"Change your thoughts and you change your life." -- Norman Vincent Peale
A Guide to Confident Living shows you how to release your inner powers to achieve confidence and contentment. Using accessible language, Dr. Peale helps you find the way to new energy that will actually revitalize your life. Here, he offers advice on how to: • free your inner powers • "talk out" your troubles • lose your inferiority complex • achieve a calm center for your life • practice the power of prayer • find freedom from fear and sorrow • attain marital, professional, and personal happiness
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) was a minister and author (most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".
Peale was born in Bowersville, Ohio. He graduated from Bellefontaine High School, Bellefontaine, Ohio. He has earned degrees at Ohio Wesleyan University (where he became a brother of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta) and Boston University School of Theology.
Raised as a Methodist and ordained as a Methodist minister in 1922, Peale changed his religious affiliation to the Reformed Church in America in 1932 and began a 52-year tenure as pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. During that time the church's membership grew from 600 to over 5000, and he became one of New York City's most famous preachers.
I guess Norman Vincent Peale is old-fashioned in this world now, but I think his ideas could definitely help people live thier lives happier. Simple, loving and trusting in God, changing patterns of thought. The world would be a much better place if everyone believed in and practiced the guidelines expressed here.
Ca să fiu sinceră, mă așteptam să fie abordat acest subiect la general, cu mici referințe la credință în mod special și la Biblie, dar, spre surprinderea mea, nu pot spune că nu mi-a plăcut cum a decurs lectura.
Din aproximativ 150 de pagini mi-au atras atenția câteva aspecte printre care și cuvintele lui William McFree: ”Lumea aparține entuziaștilor care știu să își păstreze calmul.”, la care autorul a mai adăugat ”Rămâneți entuziaști, dar țineți entuziasmul sub control”. Mi-a plăcut cum a fost scrisă cartea, fiecare capitol având câte un citat biblic imediat sub titlu, dar cum am spus mai sus, aș fi preferat ca subiectul încrederii să fie dezbătut pe larg, nu raportat strict la credința într-o divinitate. Sunt o persoană credincioasă, dar chiar și pentru mine, a fost puțin stresant să citesc unele pasaje ce aveau ca scop să-l facă pe cititor să creadă anume în ceea ce crede autorul (sau cel puțin așa am înțeles eu).
Nu cred că mi-a adus neapărat ceva nou, ci doar puțin mai multă motivație și pozitivitate sau chiar aprobare. Vreau să citez aici un pasaj care mi-a atras atenția și care a fost încheiat cu o frază pe care mi-am întipărit-o clar în minte: ”Este jalnic faptul că atât de mulți oameni, în special tineri, sunt atât de triști având senzația că se întâmplă ceva îngrozitor cu lumea actuală. Există o mulțime de lucruri greșite în lume, […] există ceva greșit cu toată lumea și cu toate lucrurile. Dar trebuie să nu uităm și ce este bun în lucruri.”
Am realizat de multe ori că preferăm să vedem partea negativă în orice situație, să ne plângem pentru ce nu merge bine și să ”judecăm cartea după copertă” cu orice ocazie. Ei bine, eu voi încerca să nu uit ce este bun, chiar dacă poate momentul respectiv are un singur aspect pozitiv, îmi voi îndrepta atenția spre el și voi învăța să fac asta de fiecare dată. Cred că această frază a fost cea mai importantă lecție dobândită din ”Despre încredere”.
Faptul că e o lectură relaxantă, ușoară și în același timp încărcată cu emoție mă face să sugerez mai departe acest titlu, nu unei anumite categorii în mod special, ci tuturor celor ce vor să încerce un alt gen de .. încredere. Închei printr-un citat de la acest autor, găsit într-o altă carte publicată la Curtea Veche (despre care promit să scriu în curând) și care sper să vă inspire: ”Schimbă-ți gândurile și-ți vei schimba lumea” -Norman Vincent Peale
Author has taken effort to put together valuable pieces of suggestion to counter various situations one might encounter in a lifetime, to wade through them.
