How to Get What You Want

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What is Success?

Success simply means getting what you want.

This is a result that happens when you apply a specific cause. The basic idea of success is the same for everyone. The only difference is what each person wants to achieve.

Success is always the same, whether your goal is:

• Better health
• More wealth
• Personal growth
• A higher position

Success is just the act of reaching your goal, no matter what that goal is. And in nature, there is a firm law: the same causes always create the same results. Since success is always the same kind of result, the cause of success must also be the same in every case.

The Cause of Success Is Inside You

The cause of success is always found within the person who succeeds.

This has to be true. Think about it: if the cause of success was outside a person, in their environment, then everyone in the same situation would be successful.

But we know that isn’t true.

• The cause isn’t your environment. If it were, everyone living in a certain neighborhood would be successful.
• We see people in the exact same environment, living side-by-side, who experience all different levels of success and failure.

Therefore, we know the cause of success must be inside the individual, and nowhere else.

Success Can Be Guaranteed

Because the cause of success is inside you, it is certain that you can succeed.

You just need to do three things:

1. Find out what the cause of success is.
2. Develop that cause until it is strong enough.
3. Apply it correctly to your work.

Applying a strong enough cause will always produce the result you want. If you fail at anything, it’s for one of two reasons: the cause wasn’t strong enough, or you didn’t apply it correctly.

The cause of success is a power you already have inside you. You can develop any mental power to a limitless extent, because your mind can always keep growing. You can make this power as strong as you need it to be to get what you want. Once it’s strong enough, you can learn how to apply it. This means you can absolutely succeed.

All you need to learn is what this cause is and how to use it.

Your Skills Are Your Tools

To succeed, you must also develop the specific skills needed for your work.

• We don’t expect someone to become a successful musician without developing their musical talent.
• It would be foolish to expect a mechanic to succeed without developing mechanical skills.
• A public speaker needs to develop their understanding of people and their ability to use words.
• A banker needs to develop their financial skills.

When you choose a career, you should pick one that uses your strongest natural talents. If you are great with your hands but not a great speaker, don’t try to be a motivational speaker. If you have a talent for fashion and design, don’t force yourself to do data entry. Choose a business that plays to your strengths and then work to develop those strengths as much as you can.

But Good Tools Are Not Enough

Even developing your best talents is not enough to guarantee success on its own.

We all know people who fail despite having great talent:

• Musicians with amazing musical gifts who never succeed.
• Mechanics with excellent technical skills who fail in their trade.
• Spiritual leaders with a wonderful command of language who fail to connect with people.
• Lawyers with sharp, logical minds who fail in their practice.

Your special skills are the tools you use for your work. But success doesn’t just depend on having good tools. It depends more on the power that uses and applies those tools. Make sure your tools—your skills—are the best they can be. But remember that you can always cultivate any skill to a higher level.

The Power That Guides Your Tools

Using a musical skill leads to success in music. Using a mechanical skill leads to success in mechanics. But the “something” that actually applies these skills is the true cause of all success.

Your skills are just tools. You are the one who uses the tools. The cause of success is the part of you that makes you use the right tools, in the right way, at the right time.

So, what is this “something” in a person that allows them to use their skills successfully?

We will explain exactly what it is and how to develop it in the next section. Before you move on, read this section a few more times. You need to fix in your mind the rock-solid logic that you can succeed.

You absolutely can. If you think through this argument, you will become convinced of it. And becoming convinced that you can succeed is the very first requirement for achieving success.

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The Real Reason People Succeed or Fail

Your mind’s abilities are the tools you use to achieve success. When you apply these tools correctly to your work, you will get what you want.

A few people succeed because they use their skills in the right way. Most people fail, even with the same skills, because they use them in the wrong way.

There is a special “something” inside every successful person that allows them to use their skills effectively. Anyone who wants to succeed must develop this quality. The question is, what is it?

The Secret Ingredient: Power-Consciousness

It’s hard to find one word that perfectly describes this quality.

• We could call it Poise, which is a mix of peace and power. But it’s more than that. Poise is a state of being, while this “something” is also an action.
• We could call it Faith. But it’s more than the common idea of faith, which is just believing in things you can’t prove.

The true name for this quality is Active Power-Consciousness.

This is the feeling you get when you absolutely know you can do something, and you also know how to do it.

Knowing You Can Succeed Guarantees It

If I can help you know that you can succeed, and know that you know how, then success will be within your reach. When you have this total confidence, it is impossible for you to fail, as long as you actually try.

When you are filled with Power-Consciousness, you will approach every task with a successful mindset.

• Every thought will be a successful thought.
• Every action will be a successful action.

