by Og Mandino
I will greet this day with love in my heart.
But how will I react to the actions of others? With love. For just as love is my weapon to open the hearts of men, love is also my shield to repulse the arrows of hate and the spears of anger. Adversity and discouragement will beat against my new shield and become as the softest of rains. My shield will protect me in the market place and sustain me when I am alone. It will uplift me in moments of despair yet it will calm me in time of exultation. It will become stronger and more protective with use until one day I will cast it aside and walk unencumbered among all manners of men and, when I do, my name will be raised high on the pyramid of life.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.
And how will I confront each whom I meet? In only one way. In silence and to myself I will address him and say I Love You. Though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkle my brow, bring a smile to my lips, and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened. And who is there who will say nay to my goods when his heart feels my love?
I will greet this day with love in my heart.
And most of all I will love myself. For when I do I will zealously inspect all things which enter my body, my mind, my soul, and my heart. Never will I overindulge the requests of my flesh, rather I will cherish my body with cleanliness and moderation. Never will I allow my mind to be attracted to evil and despair, rather I will uplift it with the knowledge and wisdom of the ages. Never will I allow my soul to become complacent and satisfied, rather I will feed it with meditation and prayer. Never will I allow my heart to become small and bitter, rather I will share it and it will grow and warm the earth.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.
Henceforth will I love all mankind. From this moment all hate is let from my veins for I have not time to hate, only time to love. From this moment I take the first step required to become a man among men. With love I will increase my sales a hundredfold and become a great salesman. If I have no other qualities I can succeed with love alone. Without it I will fail though I possess all the knowledge and skills of the world.
I will greet this day with love, and I will succeed.
Chapter V
Still with us?
Look around you. The group has thinned out considerably. Those that have already dropped out all came up with at least one excuse not to continue with their Success Recorder and it is not coincidental that this is the same group whose past performance shows the same “dropout” habit in their previous attempts to make something of themselves. These are the individuals with the “phony” type of burning desire which I mentioned earlier. All talk … no action.
Of course, when you stop feeling sorry for them, the realization suddenly hits you that what they have done is make it easier for you. The competition is less. William Danforth, in his great self-help classic, “I Dare You,” wrote that 95% of all individuals lack the determination to call on their unused capacities. This tremendous majority quickly settle on the plateau of mediocrity … and bewail their misfortune and “bad breaks” for the rest of their lives while the daring 5% continue on to leadership levels. He speaks to that small and surviving band of gutsy individuals, including you, when he says:
“The day of defending your present possessions is gone. From now on you are not going to worry about holding your job. Put the worry on the fellow above you about holding Ms. From this day onward wrong things are put on the defense. You have marshalled right things for the attack. Your eyes are turned toward your strength, not your weakness. Henceforth, you will wake in the morning thinking of ways to do things, rather than reasons why they cannot be done!”
And henceforth, for the next five weeks, you will awake each morning to read and absorb the principles in:
The Scroll Marked III
I will persist until I succeed.
In the Orient young bulls are tested for the fight arena in a certain manner. Each is brought to the ring and allowed to attack a picador who pricks them with a lance. The bravery of each bull is then rated with care according to the number of times he demonstrates his willingness to charge in spite of the sting of the blade. Henceforth will I recognize that each day I am tested by life in like manner. If I persist, if I continue to charge forward, I will succeed.
I will persist until I succeed.
I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will hear not those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.
I will persist until I succeed.
The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner.
Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.
I will persist until I succeed.
Henceforth, I will consider each day’s effort as but one blow of my blade against a mighty oak. The first blow may cause not a tremor in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each blow, of itself, may be trifling, and seem of no consequence. Yet from childish swipes the oak will eventually tumble. So it will be with my efforts of today.
I will be liken to the rain drop which washes away the mountain; the ant who devours a tiger; the star which brightens the earth; the slave who builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.
I will persist until I succeed.
I will never consider defeat and I will remove from my vocabulary such words and phrases as quit, cannot, unable, impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless, and retreat; for they are the words of fools. I will avoid despair but if this disease of the mind should infect me then I will work on in despair. I will toil and I will endure. I will ignore the obstacles at my feet and keep mine eyes on the goals above my head, for I know that where dry desert ends, green grass grows.
