From “How to Be a Success” by Paramhansa Yogananda
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.
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It is not our passing thoughts or brilliant ideas but our everyday habits that control our lives.
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The bludgeon of circumstances may bleed you, but keep your head unbowed. Death in the attempt to succeed is success; refuse to harbor the consciousness of defeat.
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Remain ever calm within. Be even-minded. When working, be calmly active.
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Someday, you will know yourself to be subject no longer to the tides of destiny. Your strength will come from within; you will not depend on outer incentives of any kind for motivation.
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Make a little money and be satisfied with it by living a simple life and expressing your ideals, rather than have lots of money and worries without end.
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Most people reason that if they first have prosperity, then they can think of God, but you must have God first because He is what you need. If that consciousness comes, then you will have real happiness. God must be with you always. If you once have that great contact with God, then the prosperity of the universe will absolutely be at your feet.
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Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we have never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The saints and sages of India taught that there is such a power. They uncovered truths that we have overlooked or forgotten, and these truths will work for you, too, if you give them a fair trial.
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Your thoughts will inevitably bring you either to failure or to success—according to which thought is the strongest.
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Your success in life does not depend only upon natural ability; it also depends upon your determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance.
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When you are attuned with your soul, you will be able to think correctly about everything you do; if your thoughts or actions have gone astray, they can be realigned.
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When you can control your destiny by your will power, then you can do tremendous things.
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Unless you know how to transfer your attention from failure to success, from worry to calmness, from mental wanderings to concentration, from restlessness to peace, from peace to conscious divine bliss within—then all life’s labors have been in vain. If you have attained this control, then the purpose of life has been gloriously fulfilled.
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It is better to die struggling than to give up the struggle while there is still the possibility of accomplishing something more, for after death your struggles will soon be renewed in another life.
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You alone are responsible for yourself. Your friends and the world of activity will not answer for your deeds when the final reckoning comes.
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Most of us are inclined to assist ourselves, and to analyze others coldly, guided by our prejudices. We should reverse this by assisting others and coldly analyzing ourselves.
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It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas but your everyday habits that control your life.
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Since God is the source of all mental power and prosperity, do not will and act first, but contact God first and thus harness your will and activity to the right goal.
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To lead a successful life you must first have a dominant purpose. That purpose must be the right one for you, then all the powers of God will guide you in your plans and activities.
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Success must be measured by happiness—by your ability to remain in harmony with cosmic laws—rather than by health, prestige, or wealth.
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Money is not a curse. It is the manner in which you use money that is important.
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When wealth is lost, you have lost a little; when your health is lost, you have lost something; but when your peace is lost, all is lost.
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Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each instant. Practice the presence of peace. The more you do that, the more you will feel the presence of that power in your life.
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A man striving for permanent success must meditate every morning and night.
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Fear is destructive to the initiative, courage, judgment, common sense, and will power.
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All good work is God’s work, if you perform it with the divine consciousness.
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Destroy the false division between material and spiritual work.
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Unity can never come if there is selfishness in the heart.
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The whole world stands aside for the person who knows where he is going and is determined to get there.
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It isn’t what you own, but what you can acquire at will, that is real prosperity.
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The law of prosperity is not governed by the law of selfishness, but by the law of unselfishness.
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Make a little money and be satisfied with it by living a simple life and expressing your ideals, rather than make lots of money and have worries without end.
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Your engagement with business is important, but your appointment with serving others is more important, and your engagement with meditation, God, and Truth is most important.
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Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.
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Not all the people of the earth can become millionaires, but all people by real effort can regain their lost divinity and become sons of God.
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Always try once more, no matter how many times you have failed.
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Be what you want to be, not what others think you ought to be.
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What is initiative? It is the creative faculty within you, a spark of the Infinite Creator. It may give you the power to create something no one else has ever created. It urges you to do things in new ways.
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The accomplishments of a person with initiative are as spectacular as a shooting star.
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Cultivation of dynamic will should flower in attunement with the divine will.
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It is blessedness for yourself and others if you are happy.
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Swim in the ocean of vastness, peace, and limitless happiness beyond dreams — within yourself!
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Do not travel unknown roads, picking up new troubles.
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Real success means all things are at your command.
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The more you improve yourself, the more you can be a friend to all.
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When you make up your mind to do something, let the earth and sun fly away from you, but do not give up.
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Wake up! It is never too late to analyze what you are what your deep-secret tasks are, so that you can make yourself what you should be. You have talents and power that you have not used. You have all the power you need.
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There is nothing greater than the power of the mind.
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When you have done your best and think you can do no more, persevere one minute more in the race for success.
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Be in love with your present work, but don’t remain contented forever with what you are doing. You must progress and try to be the very best in your profession. You must express the limitless power in the soul in anything you take up. Every position you hold will be the stepping-stone to a higher one if you strive to climb upward. You must constantly create and produce new success and not become a business automaton.
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Perform little duties very well.
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Success comes to those who spend for God’s work with as much spontaneity and pleasure as they do themselves.
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Make service, rather than money your goal, and you will see the entire plan of your life change.
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Develop the creative thought of success every day after deep meditation.
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See the world as your home, and work for group or world prosperity.
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Various are the desires, but few have the power to accomplish what they wish.
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Let your heart be charged with God, your feet charged with God, your eyes charged with God.
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Extraordinary talent is not as necessary as unswerving purpose and unfailing effort.
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You must do something everyday that will satisfy the Cosmic Plan for which you were sent here. Most people are unhappy because they forget to harmonize their earthly, learned duty with the duties demanded by the Cosmic Plan. The Cosmic Plan demands that you satisfy your soul by including in your own happiness the happiness of the most needy ones.
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Every day try to help uplift physically, mentally, or spiritual suffering people, as you would help yourself or your family.
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Every thought is a channel through which the divine light is passing. Open your hearts that the Divine Flood may pass through you.
