Book SummaryThe Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Power of Positive Thinking

In The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale says there is no problem or obstacle you can’t overcome with faith, positive thinking, and prayer. This self-help classic outlines the practical techniques of applied Christianity to help you take control of the events in your life rather than be directed by them. As a result of these methods, Peale says you can enjoy better relationships, a greater sense of well-being, robust health and energy, and a stronger sense of purpose in the world.

Peale was a Reformed minister who served as the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City from 1932-1984. He was also an influential author and public speaker, largely because of The Power of Positive Thinking's success.

Peale held a Master of Arts degree in Social Ethics from Boston University, and a Doctor of Divinity degree from Syracuse University.

While Peale—who was a Christian minister—drew upon his faith for inspiration and strength, you don’t have to be Christian yourself to benefit from The Power of Positive Thinking.

In many ways, The Power of Positive Thinking is comparable to Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was also founded based on Christian teachings and beliefs, but it has expanded to welcome people of all faiths, as well as those who don’t follow any religion.

To do so, AA reframed God and “Higher Power” (both phrases are prominent in the Big Book) to mean any power that you accept as greater than yourself.

Peale’s ideas fall into three categories:

• Faith (underlying beliefs)
• Positive Thinking (mindset)
• Practices (good habits and practical techniques)

Those three categories form the foundation of his system for living a rich, fulfilling life and accomplishing your goals. We’ll begin with Faith, as your underlying beliefs are the basis for everything you do. Next, we’ll discuss Positive Thinking, which is about actively keeping yourself in a healthy, happy, and productive mindframe. Finally, we’ll move on to specific, practical techniques that Peale suggests for putting his ideas into practice.

In this guide, we’ll compare and contrast Peale’s Christianity-based ideas with those found in other schools of thought, both religious and secular. Additionally, we’ll examine ways to put Peale’s suggestions into practice, regardless of your personal faith (or lack of it).

Part 1: Faith

The first part of Peale’s system is Faith—meaning both faith in the religious sense, and faith in yourself. Peale believes that both types of faith are necessary in order to achieve your goals and live your best life.

Have Faith in Yourself

Peale says that faith in yourself is important to a happy and successful life. Self-confidence leads to achievement and self-realization, helping you release your inner power.

However, Peale adds, not everyone has the power to believe in themselves. Too many people are hampered by feelings of inadequacy, often called an “inferiority complex.” To build up self-confidence, he suggests that you understand the root causes of your sense of inferiority and develop faith in yourself through prayer. He also suggests that you discipline your thoughts by filling your mind with “confidence concepts:” positive affirmations that remind you of your own worth and importance. Finally, he advises you to keep an optimistic attitude in the face of difficulties and remember that God is with you.

(Shortform note: Many people find the root causes of their self-esteem issues in their childhood experiences, such as overly critical parents or poor performance in school. However, the same problems can come from an abusive partner, life events like divorce and unemployment, or ongoing medical issues, just to give a few examples.)

Restore Health With Faith

Peale contends that faith can be a powerful factor in overcoming health obstacles. From his readers and listeners, Peale received numerous examples of healing in which the element of faith is present. In each of these instances, the best resources of medical and psychological science are used in combination with spiritual resources.

In the cases of faith-enhanced healing Peale investigated, he found certain factors to be present. First, the patient is willing to surrender their health into God’s hands. Second, they let go of sin and want their soul cleansed. Third, they believe in the combination of medical resources and the healing power of God. Fourth, they are willing to accept whatever answer God has for them. Finally, they have an unquestioning faith that God can heal.

A researcher’s review of scientific studies on faith healing didn’t reach any strong conclusions about its efficacy. Some of the studies showed that faith healing had positive impacts on health, others showed no effect at all, and a few even showed that faith healing had a negative impact on the patient. Furthermore, the author of the review noted that there are a lot of uncontrolled variables, which make the outcomes of any study on faith healing suspect at best.

However, Peale isn’t advocating for faith healing alone—he repeatedly says that faith power should be used alongside science-based medicine. Whether you believe in divine intervention or think that faith healing is just the placebo effect in action (recovering because...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Shortform Introduction

The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale, is a classic of the self-help genre. In it, Peale asserts that we can overcome any hardship and achieve any goal through optimism and faith in God.

About the Author

Norman Vincent Peale was a Reformed minister who served as the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City from 1932-1984. He was also an influential author and public speaker, largely because of The Power of Positive Thinking's success.

Peale was a close friend and advisor of former president Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.

Peale held a Master of Arts degree in Social Ethics from Boston University, and a Doctor of Divinity degree from Syracuse University.

