Disraeli was the first and only Jewish person to be prime minister and he had to work harder than his contemporaries to reach such high office because of the immense levels of anti-Semitism that existed in those times. We should remind ourselves that Britain was also the Super Power of the 19^th century and for seven years Disraeli was its leader – making his accomplishment even more incredible.

So you can see, there is nothing new about positive thinking – successful people have been practicing it for hundreds of years and reaping the benefits, rising from poverty and humble beginnings to reach the highest pinnacles of success.

So let me ask you the question – what is holding you back? I am sure that between us we can think of dozens of different reasons why you have failed to achieve what you truly want, but it really gets down to one thing – the only person holding you back – is you.

Mastering the art of positive thinking is like anything else you want to do in life – it takes a bit of practice – but if you persevere then you will get better and better by the day and here comes the twist - the secret of positive thinking is not to try too hard.

It’s not a misprint, you read correctly – positive thinking fails for most people because they try too hard. They are so focussed on the things they want that they become too intense and that great Amazon of the Universe misreads the signals and assumes that you want the complete opposite of your desires.

Of course, when you are so desperate to attract something new into your life it’s very easy to be intense, but positive thinking is like everything else in life, if you go over the top then you quickly turn everything and everyone else off.

So let’s get back to the basics. Everyone wants a better life, to earn more money, have a nice home, healthy and happy children and for some, circumstances may not have been kind and this in turn has probably resulted in negativity.

You may have failed to succeed – maybe many times. You may have been unlucky in love. There could be many other reasons why you are feeling bitter, angry and let down at this precise moment and if that’s the case you will find it very hard to practice positive thinking and achieve anything meaningful.

You have to first resolve all of these issues, let go of the anger, recriminations, hatred or any other negative emotions that are currently holding you back. These are things that happened to you in the past so they cannot be changed – so let them go and embrace a new and more positive life.

When and only when you have cleared your persona of anything negative can positive thinking start to work for you and when you are ready the process becomes a lot easier. You can then, just like Disraeli, think and focus on what you really want to attract into your life. Visualise it, become excited by it and then try to put the aspiration to the back of your mind.

Regular readers will know that I recommend writing down what you really need in some detail and then destroy what you have written and have faith that the great Amazon of the Universe has received your order and will set about delivering what you want.

Of course you will also need action and plenty of common sense to make your dreams work for you. The great Amazon of the Universe will always help those that help themselves. All you have to do then is keep a check on all those negative thoughts – you will still get setbacks – but such is life.

Learn from these and get over them - practice staying positive and in time you will achieve everything you want and it starts right now – if you are ready.