The Power of Positive Thinking: A Practical Guide to Mastering the Problems of Everyday Living is a 1952 self-help book by Norman Vincent Peale.
It provides anecdotal "case histories" of positive thinking using a biblical approach, and practical instructions which were designed to help the reader achieve a permanent and optimistic attitude. These techniques usually involved affirmations and visualizations. Peale claimed that such techniques would give the reader a higher satisfaction and quality of life. The Power of Positive Thinking was negatively reviewed by scholars and health experts, but was popular among the general public and has sold well.
Norman Vincent Peale, born in 1898 in southwestern Ohio, graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and later received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in sacred theology from Boston University's School of Theology. Peale then attended Syracuse University where he received a Doctor of Divinity degree. After serving 10 years as a Methodist clergyman in New York, Peale became the pastor of New York City's Marble Collegiate Church where he stayed for 52 years, until his retirement in 1984.
Throughout Norman Vincent Peale career as a pastor, Peale wrote over 40 books, became a sought-after motivational speaker, started weekly radio and television shows, organized the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry, and co-founded the spiritual newsletter Guideposts with his wife, Ruth Stafford Peale
The Power of Positive Thinking was published in October 1952 and continues to be Peale's most widely read work. It was on the New York Times' best-sellers list for 186 weeks, 48 of which were spent in the No. 1 non-fiction spot. The book sold more than 5 million copies worldwide— 2.5 million from 1952 to 1956 — and was eventually translated into over 40 languages. Other books published by Peale around 1952 include The Art of Real Happiness, published in 1950, and Inspiring Messages for Daily Living, published in 1955.
The Power of Positive Thinking appeared at a time when Christian church attendance was drastically increasing, national views of spirituality, individuality, and religion were shifting, and the Cold War was a growing concern for many Americans. These factors, as well as Peale's growing popularity as a motivational public figure and the book's clear prose, propelled The Power of Positive Thinking into a self-help book still popular today.
- Picture yourself succeeding.
- Think a positive thought to drown out a negative thought.
- Minimize obstacles.
- Do not attempt to copy others.
- Repeat “If God be for us, who can be against us?” ten times every day.
- Work with a counselor.
- Repeat “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” ten times every day.
- Develop a strong self-respect.
- Affirm that you are in God's hands.
- Believe that you receive power from God.