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Defeating Doubt and the Failure Family

From Orison Swett Marden

“The majority of persons who fail begin by doubting their ability to do the things they attempt. The moment a young man admits doubt into his mind, he is letting an enemy into his camp, a spy who will betray him. Doubt belongs to the failure family, and once admitted and not expelled will introduce “Mr. Take-it-easy,” “Mr. Let-up-a-little,” “Mr. Let-go-when-it-gets-hard,” “Mr. Wait,” and other members of the failure family. When these once get into the mind, they attract other qualities like themselves and there is an end of ambition. Your longing for prosperity and yearning for achievement will all be in vain while you are entertaining the idlers, the losers, the failures. They will exhaust your energy, destroy your power for attracting success. Failure will soon be in the ascendancy in your mind and in your actions.

Negatives will always paralyze your ambition if you indulge in them. They will poison your life. They will kill your self-confidence until you are a victim of your situation instead of a master of it. The power to do is largely a question of self-faith, self-confidence. No matter what you undertake, you will never do it until you think you can. You will never master it until you first feel the mastery and do the deed in your mind. It must be thought out or it can never be wrought out. It must be a mind accomplishment before it can be a material one.

There is no science in the world which will bring a thing to you while your thought repels it, while doubt and suspicion linger in the mind. No man can pass his self-imposed bounds or limitations. The man who would get up in the world must learn to deny his belief in limitations. He must throw all negative suggestions to the wind. He must think success before he can achieve it. He must affirm continually with decision and vigor that which he wishes to accomplish or be.

This originally appeared in the November 2002 issue of Tom Venuto's Bodybuilding and Fitness Secrets (BFS) Newsletter. If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive others like it for free every month, you can subscribe to BFS here: http://www.fitren.com/listserv.cfm

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