11 Keys To Success In The Book: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude

11 Keys To Success In The Book: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude

About ten years ago, by chance, I stumbled on the book, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone. It was one of the earliest books where I discovered golden keys to success that positioned my life in the path of success, which I’m leaving today.

I cannot remember exactly how I got to know about the book, but at that time, I was seriously looking for enlightenment about how one can achieve success in life. I was practically hungry for the keys to success to apply in my situation, for things were very tough for me and in my family financially.

I had struggled to complete my university education with a degree in Chemistry, and I was still leaving with my parents and siblings in a room apartment at Amukoko in Lagos. That may sound unbelievable to you, but it’s the truth. My father had been retrenched from his junior level job with the government in 1991, and couldn’t find a better job than being a watchman with one struggling company to another, while my mum was only a petty trader in a local market.

My family’s monthly income was terribly low and it was difficult to afford the basic things of life, which included food. I had thought all of that would change when I complete my university studies and get a job. But it didn’t happen that way.

Like many Nigerian youths then, there was virtually no job available. After submitting numerous applications for job and writing job tests and interviews, I still couldn’t get a real job, except for the private coaching I was giving some students to help them with their school work and to prepare them for exams.

I’m giving you this brief story about me because I want you to see how much effect Success Through Positive Thinking and other books that I read at this time of my life radically transformed my life.

As I read through the pages of the book and began to discover the universal keys to success, I was filled with great hope, confidence and excitement. I could see myself a successful man in future. The book clearly explained what it takes to achieve success in life, and I only needed to follow them to get there.

I was so happy for finding these keys to success, so much that I was no longer sober about my inability to get a job and helping my family out of our financial difficulty, but had started implementing the teachings of the book by changing my mindset from been a job seeker to a job creator.

I shared some of the success keys with a close friend of mine, but he didn’t believe they could work in Nigeria. According to him, those things about keys to success only work in America and other developed nations where there are better opportunities and efficient infrastructure. He actually tried discouraging me from “wasting” my time reading such books because I would never achieve the success they talk about because I’m not in America.

I didn’t buy his idea, because I knew deep down in my spirit that the keys to success that I was discovering in Success Through Positive Thinking were universal. They would work in any human society, be it in developed or underdeveloped countries, because all humans, no matter the race, have basically the same needs and emotions.

We need food to stay alive and live healthy; we need shelter, clothing, health care, security, education, etc.

And we are happy when people treat us well, when our businesses are doing fine and we are making money, when our children are doing well, and our partners show us love, etc.

But we are sad or hurt when we find our partners cheating on us, when we lose our jobs, when our landlords ask us to leave, when we fail our exams, when we lose money in a bad investment, etc.

We are all the same, and the principles or keys to success will work, as it has worked for me, in any society, whether in Africa, Asia, or America.

Now, I will share with you the Eleven life-transforming keys to success that I learnt from the book: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone.

Key To Success No. 1: Have A Positive Mental Attitude

This was the first change that the book had in me as I began my walk to financial success, and indeed, life success. And as Mr. Stone emphasized, success begins in the mind. It can only happen when the mind is tuned to seeing events from the positive side, rather than dwelling on the worse case scenario.

In every era of human existence, there are always good times and bad times. There are times of economic prosperity, and there are times of depression, yet there are people who prosper even more in times of economic downturn than in times of surplus.

What marks out these successful people from those who suffer the hardship of the depression is that they can see opportunities to create wealth from the same economy where others could only see doom. And because their minds could perceive opportunities and generate ideas, it would only be a matter of time for them to achieve their goals.

The same goes for those who only see doom in the economy. It will only be a matter of time; the doom will come upon them. It is what you see that you get. However, the good thing is that you have the ability to see the good in any situation, so put your mind on it and you will live above the situation.

Having a positive mental attitude does not only help you reach financial success, it actually helps you to achieve all round life success – in your relationships, career, health, family, etc.

