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Eight Steps to A New Life
By Norman Vincent Peale
Forty years of listening to troubled people has made me familiar, I think, with just about every human problem under the sun. But there’s one so prevalent that I consider it the basic human sickness. It’s the problem of the person who is living far below his potential and knows it; who is deeply unhappy, but can’t seem to do anything about it.
Usually, from where the counselor sits, the person’s difficulties don’t seem so overwhelming but the sufferer is convinced he can’t cope with them. Although he seems to have normal intelligence, adequate education and all the necessary attributes for successful living, he can’t summon them to his aid. His life is blurred, out of focus, without power or purpose.
Always, you find three deadly characteristics in such people: inertia, self-doubt and aimlessness. One autumn day, walking alone around our local golf course (I was hoping to scare up some sermon ideas), I came upon a young man raking leaves off a green. I knew him slightly, and I asked how things were going . He shrugged. “As you can guess,” he said, “I’m not getting anywhere.”
“Where do you want to get?” I asked.
He looked at me glumly. ”I don’t really know,” he said.
“What do you do best?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure that I’m much good at anything.”
“Well, what gives you the most satisfaction?”
He frowned. “No special thing.”
“Look,” I said, “I’ve asked you three of the most important questions anyone can be asked, and I’ve had three completely fuzzy answers. When you go home tonight , I want you to sit down with paper and pencil, and don’t get up until you’ve answered my questions. Then let’s meet here tomorrow at this time, and we’ll take it from here.”
Somewhat hesitantly, he agreed. When we met the next day, he told me that he liked to work with his hands, not his head; that he thought he might have some mechanical ability; and that what he wanted most in life was some sense of purpose or direction. Shortly thereafter, he got a job in a roofing-materials factory. Did he is a foreman, living a happy and productive life. All he needed was a push to stop leading an unfocused life.
I meet people like that young man so frequently that I have developed a set of guidelines to help anyone, young or old, who feels the need to bring himself into sharper focus. There are eight points in all, and they add up to quite a stiff course in self-discipline. But anyone who makes a sustained effort to apply them will become a happier, more forceful, more effective person.
1. Pinpoint your primary goal in life. It’s not enough to say, “I want to be happy “ or “I want to make money” or “I want to be a better person.” You most determine exactly what you want, and when. You need to say, “I intend to be a registered nurse in three years,” or sales manager of this company, or editor of this newspaper, or buyer for that store, in four, five, or six years.
Write down a short summary of your goal and the achievement date: put it beside your bed and read it aloud to yourself every morning when you wake up. Vagueness is the invariable hallmark of the unfocused mind. Get rid of it.
2. Use imagination to fan desire. There’s no use pinpointing a goal in life unless you want it enormously. Daydreams and wistful wishes are not enough; there must be intense, burning desire. Nobody can put this hunger into you; you have to develop it yourself by constant, vivid imagining of the benefits that achieving your goal will bring. Ask anyone who has achieved outstanding success in any field. He will tell you that clarify of purpose and intensity of desire are the chief ingredients of the magic formula. Unless you care, you won’t get there.
3. Expect to pay for what you get. If you set a high goal, you will have to pay a high price. You will have to work, take chances, make sacrifices, endure setbacks. You won’t be able to afford the luxury of laziness or the delights of frequest distraction. When setting your goal, remember that unless you’re willing to pay the price you’re wasting your time.
4. Send the right signals to your unconscious mind. This is crucial. The unconscious is a great dynamo, but it is also a computer that has to be properly programmed. If fear thoughts, worry thoughts, failure thoughts are constantly channeled into the unconscious, nothing very constructive is going to be sent back. But if a clear, purposeful goal is steadfastly held in the conscious mind with plans, ideas, insight and the energies necessary to achieve that goal.
5. Be willing to fail – temporarily. A man who made a long-term study of highly successful men in various field told me that he noted they had only one trait in common: persistence. They kept picking themselves up and returning to the fight long after most men would have given up.
