“First of all, it is important to understand that failure feelings — fear, anxiety, lack of self-confidence — do not spring from some heavenly oracle. They are not written in the stars. They are not holy gospel. Nor are they intimations of a set and decided ‘fate’ which means that failure is decreed and decided.
They originate from your own mind. They are indicative only of attitudes of mind within you — not of external facts which are rigged against you. They mean only that you are underestimating your own abilities, overestimating and exaggerating the nature of the difficulty before you, and that you are reactivating memories of past failures rather than memories of past successes.
That is all they mean and all that they signify. They do not pertain to or represent the truth concerning future events, but only your own mental attitude about the future event. Knowing this, you are free to accept or reject these negative failure feelings; to obey them or take counsel of them, or to ignore their advice and go ahead.
For if we react to negative feelings aggressively and positively, they become challenges which can automatically arouse more power and more ability within us. We can gather additional strength within us if we react aggressively rather than passively. You can accept negative feelings as ‘challenges’ and perform even better!”
Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz M.D., pgs. 236 – 237.