Explore Peale’s Ideas:

Norman Vincent Peale passed away in 1993....

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Introduction: The Goal of This Book

Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking as a practical guide to help regular, everyday people live a happy, worthwhile life. In this book, he outlines a system intended to improve your life. He claims you will take control of the events in your life, rather than being directed by them. Your relationships will improve, you’ll become more popular, have a greater sense of well-being, better health, and an increased zest for life, and you will become more useful to the world and influential to other people.

Peale’s system is rooted in Christian teachings and focuses on faith, positive thinking, and specific practices you can use to improve your life. For this guide, we’ve divided his teachings among those three categories as follows:

Faith:

• Have faith in yourself
• Restore health with...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 1.1: Faith | Have Faith in Yourself

Much of The Power of Positive Thinking is about the importance of having faith in God. However, in this first chapter, Peale discusses the importance of having faith in yourself. He says that self-confidence is necessary for a happy and successful life because it helps you release your inner power—he’ll explain in later chapters how worry and anxiety impede the power of positive thinking.

However, Peale continues, not everyone has the necessary self-confidence to fully harness their power. Too many people are hampered by feelings of inadequacy, often called an “inferiority complex” or a lack of self-confidence. Inferiority complexes create barriers in our personalities, stopping us from achieving our full potential. They are often the result of emotional damage done to us in childhood, or may be the result of childhood circumstances.

(Shortform note: In the 1920s, Dr. Alfred Adler coined the term inferiority complex to...

Shortform Exercise: Deconstruct Your Inferiority Complex

Is something deep inside you holding you back?

Is there a particular area of life where you tend to lack self-confidence? What is it, and what’s a specific time it affected your life negatively?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 1.2: Restore Health With Faith

Faith, when understood and applied in the right manner, can be a powerful factor in overcoming health obstacles, according to Peale. One great surgeon who combined science with faith, Dr. Hans Finsterer, believed that the “unseen hand of God” helped in his surgeries. He felt that true progress in medicine would be made only when doctors became convinced of the importance of God's help in the treatment of patients.

There are many examples, backed by medical evidence, of the role of faith—in combination with medical science—in healing. Faith is the added element that boosts the efficacy of medicine.

Peale argues that faith is not used enough in modern treatments. He claims that faith can work miracles, but these miracles are actually the result of scientific principles.

A researcher’s review of scientific studies on faith healing didn’t reach any strong conclusions about its efficacy. Some of the studies showed that faith healing had positive impacts on health, others showed no effect at all, and a few even showed that faith healing had a negative impact on the patient. Furthermore, the author of the review...

Shortform Exercise: Be Healthy in Mind and Body

When medicine meets faith, healing can occur.

Do you currently have any health concerns? What do you think about Peale’s assertion that physical ailments are often tied to emotional issues such as guilt, fear or resentment? If so, what lingering negative feelings do you hold?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 1.3: Solve Your Problems With Faith

Problems are part of life—but with faith-based techniques, you can solve your problems in a manner that brings you the best outcome. This chapter explores some of Peale’s suggestions for how to tackle personal problems.

Put Your Problems in God’s Hands

Peale believes that putting your problems in God’s hands helps you solve them in the right way. Understand that the power to solve your problems is within you; having faith in God lets you find the clarity to work out solutions and create a plan of action.

Counterpoint: Responsibility vs. Blame

In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Manson says that it’s important to take responsibility for everything that happens in our lives. (Note that taking responsibility is not the same thing as taking blame—your current situation might not be your fault, but it’s still up to you to deal with it.) Manson would probably not agree with Peale’s suggestion that you leave everything in God’s hands.

However, personal responsibility and faith in God (or your Higher Power of choice) aren’t as incompatible as they seem. Even...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 2.1: Positive Thinking | Decide to Be Happy

The second part of Peale’s system for a good life is positive thinking: He believes that a positive mindset will allow us to take control of our lives and reach our goals.

Peale argues that we create our own happiness in this life, and we get to decide if we’re happy or unhappy. If you want to be unhappy, filled with fear, worry, resentment, and hate, you can choose unhappiness by going around complaining that things aren’t going your way. Even though bad things in life can and do happen, we can manufacture unhappiness by thinking unhappy thoughts and having unhappy attitudes.

However, Peale suggests that you choose happiness instead. He says every one of us can achieve happiness, if we want it and if we apply the right formula. For example, instead of telling yourself that things never go your way, you can focus on telling yourself that life is good.

(Shortform note: A 2020 study found that smiling—even faking a smile—can improve your mood and cause others to respond to you more positively. This...

Shortform Exercise: Develop the Happiness Habit

Choosing to be happy is in your power.