In a sermon not long ago, I condensed the life history of such a man. This man failed in business in ’31. He was defeated for the state legislature in ’32. He failed again in business in ’34. He had a nervous breakdown in ’41. He hoped to receive his party’s nomination for Congress but didn’t in ’43. He ran for the Senate and lost in’55.He was defeated again for the Senate in ’58. A hopeless loser, some people said. But Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. He know how to accept defeated—temporarily.
6. Believe in power of thought to change things. It’s very hard for most people to realize that most powerful force in the world is an idea that has taken root in a human mind. But it is.
Not long ago in Australia, I met a remarkable man named Bert Walton. He told me that he had started out in life by failing at one school after another, then at one job after another. He was working for the Australian division of an American corporation and going downhill at that—when a man came out from the parent company to talk to Australian employees. One sentence in the man’s talk struck Walton with enormous impact: You can—if you think you can.
“I suddenly realized,” Walton told me, “that the reason I was a failure was my habit of thinking of myself as a failure. The concept created the condition—not the other way round. So I decided to change the concept. I said to myself: “I think I can become manager for New South Wales. In fact, I think I can become manager for the whole of Australia. “Well, it took a long time and a lot of work, and there were a lot of setbacks, but that’s the way things turned out. Then I got into the department-store business, and I said to myself,” I think we can build this business into one of the big chains in Australia.” And eventually that happened, too. I’m a very ordinary man, but I got hold of one extraordinary idea, and hung on.”
What happened to that man? The idea, like a burning glass, focused the rays of his personality on a definite goal with such intensity that hitherto inert elements burst into flame. The Bible says over and over: “If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible, certainly, and profoundly true.
7. Never build a case against yourself. Just last week, a man came up to me and asked if we could talk. He had a stooped, dejected look, and he sounded defeated. “I’m a salesman.” He said. “I making a living at it, but my work is of no importance. I’m depressed and miserable most of the time. Can you help me?”
“No,” I said, “I can’t crawl into your head and rear range the machinery. But perhaps I can tell you how to help yourself. In the first place, stop cringing. Stand up straight. Next, stop running down your profession. In our society, salesman are the ball bearings on which industry moves; why don’t you stop looking at yourself from a worm’s viewpoint and look at yourself from God’s? You are His child. If you are important to Him—and you are—what gives you the right to go around proclaiming your unimportance?”
We talked a bit more; then he thanked me, and went away looking thoughtful. I hope he had learned, or begun to learn, the importance of not building a case against himself.
8. Stop short-circuiting yourself with alibis. Unfocused people do this constantly. They say, “The timing is wrong” or, “I’m not really qualified.” They play the if only game: “If only I had more money, or more education….if only I weren’t so tied down…”The alibis go on and on, and they just reinforce the three deadly characters istics-intertia, self-doubt, aimlessness. To becomes a focused person you have to control self-limiting thoughts. “I don’t believe in circumstances,” George Bernard Shaw once said. “The people who get on in this world are the people who look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Plato once said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. The statement is as true today as it was 23 centuries ago. So, examine your life. If it is out of focus, make up your mind to get it into focus. And start today.
*NOTE*
1. Norman Vincent Peale: minister, Marble Collegiate church, New York, City…
2. prevalent: (adj.) common, seen or done everywhere(at the time in question)流行的;普遍的
Prevalent ideas are not always correct.
3. overwhelming: (adj.) crushing; destroying; or causing to feel confused or embarrassed挫折的;勢不可擋的
The overwhelming problem today is concerned with how to make man happy.
4. to cope with: to fight or contend (with ) successfully or on equal terms對抗;敵對
To cope with the problem of population explosion, new solutions must be found.
5. attribute: (v.) a good quality looked upon as naturally or necessarily belonging to somebody or something把…歸因於
I attribute the fact that I have learned about many new things to the open minded people at the university I went to.
6. blurred: (blur的過去式) unclear, confused in appearance模糊;不清楚
Old people’s memories are often blurred.
7. inertia: (n.) state of being inertia; state of rest; heavy and slow遲鈍;呆滯
Inertia is the greatest problem of a lazy person.
8. to scare up: to produce or gather quickly聚集
“Come back tomorrow, I’ll try to scare up the money I owe you.”
