What is the everlasting question which stands up and looks you and every genuine person directly into their eyes every morning?

“How can I better my condition?” That is the real life question which challenges you, and will haunt you every day till you solve it.

To begin with, all wealth depends upon a clear understanding of the fact that mind–thought–is the only creator. The great business of life is thinking. Control your thoughts and you will be able to control circumstance.

Just as the first law of gain is desire, so the formula of success is FAITH.

Believe that you have it–see it as an existent fact–and anything you can rightly wish for is yours. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

It is now a good many years since Professor Joseph Henry made his famous experiment with a charged magnet, which revolutionized the electrical practice of his age.

First, he took an ordinary magnet of large size, suspended it from a rafter, and with it lifted a few hundred pounds of iron.

Then he wrapped the magnet with wire and charged it with the current from a small battery. Instead of only a few hundred, the now highly charged magnet lifted 3,000 pounds!

Your magnet is your subconscious mind.

Driven by strong desire, it can bring you a reasonable amount of the good things of life. But charge it with a strong current of faith, of belief in its power, and there is no limit to the good things it will bring to you.

You have seen men, deeply no more capable than yourself accomplish the seemingly impossible. You have seen others, after years of hopeless struggle; suddenly win their most cherished dreams. And you have probably wondered, “What is the power that gives new life to their dying ambitions that supplies new motivation to their worn-out desires, which gives them a new start on the road to success?”

That power is belief- faith. Someone, something, gave them a new belief in themselves, a new faith in their power to win and they jumped ahead and gained success from outwardly certain defeat.

Do you remember the picture Harold Lloyd was in [Grandmas Boy, 1922]

showing a country boy who was afraid of his shadow? Every boy in the countryside bedeviled him. Until one day his grandmother gave him a talisman that she assured him his grandfather had carried through the Civil War and which, so she said, had the property of making its owner invincible. Nothing could hurt him, she told him, while he wore this talisman. Nothing could stand up against him. He believed her. And the next time the bully of the town started to cuff him around, he wiped up the earth with him. And that was only the start. Before the year was out he had made a reputation as the most daring soul in the community.

Then, when his grandmother felt that he was thoroughly cured, she told him the truth — that the “talisman” was merely a piece of old junk she’d picked up by the roadside that she knew all he needed was faith in himself, belief that he could do these things.

Stories like that are common. It is such a well-established truth that you can do only what you think you can, that the theme is a favorite one with authors. I remember reading a story years ago of an artist—-a mediocre sort of artist—-who was visiting the field of Waterloo and happened upon a curious lump of metal half buried in the dirt, which so attracted him that he picked it up and put it in his pocket. Soon thereafter he noticed a sudden increase in confidence, an absolute faith in himself, not only as to his own chosen line of work, but in his ability to handle any situation that might present itself. He painted a great picture—-just to show that he could do it. Not content with that, he envisioned an empire with Mexico as its basis, actually led a revolt that carried all before it—-until one day he lost his talisman. And immediately his bubble burst.

I instance this just to illustrate the point that it is your own belief in yourself that counts. It is the consciousness of dominant power within you that makes all things attainable.

You can do anything you think you can.

This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door to welfare. Keep it open—-by expecting to gain everything that is right.

Plant the seed of desire. Nourish it with a clear visualization, imagination or pretend of the ripened fruit. Water it with sincere faith. But leave the means to Universal Mind.

Open up your mind. Clear out the channels of thought. Keep yourself in a state of receptiveness. Gain a mental attitude in which you are constantly expecting good. You have the fundamental right to all good, you know. “According to your faith, be it is unto you.”

Let us start right now putting into practice some of these truths that you have learned. What do you want most of life right now?

Take that one desire, concentrate on it,
impress it upon your subconscious mind,
and through it upon the super conscious.

Psychologists have discovered that the best time to make suggestions to your subconscious mind is just before going to sleep, when the senses are quiet and the body is relaxed.

So let us take your desire and suggest it to your subconscious mind tonight. The two fundamentals are the serious DESIRE, and an intelligent, understanding BELIEF. Someone has said, you know, that education is three-fourths encouragement, and the encouragement is the suggestion that the thing can be done.

You know that you can have what you want; if you want it badly enough and can believe in it sincerely enough. So tonight, just before you drop off to sleep, concentrate your thought on this thing that you most desire from life.

BELIEVE that you have it.
SEE YOURSELF possessing it.
FEEL yourself using it.

Do that every night until you ACTUALLY DO BELIEVE that you have the thing you want. When you reach that point, YOU WILL HAVE IT!