#200: The Assumption of Success

The Assumption of Success A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard You have sought success in many places and in many ways. You have followed the counsel of the world. You have labored when others rested. You have planned when others slept. You have hoped when others despaired. Yet for all your seeking and all your striving, success has remained a distant thing, something that happens to others but not to you. Why is this so? It is because you have sought success where it cannot be found. You have looked for it in the world of effects, in the outer arrangement of circumstances, when all along it lives only in the world of cause, which is your own consciousness. Success is not something you attain by effort. It is something you assume by feeling. It is not a reward that comes after long labor from a state of lack. It is the natural out-picturing of a state of consciousness already occupied. When you assume the identity of success, when you feel yourself to be the successful one now, success appears in your world as naturally as any other state appears when it is assumed. It does not come because you have forced it. It comes because you have become it in consciousness. The assumption itself is the creative act. All else follows from it. You are always assuming. There is not a single moment in your life when you are free from assumption. Right now, as these words reach you, you are assuming a state concerning yourself. If that state is one of striving, of not yet having arrived, of being the one who must still work harder or wait longer, then your world will continue to reflect that assumption. But you possess the power to change the assumption. You can rise in consciousness and feel yourself to be successful in the present moment. And when you do this, when you make this feeling your own and persist in it, your world must rearrange itself to conform to the new assumption. This is not a hopeful theory. This is the changeless law of your own being. The assumption of success is not the same as wishing for success. Wishing is born of lack. It is the cry of one who feels himself to be without. Assumption is born of fulfillment. It is the quiet, certain feeling that you already are what you desire to be. In assumption there is no gap between desire and fulfillment. There is only the living sensation that this is so now. This is the sensation you must cultivate. This is the sensation you must make natural to yourself. To feel yourself successful you do not wait for the evidence of success to appear first. You do not require the money, the position, or the recognition before you assume. If you wait for the evidence, you will never assume, for the evidence is the confirmation of the assumption, not its cause. You assume in spite of the evidence. You assume against the testimony of your senses. You assume because you have discovered that consciousness is the only reality, and that by changing what you are conscious of being, you change everything that appears in your world. There is a story told of a man who was commanded to arise and walk though his legs had been useless for years. He could have protested that the command was impossible. He could have pointed to the withered limbs as proof that he could not obey. But the command was not to examine the evidence. The command was to arise and walk. In obeying, in assuming the state of one who walks, the power to walk was given him. In like manner you are commanded to assume success. You are not told to wait until success is visible. You are told to assume it. And in the assuming, the way of its expression opens before you. You may ask how long the assumption must be held before results appear. But that very question shows that the assumption has not yet become complete. When you truly assume, you are not concerned with time. You are not anxiously watching for signs. You are content in the feeling itself. You have found the kingdom within, and you rest in the knowledge that all things necessary to that kingdom will be added. Time is not a factor in the assumption. The assumption is timeless. It is a present fact in consciousness. And the moment it is assumed with conviction, the process of its embodiment has already begun. The man who is successful does not think of himself as one who is becoming successful. He thinks from the state of one who is already successful. He does not look forward to success as a future event. He looks at his daily affairs from the consciousness that success is his present identity. This changes everything. His decisions flow from a different level. His attitude toward those he meets is different. His reaction to what appears before him is different. And because these inner movements are different, the outer circumstances that meet him become different also. You cannot assume success and remain the same self you were before. Assumption changes the self. It changes the feeling of “I” that you know yourself to be. You move from the “I” that is still striving to the “I” that has already succeeded. This is a profound inner shift. It is not first a change in the outer world. It is first a change in the inner world, in the very feeling of identity. And when that feeling changes, the world that this new “I” perceives must change with it. Many remain unsuccessful because they continue to assume themselves to be the one who is seeking success. They declare, “I want to be successful,” and in that declaration they assume the state of one who wants rather than one who has. The assumption must be of the end, not of the process. You do not assume that you are on the road to success. You assume that you have arrived. You assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. This is the secret the world has overlooked. But you have heard it. Now you must live it. As you persist in the assumption of success, you will discover that you no longer need to push or to strain. You no longer need to compete in the old anxious manner. You move through your days with a quiet assurance. You do what lies before you to do, but you do it from the consciousness of success already yours. And because you act from that state, your actions carry power. They