9. raking: (n.) getting (something together, up, out, etc.) with a rake分屬某類
He is always raking his garden, but he would like to rake in money the same way,
10. shrug: (v.t.) lift (the shoulders) slightly聳(肩)
He shrugged his shoulders.
11. fuzzy: (adj.) blurred; indistance (in shape or outline)模糊的;不清楚的
Without glasses his vision is fuzzy.
12. foreman: (n.) workman in authority over others工頭;領班
He is a good foreman, he is always truing to help the workers.
13. sustained effort: continuous effort繼續努力
A sustained effort will help you to learn English quickly.
14. pinpoint: (v.) to show the precise location of確定;正確
The pain in his back was hard to pinpoint.
15. summary: (n.) brief account giving the chief points摘要;概略;結論
16. hallmark: (n.) the official mark stamped on gold and silver articles at Goldsmith’s Hall in London as genuineness.(a distinguishing characteristic)證明金銀器純度的記號
The hallmark of a good policeman is that he tries to help other people.
17. to fan: (v.) to scatter or spread (out) like a fan散開;展開
Trouble is fanning out all over the world.
18. vivid: (adj.) intense; bright強烈的;鮮明的
I have a vivid recollection of the scene.
19. ingredient: (n.) one of the parts of a mixture(混合物的)成份
The ingredients of a good marriage are mutual love and respect.
20. distraction: (n.) something that diverts the attention and gives pleasure吸引心神而轉移至令人快樂的事物
The most difficult distraction to overcome is the sight of (seeing) a pretty girl. But you had better return to your work.
21. dynamo: (n.) machine for changing stem-power, water-power, etc, into electrical energy發電機
22. channel: (v.)cause to go through a channel or channels
All mail is channeled through the post office.
23. trait: (n.) distinguishing quality or characteristic特質
One of the best traits to have is honesty; one of the worst is deceit.
24. picking (oneself) up: raising (oneself) after a fall振起;振奮!!
Picking yourself up after falling on ice is very difficult.
25. legislature: (n.) law-making立法機關
26. ran for 競選
27. downhill: (adv.) in a downward direction; go downhill, go form bad to worse (in health, fortune, etc.)(指健康.運氣等)每下愈況
When we grow older, our health often goes downhill.
28. hang on hold tight or fast: 緊握;不放棄
Do not hand on to your memories too long; it is better to look to the future.
29. hitherto: (adv.) until now至今;迄今
Hitherto many people wanted to own a big car, but now gasoline is too expensive.
30. stooped: (adj.) bend the body forwards and downwards; bend the neck so that the head is forward and down.屈身;彎腰;俯首
dejected: (adj.) 憂鬱的;萎靡不振的
31. run down: say unkind things about; disparage speak evil against毀謗
It is a bad idea to run down other people, it is better to say nothing at all.
32. bearing: (n.) past(s) of a machine in which moving parts turn軸承
The bearings in this car are wore out.
33. proclaiming: (v.) make known publicly or officially宣佈;聲明
He was proclaimed king by them.
34. alibi: (n.) excuse (for failure, etc.)藉口 (失敗等之)
His alibi for failing his examination was that he copied the wrong answers from his friend.
35. make up one’s mind: come to a decision決定~
He couldn’t make up one about which girl to marry the pretty one, or the ugly one who had a lot of money, which would you choose?
QUESTION FOR REVIEW
1. What problem does Mr. Peale regard as being basic to human sickness?
2. What are the three attributes that people who can’t cope all have? Among the three attributes which are cause and which effects?
3. What are the three most important questions anyone can be asked?
4. What happened after the young man asked himself those questions?
5. What does it mean to bring yourself into sharper focus? In what other respects is our life analogues to a camera?
6. In what way is vagueness the opposite of pinpointing your primary goal in life?
7. What are the similarities and differences between desire and will?
8. What does “paying the price” mean in terms of goal-directed behavior?
9. What does the unconscious mind do for the conscious mind once your goal is set?
10. How is persistence relevant to student life?
11. What lesson can we learn from Lincoln’s setbacks?
12. What is the most powerful force in the world? Why?
13. What is the difference between not building a case against yourself and having an inferiority complex?
14. Why did Plato say that the unexamined life isn’t worth living?
By Norman Vincent Peale
Forty years of listening to troubled people has made me familiar, I think, with just about every human problem under the sun. But there’s one so prevalent that I consider it the basic human sickness. It’s the problem of the person who is living far below his potential and knows it; who is deeply unhappy, but can’t seem to do anything about it.