One way to develop the happiness habit is by thinking happy thoughts. Make a list of happy thoughts you can run through your mind throughout the day. Write them here.

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 2.2: Expect the Best and Get the Best

Peale promises that when you expect the best in life, you get the best. When you expect the worst, that’s what you get. When you change your mental habits to a state of constant belief instead of doubt, everything becomes possible.

Peale contends that expecting the best and believing it’s possible triggers the Law of Attraction, and you draw the best to you. But when you expect the worst, you’re actually releasing the power of repulsion—pushing away the best outcome.

Another possible explanation for the Law of Attraction is that people who expect good outcomes are simply better prepared for them, compared to people who don’t think a good outcome is possible.

For example, a 10-year study of “luck” concluded that optimistic people seem to attract good luck because they’re more open to unexpected opportunities. Pessimists are less likely to recognize or pursue those opportunities.

Create a Belief Mindset

Peale says that we can use The Bible to enhance our faith, expect the best in every situation, and put our whole hearts into whatever we want to accomplish.

His technique begins with...

Shortform Exercise: Expect the Best

No doubt you’re facing any number of personal challenges at the moment. What if, instead of feeling overwhelmed and hopeless, you imagined that every problem would resolve itself in the best possible way?

Think about a challenge you are currently facing. What would be the best possible outcome for that situation?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 2.3: Defeat Is Not an Option

When you think about defeat, you tend to get defeated. Instead, Peale advises, adopt a mindset where you don’t believe in defeat. This mindset requires faith; remember one of Peale’s favorite Bible passages, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

The first step is to not be afraid of whatever obstacle you are facing; instead, stand up to it. Practice believing God is with you, and together you can handle whatever the problem is. When you stand up to your obstacles, the obstacles don’t seem quite as strong.

In this section, Peale warns against the fear of defeat. Purple Cow, by marketing guru Seth Godin, offers a tidbit on the dangers of fear.

Godin says that fear creates a logical paradox:

• When things are going badly, we think we can’t afford to take risks.

• When things are going well, we think we don’t need to take risks.

In short, fear paralyzes us—we’ll always find a reason not to act. Peale is suggesting that we adopt a mindset where defeat doesn’t exist so that we don’t get paralyzed by that fear.

Faith Provides Staying...

Shortform Exercise: Defeat Defeatism

Understand that with faith, all things are possible.

Peale says that all the “little negatives” in our daily conversations can add up to create a negative mindset that blocks our faith in ourselves. What is a particular “little negative” you find yourself saying regularly? What can you replace it with?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 2.4: Use Positive Thoughts to Change Your Circumstances

Your thoughts are powerful; they dictate the type of life you lead, the kind of person you are, and the experiences you have. Your thoughts can create or change the conditions around you. You can think yourself into or out of a situation.

Peale reiterates that positive thoughts create positive outcomes, while negative thoughts lead to negative outcomes. If you’re unhappy with your current circumstances, you can remake your life by getting rid of your old, negative thoughts and filling your mind with new thoughts that reflect faith, creativity, love, and goodness.

Whether or not you believe that your thoughts can literally change the world around you as Peale claims, there’s no denying that your thought patterns have a major impact on your happiness and mental well-being.

A major lesson of Stoicism, which Aurelius teaches in Meditations, is that outside forces cannot harm you. Aurelius insists that you don’t get hurt or upset by what happens to you; you get hurt or upset by how you respond to it. For a Stoic like Aurelius, controlling your thoughts isn’t about removing hardships from your path, but rather...

Shortform Exercise: Believe and Succeed

Creative thinking can help you actualize what you visualize.

Think of something specific in your life’s circumstances you want to change. What is it?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.1: Practices | Cultivate a Peaceful Mind

We’ve discussed the importance of faith and positive thinking according to Peale. Now we move on to the third and final part of his system: concrete, practical methods of incorporating faith and positive thinking into your life.

Peale says that living with strain and anxiety is difficult, but living in a state of inner peace makes for an easy, calm existence. A mind full of anxiety leads to turmoil and unhappiness, but a mind full of peace promotes health and well-being.

(Shortform note: There is a strong connection between mental health and physical health; each bolsters (or harms) the other; for example, anxiety can cause nausea and insomnia. Therefore, as Peale says, inner peace helps promote outer health.)

Create a Peaceful Mind

Peale suggests several methods by which you can gain a calm and peaceful mind:

• Empty the mind. (There will be more instruction on this in a later chapter.) The author recommends emptying the mind at least twice a day. When you consciously empty your mind of fear, insecurities, regrets, and other negative emotions, you’ll experience relief and release....