produce results, not because you have forced them, but because they are the natural expression of the identity you have assumed. Success, when assumed as identity, transforms your entire sense of self. You no longer see yourself as one who must struggle to make his way. You see yourself as one for whom the way opens. You no longer feel small before large conditions. You feel that you are the giant and that the conditions which once threatened you have shrunk to their proper size. For you have changed your sight of yourself, and in changing it you have changed your world. The Bible tells of the prodigal son who came to himself and claimed his inheritance. He did not earn it by years of additional labor in the far country. He claimed it by returning to his father’s house and assuming his rightful place. In like manner you claim success by returning to your true identity in consciousness. You come to yourself. You remember that you are not the limited being you have long assumed yourself to be. You are the awareness that can assume any state it chooses. And you have chosen the state of success. There is no one to change but self. You do not change the world by arguing with it or by forcing circumstances. You change your consciousness of the world, and the world, being your consciousness out-pictured, changes with you. When you assume success you are not changing others. You are changing yourself. And as you change yourself, others must change in their relation to you. They must reflect the new assumption you have made. You may wonder how long you must persist. You persist until the assumption feels natural. Until you no longer think toward success but think from it. Until the feeling of being successful is as natural to you as breathing. When that point is reached, you no longer need to assume. You are it. And being it, you express it without effort. Some will tell you that this is too simple, that success demands hard work and struggle. But they speak from the old consciousness. They have not yet assumed success. If they would assume it, they would find that the struggle ceases. For in the state of success there is no struggle. There is only the natural expression of that which has been assumed. Let us dwell upon this feeling of naturalness. What does it mean to feel success as natural? It means you no longer feel the need to prove yourself to anyone. You no longer feel the anxiety of one who might fail. You no longer feel the strain of one who is still trying to get somewhere. You feel instead the quiet poise of one who has already arrived. You feel the ease of one who knows that all is well. You feel the confidence of one who knows that whatever action is required of him is supported by the state he occupies. This naturalness is everything. When the assumption feels natural, it is no longer something you are trying to maintain. It is simply who you are. When you live from this identity, your attention is no longer divided. You are no longer serving two masters. You are not assuming success while secretly assuming lack in some hidden corner of your mind. The assumption is total. It fills your consciousness. And because it fills your consciousness, it fills your world. There is no room left for the old state. It has been replaced by the new. This replacement is the true meaning of revision. You revise your conception of yourself. You no longer see yourself as one who has failed to achieve success. You see yourself as one who is successful. This revision of the self is the pruning that cuts away the dead branches of old assumptions. In their place appear new and living branches bearing the fruits of your new identity. Creation is finished. All states exist. Success exists as a state. Failure exists as a state. You do not create success. You enter it by assumption. You move into the state by feeling yourself to be it. And when you move into it, you are in it. And being in it, you express it. The state itself takes care of the expression. You do not have to plan how success will appear. You simply occupy the state, and the state provides the way. The assumption of success is therefore the simplest thing in the world. It is not a complicated technique requiring years of training. It is a simple act of feeling. You feel yourself to be successful, and you persist in that feeling until it becomes your reality. This is all. There is nothing more to do. The doing is in the feeling. The work is in the assumption. And the reward is in the inevitable out-picturing of that assumption in your world. Some will say that this is too good to be true. They will insist that success requires sacrifice and struggle. But they are speaking from the consciousness of struggle. They have not yet assumed success. If they would but assume it, they would discover that the struggle falls away. For in the state of success there is no struggle. There is only the quiet, natural expression of that which you have assumed yourself to be. You have been given the key. You have been shown that consciousness is the only reality. You have been reminded that you are always assuming. Now you know that you can assume success. What will you do with this knowledge? Will you continue to assume the old state of one who has not yet succeeded? Or will you rise in consciousness and assume the new state of success? The choice is yours. And the consequence of your choice will be your experience. Tonight, make the choice. Assume success. Feel it as real. Know that in this feeling you have done the only thing that is necessary. The rest belongs to the law that never fails. Success must appear, for you have assumed it. And assumption is the law. You are success. Not because some outer goal has been reached, but because you have assumed the state of success as your identity. In this assumption you have found the kingdom. And in finding the kingdom, all things have been added. Walk in this knowledge. Live from this identity. And know that the assumption you make tonight is already at work, bringing forth in your world the confirmation of your new and true conception of yourself. For you are that which you have assumed yourself to be, and your assumption is the creative power of God within you.