Usually, from where the counselor sits, the person’s difficulties don’t seem so overwhelming but the sufferer is convinced he can’t cope with them. Although he seems to have normal intelligence, adequate education and all the necessary attributes for successful living, he can’t summon them to his aid. His life is blurred, out of focus, without power or purpose.
Always, you find three deadly characteristics in such people: inertia, self-doubt and aimlessness. One autumn day, walking alone around our local golf course (I was hoping to scare up some sermon ideas), I came upon a young man raking leaves off a green. I knew him slightly, and I asked how things were going . He shrugged. “As you can guess,” he said, “I’m not getting anywhere.”
“Where do you want to get?” I asked.
He looked at me glumly. ”I don’t really know,” he said.
“What do you do best?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure that I’m much good at anything.”
“Well, what gives you the most satisfaction?”
He frowned. “No special thing.”
“Look,” I said, “I’ve asked you three of the most important questions anyone can be asked, and I’ve had three completely fuzzy answers. When you go home tonight , I want you to sit down with paper and pencil, and don’t get up until you’ve answered my questions. Then let’s meet here tomorrow at this time, and we’ll take it from here.”
Somewhat hesitantly, he agreed. When we met the next day, he told me that he liked to work with his hands, not his head; that he thought he might have some mechanical ability; and that what he wanted most in life was some sense of purpose or direction. Shortly thereafter, he got a job in a roofing-materials factory. Did he is a foreman, living a happy and productive life. All he needed was a push to stop leading an unfocused life.
I meet people like that young man so frequently that I have developed a set of guidelines to help anyone, young or old, who feels the need to bring himself into sharper focus. There are eight points in all, and they add up to quite a stiff course in self-discipline. But anyone who makes a sustained effort to apply them will become a happier, more forceful, more effective person.
1. Pinpoint your primary goal in life. It’s not enough to say, “I want to be happy “ or “I want to make money” or “I want to be a better person.” You most determine exactly what you want, and when. You need to say, “I intend to be a registered nurse in three years,” or sales manager of this company, or editor of this newspaper, or buyer for that store, in four, five, or six years.
Write down a short summary of your goal and the achievement date: put it beside your bed and read it aloud to yourself every morning when you wake up. Vagueness is the invariable hallmark of the unfocused mind. Get rid of it.
2. Use imagination to fan desire. There’s no use pinpointing a goal in life unless you want it enormously. Daydreams and wistful wishes are not enough; there must be intense, burning desire. Nobody can put this hunger into you; you have to develop it yourself by constant, vivid imagining of the benefits that achieving your goal will bring. Ask anyone who has achieved outstanding success in any field. He will tell you that clarify of purpose and intensity of desire are the chief ingredients of the magic formula. Unless you care, you won’t get there.
3. Expect to pay for what you get. If you set a high goal, you will have to pay a high price. You will have to work, take chances, make sacrifices, endure setbacks. You won’t be able to afford the luxury of laziness or the delights of frequest distraction. When setting your goal, remember that unless you’re willing to pay the price you’re wasting your time.
4. Send the right signals to your unconscious mind. This is crucial. The unconscious is a great dynamo, but it is also a computer that has to be properly programmed. If fear thoughts, worry thoughts, failure thoughts are constantly channeled into the unconscious, nothing very constructive is going to be sent back. But if a clear, purposeful goal is steadfastly held in the conscious mind with plans, ideas, insight and the energies necessary to achieve that goal.
5. Be willing to fail – temporarily. A man who made a long-term study of highly successful men in various field told me that he noted they had only one trait in common: persistence. They kept picking themselves up and returning to the fight long after most men would have given up.
