Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Tuesday, February 5, 1957

When you start out your day, do you hope it will be successful? "Of course I do!" You say. Well – that isn't the right answer. 

You can do better than that. How? Believe your day will be successful. You may not have any idea right at this moment how important that is. You may even wonder what affect your belief about it could possibly have on your day. But it will go to work for you just the same. 

You see — merely wishing or hoping your day will go well is half doubting. It isn't good enough. A wish or a hope admits the possibility of failure as much as it does the possibility of success. Just quietly know your day will be happy and productive. Expect it. And act according to that belief! That's important. We don't really believe a thing, you know, unless we have enough faith in it to act as though it were true. 

A woman, for example may say indignantly, "Do I trust my husband? Of course I trust him! What a thing to ask. When my husband tells me he has to work late at the office, don't you think I believe him? What an idea!" But as soon as you go out the door, she rushes to her telephone to call his office to make sure he really is there. That's what I mean by not acting according to what we say we believe. Very often we act in a way that proves we don't really believe it. A man who is out of a job may, on the surface, put on a great show of optimism and tell you he just knows today is the day. This is it. Someone is sure to call him today and have him come in to talk about a job. He sounds almost convincing. I say "almost" because the tip off that he doesn't really mean a word he is saying is this: he spends the rest of the morning lying around the house in his old clothes and with a days growth of beard on his face. If he were really expecting to go to an appointment before the day is over, he’d be showered, shaved, and dressed. He doesn't really believe it. If he did, he’d be acting according to that belief. 

Well I've asked you to believe, when you start your day, that it's going to be successful for you. Expect it to be. See yourself being successful. Visualize it in your mind. 

Does that seem weird to you? It isn't. It's one of the most important bits of knowledge about your mind that psychology has discovered so far. A psychiatrist, who of course is an M.D., put it into these words: “Our subconscious minds tend to bring into being, and act consistently with, the mental pictures we have of ourselves… change your mental picture of yourself and you will change your life" end of quotation.