A．One of the most wonderful and exciting facts about your life is that you already know a lot of the things you need to know to become the person you want to be. You have your "heart’s desire" deep inside of you. There’s something that you were put on this earth uniquely to accomplish. There’s something that you, and only you, can do. And when you find your heart’s desire, you’ll have the key to unlocking your potential in every other part of your life. You’ll have the key to happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment and the joy that’s your natural birthright.
B．Take some time to determine the kind of person you’d like to be, and the kind of person you’d have to become in order to live the kind of life that you’d like to live. Remember, you can’t accomplish it on the outside until you become it on the inside.
C．To unlock your inner potential, you must set very clear, challenging and, yet, realistic goals and then make plans to accomplish them. You need to work, step-by-step, every day, in the direction of your dominant aspirations. You need to develop an unshakable level of self-confidence that makes you virtually unstoppable.
Momentum is the key to long-term success.
D．The momentum theory of success simply says that while it may take 10 units of energy to get you moving in a particular direction, it takes only one trait of energy to keep you moving once you’re in motion. You have the principle of momentum working in your favor.
E．How do you use the momentum principle in your life Well, it’s simple. Let’s say that your goal is to become financially independent. To do this, you have to pay off all of your existing debts and build up a cash reserve of three to six months of living expenses. When you reach that point, your entire personality will change. You’ll be more clearheaded, you’ll be more positive, you’ll be more determined, you’ll be more optimistic, you’ll be a finer and better human being when you absolutely know that you’re not dependent upon anyone for your living expenses. You’ll be able to choose the job you want to do and go to the places you want to go. You won’t have to tolerate any situation that you do not enjoy or that you feel isn’t the best use of your personal potential.
F．If you simultaneously work on strengthening your serf-discipline and using it to achieve the goal of financial independence, you’ll become a better, stronger and more powerful human being. You’ll cast off the bonds of helplessness and begin to feel that there’s nothing in the world that you can’t do or be or have.
G．When you set clear goals or objectives for yourself, when you dream big dreams and then determine to become the kind of person who’s capable of achieving the kind of goals that you want to achieve, you convince yourself, at a deep, subconscious level, that you’re absolutely unstoppable. You realize at last that nothing in the world can hold you back except your own thinking, and you don’t even let your own thinking limit your potential.
What beliefs might you have that are holding you hack
H．Each one of us has feelings of inferiority that are manifested in the conclusion that we are not good enough. We think that we are not as good as other people, and we feel that we are not good enough to acquire and enjoy the things that we want in life. Very often, we feel that we don’t deserve good things. Even if we do work hard and achieve some worthwhile objectives, we believe that we are not really entitled to our successes, and we often engage in behaviors that sabotage our successes.
I．The fact is that you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring as the result of the application of your talents. The only real limitation on what you can be and have is your absence of desire. If you want something badly enough, nothing in the world can stop you from getting it, if you are willing to persist long enough and hard enough. Over and over, we find that our beliefs, more than anything else, act as the brakes on our capacities. We have high hopes and dreams and aspirations, but we let doubts creep in and undermine our competence and effectiveness.
J．The most harmful beliefs that you can have are what we call "self-limiting beliefs." These are beliefs about yourself, most of which are not true, but they hold you back nonetheless Sometimes you, or others, will say that you cannot achieve certain goals because you did not get enough education. Sometimes you will say that it is because of your gender or race or age or the state of the economy.
K．The starting point to change your beliefs is to get up the courage to question them seriously. Question your basic premises. Check your assumptions. Ask yourself, "What assumptions am I making about myself or my situation that might not be true"
L．It’s a fact that we fall in love with our excuses and our assumptions. We fall in love with our reasons for not moving ahead. Even if someone comes along and challenges those reasons, even if someone tells you that you have the capacity to accomplish marvelous things, you will argue with him. If someone tells you that you can do far better than you’re doing right now, you will come up with reasons to dispute this person’s greater belief in your potential.
Believing in yourself.