Shortform Exercise: Cultivate a Peaceful Mind

Living without strain creates a peaceful existence.

Peale says it’s important to fill your mind with positive thoughts and peaceful images. What is your “memory visit” that you can call up when you need to find peace? Describe it in detail and explain how it makes you feel.

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.2: Increase Your Energy

Our thoughts affect how we feel physically. When your thoughts tell you you’re tired, the body accepts this and feels tired. But when your mind and thoughts are engaged and interested in what you’re doing, you have the energy to keep going indefinitely. Peale believes that thoughts involving faith are especially powerful because they bring you feelings of endless support and power, which further fuel you.

Peale’s idea is that God is the source of all energy; maintaining contact with God taps us into all of this energy, giving us access to the very same energy that God used to create the world.

Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari shows how spiritual health can boost your energy through a parable:

Julian Mantle is a famous and wealthy lawyer, but he suffers from his unbalanced lifestyle: He overworks himself, has unhealthy eating and drinking habits, and never makes time for his spiritual health. This all culminates in a mid-trial heart attack.

Julian recovers, but quits practicing law and travels to India to seek spiritual guidance. When he returns, he claims to have...

Shortform Exercise: Restore Your Energy

When you lose your zest for life, how do you get it back?

Have you ever experienced a loss of energy—or are you experiencing one right now? Do you think it stemmed/stems from boredom, guilt, a loss of rhythm or something else?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.3: Use the Power of Prayer

Peale tells us that prayer can be a source of great power, helping to change your life positively, tapping forces and strength that aren’t normally available to you. Prayer can even restore physical health and well-being and is used by some therapists and other practitioners to help people with their health issues.

Prayer is a manifestation of energy; you can generate spiritual energy through the mechanism of prayer. Prayer power can help you feel youthful energy as you age, keep your spirits up, send you out each morning refreshed and renewed, guide you in solving problems, help you react properly to situations around you, and release your inner power.

(Shortform note: A 2009 study showed that prayer has a number of mental health benefits. Subjects who prayed regularly showed better emotional states, and less severe symptoms of anxiety and depression than those in the control (non-praying) group.)

How to Pray

Perhaps you haven’t had this kind of experience with prayer. You may associate it only with religion, and not with creating change in your life. If so, understand that there is a scientific side to prayer, with...

Shortform Exercise: Tap the Science of Prayer

Use the power of prayer in your life.

Peale talks about the “pray, imagine, create” formula for prayer. What is a problem in your life you’re currently dealing with? Try praying about it right now by speaking directly to your Higher Power. What is your prayer? Write it here.

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.4: Stop Fretting and Gain Peace

We often make life more difficult for ourselves by getting agitated and worked up about situations. Peale calls this “fuming and fretting.” To gain power and live life to the fullest, he urges us to overcome that agitation; to find our calm and our focus. Here are several ways you can do that:

Slow Down

Peale’s first step is to reduce the frantic pace of life. Many people drive themselves too hard and too fast, and this tempo leads to overstimulation, which can cause physical and emotional sickness. Slowing down brings you back in line with God’s pace. God’s pace is unhurried; things get done when they are meant to get done. When you slow down and practice being peaceful, you will feel a sense of quiet power rise within you.

Another aspect of slowing your pace is to infuse the peace of God into your mind, soul, and body. By getting the peace of God into your body, you may experience less pain. To do this, relax and think of each muscle and reflect on the peace of God touching it.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck explores the ways in which society constantly drives us to want more of everything, with the result that we never slow down—we’re constantly...

Shortform Exercise: Let Go of Fretting and Find Peace

Relieve your mind of tension.

The frantic pace of life can increase our tension and anxiety, leading to a lack of peace. Peale found himself hurrying from obligation to obligation. What is a common situation in your life that leads to you feeling overwhelmed and lacking peace?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.5: Stop Worrying

Worry is a destructive and unhealthy mental habit that can actually cause health problems. The word worry is derived from a word whose literal meaning is “to choke.” Think of worry as choking the flow of your power.

Peale adds that worry is also dangerous; when you fear something for a long time, you can actually draw that thing to you. In other words, you might cause the very thing you fear happening.

It may help us to first get a working definition of “worrying”—what exactly is Peale warning us against here?

In How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie starts with a simple but effective definition: Worrying is when you focus on something outside of the present moment. Thus, the solution to worrying is simply to stop doing that; instead, take life one day at a time and be fully present in each moment, instead of thinking about the past or the future.

Unfortunately, letting go of your worries is easier said than done. This chapter will offer some practical techniques to help you get started.

Attack...

Shortform Exercise: Release Yourself From Worry

Break the worry habit and live with faith.

