A young salesman who has mastered himself and also the secret of success recently wrote from the field:

“Yesterday it seemed as though everything was going against me. There appeared to be something the matter everywhere I called, and although I put up a most determined fight failure after failure met me, until very late in the evening. I had not then taken a single order, but I made up my mind that I could not go back to my boarding place until I had done a decent day’s work. It was this resolution that saved the day, for I took fifteen orders before I got home at nine o’clock. If I had given up to my discouragement I should simply have said to myself, ‘What’s the use? This day is gone and I might as well go home, take it easy, and make the best of it.’ But I said, ‘No, young man, you are not going to bed to-night until you have done a good day’s work.’

“Many a time such a resolution has saved me when, otherwise, I would have made a miserable showing. I just make up my mind that no matter what attractions come in my way, no matter what discouragements I meet, I will conquer before the night or I will stay up all night. I find that victory usually follows such a resolution.”

The prospect feels the influence of such a determination on the part of the salesman. We radiate our moods, our discouragement, or our courage. The man we approach feels what we feel, and when we approach him with the spirit of a conqueror, when we go to him with victory in our face, we generally win out.

A notably successful salesman says that he made his first great hit after overcoming a fit of deep discouragement, consequent on the loss of his position. When he got another place he said he started out the first morning with one word ringing in his mind, “Determination.” He resolved not to return without an order. He was determined to make that day a red letter day in his life, to show his new employer what was in him, to convince his prospects. He approached every one that day with the determination of victory uppermost in his mind.

“One man afterwards told me,” he said, “that I overwhelmed him with my dead-in-earnestness, won him by my determination.”

The power of the mind, whether favorable or unfavorable, is tremendous. When a man gives way to discouragement he loses his grip and begins to go down. The bottom seems to drop out of things, and everything helps him the way he is going. His thought connects him with all the thought currents of misfortune, poverty and failure. He attracts those things, for it is a psychological law that failure attracts failure, discouragement more discouragement, poverty more poverty. To a salesman discouragement is fatal, for when a man assumes the discouraged, failure attitude, he loses power and magnetism, there is nothing inspiring in him, and he not only loses confidence in himself but his fellow men also lose confidence in him. You will find it next to impossible to make a sale with a mind filled with discouragement, pessimistic, failure thoughts.

The exercise of a little will power is all that is necessary for the control of our moods, to change discouragement and depression into courage and hope.

We all know how quickly a child will work itself into a fearful spasm simply by beginning to pity itself. The more he indulges in self-pity, the louder and louder will he cry, until he completely upsets his mind and becomes hysterical.

When inclined to be blue and discouraged, men and women are like children. The temptation is to begin to pity ourselves, then we go on hanging up more dark pictures on the walls of the mind, until we have our whole mentality dressed in mourning. It is not very difficult at the beginning of a discouraged mood to shut it off by resolutely turning our minds in the opposite direction. Instead of adding to our depression by pitying ourselves the thing to do is to tear down the black flags, the hideous pictures, the gloomy visions of our imagination, to clear them all out of the mind, and let in sunlight and joy, peace and happiness. These will very quickly drive away the gloom and discouragement, and they are just as ready to enter our minds and to stay with us as their opposites, if we will only make room for them.

When you feel downhearted and mentally depressed; when, perhaps, business is dull and you begin to fear you won’t make any sales this trip, go somewhere where you can be alone and give yourself an audible self-treatment. If this is not possible, then give yourself a silent or mental one, the form in both cases may be the same. But the audible treatment is apt to be more effective, since the spoken word makes a deeper impression than that which is merely thought or passed through the mind.

Say to yourself something like this: “I am a child of God, I have a living, vital connection with the great Source and Sustainer of all things which nothing can sever. Therefore I have nothing to fear. I have strength and ability to do whatever it is necessary for me to do. I was made to be successful, to be happy. This is my birthright and nothing can rob me of it. I will succeed in everything I undertake to-day. I will be cheerful and happy. I am happy, because I was made for joy and gladness, not for gloom and sadness. They are foreign to my nature, and I will have nothing more to do with them.”

Just fill your mind with good, cheerful, uplifting thoughts and you will find that your feeling will quickly correspond with your mental attitude. After a few minutes of this auto-suggestive treatment you will be surprised at the complete transformation of your outlook. It is astonishing how we can brace ourselves up by auto-suggestion, replacing the distressing, blue, discouraging thoughts with cheerful, hopeful, optimistic thoughts.

There are men who are usually quite level-headed but who do the most foolish things when discouraged or suffering from the “blues,” acting under the influence of their moods, when the brain is clouded, inexact, uncertain in its processes, instead of clear, active, and well balanced.

Discouragement colors the judgment.

Whenever you see a person who has been unusually successful in any field, remember that he has usually thought himself into his position; his mental attitude and energy have created it; what he stands for in his community has come from his attitude toward life, toward his fellowmen, toward his vocation, toward himself. Above all else, it is the outcome of his self-faith, of his inward vision of himself; the result of his estimate of his powers and possibilities.

Self-depreciation is one of the characteristics of those suffering from the “blues.” Most of us do not encourage ourselves enough by optimistic thinking, by auto-suggestion.

If you are a victim of your moods, push right into the swim of things, and take an active part, as well as a real interest, in what is going on around you. Associate with people. Be glad and happy, and interest yourself in others. Keep your mind off yourself. Get away from yourself by entering with zest into the family plans, or the plans and pleasures of others about you.

The expelling power of a contrary emotion has a wonderful effect upon the mind. The cure for bad moods is to summon good ones to take their places in the thought and thus force them out.

I know of a woman who was prone to fits of the “blues,” who conquered them by forcing herself to sing bright, joyous songs, and to play lively, inspiring airs on the piano whenever she felt an “attack” coming on.

Do not let anybody or anything shake your faith that you can conquer all these enemies of your peace and happiness, and that you inherit an abundance of all that is good.

If we were properly trained in the psychology of mental chemistry, we could change the state of our mind as quickly as we can change our clothing. The simple fact, however, that two opposite thoughts or emotions cannot live together an instant gives us the key to the whole matter. Every sane person can control and guide his mind. He can choose his thoughts, and the good encouraging thought will neutralize the evil, depressing one. It is just a question of holding in the mind the antidote of the thought that is torturing us, robbing us of our birthright, of success and happiness.