M．Your beliefs about reality are based on a thousand influences, many of which began even before you were aware of what was going on. You have beliefs that are deep and beliefs that are shallow. Deep beliefs, with regard to your religion or your political party or your family, or especially yourself, are very hard to change. Shallow beliefs are easily changed. And many of your beliefs are in fact very shallow. They have no substance to them whatsoever. If you challenge them hard enough, you’ll find that they are made of tissue paper. They’ll simply blow away.
N．You can always tell what your true values and beliefs are by looking at your actions. It isn’t what you say or wish or hope or intend that demonstrates what you really believe. It’s only what you do. It’s only the behaviors that you engage in. It’s only the actions that you choose to undertake. Your values and beliefs are always expressed in your actions and behaviors.
O．Once you’ve clearly decided on the person you would like to become, you are on the path toward developing new beliefs. You then discipline yourself each day to behave exactly as you would if you were already that person. That simple technique, the "act as if" technique, is extraordinarily powerful. The more you act like the person you want to be, the more consistent your attitude will be with that person’s. Your attitude will have the back-flow effect of affecting your expectations. Positive expectations will have the back-flow effect of building beliefs that are consistent with them. And your beliefs will exert an influence on your values.
P．People succeed not because they have remarkable characteristics or qualities. The most successful people are quite ordinary, just like you and me. Most of us start off poor and confused. We spend many years getting some sort of direction in our lives. But the turning point comes when we begin to believe that we have within us that divine spark that can lead us onward and upward to the accomplishment of anything that we really want in life.

A．It struck me recently that a lot of people think they know what’s wrong with this world, and it also struck me that they’re all wrong. Seriously—almost every political and religious group, every opinionated person, every publication with an opinion, has said at one time or another what they think is wrong with this world. So what’s really wrong with the world, in my opinion Not a thing.
B．It seems to be a prevailing world-view that the world is messed up, that there are just a few things wrong with it, and if we could only get those things to change, the world would be great. If we could just educate people and get them to realize what’s wrong with this world, things could change.
C．This type of view of the world stems from an ideal that many people have in their heads of what the world should be like. They might not realize they have that ideal, but it’s there. And the world will never reach this Platonic ideal, because it’s just this image of perfection that does not match reality. Reality and this ideal are incompatible.
D．So what’s wrong with that view Nothing’s wrong with it, actually. That’s how most people are, and I don’t think I can change that, nor would I want to. I thought it would be an interesting discussion, though, because I think this discrepancy between what people think the world should be and what the world really is can cause unhappiness. If you want the world to be completely vegetarian and kind to animals, and it isn’t and won’t be in the foreseeable future, you will most likely be unhappy. If you want the world to go back to how it was during your childhood, or during your parents’ generation, and it isn’t likely to do so, you’re not going to be happy. The same is true of any of our ideals. It’s very possible that the reality of the people in your life don’t meet these ideals. That might cause you to be unhappy with them. When reality doesn’t meet ideals—and it rarely does—we become unhappy.
E．So what’s the alternative I’m not proposing that you, or anyone else, change your world-view. If you, or anyone else, are happy with that world-view, don’t change it. But there is an alternative, and I’m not saying it’s better. It’s the world-view I try to have: instead of having an ideal, stop looking for perfection. Accept the world as it is, and love it for what it is. Accept people as they are, and love them.
F．What would be the result of this alternative world-view Well, I think you’d be happier, if only because you didn’t see the world as a fundamentally flawed or evil place, and began to see the good in the world. This, however, is open to individual interpretation, and your own experience is likely to be different than mine.
G．Does this mean that we should give up on trying to make positive changes in the world Should we stop trying to make the world a better place No! Don’t ever stop trying to do good things! Even if the world is already a good place, we can always find happiness and satisfaction in trying to do good, in trying to make people’s lives better.
