLUTION
Let’s take that first one: Think, really think. Let me ask you something. How long has it been since you really thought? I might ask that of myself. When did I last think? I don’t like to think, do you? It’s painful. It’s one of the most painful things known to man. Thinking, deep thinking—we shrink from it. We like to be relieved of the necessity of it, so we think off the top of our heads. The trouble with those thoughts off the top of the head is that they do not go down into the depths, so you have to agonizingly think. But when one gets over the first hump of thinking and gets into the area where it’s creative, actually it’s a delightful and inspiring experience.
Be “Quick,” not “Dead”
John Burroughs was one of the greatest naturalists that this country ever produced, probably THE greatest. [In fact, Burroughs was very active in the U.S. conservation movement.] He said that there are just two classes of people in the world. He said he doesn’t mean men and women, those two classes. Or young and old or rich and poor or black and white or Republicans or Democrats. He said those aren’t the two classes that he refers to, but the two classes in his mind are what he calls the “quick” and the “dead.” The quick are people who look at the world and see it. They are people who listen to the world and hear it. They get a message from it. The quick are people who are sensitive, sensitized. They send up an antenna. They get the meaning of the world. They see what they’re looking at. They’re alive; they’re alert; they’re vibrant. Those are the quick. The other people aren’t dead physically, but they’re dead from the standpoint of sensitivity. They live on the surface. So there are two classes—the quick and the dead, and the quick see the wondrous things [in the world].
There are so many illustrations of this, but let me give you one. The other day my wife presented me with all the sermons that I have preached over 38 years in this church. She had them bound in nice volumes: number one, number two, and so on beginning in 1932. That’s a lot of sermons, and she put them up in my office. I don’t know whether she put them there for enlightenment or for decorative purposes, but the color of the books fits in with the décor, you might say.
I was very impressed by these volumes, so I thought I’d look inside and see if I could find anything inside that was impressive also. Now bear in mind I was reading my own sermons, which shows to what extremity I was reduced. But I picked up the volume for 1951 and I read one of the sermons there, and you know, it wasn’t half bad. I found an illustration there, which I had long since forgotten but which is really a beauty as to how you think through a problem, a tough problem. I know that when I talk this way I have people saying, “Look, you don’t know how tough my problem is,” which shows that you’re thinking, but you’re thinking negatively.
This was the story. It seems that there was a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Hustead, and they lived in a little town in South Dakota called Wall, population I think some 500 or 600. The time when this story was laid was back at a time when there was a great drought all over that western area of the country. There had been days upon end without any rain, and the soil was pulverized finely. The winds would catch it and sweep it in great dust clouds, and it formed what was known as the great dust bowl. This caused one of the greatest migrations in American history, of people who no longer could get any value out of a farm. Farm prices fell to nothing. People were ruined. They were impoverished. There was poverty everywhere all over that part of the country.
The Husteads ran a drug store in a little town in such a setting as this, and you can imagine the drug business wasn’t going very well. So they were sitting there one day when the temperature was 100 in the shade with no customers coming into their store and they were facing financial ruin, although they never admitted that they were. They knew that somewhere there was an idea that would help them. They sat in the front windows with their chin in their hands watching people go along on the highway which hadn’t yet been hard surfaced, amid great rolling clouds of dust (there was no car air conditioning at this time). The windows were up and the dust was sweeping in from these cars, and Mrs. Hustead said, “Here is the proposition. We have something for these people in this store. How can we make them know that we have something for them so that the two of us will get together?” But they [the travelers] went by rapidly through this little one-horse town. Now, I have developed this story at great length in order that you can see a problem in which you would seem to think there wasn’t a ray of hope. But this woman had great faith. She opened her eyes to see wondrous things.
So she prayed. She believed, she thought, and she asked herself, “What would those people out there at this moment with 100 degrees in the shade in this dust rather have than anything else?” And the answer came to her out of her head where she was thinking. What they would love to have is a cold, big glass of ice water. So she told her husband to make signs, and they went up for 100 miles on either side of this village. The signs were right on the highway. They went 50 miles on either side of the village, 25 miles on either side of the village, and 10 miles on either side of the village, and they put up big signs that said, “To all passing motorists, there is a free, tall, frosted glass of pure, cold, delicious ice water awaiting you at the Wall Drugstore, Wall, South Dakota. Hold on till you can get to Wall.” They even went so far as to go as far east as Albany, New York, and they put up a sign for a free glass of ice water at Wall, South Dakota, 1,725 miles further on. Did customers flock to the drugstore? Of course they did! It wasn’t long until Mr. and Mrs. Hustead had 25 clerks not only handing out ice water but selling their merchandise as well.
ENTREPRENEUR TIP
Don’t underestimate the power of brainstorming when you need to think of possible solutions to your problem. Getting your team around the conference room table and opening your minds to multiple possible solutions (no matter how far-fetched) just might open the door to one that really works.
