The Power of Positive Thinking

Norman Vincent Peale

📚 GENRE: Personal Development

📃 PAGES: 218

✅ COMPLETED: April 28, 2020

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action and delivers techniques to energize your life, create a winning mindset, and achieve goals. The Power of Positive Thinking is one of the top-selling books of all time with over five million copies in print.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Positivity Is A Choice — You ultimately choose your thoughts and overall mindset. Choose to keep your focus on what you’re grateful and thankful for in life. Choose to put your attention on what you do have rather than what you don’t have. Choose to love things and people. 

2️⃣ See Things For What They Are — Try not to overexaggerate things. See a situation for what it is, and try to prevent your emotions from getting too involved. It’s very easy to dramatize things in your mind and beat yourself up unnecessarily. See a situation for what it is and keep your emotions from dominating.

3️⃣ Believe In Yourself — Nobody will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. Have confidence in yourself, and trust your skills and talent. Have a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to self-doubt. Choose to have total belief in yourself. 

Favorite Quote

"The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. "

Book Notes 📑

Chapter 1

  • Positive thinking is a decision you make. It requires faith.
    • Study the Bible.
  • Suggest confident concepts and thoughts to yourself:
    • Give your mind a different and positive thought pattern. Requires effort and discipline.
    • Drive confident thoughts into your mind and consciousness.
  • Memorize powerful Bible verses.
    • These give you thoughts of faith and courage not fear and despair.
    • Repeat them to yourself.
    • This helps you think differently and positively.
  • Feelings are determined by the thoughts that habitually occupy your mind.
    • You’ll always feel crappy if you are always thinking negatively and visualizing bad things that might happen.
    • And you will create the thing you fear by thinking about it constantly.
  • By filling your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence, security, you force out all thoughts of doubt and weakness.
    • Find Bible verses that talk about courage and confidence and memorize them. Repeat them to yourself.
    • These are the happiest, healthiest, most powerful that you can have.
  • Think about what you’re grateful for. Be grateful. Have a grateful attitude regardless of what you’re facing.
  • Always picture success for yourself. Visualize it and hold onto it.
  • Don’t over-exaggerate things in your mind. See a problem for what it is, but don’t let your mind make it worse than what it is with fearful thoughts and visualizations.
  • Believe in yourself always.
  • Fill your mind with thoughts of faith, love, and goodness.
  • You can think yourself to success. But you can also think yourself to failure.
    • You can think yourself to illness. You can think yourself to health.
  • Change thinking from negative to positive:
    • For 24 hours, deliberately speak hopefully about everything. Put optimism into everything you think and speak.
    • Then do it for one week.
    • Feed your mind like you feed your body.
      • Start by reading the New Testament. Underline all key verses. Commit these verses to memory.
      • Pray often. Be thankful in your prayers to God.
    • Have God on your mind throughout the day.
  • Wish for good things to happen to people you don’t like or have done you wrong. Resentment is a big barrier in life.

Chapter 2

  • Your energy levels are dictated by your mind and thoughts.
    • If you believe and think you are tired, you will be tired. If you think you’ve got a lot of energy and are feeling great and fresh, you’ll feel energized.
    • Fear, resentment, inner conflict, and obsession or what drain or energy.
  • Get involved in things that are bigger than yourself to obtain energy. It’s when you sit around and do nothing and constantly think about your problems that you start to feel drained.

Chapter 3

  • Choose to be happy. It’s a choice. It’s a mindset.
  • Quote: “The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others.”

Chapter 4

  • Don’t believe in defeat. Always believe in yourself, no matter what you’re facing.
  • Believe, believe, believe.  Have a positive attitude!
  • Know what you want to do, picture it, believe it.
  • Expect the best and everything.