H．But what about all the evil and suffering in the world Should we accept and love that as well That’s the toughest part, I think. It’s hard to accept that people are dying of diseases and famine and war and murder and abuse, and perhaps impossible to love that aspect of the world. You don’t have to love it, but it helps to try to really understand it. Why does this happen What are the deeper reasons At the heart of the deepest reasons is humanity—we are all flawed creatures in some way, and that’s what makes us human and beautiful.
I．Why would someone commit violence, for example Because they are evil There are numerous reasons, but at the heart of it is probably that this person was hurt, abandoned, abused, or neglected in some way, at some point in his life. That person needs our compassion more than anyone. And if we try to understand this person, or understand the heart of any violence in the world, then we can better apply the love and compassion that’s needed to heal this pain and make the world a better place.
J．So let’s say that you’d like to try this world-view. You’d like to love people, and the entire world, as it is, and not as you’d like it to be. How do you go about doing that There are six things I recommend doing.
K．(1) Stop looking for perfection and ideals. Realize that you have an ideal in your head, and that it is probably incompatible with the world. It might be an ideal about a person, or about how things should be. The world and people are not perfect. Stop looking for perfection, and realize that it is already here.
L．(2) Observe. Instead of looking at this ideal picture in your head, look at what’s really there. What is the world really like What are people really like The only way to know this is to observe. Listen to people. Look at the world around you. Gather data, from reality.
M．(3) Understand. Now that you have this data, start asldng questions. Why are people the way they are Why did someone do what they did Why does this problem really exist Don’t stop at the first answers you come up with—dig deeper, and deeper, until you really understand something. Seek to understand before you judge, in all situations. Sometimes that will require imagination—you won’t be able to really know the root of something unless you personally investigate everything, but instead sometimes you can try to imagine what made a person the way they are, or a situation what it is.
N．(4) Accept. Once you’ve observed and begun to understand, accept that this is the way the world is. This is who the person is. The world isn’t going to meet any ideal—it is what it is, and while it will always change, it probably won’t change to meet your ideal. The person in question is exactly the same—they won’t meet your ideal, but are who they are. Accept this as fact.
O．(5) Love and Compassion. Once you’ve accepted things or people as they are, try to find it in your heart to love them, as they are. The way to do this is to see the good in everything and everyone, and if you’ve sought to really look and understand, you will find good in everything.
P．(6) Enjoy Life. The world is a wonderful place once you’ve accepted it for what it is and sought to love it. People are wonderful creatures, full of life and creativity and messiness and uniqueness. Accept this, understand it, love it. And enjoy this gift we’ve been given, for it is incredible. And perfect, just as it is.

A．One of the most wonderful and exciting facts about your life is that you already know a lot of the things you need to know to become the person you want to be. You have your "heart’s desire" deep inside of you. There’s something that you were put on this earth uniquely to accomplish. There’s something that you, and only you, can do. And when you find your heart’s desire, you’ll have the key to unlocking your potential in every other part of your life. You’ll have the key to happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment and the joy that’s your natural birthright.
B．Take some time to determine the kind of person you’d like to be, and the kind of person you’d have to become in order to live the kind of life that you’d like to live. Remember, you can’t accomplish it on the outside until you become it on the inside.
C．To unlock your inner potential, you must set very clear, challenging and, yet, realistic goals and then make plans to accomplish them. You need to work, step-by-step, every day, in the direction of your dominant aspirations. You need to develop an unshakable level of self-confidence that makes you virtually unstoppable.
Momentum is the key to long-term success.
D．The momentum theory of success simply says that while it may take 10 units of energy to get you moving in a particular direction, it takes only one trait of energy to keep you moving once you’re in motion. You have the principle of momentum working in your favor.
E．How do you use the momentum principle in your life Well, it’s simple. Let’s say that your goal is to become financially independent. To do this, you have to pay off all of your existing debts and build up a cash reserve of three to six months of living expenses. When you reach that point, your entire personality will change. You’ll be more clearheaded, you’ll be more positive, you’ll be more determined, you’ll be more optimistic, you’ll be a finer and better human being when you absolutely know that you’re not dependent upon anyone for your living expenses. You’ll be able to choose the job you want to do and go to the places you want to go. You won’t have to tolerate any situation that you do not enjoy or that you feel isn’t the best use of your personal potential.