If every single thought and action is successful, then the final result cannot possibly be failure. My goal in these lessons is to teach you how to build this Power-Consciousness in yourself. First, you will learn to know you can do what you want. Then, you will learn how to do it.

Your Two Minds: Conscious and Subconscious

As the last section proved, you CAN succeed. The potential for success is already inside you, waiting to be developed.

But simply believing this is possible isn’t enough. You must know it. And it’s not just your conscious, thinking mind that needs to know. Your subconscious mind must know it, too.

There’s a popular saying: “He can who thinks he can.” This is not true.

It’s not even true if you consciously know you can. Your subconscious mind can easily ignore or even block what your conscious mind knows to be true.

The real truth is this: You can succeed when your subconscious mind knows that you can. This is especially true if your conscious mind has also been trained for the work.

People fail because their conscious mind thinks they can do something, but their subconscious mind doesn’t truly believe it. Your subconscious mind is likely filled with doubts about your ability to succeed right now. These doubts must be removed. If they remain, your subconscious will hold back its power just when you need it most.

Your subconscious mind is the source of power for all your actions. A single doubt can cause this power to be cut off, making your efforts weak.

How to Build Unshakable Belief

Your first step is to convince your subconscious mind of one fact: You CAN succeed.

This is done through repeated suggestion. You need to talk to your subconscious mind until it gets the message.

A Daily Mental Exercise

Practice this exercise several times a day, especially right before you go to sleep.

1. Quietly think about your subconscious mind. Imagine it filling your entire body, like water filling a sponge.
2. As you think about this inner mind, try to feel its presence. Soon, you will become aware of it.
3. Hold on to that awareness and repeat the following words with deep, honest feeling:

“I CAN succeed. All that is possible for anyone is possible for me. I AM successful. I do succeed, for I am full of the Power of Success.”

This is the simple truth. Feel how true it is. Repeat it over and over until your entire mind is soaked in the knowledge that YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

Your First Goal: Make It a Deep Knowing

You can succeed. Others have done it, and you can achieve even more than anyone has before. No one has ever used all the power they are capable of using. You have the power to be more successful in your work than anyone who came before you.

Practice the self-suggestion exercise above every day for a month. If you are persistent, you will begin to know that you have what it takes to do what you want to do.

Then you will be ready for the next section, which will teach you the steps for getting it done. But remember, it is absolutely essential that you first convince your subconscious mind that you CAN.

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Now That You Believe, What’s the Method?

You have filled your mind, both conscious and subconscious, with the faith that you CAN get what you want. The next question is about the method. You know you can succeed if you go about it the right way. So, what is the right way?

One thing is certain: to get more, you must make the best possible use of what you already have.

You cannot use what you don’t have. Your challenge is to use what you have right now in the most effective way. Don’t waste time thinking about what you would do if you had other things. Instead, focus entirely on how to use what is in your hands today.

Perfection Is the Key to Progress

You will move forward much faster if you make the most perfect use of what you have.

In fact, how quickly you get what you want depends entirely on how perfectly you use your current resources. Many people feel stuck or see progress come very slowly. This is because they are only partially using the power, tools, and opportunities available to them right now.

A Lesson from Nature: How Life Advances

Think about how evolution works. This will make the point clearer.

• Step 1: Perfecting a Skill. The first squirrels perfected their ability to leap from branch to branch. They kept pushing to leap farther and farther.
• Step 2: A New Ability Emerges. This constant effort to improve leaping led to the flying squirrel. This animal developed a thin membrane of skin between its legs, like a small parachute, allowing it to glide much farther than a normal leap.
• Step 3: From Gliding to Flying. A small improvement on the flying squirrel’s glide eventually led to the bat, which has wings and can truly fly.
• Step 4: Mastering the New Ability. Continuous flight then led to the bird, with feathered wings for even better flight.

The move from one level to the next was achieved by perfecting and expanding existing abilities. If the first squirrels hadn’t kept pushing to leap farther, the flying squirrel and the power of flight would never have developed. Making the best use of their leaping power created the power of flight.

If you are only jumping half as far as you can, you will never learn to fly. Nature shows us that life advances to a new level only by first mastering the level it is on. When a living thing has more energy and life than it can express on its current level, it naturally starts performing the functions of the next higher level.

How to “More Than Fill” Your Present Role

This natural law applies to you. You can only advance by becoming bigger than your current position.

You must do everything you can do now, and do it perfectly. When you do today’s work perfectly, you will naturally gain the ability to do bigger things tomorrow that you can’t do today.

Mastering one task always gives you the tools for the next, bigger task. This is because life is designed to continuously advance. Every person who does one thing perfectly is immediately given a chance to start doing the next bigger thing. This is a universal law that never fails.