I will persist until I succeed.
I will remember the ancient law of averages and I will bend it to my good. I will persist with knowledge that each failure to sell will increase my chance for success at the next attempt. Each nay I hear will bring me closer to the sound of yea. Each frown I meet only prepares me for the smile to come. Each misfortune I encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow’s good luck. I must have the night to appreciate the day. I must fail often to succeed only once.
I will persist until I succeed.
I will try, and try, and try again. Each obstacle I will consider as a mere detour to my goal and a challenge to my profession. I will persist and develop my skills as the mariner develops his, by learning to ride out the wrath of each storm.
I will persist until I succeed.
Henceforth, I will learn and apply another secret of those who excel in my work. When each day is ended, not regarding whether it has been a success or failure, I will attempt to achieve one more sale. When my thoughts beckon my tired body homeward I will resist the temptation to depart. I will try again. I will make one more attempt to close with victory, and if that fails I will make another. Never will I allow any day to end with a failure. Thus will I plant the seed of tomorrow’s success and gain an insurmountable advantage over those who cease their labor at a prescribed time. When others cease their struggle, then mine will begin, and my harvest will be full.
I will persist until I succeed.
Nor will I allow yesterday’s success to lull me into today’s complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure. I will forget the happenings of the day that is gone, whether they were good or bad,
and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of my life.
So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.
I will persist.
I will win.
Chapter VI
Isn’t this simple?
If you’ve come this far you already have the habit of reading your scroll three times a day. Nothing to it … just as there would be nothing to your doing a hundred push-ups by now if you had started that ten weeks ago. What a difference ten weeks makes!
And completing each day’s Success Recorder … that’s simple, too, isn’t it? So simple that you can’t even get out of doing it with the excuse that you’re too busy … or too tired.
But do you realize what you have already done for yourself by simply reading and imprinting on your subconscious mind the words from The Scroll Marked II and The Scroll Marked III three times each day … for five weeks each? You are, no doubt, already communicating better with those around you, you have relieved friction from some quarters, and you have hardened that spine so that you continue to try, and try again when, in the past, you would have headed home after a few failures, with your tail between your legs.
Now your personality is more open, you are a warmer person, you make friends easier, and yet you know how to hang in there until you make sales or complete tasks which you would never have come close to completing before you started this program. Furthermore, your sales or your duties are coming easier, because you’re a friendlier and more likeable person, so you rarely have to call upon that new persistence you’ve developed. The scrolls, you are discovering, as with all virtues, are not separate, but related. When you improve on one they all improve. When one bad habit is subdued, the next is overcome with less struggle.
I told you that you were a miracle of nature … and now I’ll prove it to you in:
The Scroll Marked IV
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
Since the beginning of time never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my hair, my mouth. None that came before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk and talk and move and think exactly like me. All men are my brothers yet I am different from each. I am a unique creature.
Although I am of the animal kingdom, animal rewards alone will not satisfy me. Within me burns a flame which has been passed from generations uncounted and its heat is a constant irritation to my spirit to become better than I am, and I will. I will fan this flame of dissatisfaction and proclaim my uniqueness to the world.
None can duplicate my brush strokes, none can make my chisel marks, none can duplicate my handwriting, none can produce my child, and in truth, none has the ability to sell exactly as I. Henceforth, I will capitalize on this difference for it is an asset to be promoted to the fullest.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
Vain attempts to imitate others no longer will I make. Instead will I place my uniqueness on display in the market place. I will proclaim it, yea, I will sell it I will begin now to accent my differences; hide my similarities. So too will I apply this principle to the goods I sell. Salesman and goods, different from all others, and proud of the difference.
I am a unique creature of nature.
I am rare, and there is value in all rarity; therefore, I am valuable. I am the end product of thousands of years of evolution; therefore, I am better equipped in both mind and body than all the emperors and wise men who preceded me.
But my skills, my mind, my heart, and my body will stagnate, rot, and die lest I put them to good use. I have unlimited potential. Only a small portion of my brain do I employ; only a paltry amount of my muscles do I flex. A hundredfold or more can I increase my accomplishments of yesterday and this I will do, beginning today.
