Napoleon Hill

What do you want to be like, who do you want to be, what do you want to do when you grow up?

Make A Vision

If you are 55 or 10 or any age you should answer the question, why?  The answer can be your vision that you flesh out to use the law of attraction.  It can be the vision you use to lead you to success.

Are there qualities of a particular person you’d like to incorporate?  Read about that person and see yourself doing those kinds of things, responding successfully as that person might.

See And Feel The Vision And Take Action!

Play this vision and add words to it to form a plan.  Napoleon Hill gives a formula in Think and Grow Rich.  These words you should go over in the morning and before bed to burn them into your mind.

Then – begin to act – ideas will be coming to you about the actions to take and you need to take action.

The whole idea of a vision is to create a burning desire which will sharpen your observation and create the desire to spur you to action.  Another part of your job is when dis empowering things come along that you manage them.  Do whatever it is so you will act and keep acting.

Act NOW – Waiting Solves Nothing: Success And The Law Of Attraction

Remember, things won’t be perfect when you start and don’t think of waiting even an hour for things to be a little better.  The great Zig Ziglar asks, “do you wait for all the traffic lights to turn green before you leave home for the store?”  Of course you don’t – you’d never get there.  It is the same with your dreams and goals.

Run the movie in your mind, replay and enhance the vision – ideas will come and when you see the ideas you will act on them.  This is success and the law of attraction in action – make no mistake the law of attraction needs action to work.

So why grow up?   Just keep asking yourself what you want, what and who you want to be when you do grow up.  Asking those questions keeps your mind open to possibility.

Never Give Up

Did you know that Colonel Sanders was 65 and trying to figure out how to make it on Social Security when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken?  He lived on for many years and saw it become a huge success and saw it make him a great deal of money before he died.  KFC started on his idea that the fried chicken recipe he had developed in his roadside restaurant in Corbin Kentucky was worth something.  Colonel Sanders created his own future with principals of success and the law of attraction.

A thousand people told him no as he traveled town-to-town, often sleeping in his car, trying to find someone to buy a franchise.  A thousand said no before he got his first yes.

And so the vision – the idea – the action must be bolstered by cultivating your thoughts so that you too can take some rejection, some knocks, and discomfort as you work toward your success.

Napoleon Hill said it best – that everything you want to accomplish in life has it’s beginnings in an idea.   It’s up to you to keep the idea alive and take action on it.

Growing up means figuring out what it is you want to be and do and it is a realization that it’s more than wishing, you have to do something.  But the magic combination of these things will get you anything you want and that is how The Law of Attraction Works.

Are You Sabotaging Success With The Law Of Attraction?

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Attitude Is Everything

However this is what success in life is all about, your ability to adapt and have a winning attitude no matter what challenges we are faced with. You can always find something to complain about or be grateful for it is your choice.

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The law of attraction is working are you using it on purpose or is it working randomly in your life?

By Michael Griffin

How is your future vision? How well can you see the things that are to happen in your life? Does that sound like a crazy idea?

Napoleon Hill, who was perhaps the greatest success writer of the 20Th century had this to say:

Thoughts are things.

Wayne Dyer, who wrote many success books, put it this way:

You will see it when you believe it.

Wallace Wattles, who wrote “The Science of Getting Rich,” the book behind the movie “The Secret” put it like this:

By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.

When the mind is open and expecting a thing held in vision it finds new connections and notices things and ideas related to the thing. If you allow your mind to put these ideas and observations together, it will begin to suggest things for you to do. Things that may or may not seem related to the vision. But these things, when integrated this way, will begin to form and bring to you the object of your future vision.

If you want anything — you must first think it. How can we think of the good things we want if our mind is polluted with all the negativity around. Are you a news junkie? Most of what is in the news and on the news channels is what other people want you to think about something that has happened. You don’t need that to overshadow your life. You need to form clear ideas and visions without the interpretation of others. When you create a future vision you must care for it and nurture it while you are bringing it about by holding the vision.

Some have described how this process works using quantum physics. Others relate it to an intelligence in the universe: that the universe contains a thinking substance that produces in kind after the pure thought held in it. Wallace Wattles, quoted above, is one of those who put forth this theory. I don’t think these two theories exclude each other so just take the one that is easiest on your head and begin to play with future vision.