First, do everything you can do now with perfection. Keep doing it perfectly until it becomes so easy that you have surplus power left over. With this surplus power, you will be able to take on the work of a higher level and expand your opportunities.

A Practical Plan for Growth

Here is your plan:

1. Choose the Right Field: Get into a line of work that uses your strongest skills, even if you have to start at the very bottom.
2. Develop Your Skills: Work on making those skills as strong as they can possibly be.
3. Build Power-Consciousness: Cultivate that deep, inner knowledge that you CAN succeed.
4. Apply Your Power Now: Use your skills and your belief to do everything you can do today, right where you are, perfectly.

Don’t Wait for a Better Environment

Do not wait for your situation to change. It might never happen on its own. The only way to reach a better environment is by making the most of your current one. Only by completely using what you have now will you be placed in a more desirable situation later.

If you want to grow your business, you can only do it by running the business you already have in the most perfect way possible. When you put enough life and energy into your business to more than fill it, that surplus energy will bring you more business. Don’t reach for more work until you have energy to spare after doing your current work perfectly.

Hold a Clear Vision, But Master the Present

It is essential that you have a clear picture in your mind of what you want. This goal will help direct your surplus energy in the right direction.

However, do not let your long-term goal distract you from doing today’s work perfectly. Your vision for the future is a guide and an inspiration. It should motivate you to apply yourself completely to what you are doing right now.

Imagine you want to own a large department store, but you only have enough money to open a small food cart. Don’t try to open the department store today with the cart’s budget. Instead, start the food cart with the full faith that you can grow it into a department store. See the cart as the first step, and focus on making it grow.

How to Get More of Anything

This principle applies to every area of your life.

• Get more business by making the most of the business you have now.
• Get more friends by being a great friend to the ones you already have.
• Get a better position by doing the job you have now perfectly.
• Create more happiness at home by building on the love that is already there.

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A Three-Part Recipe for Success

Here is a summary of how to get what you want:

1. Use Your Skills: Apply your abilities to your work and your daily life.
2. Build Your Confidence: Become successful by developing Power-Consciousness—that deep inner knowledge that you can succeed.
3. Master Your Day: Move forward by concentrating on today’s work and doing everything that can be done right now, perfectly.

Focus All Your Energy on Today

You can only get what you want in the future by focusing all your energy on making the best possible use of everything and everyone around you today.

If you give a half-hearted effort today, you will ruin your chances for success tomorrow. This is a fatal mistake.

Want the Best of What’s Possible Now

Your goals for today should be realistic. Don’t wish for things that are beyond your ability to get right now. However, you must be sure that you get the absolute best that is available to you today.

Never settle for less than the very best you can have in the present moment. At the same time, don’t waste energy wanting things that are currently out of reach.

If you always get the best that is available, you will continue to get better and better things. This is because a fundamental principle of the universe is that life is always advancing. This is the principle that drives evolution. But if you are satisfied with less than the best you can get, you will stop moving forward.

The Secret is Surplus Power

Every single interaction you have today—whether in business, at home, or with friends—must become a stepping stone to your future goals. To do this, you must put more than enough life and energy into each action to simply complete it. You must create a surplus of power.

This surplus power is what pushes you forward and gets you what you want. Where there is no surplus power, there is no progress and no achievement. The extra life you put into your current situation is what triggers your evolution to the next level.

How to Grow Your Business

Let’s say you are in business and want to attract more customers.

• Don’t just make the sale a basic exchange of money for goods. If the customer leaves feeling you only cared about their money, you have failed and lost ground.
• Do make every customer feel that you are personally interested in them and that you honestly want to help improve their life.

When you can make every customer feel that you are trying to advance their interests as well as your own, your business will grow. This isn’t about giving away free things or offering bigger discounts than your competitors. It’s about putting genuine life and interest into every single transaction, no matter how small.

How to Change Your Career

If you want to change your career, use your current job as the stepping stone. Fill your present role with so much life and energy that the surplus begins to pull you toward the work you truly want.

Take a lively, sincere interest in every man, woman, and child you meet. Genuinely wish the best for them. Soon, they will start to feel that your success is important to them, too. Their combined positive thoughts will create a wave of energy in your favor, opening new doors for you.

How to Get a Promotion (The Right Way)

If you are an employee and want a promotion, put life into everything you do. Put more than enough energy and interest into every task to just get it done.

A crucial warning:

• Don’t be a suck-up. Never act servile or beneath yourself.

Instead, respect yourself. Be completely fair to everyone. Put positive LIFE into every action and thought. Focus your Power-Consciousness on the fact that you have earned a promotion. It will come as soon as you can more than fill your current role every single day.

If the promotion doesn’t come from your current employer, it will come from another. It is a universal law: whoever more than fills their present place must be advanced. If this law didn’t exist, there could be no progress or evolution.

