CHAPTER 2
Purpose and Personal Power
There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.
—Orison Swett Marden
The development of unshakable self-confidence will open up such possibilities for you as you cannot now imagine. You will be able to dream bigger dreams, set bigger goals, make greater commitments and plunge into life more wholeheartedly than you ever have before.
Self-confidence is the hinge on which the gate of individual achievement turns. When your self-confidence becomes unlimited, you will be able to realize more of your potential than you could under any other circumstances.
More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle wrote that “Happiness is a condition. It is not something that is achieved by pursuing it directly, but rather comes as a result of our engaging in purposeful activities.”
The Law of Indirect Effort
In a way, this is a restatement of the law of indirect effort. This law states that almost everything we get in life involving people and emotional experiences comes to us more indirectly rather than directly. They come to us as a result of doing something else.
For example, if we pursue happiness directly, it eludes us. However, if we get busy doing something that is really important to us and begin to make real progress in the direction of our dreams and aspirations, we find ourselves feeling very happy indeed.
Self-confidence is also subject to the law of indirect ...
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