russia has launched a full-scale war in Ukraine! Headway asks you to donate to the charity fund to protect Ukraine and the world’s peace.

Support Ukraine

logo

Is Headway the right choice for you? Take the quiz and discover!

Start the quiz
library / 
book
4.6 (16593 reviews)

Summary of The Power of Positive Thinking 

Short summary

Do you believe that anything need not defeat you, that you can have peace of mind, improved health, and a limitless flow of energy? Do you believe you can live a life full of joy and satisfaction? In “The Power of Positive Thinking” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale seeks to help you understand and believe that these things are possible. Thanks to this phenomenal international bestseller, millions of people all over the world have been able to achieve fulfillment in their lives through Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s powerful message of faith and motivation. In this summary, you will learn how to achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life through the ever potent power of faith. You will discover how you can energize your life — and give yourself the initiative needed to achieve your dreams and hopes. You’ll learn how to take control of your circumstances, believe in yourself, and achieve a peaceful, relaxed life. "I certainly do not ignore or minimize the hardships and tragedies of the world, but neither do I allow them to dominate." ~ Vincent Norman Peale

Key points

1

Having strong confidence in your own abilities is the key to living a successful life

If you want to live a happy, successful life, you must believe in yourself — you need to trust your own abilities. Without sound self-confidence, it is impossible to achieve success.
Self-confidence leads to self-realization and triumphant accomplishment, while a sense of inadequacy and inferiority interferes with the attainment of one’s hopes.
There are many people out there who suffer from a deep sense of inadequacy and doubt their own ability to grasp opportunities or to meet responsibilities. Deep down, they are scared and shrink from life. Wherever they are, they are always plagued by the ominous fear that something bad is going to happen. These people end up settling for less in life just because they don’t believe that they have it in them to be what they want to be.

In a study, some 600 college students were asked to state their most difficult personal problem. 75% listed lack of confidence as their biggest problem. It is safe to assume that the same large proportion is true of the general population.

Millions of people in the world go crawling through life on all fours, defeated and afraid. And in most situations, such frustration of power is absolutely unnecessary. It can be overcome when proper steps are taken. You can develop creative, justified faith in yourself.

According to Norman Vincent Peale, the key to eliminating inferiority-complex — profound self-doubt — is to develop tremendous faith in God. By doing this, you will invariably develop a humble yet soundly realistic faith in yourself. So, how do you acquire this dynamic faith? By prayer, by reading a meditation on the scripture, and by practicing its faith techniques.

Here are some simple, workable rules that can help you practice faith and consequently overcome attitudes of inadequacy.

First, create a vivid mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold the picture with utmost tenacity and never allow it to fade. Ultimately, your mind will seek to develop this picture.

Second, whenever a thought of negativity regarding your personal powers starts to come to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to eliminate it.

Next, say this affirmation out loud: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). Repeat it at least 10 times every day.

Finally, remind yourself that God is with you, and you cannot be defeated by anyone or anything. Have an unwavering faith that you now receive power from Him.
2

Stay energized by getting in sync with the Divine rhythm

Our state of mind has a tremendous influence on our physical well-being. If you hold in your mind, with no doubt, that you are tired, every nerve and muscle in your body accepts that fact and acts accordingly. In a similar vein, you can keep on at an activity indefinitely if your mind is intensely interested in it.
book
Continue reading with Headway app
Continue the summary
Other chapters are waiting for you in the app
3

Whether you are happy or you’re not is totally up to you

4

Your expectations determine what you get out of life and what you make of yourself

5

Adopting a mindset that doesn’t believe in defeat is essential to living a triumphant life

6

You can turn your situation around by changing your thoughts

7

Conclusion

Buy full book on AmazonContinue the summary

What is The Power of Positive Thinking about?

