Hey guys. I was reading a book titled 21 Days To Unlimited Power With People by James K. Van Fleet and came across this section that proved useful to me. I took all the information and rewrote it:
You are a long way from achieving your goals unless you possess this one most important and decisive attribute: the courage to act.
The ability to see what needs to be done, the wisdom to draw up magnificent plans and orders to execute your decisions will be of no use to you unless you have the courage to act when action is required.
How do you go about developing this kind of courage? I know of only one way, and that is do the thing you fear, to do so you will have the power to do it. I consider this concept to be one of the most valuable ideas you can gain, so I want to give you several examples of exactly how others have made this principle work to gain courage themselves. Then you can put this idea into practice with the one of act as if it were impossible to fail, you will gain more unlimitd power with people than you ever thought possible.
If you do the thing you fear to do, you will gain the power to do it. If you do not do the thing you fear to do, you will never gain the power to do it. It is just that simple. For instance, if you want to be a painter, you must first paint. There is no other way to become an artist. You can dream all day long about how famous and successful you could be as a painter, but until you actually pick up the brush and start painting, you will never gain the power to do it.
If you want to be a writer, then you must write. If you want to be an expert swimmer, then you must swim. The same thing can be said about golf, baseball, skiing, sales, science, medicine, music, management, and on and on. You must make the first move yourself. Until you do that, you will never gain the power to do anything.
So if there do happen to be certain things in your life that you want to do, but you dread or fear to do them, then force yourself to do these things until you no longer fear them. Making a decision and putting it into effect could be only one of the things you fear to do. This concept could improve your life in a great many other ways than gaining unlimited power with people.
When you are no longer afraid to do what you formerly feared to do, then you will have complete control over that fear. That is the real definition of courage: the control of fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, as so many people think. Courage is the control of fear. Every battlefield hero, including Congressional Medal of Honor winners, will tell you that.
For instance, speaking in public strikes fear in the heart of nearly everyone at first. I know I nearly panicked the first time I stood up in front of an audience. My throat was dry, my voice was raspy, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was pounding.
But after I spoke the first sentence, I felt better. As I continued to speak, my fears began to fade away. Confidence came back to me, for as soon as I did the thing I feared to do, I gained the power to do it.
Maggie Smith, a popular author and lecturer, says she used to suffer untold agonies before every one of her talks. But gradually her fear lessened as she kpt on speaking, until she finally completely overpowered it, simply by doing the thing she feared to do. Last year she spoke nearly 150 times, and she said her only regret was that the year was only 365 days long.
EVEN ANIMALS AND BIRDS USE THIS PROCEDURE. Doing the thing you fear to do so you can gain the power to do it is not really man's idea alone. It is a law of nature. For instance, I've watched birds fly, and I always figured it was automatic for them to do so. But that is not true at all. Last year a robin built a nest in the tree just outside my study window. I watched the growth of this little family, from the eggs in the nest until the day that four small heads popped up demanding to be fed. Then, one by one, the mother nudged her babies off into the air when the right time came.
But one little fellow was so afraid he couldn't fly. It took him nearly a week longer than the others. He would peer over the side of the nest and then cringe down in it in abject fear. Finally, the mother had no choice but to force him out of the nest. And when she did, he suddenly flapped his wings and flew awkwardly away.
No one had taught him how to fly. Nature had given him the instinct to do it. But he had to fly first before he had the power to do it, for that is also nature's way of doing things. He had to do the thing he feared to do so he could gain the power to do it.
The same thing applies to people. Life will improve for you, too, not only in gaining unlimited power with people, but also in all other areas of your life if you will remember and practice this one simple idea: Do the thing you fear and you will have the power to do it. It is just that simple.
You are a long way from achieving your goals unless you possess this one most important and decisive attribute: the courage to act.
The ability to see what needs to be done, the wisdom to draw up magnificent plans and orders to execute your decisions will be of no use to you unless you have the courage to act when action is required.
How do you go about developing this kind of courage? I know of only one way, and that is do the thing you fear, to do so you will have the power to do it. I consider this concept to be one of the most valuable ideas you can gain, so I want to give you several examples of exactly how others have made this principle work to gain courage themselves. Then you can put this idea into practice with the one of act as if it were impossible to fail, you will gain more unlimitd power with people than you ever thought possible.
If you do the thing you fear to do, you will gain the power to do it. If you do not do the thing you fear to do, you will never gain the power to do it. It is just that simple. For instance, if you want to be a painter, you must first paint. There is no other way to become an artist. You can dream all day long about how famous and successful you could be as a painter, but until you actually pick up the brush and start painting, you will never gain the power to do it.
If you want to be a writer, then you must write. If you want to be an expert swimmer, then you must swim. The same thing can be said about golf, baseball, skiing, sales, science, medicine, music, management, and on and on. You must make the first move yourself. Until you do that, you will never gain the power to do anything.
So if there do happen to be certain things in your life that you want to do, but you dread or fear to do them, then force yourself to do these things until you no longer fear them. Making a decision and putting it into effect could be only one of the things you fear to do. This concept could improve your life in a great many other ways than gaining unlimited power with people.
When you are no longer afraid to do what you formerly feared to do, then you will have complete control over that fear. That is the real definition of courage: the control of fear. Courage is not the absence of fear, as so many people think. Courage is the control of fear. Every battlefield hero, including Congressional Medal of Honor winners, will tell you that.
For instance, speaking in public strikes fear in the heart of nearly everyone at first. I know I nearly panicked the first time I stood up in front of an audience. My throat was dry, my voice was raspy, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was pounding.
But after I spoke the first sentence, I felt better. As I continued to speak, my fears began to fade away. Confidence came back to me, for as soon as I did the thing I feared to do, I gained the power to do it.
Maggie Smith, a popular author and lecturer, says she used to suffer untold agonies before every one of her talks. But gradually her fear lessened as she kpt on speaking, until she finally completely overpowered it, simply by doing the thing she feared to do. Last year she spoke nearly 150 times, and she said her only regret was that the year was only 365 days long.
EVEN ANIMALS AND BIRDS USE THIS PROCEDURE. Doing the thing you fear to do so you can gain the power to do it is not really man's idea alone. It is a law of nature. For instance, I've watched birds fly, and I always figured it was automatic for them to do so. But that is not true at all. Last year a robin built a nest in the tree just outside my study window. I watched the growth of this little family, from the eggs in the nest until the day that four small heads popped up demanding to be fed. Then, one by one, the mother nudged her babies off into the air when the right time came.
But one little fellow was so afraid he couldn't fly. It took him nearly a week longer than the others. He would peer over the side of the nest and then cringe down in it in abject fear. Finally, the mother had no choice but to force him out of the nest. And when she did, he suddenly flapped his wings and flew awkwardly away.
No one had taught him how to fly. Nature had given him the instinct to do it. But he had to fly first before he had the power to do it, for that is also nature's way of doing things. He had to do the thing he feared to do so he could gain the power to do it.
The same thing applies to people. Life will improve for you, too, not only in gaining unlimited power with people, but also in all other areas of your life if you will remember and practice this one simple idea: Do the thing you fear and you will have the power to do it. It is just that simple.