Success Requires Balance in All Areas of Life

Pay close attention to this next point. It is not enough to only put surplus life into your job.

You will not get very far if you are a great employee but a bad husband, an unfair father, or an untrustworthy friend. Your failures in these other areas will make you incapable of using your professional success for true advancement. The positive law of growth will not work for you. Many people who follow this law in their business are held back because they are unkind to their spouse or fail in other relationships.

To have the force of evolution work for you, you must more than fill EVERY one of your current relationships.

The Story of the Telegraph Operator

A telegraph operator wanted to quit his job and buy a small farm. He started moving toward his goal by simply being exceptionally good and attentive to his wife. He put surplus energy and life into their relationship, with no other motive than to be a good husband.

His wife, who had been somewhat indifferent, became interested and eager to help him. Soon, they bought a small piece of land on the edge of town. She raised chickens and managed a garden while he continued to work his job. Today, they have the farm he always wanted.

You can gain the cooperation of your spouse and everyone around you by putting life and interest into all your relationships with them.

Your Action Plan for Getting What You Want

Follow these principles, and you cannot fail, because the universe is designed to help you succeed.

1. Give More Than You Take: Put more than enough life and energy into every relationship—business, family, and social.
2. Believe in Your Power: Hold on to your faith and Power-Consciousness.
3. Know Your Goal: Keep a clear vision of what you want in the future.
4. Win the Day: Focus on getting the very best that is available to you today.
5. Never Settle, Never Strain: Never accept less than the best you can have right now, but don’t waste energy desiring what is currently impossible.
6. Lift Everyone Up: Use everything in your life to advance life for yourself and for everyone you connect with.

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The Art of Using Your World

Building wealth is the art of making the best possible use of the people and things in your current environment.

Step 1: Create a Crystal-Clear Mental Blueprint

First, get a perfectly clear mental picture of what you want.

If your current job or career isn’t the best fit for your talents, decide on the one that is. Then, make a firm decision to get into that career and achieve the greatest possible success in it. Create a sharp mental image of what that ultimate success looks like, and commit to achieving it.

Spend a lot of time forming this mental picture. The clearer and more specific your vision is, the easier your work will be. A builder who isn’t sure what they want to build will create something weak and unstable.

Know exactly what you want. Keep that picture in the back of your mind day and night, like a poster on your wall that you are always aware of.

Step 2: Start Moving, No Matter Where You Are

Once your vision is clear, begin moving toward it.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills right now. You can develop them as you go. You can definitely do what you set out to do.

It’s likely that you can’t achieve your ultimate goal today because you’re not in the right environment or you don’t have enough money. But that doesn’t stop you from beginning to move toward the right environment and beginning to acquire the money you need.

Remember, you only move forward by doing what you can in your present environment.

How a Newsstand Becomes a Department Store

Imagine you have only enough money to run a small newsstand, but your great desire is to own a department store. There is no magic trick that will let you run a giant store on a tiny budget.

However, there is a mental method you can use. You can run that newsstand so perfectly that it will certainly grow into a department store.

• Think of your newsstand as the first department of the store you are going to own.
• Keep your mind fixed on the vision of the full department store.
• Begin to mentally draw the rest of the store to you.

You will get it, as long as you make every single thought and action a constructive one.

The Power of Increase: How to Attract Success

To make every thought and action constructive, each one must project the idea of increase and growth.

Constantly hold the thought of advancement for yourself. Know that you are moving toward what you want. Then, act and speak with this faith. Every word you say and every action you take will communicate this feeling of progress to others, and they will be drawn to you.

Always remember that all people, at their core, are seeking increase in their own lives.

Choose Abundance, Not Competition

First, convince yourself that there is more than enough wealth in the world for you. You do not have to take anything away from anyone else to get what you want.

Avoid a competitive spirit. When you understand that abundance is limitless, you realize there is enough for you without having to beat or rob anyone else.

The Complete Chain of Action

Think through this logical chain:

1. Nature’s Goal: Know that the universe wants you to have what you want.
2. The Need for Action: Realize you can only get it by acting.
3. The Field of Action: Understand you can only act in your present environment.
4. Successful Actions: Make every single act a success in itself by holding the firm purpose to get what you want.
5. The Guiding Purpose: You can only hold this purpose by keeping a clear mental picture of your goal.
6. The Driving Power: Your actions will only have force if you have unwavering faith that you will get what you want.

Your Four Keys to Guaranteed Progress

Form a clear mental picture of what you want. Hold the purpose to get it. Do everything perfectly—not like a servant, but like a master in control of your work. Keep unbreakable faith that you will reach your goal.

If you do these things, you cannot fail to move forward.