Nevermore will I be satisfied with yesterday’s accomplishments nor will I indulge, anymore, in self-praise for deeds which in reality are too small to even acknowledge. I can accomplish far more than I have, and I will, for why should the miracle which produced me end with my birth? Why can I not extend that miracle to my deeds of today?
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
I am not on this earth by chance. I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.
I will increase my knowledge of mankind, myself, and the goods I sell, thus my sales will multiply. I will practice, and improve, and polish the words I utter to sell my goods, for this is the foundation on which I will build my career and never will I forget that many have attained great wealth and success with only one sales talk, delivered with excellence. Also will I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
I will concentrate my energy on the challenge of the moment and my actions will help me forget all else. The problems of my home will be left in my home. I will think naught of my family when I am in the market place for this will cloud my thoughts. So too will the problems of the market place be left in the market place and I will think naught of my profession when I am in my home for this will dampen my love.
There is no room in the market place for my family, nor is there room in my home for the market. Each I will divorce from the other and, thus will I remain wedded to both. Separate must they remain or my career will die. This is a paradox of the ages.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
I have been given eyes to see and a mind to think and now I know a great secret of life for I perceive, at last, that all my problems, discouragements, and heartaches are, in truth, great opportunities in disguise. I will no longer be fooled by the garments they wear for my eyes are open. I will look beyond the cloth and I will not be deceived.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
No beast, no plant, no wind, no rain, no rock, no lake had the same beginning as I, for I was conceived in love and brought forth with a purpose. In the past I have not considered this fact but it will henceforth shape and guide my life.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
And nature knows not defeat. Eventually, she emerges victorious and so will I, and with each victory the next struggle becomes less difficult.
I will win, and I will become a great salesman, for I am unique.
I am nature’s greatest miracle.
Chapter VII
Fifteen weeks have now passed.
You have come a long way, my good friend.
If you have read the scrolls three times a day; if you have taken a few moments each evening to examine your actions of the day … then without doubt you are a changed person from the individual you were. And isn’t it amazing … everyone around you seems to have changed, too.
Perhaps this old legend will help you understand what has happened to you:
There was an old Quaker who stood at the village well, greeting weary travelers who passed along the way. And to each who asked, “What manner of people live hereabouts?” he would respond with another question, “What manner of people did thee find in thy last abode?”
If the traveler said that he had left a community where people were bright and gay; genial and fun-loving, the Quaker would answer confidently that the questing one would find them much the same in his community. But to travelers who complained that they left a community where people were ugly, quarrelsome, and ill-tempered, the patriarch would sadly shake his head and say “Alas, here thee will find them much the same.”
You are about to embark on five very interesting weeks. More than any other scroll, I promise you that as you begin to live the injunctions in The Scroll Marked V you will be noticed by strangers, friends, and foes alike.
Henry Van Dyke once wrote that some people are so afraid to die that t
hey never begin to live. For the next five weeks you are being asked to imagine that each day, when you arise, will be your last day on earth … and you are to act accordingly.
Those with little faith, and less courage, would shrivel up in a corner if they knew this was really their last day on earth … but since you have persisted to this point with your Success Recorder I have little doubt of your abundance of faith … or courage.
You may wish to keep additional notes about how others react to you during these next five weeks … especially those above you in the “pecking order” of your company. Along with what you have already accomplished in transforming your personality, these weeks usually produce confrontations with superiors which lead to interesting developments … like promotions and raises.
So let’s get started with this important scroll:
The Scroll Marked V
I will live this day as if it is my last.
And what shall I do with this last precious day which remains in my keeping? First, I will seal up its container of life so that not one drop spills itself upon the sand. I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad?
Can sand flow upward in the hour glass? Will the sun rise where it sets and set where it rises? Can I relive the errors of yesterday and right them? Can I call back yesterday’s wounds and make them whole? Can I become younger than yesterday? Can I take back the evil that was spoken, the blows that were struck, the pain that was caused? No. Yesterday is buried forever and I will think of it no more.