Who should read The Power of Positive Thinking

Topics in The Power of Positive Thinking

book
book

Enjoy summarized nonfiction bestsellers

Grasp the book’s key ideas in less than 15 minutes

Get started

Get new knowledge easily

Let’s check how many titles you can finish in a month with Headway! Tell us how much time you’d like to spend on reading:

2 min/day
5 min/day
10 min/day
15 min/day
20 min/day
30 min/day
45 min/day
4 titles/month
10 titles/month
20 titles/month
30 titles/month
40 titles/month
60 titles/month
90 titles/month
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
4 titles/month
10 titles/month
20 titles/month
30 titles/month
40 titles/month
60 titles/month
90 titles/month
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

Join 30+ million learners around the world

60K5 reviews on App Store and Google Play
icon

Everything you need to be motivate, to learn & to self improves is all here. I actually do appreciate the reminders because otherwise this wouldn’t work for me. Thank you

icon

sandypantalones

icon

Headway is the answer! No longer accumulating books I never read. With Headway, I initially chose the areas important to me such as productivity, time management, etc., and each day I'm provided several book summaries from which I devote 20 minutes or more each day reading. All of this on my phone! My life has improved with Headway. Truly my most useful app.

icon

Carol Slinker

icon

An excellent concept, executed well. Headway can help you retain what you've read while introducing you to the essential core of new information. It's an easier way to stay inspired, and to be reminded of the mental tools you've learned

icon

Fuse Henry

icon

In today’s world, we rarely have time. Between our jobs, our families are social obligations, when do we have time to grow and develop ourselves? Headway is an excellent app that gives you that time it gives you those little snippets of information that you need to direct your focus in on your life. Headway gives you a chance to find out the meat of a book that you might want to purchase and read or listen to in-depth without wasting a lot of time trying to figure out is this book for me? I highly recommend the app.

icon

sleepy sprite

icon

The selections are on point and the summaries are excellent! I listen while I walk my pup 🐶 and have in turn, ordered a few selections! REALLY loving the app, it’s layout, daily selections and features!

icon

JuicyBaby328

icon

I've gotten multiple books out of the library with the intent to read them, but always have a hard time finding the time. This app has helped me finally be able to get to them. Summarized, yes, and thank goodness too! Just short enough I can finish one on my way picking kids up from school/practice, or while I'm cooking dinner. I can't wait to listen to them over the summer when we visit the beach!

icon

Jillian Emmert

icon

It amazed me! There is the possibility to highlight the most important points of each book and instantly translate unfamiliar vocabulary. With the ability to review the searched words. It's a great way to learn more about English as well. The price is great.

icon

Fiamma

icon

I’m enjoying what I’m learning on headway.each summary comes with quotes at the end which you can save to help you remember key points. You can listen or read, I’ve found that reading puts me to sleep before I can finish but the listening feature keeps me engaged and I can finish in a brief amount of time if not one session.

icon

Epic waters

icon

The app it’s so easy to use. I use it while driving or cooking and is great. I love the fact that the chapters are short, so you can finish them quickly. Very knowledgeable.

icon

kathytaveras

icon

The best app for self development.It helps to keep pace with your reading and also suggests the kind of reading material you might like.It is fun as you can switch from reading to listening and vice-versa as per your convenience .Just get started and partake of the treasure of knowledge at your fingertips .I feel lucky to have spotted the app.It has helped me become self-disciplined and much better informed.The audio track is excellent.

icon

anita yadav

icon

Exactly what I need! I always have booklist to read, but can't committed enough to finish/start bc of too much pages. Headway is really helpful and concise with their summary. What I love the most is that the essence of the book is well crafted, so I don't only read the key points, but also there's the story and how personality of the author still well shown through the summary. Well done!

icon

Feninda Amalia

icon

This is outstanding best app ever and honestly whoever came up with is my app is an absolute genius kudos my gratitude definitely goes out and I’m only on my first week free trial and I’m certainly going to purchase this app annually. Now that I have it, I can’t even imagine living without it.

icon

Darlin NIKKIDOLL0923