The key is that if an unpleasant event should happen to you in any area of your life, instead of blaming yourself or other people for it, which saps your energy and creativity, you should look for the lessons you can learn from the occurrence, or for the good that has come as a result of the incident. With that positive state of mind, you will be able to live above the situation.

Key To Success No. 2: Define Your Purpose

Knowing exactly what you want to achieve and being able to write it down clearly is a great key to success I got from the book. With your purpose well defined, you will be more focused on your goals, and this helps you to channel your energy and resources into reaching them, rather than dissipating it on several uncoordinated projects aiming at nothing specific, and therefore reaching no success at the end of the day.

Key To Success No. 3: Going The Extra Mile

Successful people are those who will go the extra mile to add more value to what they are offering their customers. They are people who are willing to work longer hours, sacrifice personal pleasure and comfort for the goal they are striving to reach. They will send more letters, make more calls and visits until they succeed in achieving their hearts’ desires.

Key To Success No. 4: Thinking Accurately

To achieve success in any area of your life, you need to be able to think clearly and accurately. You have to set aside some time everyday – the time of the day when you are best alert – to think about your goals, the challenges you are facing, and how you will surmount them.

Key To Success No. 5: Be Self Discipline

Indeed, one of the major reasons why many people never succeed in reaching their goals is that they lack the discipline to follow through on their plans to getting to their desired point. They easily abandon ship when things are not looking bright.

But Successful people are those who have subjected themselves to immense discipline to stay on course even in the face of discomfort circumstances.

Key To Success No. 6: Have a Mastermind

This key to success works like this: identify some people who have achieved remarkable success in the area you are also striving for success, get to know them closely by reading or hearing their success stories, including the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

Then when you are going through challenges on your way to reaching your goals, think about your “heroes”, ask yourself, “How would xxx have solved this problem? What would he or she have done in this situation?” Doing this can enable your mind to start thinking like the past achievers, the masters, and it will generate the solution you need to move ahead to success.

Key To Success No. 7: Have Faith

To be successful in life, you must have faith that what you are trying to achieve will come through. This confidence is what motivates you to continue to put in the efforts, time, and the resources needed to make your dream a reality.

Without faith that you will succeed, success is impossible. This is because the fear of failure will stealthily creep in, and it will rob you of the enthusiasm to accomplishing your set goals. And when that happens there goes the end of the project.

Key To Success No. 8: Enthusiasm

This key to success immediately follows the last one. If you are not excited or enthusiastic about a project, it is better not to start it in the first place because it will not end in success.

In fact, you can tell if you would succeed at something by the level of excitement you feel about it. Therefore, to achieve success in anything, you must look for a reason to be excited about doing it.

Key To Success No. 9: Working in a Team

Working in a team makes success easier, faster, and surer. In a team responsibilities are shared, which makes the demand on individuals to be reduced, far less than if they were to do it alone.

More importantly, in a team there is surplus of ideas and diverse talents. By the time everyone contributes their ideas, and talents to the team’s project, success becomes inevitable. And when the team succeeds, individual members equally succeed.

Key To Success No. 10: Learning From Defeat

No one gunning for success is insulated from failure. There is no chance that you will not fail at one point or the other in the course of reaching your goal. However, what is important to success is that when you encounter failure or defeat, you must see it as a learning experience.

Learn what you should do or not do next time from the defeat, dust yourself up and bounce back on track.

Key To Success No. 11: Maintaining Sound Physical and Mental Health

Your health is very important and should be considered in your plan to reaching your goals. A sound physical and mental state is needed to be able to implement your action plans and achieve success. And also very importantly, you need a sound body to enjoy your success when you have achieved it.

Therefore, to be healthy physical and mentally, we must take care of our bodies by eating well, exercising, relaxing, and sleeping well; as well as avoiding habits that could destroy our organs.

Recommended
Reading For Success

Do You Desire Success in Life?

Would you like a FREE program from Brian Tracy that teaches you how to achieve it?