Emptying your mind of all your worries, and refilling it with positive thoughts, is one method to break the worry habit. Try thinking of specific worries you harbor and visualize yourself plucking them out of your mind one by one. How does this make you feel?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.6: Get Rid of Anger and Other Negative Emotions

Thought patterns have an effect on your physical state. If you are harboring ill will or resentment toward someone, it can manifest in decreased energy or even physical illness. Your mental and physical health are linked; if one is ailing, the other will suffer.

Medical and scientific studies have shown that Peale is correct: Prolonged emotional stress puts a great deal of strain on the body, and it can lead to various physical illnesses. The reverse is also true—people who suffer from chronic physical illnesses often struggle with their mental health as well.

However, you can use that fact to your advantage. If you take care of your body (get enough sleep, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, and so on) you’ll naturally boost your mood; you’ll find that you feel better mentally as well as physically and are less prone to anger and the other negative feelings that Peale warns against.

Counteracting Negative Emotions

When you feel yourself...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.7: Make Life and Work Easier by Relaxing

Peale ran a clinic where ministers and psychiatrists worked side by side to help people with the tension and stress in their lives. According to Peale, their teamwork was based on mutual respect and recognition that psychiatry and Christianity are both sciences with their own methods and systems.

When someone came to the clinic, a psychiatrist would study the person’s problem to understand the root causes of their unhappiness. Then the psychiatrist would send the person to a minister, who would prescribe therapies based in prayer, faith, and love. Psychiatrists and ministers pooled their techniques and therapies, and many of their patients had good outcomes—they were able to move past whatever problems were causing their stress and their tension and live their lives with joy and hope.

One of the key lessons in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is to do whatever you need to do calmly and efficiently, without rushing or stressing yourself about it (in fact, too much stress at work was what caused Julian’s heart attack at the start of the book).

Like the patients at Peale’s clinic, Julian used...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.8: Be Liked

We all want to be liked; it’s a fundamental longing. William James once said, “One of the deepest drives of human nature is the desire to be appreciated.”

Being liked is important for more than just boosting your ego. It’s important to your success in life and in relationships. People who are isolated, with no support system, may end up feeling not wanted or needed—negative emotions that can even lead to illness.

Striving for popularity won’t work, and no matter what you do, you won’t get everyone to like you. Again, it’s simply human nature that not everyone will get along; it’s not a failure or a reflection upon you as a person.

However, while you won’t get everyone to like you, there are ways to make yourself into a person whom other people tend to get along with. This is possible even if you’re not a very social person, or if you’re considered “difficult” to be around.

In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson says something similar: You can’t control what other people think of you, and it’s unhealthy to try. For that reason, Manson says that popularity is a...

Shortform Exercise: Become Well-Liked

To get others to like you, you have to like them.

Think of a person in your life you don’t get along with very well. As Peale advises, look inward. What trait do you have that may be impeding this relationship?

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Part 3.9: Cure Heartache

Grief, sorrow, and other forms of heartache and inner suffering are part of being human; it happens at some point to everyone. Peale encountered a young man who was having trouble rising above his sorrow. He asked for a “prescription for heartache.”

Peale suggests concrete things to do when you are hurting emotionally:

• Get back to normal. If you’re in a bad situation, get out of it and return to your normal life and its activities. Being as normal and natural as possible helps to cure heartache. For example, if a loved one has died, don’t avoid the places you used to go together.
• Get physically active. Avoid the temptation to sit and brood.
• Get busy with a worthwhile project. Make sure you stay busy with something creative to occupy your time (not just partying and drinking).
• Feel your grief. It’s natural and helpful to cry when sorrow comes. Trying to bottle up your grief and not show emotion is unhealthy. But you can’t let crying and grieving get out of control, either. It’s not healthy for it to become a habitual process.
• Turn to God. On a more spiritual level, curing your heartache requires turning to God with faith and trust. You don’t...

The Power of Positive Thinking Summary Conclusion: Draw Upon Your Higher Power

Many people are depressed and unhappy, but they don’t have to live that way. Peale’s answer is to draw upon God or the Higher Power. The Higher Power can do everything for you.

How do we do that? State your problem, then ask for a specific answer. Believe you will get that answer and believe that right now you are gaining the power to deal with your problem. An important element of drawing upon the Higher Power is to relax and rest into that power.

Another important element in drawing on the Higher Power is to be positive; keep an optimistic attitude toward every problem. The level of your faith is the level of power you will receive to meet your obstacles. No matter what your problem is, drawing upon the Higher Power can help you through it.

Counterpoint: The Power of Negative Thinking

_The Power of Positive Thinking...