In a sermon not long ago, I condensed the life history of such a man. This man failed in business in ’31. He was defeated for the state legislature in ’32. He failed again in business in ’34. He had a nervous breakdown in ’41. He hoped to receive his party’s nomination for Congress but didn’t in ’43. He ran for the Senate and lost in’55.He was defeated again for the Senate in ’58. A hopeless loser, some people said. But Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. He know how to accept defeated—temporarily.
6. Believe in power of thought to change things. It’s very hard for most people to realize that most powerful force in the world is an idea that has taken root in a human mind. But it is.
Not long ago in Australia, I met a remarkable man named Bert Walton. He told me that he had started out in life by failing at one school after another, then at one job after another. He was working for the Australian division of an American corporation and going downhill at that—when a man came out from the parent company to talk to Australian employees. One sentence in the man’s talk struck Walton with enormous impact: You can—if you think you can.
“I suddenly realized,” Walton told me, “that the reason I was a failure was my habit of thinking of myself as a failure. The concept created the condition—not the other way round. So I decided to change the concept. I said to myself: “I think I can become manager for New South Wales. In fact, I think I can become manager for the whole of Australia. “Well, it took a long time and a lot of work, and there were a lot of setbacks, but that’s the way things turned out. Then I got into the department-store business, and I said to myself,” I think we can build this business into one of the big chains in Australia.” And eventually that happened, too. I’m a very ordinary man, but I got hold of one extraordinary idea, and hung on.”
What happened to that man? The idea, like a burning glass, focused the rays of his personality on a definite goal with such intensity that hitherto inert elements burst into flame. The Bible says over and over: “If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible, certainly, and profoundly true.
7. Never build a case against yourself. Just last week, a man came up to me and asked if we could talk. He had a stooped, dejected look, and he sounded defeated. “I’m a salesman.” He said. “I making a living at it, but my work is of no importance. I’m depressed and miserable most of the time. Can you help me?”
“No,” I said, “I can’t crawl into your head and rear range the machinery. But perhaps I can tell you how to help yourself. In the first place, stop cringing. Stand up straight. Next, stop running down your profession. In our society, salesman are the ball bearings on which industry moves; why don’t you stop looking at yourself from a worm’s viewpoint and look at yourself from God’s? You are His child. If you are important to Him—and you are—what gives you the right to go around proclaiming your unimportance?”
We talked a bit more; then he thanked me, and went away looking thoughtful. I hope he had learned, or begun to learn, the importance of not building a case against himself.
8. Stop short-circuiting yourself with alibis. Unfocused people do this constantly. They say, “The timing is wrong” or, “I’m not really qualified.” They play the if only game: “If only I had more money, or more education….if only I weren’t so tied down…”The alibis go on and on, and they just reinforce the three deadly characters istics-intertia, self-doubt, aimlessness. To becomes a focused person you have to control self-limiting thoughts. “I don’t believe in circumstances,” George Bernard Shaw once said. “The people who get on in this world are the people who look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Plato once said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. The statement is as true today as it was 23 centuries ago. So, examine your life. If it is out of focus, make up your mind to get it into focus. And start today.
*NOTE*
1. Norman Vincent Peale: minister, Marble Collegiate church, New York, City…
2. prevalent: (adj.) common, seen or done everywhere(at the time in question)流行的;普遍的
Prevalent ideas are not always correct.
3. overwhelming: (adj.) crushing; destroying; or causing to feel confused or embarrassed挫折的;勢不可擋的
The overwhelming problem today is concerned with how to make man happy.
4. to cope with: to fight or contend (with ) successfully or on equal terms對抗;敵對
To cope with the problem of population explosion, new solutions must be found.
5. attribute: (v.) a good quality looked upon as naturally or necessarily belonging to somebody or something把…歸因於
I attribute the fact that I have learned about many new things to the open minded people at the university I went to.
6. blurred: (blur的過去式) unclear, confused in appearance模糊;不清楚
Old people’s memories are often blurred.
7. inertia: (n.) state of being inertia; state of rest; heavy and slow遲鈍;呆滯
Inertia is the greatest problem of a lazy person.
8. to scare up: to produce or gather quickly聚集
“Come back tomorrow, I’ll try to scare up the money I owe you.”