There are couple of catches though, - Firstly, You have to put in the effort to practice what is in the book. - Secondly, each person might react to a situation differently, so what the author mentions in the book might hold relevance to some people while some people might generate their own inner energy out of sheer experience that they do not need to derive confidence, comfort from the writing or stuffs mentioned in the book.
I might find it hard to remember and recollect all of the instances examples mentioned in the book, but most of them I could relate to. I wish to revisit individual chapters may be at a later stage, provided I do not find my inner strength or energy.
Until then, Cheers, PS- This was my second attempt at this book.
A friend of mine offered me this book. The book contains 245 pages and 13 chapters. Sentences are simple and the book is easy to read. The book is a self-help book written by one American Priest from New York 45 years ago (in 1977). The whole 13 chapters are around how reading a Bible, going to Church, and having positive thoughts and faith in live can bring you to the good quality and happy life. The word ‘faith’ is almost in every chapter of the book. After so many self-help books written nowadays, from subconscious mind to Dr. Joe Spensa who is analysing brain, frequency of your emotions from Dr. Hawkins; this book is so trivial and repetitive. You cannot just like that change your thoughts, you need to understand them, understand the emotion and reaction that follows, maybe analyse your shadow, inner child, accept your emotions, and then you may start to see how to live better life. The use of affirmative sentences is nowadays more effective than just reading a Bible. We can create the life we want; we now know not to put ourselves wherever we can in a victim mode. The church is not anymore, the (only) solution to life changing events. This preaching is very shallow and dangerous. Avoid reading this book.
A guide to Confident Living by Dr. Peale is a self-help book which contains rules and ways to boost your confidence and contentment wrote in the 1920s (The Roaring Twenties of America, the best time in American history), Peale was a believer and his most work revolve around Christianity so does this book.
I really like the way Peale use word God (Christian scholar criticises him because his means of Belief is different than the hardcore religious leader), he constantly pinches "God" as "inner Belief or Powers"
Some points to know about what this book is all about:- How to free your inner powers "Talk out" your troubles How to deal with the inferiority complex.
What I don't like:- This book was a plan for people of that time so not gonna fully work for you, yes you can have some ideas but "1920s or 2020s" things change with time. This is a heavy book like you have to make notes, its hard to remember everything. Everyone might not react the way the author thinks because things change with time.
That's all from my side if you want I can write a detailed blog or short crips learning from this book. If you want, please let me know I would like to do that. 😊
Recommendations:- If you want to read some guide or Self-help you can go for this one but I prefer you to pick "The Power of Positive Thinking"
I had always heard of Norman Vincent Peale and his ''positive thinking'' but I hadn't realised that he was a minister. This book is a rehashing of common sense rules stuffed in a very Christian package. Lots of quotes, not only from the Bible, and anecdotes.
Dobra książka. Przypomina, że prawdziwe poczucie własnej wartości, niezależne od świata, opinii osób wokół nas, czy też błędnej opinii (zwykle przesdanie krytycznej) nas samych na własny temat - możemy czerpoć tylko z jednego Nieskończonego Źródła :)
I love everything I've read from Norman Vincent Peale. Very inspirational and grounding. He lays out a method of staying positive and strengthening your faith.
I have a hard cover copy I got at the second hand store. Prayer, affirmation, and meditation all help to restore confidence. Illuminated by a mountain of grace and revelation, religion will always remain a mystery.
That we can walk through this life with confidence and assurance that God is with us and has built into us the ability to draw and inward strength which will make us look at our problems in a positive way which is the first step in taking on those problems.
I own the paperback book, copyright date 1977, published by the Foundation for Christian Living.
This book tells us how, if we change our thoughts, we can change everything; How to forget failures and move ahead. More great advice from Norman Vincent Peale.
I can't remember clearly what I've read in this book since I read this in the late 90's. As far as I remember, it's like Readers Digest. I do remember 1 lesson and that is: "At the heart of the tornado/cyclone tearing up the sky and everything on its path is a place of central calm."