The point is that we won’t usually acknowledge that there’s a possibility of a solution, and you may even get a little irritated if anybody tells you that your problem is not without solution. There’s a solution to any problem. It doesn’t come easy. Of course not. What you have to do is to practice those three principles. Think, really think. Believe, really believe, and pray, really pray. And the result will be that your eyes are opened and you see wondrous things.
BELIEVE YOU CAN OVERCOME OBSTACLES
The second thing is to believe, really believe. The question is: How deeply do we believe? Do we again believe only with the surface of the mind? There’s a statement somewhere [that says] if, with all your heart, you truly seek me, you will find me. Nobody ever made anything great out of their life who didn’t do it with all their heart.
I remember years ago talking to a celebrity whose name would be known to everybody. I know she had had a great deal of trouble in her life. I said, “How come you keep at this with such enthusiasm?”
“Why,” she said, “I do it because I love it. I give my whole self to it.” And she did. She threw everything she had into it. If with all your heart you give yourself to your business, to your children, to your marriage, to your future, and to your hopes, you’re going to come out with something that’s lasting and strong. Believe—that’s it!
I once addressed a luncheon of the National Association of Manufacturers at the Waldorf Astoria Grand Ballroom. A huge crowd of some of the great businesspeople of this country was there. I got into a conversation there with a man who said, “There’s a man here you’d like.”
“Well,” he said, “this man’s a special case. This man has had trouble, poverty, resistance, and difficulties, but despite all that, he has created a great enterprise.”
So naturally, I hunted him up. I had only two minutes with him, maybe not quite that. I said to him, “What’s the great secret of your successful performance?” And he began to disclaim it. I said, “No, give me the facts. I know you’ve done a great job. Tell me, how did you do it? How did you lift this business up to where it is?”
“Well,” he said, “In the first place, I believed in it. I believed that this business is necessary for the welfare of the American people. It was hard going, but I just believed it into greatness.” And that phrase is likewise worthy to be a classic: I believed it into greatness. So whatever your job is, believe it into greatness. If you have a child or a young person under your wing, just believe them into greatness. Believe everything into greatness. Think—really think. Believe—really believe. There’s no limit to the power of belief.
ENTREPRENEUR TIP
Believing in yourself or your business is a great feeling. So why not share the wealth? Make a practice of sharing the power of belief with your employees, clients, and colleagues. Showing others you believe in them goes a long way toward fostering morale and a healthy company culture.
I heard a story not long ago about a little incident that happened a good many years ago out in the Midwest in a farmhouse. This boy, 17 years old, was desperately ill. He had pneumonia. In those days pneumonia was a sinister disease; still nothing to trifle with now. But now we have drugs that can fight it successfully, but there were no such drugs in those days. If you did survive it, it was because you had basic good health, or because you asked God to give you life. Medicine in those days could only cope with it partially.
Well, it was late at night, and this boy was lying there in a coma, and the doctor said, “Really, this boy is so healthy and strong and his lungs respond to a certain degree that I see no reason why this boy should die. I’m baffled by it.” He sat there in his shirtsleeves studying the boy, the clock on the wall ticking, the parents huddling together arm in arm, anxious, their little children frightened, the neighbors concerned. Finally the doctor said, “What this boy needs is a transfusion.”
Everyone immediately said, “We’ll give our blood.”
“No,” he said, “it isn’t a blood transfusion that he needs. It’s a faith transfusion. It’s the desire to live. In some way he’s killing himself because the faith isn’t there to pull him through.”
What a doctor. He said, “If something doesn’t happen to him in the way of a transfusion like that, he’ll die before morning.” There was an old farmer there, and he had his Bible in his hand. Great big gnarled hands struggling with the earth, he cradled his Bible lovingly in his hand. This farmer was a believer. He was a simple man. He took the Bible as it was. He took the promises of God as they were. He just accepted them. He didn’t doubt them. He believed in them. He had the faith of a little child, and when the doctor said the boy needed a faith transfusion, he drew near to the patient, put his mouth close down to his ear, and he started reading him great passages out of the Bible with the thought that he was driving them below and beneath his conscious mind into his unconscious mind, trying to reach the center of control.
The hours passed. He read on. The clock continued to tick. The doctor paced the floor. On and on, hour after hour, he drove these healing thoughts into this boy’s consciousness, until finally when the first faint streaks of dawn came suddenly, the boy gave a sigh. His eyes opened. He looked at the man and all the people in the room and gave them a big healthy smile and fell into a deep untroubled, normal sleep. The doctor felt his pulse, looked for the vital signs, and with tears in his eyes said, “The transfusion has been made. The crisis has passed. The boy will live.” And he did live, saved by what? By faith and prayer and thought. They found that the problem had its solution right within itself as all problems do—the solution was believing in something.