F．If you simultaneously work on strengthening your serf-discipline and using it to achieve the goal of financial independence, you’ll become a better, stronger and more powerful human being. You’ll cast off the bonds of helplessness and begin to feel that there’s nothing in the world that you can’t do or be or have.
G．When you set clear goals or objectives for yourself, when you dream big dreams and then determine to become the kind of person who’s capable of achieving the kind of goals that you want to achieve, you convince yourself, at a deep, subconscious level, that you’re absolutely unstoppable. You realize at last that nothing in the world can hold you back except your own thinking, and you don’t even let your own thinking limit your potential.
What beliefs might you have that are holding you hack
H．Each one of us has feelings of inferiority that are manifested in the conclusion that we are not good enough. We think that we are not as good as other people, and we feel that we are not good enough to acquire and enjoy the things that we want in life. Very often, we feel that we don’t deserve good things. Even if we do work hard and achieve some worthwhile objectives, we believe that we are not really entitled to our successes, and we often engage in behaviors that sabotage our successes.
I．The fact is that you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring as the result of the application of your talents. The only real limitation on what you can be and have is your absence of desire. If you want something badly enough, nothing in the world can stop you from getting it, if you are willing to persist long enough and hard enough. Over and over, we find that our beliefs, more than anything else, act as the brakes on our capacities. We have high hopes and dreams and aspirations, but we let doubts creep in and undermine our competence and effectiveness.
J．The most harmful beliefs that you can have are what we call "self-limiting beliefs." These are beliefs about yourself, most of which are not true, but they hold you back nonetheless Sometimes you, or others, will say that you cannot achieve certain goals because you did not get enough education. Sometimes you will say that it is because of your gender or race or age or the state of the economy.
K．The starting point to change your beliefs is to get up the courage to question them seriously. Question your basic premises. Check your assumptions. Ask yourself, "What assumptions am I making about myself or my situation that might not be true"
L．It’s a fact that we fall in love with our excuses and our assumptions. We fall in love with our reasons for not moving ahead. Even if someone comes along and challenges those reasons, even if someone tells you that you have the capacity to accomplish marvelous things, you will argue with him. If someone tells you that you can do far better than you’re doing right now, you will come up with reasons to dispute this person’s greater belief in your potential.
Believing in yourself.
M．Your beliefs about reality are based on a thousand influences, many of which began even before you were aware of what was going on. You have beliefs that are deep and beliefs that are shallow. Deep beliefs, with regard to your religion or your political party or your family, or especially yourself, are very hard to change. Shallow beliefs are easily changed. And many of your beliefs are in fact very shallow. They have no substance to them whatsoever. If you challenge them hard enough, you’ll find that they are made of tissue paper. They’ll simply blow away.
N．You can always tell what your true values and beliefs are by looking at your actions. It isn’t what you say or wish or hope or intend that demonstrates what you really believe. It’s only what you do. It’s only the behaviors that you engage in. It’s only the actions that you choose to undertake. Your values and beliefs are always expressed in your actions and behaviors.
O．Once you’ve clearly decided on the person you would like to become, you are on the path toward developing new beliefs. You then discipline yourself each day to behave exactly as you would if you were already that person. That simple technique, the "act as if" technique, is extraordinarily powerful. The more you act like the person you want to be, the more consistent your attitude will be with that person’s. Your attitude will have the back-flow effect of affecting your expectations. Positive expectations will have the back-flow effect of building beliefs that are consistent with them. And your beliefs will exert an influence on your values.
P．People succeed not because they have remarkable characteristics or qualities. The most successful people are quite ordinary, just like you and me. Most of us start off poor and confused. We spend many years getting some sort of direction in our lives. But the turning point comes when we begin to believe that we have within us that divine spark that can lead us onward and upward to the accomplishment of anything that we really want in life.