Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have not goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.
Maxwell MaltzSkill in any performance whether it be in sports in playing the piano in conversation or in selling merchandise consists not in painfully and consciously thinking out each action as it is performed but in relaxing and letting the job do itself through you. Creative performance is spontaneous and ‘natural’ as opposed to self-conscious and studied.
Maxwell MaltzWhen you see a thing clearly in your mind, your creative "success mechanism" within you takes over and does the job much better than you could do it by conscious effort or "willpower.
Maxwell MaltzFunctionally, a man is somewhat like a bicycle. A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it's moving forward towards something.
Maxwell MaltzYour present negative beliefs were formed by thought PLUS feelings. Generate enough emotion, or deep feeling and your new thoughts and ideas will cancel them out.
Maxwell MaltzYour automatic creative mechanism is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve, you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than "you" ever could by conscious thought. "You" supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your automatic mechanism then supplies the means whereby.
Maxwell MaltzAnother cause of confusion, and the resulting feelings of nervousness, hurry, and anxiety, is the absurd habit of trying to do many things at one time.
Maxwell MaltzThe minute that we change our minds, and stop giving power to the past, the past with its mistakes loses power over us.
Maxwell MaltzDo not say to yourself, 'I am going to act this way tomorrow.' Just say to yourself - 'I am going to imagine myself acting this way NOW - for 30 minutes - today.'
Maxwell MaltzThe un-happiest of mortals is that man who insists upon reliving the past, over and over in imagination - continually criticizing himself for past mistakes - continually condemning himself for past sins.
Maxwell MaltzOur self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.
Maxwell MaltzYour automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you're stalled, “standing still”.
Maxwell MaltzYour nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a 'real' experience. In either case, it reacts automatically to information which you give to it from your forebrain. Your nervous system reacts appropriately to what you THINK or IMAGINE to be 'true.
Maxwell MaltzIf you wait until circumstances justify your thinking pleasant thoughts, you are likely to wait forever.
Maxwell MaltzWhat is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live - with your self-respect alive and growing.
Maxwell MaltzDevelop an enthusiasm for life, create a need for more life, and you will receive more life.
Maxwell MaltzRealizing that our actions, feelings and behaviour are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the level that psychology has always needed for changing personality.
Maxwell MaltzSee yourself reacting to threats, not by running away or evading them, but by meeting them, dealing with them, grappling with them in an aggressive intelligent manner.
Maxwell MaltzYou are not your mistakes. Just because you have done something stupid does not make you stupid.
Maxwell MaltzWe are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.
Maxwell MaltzWe must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.
Maxwell MaltzClose scrutiny will show that most of these everyday socalled “crisis situations” are not life-or-death matters at all, but opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.
Maxwell MaltzA step in the wrong direction is better than staying on the spot all our life. Once you're moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you're standing still.
Maxwell MaltzIt is the job of conscious rational thought to decide what you want, select the goals you wish to achieve-and concentrate upon these rather than upon what you do not want. To spend time and effort concentrating upon what you do not want is not rational.
Maxwell MaltzWithin you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possilble. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs.
Maxwell MaltzWe simply must get it through our heads that holding a low opinion of ourselves is not a virtue, but a vice.
Maxwell MaltzYou may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.
Maxwell MaltzTrue success and true happiness not only go together but each other enhances the other.
Maxwell MaltzScience has now confirmed what philosophers, mystics, and other intuitive people have long declared: every human being has been literally "engineered for success" by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself.
Maxwell MaltzPlan all you want for the future. Prepare for it. But don't worry about how you will react tomorrow, or even five minutes from now. Your creative mechanism will react appropriately in the 'now' if you pay attention to what is happening now.
Maxwell MaltzThe biggest secret of self-esteem is this: Begin to appreciate other people more; show respect for any human being merely because he is a child of God and therefore a thing of value.
Maxwell Maltz