January 31

Theodore Roosevelt, a strong and tough-minded man, said: “I have often been afraid. But I would not give in to it. I simply acted as though I was not afraid and presently the fear disappeared.” Fear is afraid itself and backs down when you stand up to it.

January 30

The controlled person is a powerful person. He who always keeps his head will always get ahead. Edwin Markham said, “At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky is a place of central calm.” The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.

January 29

Do not exclusively say your prayers in the form of asking God for something. The prayer of thanksgiving is much more powerful. Name all the fine things you possess, all the wonderful things that have happened to you, and thank God for them. Make that your prayer.

January 28

The famous Olympic champion Jesse Owens said that four words made him: Determination. Dedication. Discipline. Attitude.

January 27

There is a three-point program for doing something with yourself. Find yourself, motivate yourself, commit yourself. These three will produce results.

January 26

Self-confidence and courage hinge on the kind of thoughts you think. Nurture negative thoughts over a long period of time and you are going to get negative results. Your subconscious is very accommodating. It will send up to you exactly what you send down to it. Keep on sending it fear and self-inadequacy thoughts and that is what it will feed back to you. Take charge of your mind and begin to fill it with healthy, positive, and courageous thoughts.

January 25

Yesterday ended last night. Every day is a new beginning. Learn the skill of forgetting. And move on.

January 24

Work and live enthusiastically. Take successes gratefully. Face failures phlegmatically—that is, with a “so what?” attitude. And aim to take life as it comes, philosophically.

January 23

Don't knock yourself out trying to compete with others. Build yourself up by competing with yourself. Always keep on surpassing yourself.

January 22

A whimsical old preacher, speaking on a familiar text, said, “And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is common sense.”

January 21

A man who had suffered a succession of devastating blows said something I liked: “I came through because I discovered a comeback quality had been built into me.”

January 20

Said William James, “Believe that you possess significant reserves of health, energy, and endurance, and your belief will help create the fact.”

January 19

The best of all ways to get your mind off your own troubles is to try to help someone else with theirs. As an old Chinese proverb says, “When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.”

January 18

You can do amazing things if you have strong faith, deep desire, and just hang in there.

January 17

Attitudes are more important than facts. Certainly, you can't ignore a fact, but the attitude with which you approach it is all-important. The secret of life isn't what happens to you but what you do with what happens to you.

January 16

The “as if” principle works. Act “as if” you were not afraid and you will become courageous, “as if” you could and you'll find that you can. Act “as if” you like a person and you'll find a friendship.

January 15

Obviously, he was a happy man. He was Joe of Joe's Place, a little lunch counter I found one night. There were about a dozen stools occupied, for the most part by elderly men and a couple of older women from the neighborhood.

He set a steaming bowl of soup before an old man whose hands shook. “Mamie made it special for you, Mr. Jones.” One elderly and rather stumbling lady started to go out the door. “Be careful, Mrs. Hudson, the cars go pretty fast out there. And, oh yes, look at the full moon over the river. It's mighty pretty tonight.” I sat there thinking that Joe was happy because he really loves people.

January 14

At one time I lived in upstate New York, where the winters are quite cold. And the roads would freeze and melt and freeze again. Come springtime, they were pretty badly broken up and rutted. One early April day, I came to a bad stretch of road where someone had put up a handmade sign: “Choose your rut well. You'll be in it for the next twenty-five miles.” Pretty good idea to get into the right rut, isn’t it?

January 13

My college classmate Judson Sayre started with nothing and became one of the most successful salesmen in our country. At dinner, in his apartment on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, we got to talking about having a great day – for he was expert at it. “Come look at my mirror,” he said. He had pasted a sign there which read:

Want a great day?

Believe a great day

Pray a great day

Deserve a great day

Take God with you for a great day

Get going and make it a great day

January 12

The place was Korea, the hour midnight. It was bitter cold, the temperature below zero. A big battle was building for the morning. A burly U.S. marine was leaning against a tank eating cold beans out of a can with a penknife. A newspaper correspondent watching him was moved to propound a philosophical question: “Look,” he said, “if I were God and could give you what you wanted most, what would you ask for?” The marine dug out another penknife of beans, thought reflectively, then said, “I would ask for tomorrow.” Perhaps so would we all – a great tomorrow.

January 11

George Reeves was a huge man, 6 feet 2, weighing 240 pounds. He was my teacher in the fifth grade. In class, he would suddenly shout, “Silence.” Then he would print in big letters on the blackboard the word CAN'T. Turning to the class, he would demand, “And now what shall l do?”

Knowing what he wanted, we chanted back, “Knock the T off the CAN’T.” With a sweeping gesture, he would erase it, leaving the word CAN. Dusting the chalk from his fingers, he would say, “Let that be a lesson to you—you can if you think you can.”

January 10

I shall never forget Ralph Rockwell. He was the farmer on our place in the country. Ralph was a New Englander of the old school, always caring for the place as though it were his own. He said to me once, when I was presuming to give him advice: “Tell you what, Dr. Peale, you do the preaching. I'll do the farming.” It is good to remember to take advice as well as give it.

January 9

Once, when I felt I had done an especially poor job in the pulpit on a Sunday morning, forgetting the best things I had to say and saying the poorest things, I was pretty discouraged. An old preacher, a polished orator in his day, patted me on the back. “Don't let it bother you, son,” he said consolingly. “Forget it. The congregation will, and you might as well make it unanimous.”

January 8

As an emotion, anger is always hot. To reduce an emotion, cool it. Some people count to ten, but perhaps the first ten words of the Lord’s Prayer will work even better: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9). Say that ten times and anger will lose its power.

January 7

Fear can infect us early in life until eventually it cuts a deep groove of apprehension in all our thinking. To counteract it, let faith, hope, and courage enter your thinking. Fear is strong, but faith is stronger yet. The Bible tells us,

. . . And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not . . .” (Revelation 1:17)

His hand is always upon you, too.

January 6

At Dunkirk, the fate of the British nation hung upon getting the fighting men off the beaches and back to England. During the most difficult hour, a colonel rushed up to general Alexander, crying, “Our position is catastrophic!” The general replied: “Colonel, I don’t understand big words. Just get busy and get those men out of here!” That’s the kind of thinking needed in crises. Do the simple necessary.