Christian D. Larson has written an excellent book titled Nothing Succeeds Like Success. Christian D. Larson was an outstanding and highly influential early New Thought leader and teacher as well as a prolific writer of “New Thought” books who believed that people have tremendous latent powers, which could be harnessed for success with the proper attitude. Larson lived by the “Optimists Creed,” which he described as promising yourself: To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet. To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds. To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
“In the first place, the individual begins to appreciate himself; and the moment real self-appreciation enters any mind, to power to become and achieve actually doubles in that mind. Thus we realize how success, in this regard, gives the mind the power to succeed more. In like manner, there is an increase of self-confidence, ambition, aspiration, and the desire to attain and achieve on a larger scale. All these things arise more and more in the mind that has begun to succeed; and they all are positive forces for still greater success.”
“This may seem to be a far-fetched statement; but we know that every mind contains undreamed of possibilities that latent forces beyond all limitation. Then we have the vast subconscious field; so that every mind has sufficient upon which to draw for the realization of any goal or ambition conceivable. And there is nothing that creates a great draw upon marvelous powers of the mind, than the deep interior feeling that you can.”
“When we take simply a superficial view of life, we may meet many apparent exceptions to these rules; but all these exceptions are merely apparent and arise, either from neglect along certain lines, or from the imperfect application of principles and methods along other lines. The main rule always holds good no matter how ignorantly or imperfectly we may apply the laws of life on the right or the left. And therefore the successful individual variably receives, both from nature and from mankind, all kinds of means and opportunities to create for himself still greater success.”
“We realize that whenever an individual soul is beginning to give expression to the highest and best that may exist in body, mind or spirit, that soul will naturally be placed in more perfect harmony with High Power, or Infinite Power; and we understand that the more perfectly we harmonize with Infinite Power, the more of that power we will receive and appropriate, as far as we are able to use and apply at the time.”
“Human nature is so constructed that it invariably follows the most successful; and circumstances are so constructed that the best opportunities invariably appear upon the pathway of those who have already made good. When we go deeper into the subject we find how the successful mind effects the forces of his own mind, arousing them all to more successful effort, and in the same way attracts valuable forces from nature, thereby steadily in-creasing his own power and his own capacity, so that he may achieve on a much larger scale in the future.”
“All great things must be developed first in the within; so, therefore, we must not judge according to appearances. There is many a mind today who has thus far accomplished practically nothing, externally speaking, but who has been in preparation, internally speaking, for a wonderful work, and will be heard from in the very near future. When we understand the psychology of success we become fully convinced of the fact that when the mind has been trained within itself for successful action, that mind can positively succeed in the practical world, regardless of what the past or the present may indicate. The same is true of the mind that may have failed externally any number of times; for the fact is, that even though such a mind did not meet success along other lines, still, if success does exist in an active sense in the mind itself, that mind will, sooner or later, find a channel of expression in the external world, where wonderful success will positively follow.”
“In our study of success, we have looked largely upon success as an external process, something to be achieved on the outside through the use of purely external elements, forces and methods. We have been in the habit of saying that, “This is the way to do business; this is the way to accomplish things in this place, or in that place;” and we have become so accustomed to such ideas that we overlook, almost entirely, the real power of success and the real source of an ever-increasing success.”
You can buy the book from here.
