Don’t allow multitude of suppressive influences convince you that you are inadequate for big things. Create a challenging situation where you can grow and develop, something to keep you on your toes. Don’t allow a set of fears: fear of failure, fear of social disapproval, fear of insecurity, fear of losing what you already have developed in your mind. Many talented, intelligent people have had to crawl through life because they are afraid to stand up and run.

Be a person that lives and breathes success, that finds a life stimulating, rewarding, worthwhile. Look forward to each new day, each new encounter with other people, as adventures to be lived fully. Fight off suppressive influences of our environment. Develop a defense against people who want to convince you that you can’t do it. Accept negative advice only as a challenge to prove that you can do it.

Like John Mason wrote in his book, Overcoming an Enemy Called Average that we should never tell a child that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting for someone foolish enough to believe it could be done so that He (God) could empower the person to accomplish it. Whenever a man accepts in his mind the impossibility of a task, his mind sends signals all around his physical make to retire. To achieve the incredible, you must attempt the impossible. There was a teacher who alongside the pupils in his class conducted a mock funeral service in the courtyard of the school for the word  “CAN’T”. From that day on all the pupils never accept “Can’t” as an option. Year’s later statistics of those pupils showed them as highly successful and prominent people in the society.

Recently I was shocked to learn that in some schools kids were being separated based on IQ level in classes. The not so bright are in “D” classes while the bright ones are in “A” classes or whatever names the school chose to called them. This is absolutely wrong. Those kids are in their formative age and the wrong input could demoralize them. The mind is a delicate thing. The future of such people may be gravely affected.

In this modern age, the narrow individual hasn’t much future. Responsibility and position of importance gravitate to the person who is able to see both sides. Associate with persons with real potential. Guard your psychological environment. The company you keep judges you. Fellow workers are nit all alike. Some are negative, others positive. Some work because they “have to,” others are ambitious and work for advancement. Some associates belittle everything the boss says or does, others are much more objective and realize they must be good followers before they can be good leaders. How we think is directly affected by the group we are in. Be sure you are in the flock that thinks right.

There are pitfalls to watch in your work environment. In every group, there are persons who secretly aware of their own inadequacies, want to stand in your way and prevent you from making progress. Many ambitious people have been laughed at, even threatened, because they tried to be more efficient and produce more. Some being jealous want to make you feel embarrassed because you want to move upward. Ignore such negative thinkers in you midst. For often the remarks made in your direction are not so personal as you might think. They are merely a projection of the speaker’s own feeling of failure and discouragement. Don’t let negative thinkers pull you down to their level. Let the slide by. Avoid gossips. Cling to people who think progressively, people who are interested in positive things, people who breathe encouragement into your plans and ideals. Move upward with them. You can do it, simply by thinking right.