9. raking: (n.) getting (something together, up, out, etc.) with a rake分屬某類
He is always raking his garden, but he would like to rake in money the same way,
10. shrug: (v.t.) lift (the shoulders) slightly聳(肩)
He shrugged his shoulders.
11. fuzzy: (adj.) blurred; indistance (in shape or outline)模糊的;不清楚的
Without glasses his vision is fuzzy.
12. foreman: (n.) workman in authority over others工頭;領班
He is a good foreman, he is always truing to help the workers.
13. sustained effort: continuous effort繼續努力
A sustained effort will help you to learn English quickly.
14. pinpoint: (v.) to show the precise location of確定;正確
The pain in his back was hard to pinpoint.
15. summary: (n.) brief account giving the chief points摘要;概略;結論
16. hallmark: (n.) the official mark stamped on gold and silver articles at Goldsmith’s Hall in London as genuineness.(a distinguishing characteristic)證明金銀器純度的記號
The hallmark of a good policeman is that he tries to help other people.
17. to fan: (v.) to scatter or spread (out) like a fan散開;展開
Trouble is fanning out all over the world.
18. vivid: (adj.) intense; bright強烈的;鮮明的
I have a vivid recollection of the scene.
19. ingredient: (n.) one of the parts of a mixture(混合物的)成份
The ingredients of a good marriage are mutual love and respect.
20. distraction: (n.) something that diverts the attention and gives pleasure吸引心神而轉移至令人快樂的事物
The most difficult distraction to overcome is the sight of (seeing) a pretty girl. But you had better return to your work.
21. dynamo: (n.) machine for changing stem-power, water-power, etc, into electrical energy發電機
22. channel: (v.)cause to go through a channel or channels
All mail is channeled through the post office.
23. trait: (n.) distinguishing quality or characteristic特質
One of the best traits to have is honesty; one of the worst is deceit.
24. picking (oneself) up: raising (oneself) after a fall振起;振奮!!
Picking yourself up after falling on ice is very difficult.
25. legislature: (n.) law-making立法機關
26. ran for 競選
27. downhill: (adv.) in a downward direction; go downhill, go form bad to worse (in health, fortune, etc.)(指健康.運氣等)每下愈況
When we grow older, our health often goes downhill.
28. hang on hold tight or fast: 緊握;不放棄
Do not hand on to your memories too long; it is better to look to the future.
29. hitherto: (adv.) until now至今;迄今
Hitherto many people wanted to own a big car, but now gasoline is too expensive.
30. stooped: (adj.) bend the body forwards and downwards; bend the neck so that the head is forward and down.屈身;彎腰;俯首
dejected: (adj.) 憂鬱的;萎靡不振的
31. run down: say unkind things about; disparage speak evil against毀謗
It is a bad idea to run down other people, it is better to say nothing at all.
32. bearing: (n.) past(s) of a machine in which moving parts turn軸承
The bearings in this car are wore out.
33. proclaiming: (v.) make known publicly or officially宣佈;聲明
He was proclaimed king by them.
34. alibi: (n.) excuse (for failure, etc.)藉口 (失敗等之)
His alibi for failing his examination was that he copied the wrong answers from his friend.
35. make up one’s mind: come to a decision決定~
He couldn’t make up one about which girl to marry the pretty one, or the ugly one who had a lot of money, which would you choose?
QUESTION FOR REVIEW
1. What problem does Mr. Peale regard as being basic to human sickness?
2. What are the three attributes that people who can’t cope all have? Among the three attributes which are cause and which effects?
3. What are the three most important questions anyone can be asked?
4. What happened after the young man asked himself those questions?
5. What does it mean to bring yourself into sharper focus? In what other respects is our life analogues to a camera?
6. In what way is vagueness the opposite of pinpointing your primary goal in life?
7. What are the similarities and differences between desire and will?
8. What does “paying the price” mean in terms of goal-directed behavior?
9. What does the unconscious mind do for the conscious mind once your goal is set?
10. How is persistence relevant to student life?
11. What lesson can we learn from Lincoln’s setbacks?
12. What is the most powerful force in the world? Why?
13. What is the difference between not building a case against yourself and having an inferiority complex?
14. Why did Plato say that the unexamined life isn’t worth living?
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