Positive belief is an ancient concept. In the Scriptures we read: According to your belief is it done to you. I used to wonder about that. According to your belief in what? Now I understand it to mean according to your belief in yourself. Success, and failure, begin with your own beliefs.

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius believed that “our lives are what our thoughts make of it.” More recently, Frank Lloyd Wright said: “The thing always happens that you believe in. And the belief is a thing that makes it happen. And I think nothing will happen until you thoroughly and deeply believe in it.”

I tell my patients that if they fill their heads with negations, they cannot help but be failures: failureson the job, in personal relationships and in health. But if they prime themselves with positive thinking, affirmations and visualizations, they are well along the road to success.

Put a positive goal in your mind; see it in your mind’s eye. Think of yourself as having already achieved the goal. Feel those winning feelings. Now you’re ready to be successful.

Make affirmations and visualization a daily habit. You can use some of the affirmations in this chapter, or devise your own. Say your affirmations 50, 100 times a day—you can’t overdo it. As you say them, visualize yourself being or doing what you want to do or be. Write your affirmations on a card and carry it with you. Look at that card often, and repeat your affirmations silently. You can say your affirmations any time, any place. While driving through the inevitable traffic on the way to the office, I say my affirmation on serenity.

Repeat your affirmations in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. Say them quietly, with feeling; say them loudly, with enthusiasm. I like to repeat my affirmations over and over in my head when I’m exercising. It doesn’t matter when or where you do them, as long as you mean them!

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