ENTREPRENEUR TIP
This story shows that belief in something helps you overcome obstacles. The author’s experience as a preacher shines through in this example, obviously, but the real takeaway (regardless of what you believe in) is that focusing forward on something more powerful than yourself is a key to overcoming what’s in your way.
RELAX TO WIN
One of the greatest skills to learn in these busy and hectic days is how to relax. Real power for handling your job, for running your home, for improving your personal relationships, comes from a mind that is free of tension. When you learn how to relax, your creative power will come through. Your energy will be conserved and real accomplishment will be the result. So let us spend a few minutes together thinking about techniques for cultivating this great art of relaxing.
I would say that the first step is to learn how to train and drain your mind, because you have to train your mind to drain it. The average person, before retiring for the day, usually empties their pockets onto a dresser or maybe a desk. Personally, I rather enjoy standing over a wastebasket during this process because I just love to see how many things I can get rid of. Things like notes, memos, scraps of paper, completed self-directions, maybe even knickknacks I’ve picked up. With great relief, I deposit all the items I possibly can in the wastepaper basket. It occurred to me one night that it would be a good idea to empty my mind as I emptied my pockets. You see, during the day we pick up many mental odds and ends: a little worry, a little resentment, a few annoyances, some irritations, perhaps even some guilty reactions. Every night all these things should be drained off, for unless they’re eliminated, they will accumulate.
Now, how do you drain your thoughts? I suggest that you think of your mind as a sink with a stopper in the bottom. Mentally remove the stopper and imaginatively see the mass of soiled material disappear down the drain. Then mentally replace the stopper and fill the mind with clean thoughts. You must be very careful in performing this process never to take a thought back. When you have drained an unhealthy thought out of your mind, conceive of it as gone for good. If your mind attempts to reach out for the old thought, stop it at once by saying, “That thought is gone forever. I removed it, and I will not take it back.”
There are other metaphors you can use to clear your mind. One night I came home to find my wife, ever the perfect housekeeper, experimenting with some new appliances for her vacuum cleaner. She showed me a long arm attachment with which dust could be sucked out of hidden corners. While admiring this mechanical gadget, it occurred to me that a similar mechanism could be employed to draw or suck dust out of our thoughts. So I developed, for myself, what you might call a vacuum cleaner prayer [or meditation]. It goes like this: Draw now from the unseen crannies and crevices of my mind, the dust of the world which has settled in there. Try this. The resulting sense of mental cleanness will, for sure, add to your inner peace.
Another method is figuratively and imaginatively to reach into your mind as though you could put your fingers into your brain and lift out unhappy, tense thoughts one by one. As you imagine yourself doing this, affirm in this manner: I am now taking out and throwing away that fear, that prejudice, that resentment or that recollection. Then, when the mind is thus emptied, affirm as follows: I am now putting pure thoughts into my mind.
ENTREPRENEUR TIP
Simple meditation is a terrific way to center your thoughts and prepare for the day to come or even to step out of your busy day and reconnect with your thoughts. You don’t need a special room or complicated process. Just find a quiet spot, empty your mind, focus on breathing, and just be for a few minutes. Then your mind is clear and ready to tackle the next thing on your to-do list.
Simplify Your Night
Perhaps at this point, I should suggest that you don’t take tomorrow to bed with you, ever. I knew a man who complained of being a poor sleeper. We analyzed his dail
y and nightly habits and discovered that after he got to bed, he took a pad and pencil and made a series of notes about what he was going to do the next day. He planned out tomorrow, making an outline of each problem or responsibility that was to be handled. He actually prided himself on this efficient method he had developed and considered it a unique procedure. He placed the pad and pencil on his night table and would often reach for them in the darkness, adding additional memos that his restless mind supplied. He told with pride how well he had mastered the skill of writing legibly in the darkness. Why couldn’t he sleep? Simply because he was taking tomorrow to bed with him. So, never do that. Now I do believe in efficiency, of course. In fact, one of my mottos is: Plan your work and work your plan. But there is a time and a place for all things, and in bed, ready to go to sleep, is certainly not the time to plan the next day. In fact, as one approaches the hours of rest, certain preparations will prove beneficial.
During the last hour before retiring, deliberately prevent your mind from being agitated by any kind of problem. The cares, responsibilities, and decisions of life should be put aside for the night so that mind, soul, and body may be refreshed and renewed by sound, healthful sleep. Let your mind, as far as possible, go into neutral. Affirm it in this manner: I now cease mental consideration of this problem. Visualize all matters as being put aside. Think of any problem as being deeply dropped into subconscious to quietly simmer, you might say, until morning. When you take it up again, believe it or not, it may have solved itself. Spend the last hour preliminary to sleep in light and homey conversation with your loved ones or friends. If you live alone, select an entertaining radio or television program or read a carefree story. Nothing ponderous.
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