Hold the vision of what you want in your mind with as pure a thought as you can. Practice this morning and night and write the ideas that spin off, write down the plans that come to mind — then act on these things.

Your vision creates the result, your actions bring it into your hands. This is what Wattles is saying.

Whether you have read “The Science of Getting Rich” or not you’ll want to experience it in a new way. You’ll want to experience it as delivered and interpeted by Bob Proctor with some help from Michael Beckwith and Jack Canfield. You will learn to use The Science of Getting Rich as your own secret weapon and as your key to success and creation.

I’m Mike Griffin, and I invite you to learn about these success secret weapons by visiting: http://therealmikegriffin.com/sgrp/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Griffin
http://EzineArticles.com/?Future-Visions,-Thoughts-Are-Things&id=3702717

“All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!”

Napoleon Hill and Wallace Wattles

Napoleon Hill ends the author’s preface of Think and Grow Rich with the idea above.  Why?

Wallace Wattles in Chapter 11 of  The Science of Getting Rich says:

“By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.”

If you read Think and Grow Rich you will find a system of cultivating the idea until it becomes a white hot desire and you begin to act on it.

If you read The Science of Getting Rich, likewise you will find techniques to enhance your desire for the idea until you begin to act on it.

What do you do or don’t do with your idea is what causes most people to fail.  How do you nourish the idea and make it come alive, how do you get it to bring the results you want into your life?

Along the way, the desire creates an awareness of things around you that are related to the idea.  This will be things you see, ideas you notice, and other manifestations.  The bottom line is you are noticing and attracting this information.  If you don’t discount it, if you respect your own thoughts and desires – then you will automatically begin to act on it to produce a result.

Unless you are sleepwalking through life you will begin to compare what you are seeing with your new sensitivity to where you are and where you want to go.  This will cause other ideas and other observations and you must pick and choose your way through to your goal.  Some of the ideas will tell you to give up, maybe they’ll tell you to go to the casino and bet your capital – these are the weeds that you must root out of your thinking.  The other ideas, the ones congruent with your desire you continue to cultivate.

So how do you weed out an idea and how do you cultivate one?

Ideas that you want to keep and cultivate you need to write down and review.  Then begin to weave them into your vision, see how they fit in to the direction you want to go and continue with them.  Notice that if they are good ideas but are not with your desired end you should just write them down for possible use later.

Ideas that you don’t want, thoughts such as: “this is a waste of time” you must cast down.  The best way I have found to do this is to just replace them with another thought.  This is a place where some quotes you may know will be useful.

When you find a counter-productive thought replace it.   The thought response to “this is not good enough” might be “I’d rather see a crooked furrow than an un-plowed field.”  After all if this is some new thing you are doing you are not out of the box going to be doing it as well as those who have been in the field for years.  The important thing is to begin, to get something going.

The often given example of if your young child tries to walk for the first time and falls down do you declare, “he’ll never walk” and then buy him a wheel chair.  No, you cheer his effort, you encourage him, and help him whenever he wants to try.  So he tries more and everyday he gets better and better.  It will be the same with you and the thing you are trying to do.

“I’d rather see a crooked furrow than a field un-plowed” -  I’d rather see my child try to walk than just crawl around for his whole life.

Trying leads to the first unstable steps and those lead to walking across from mommy to daddy which leads to running around the house and having the fun of great motion never before possible for that child – and his world opens a little more.

Your trying leads to successful action and the new things you can see from this new range of motion that you have achieved and your world opens a little more.

Your issue in getting to your desired end comes with being shut down by your thoughts.  The same mind that thought the thoughts to get you going can shut you down unless you are cultivating your thoughts all the time.

Norman Vincent Peale

Norman Vincent Peale in “The Power of Positive Thinking” goes deeply into the idea of cultivating your thoughts.  Putting good thoughts in and replacing the dis-empowering thoughts with good ones.  Many may have passed up Peale’s books because of their religious roots.  This is a mistake.  Peale teaches when the bad thoughts come replace with a thought you have ready.  Discouraging thoughts can be replace with: “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”  A Bible quote and if you are a believer a good one to use.  If you are not a believer then find something to encourage you that you can substitute.  Peale himself says that the ideas that he presents in his books will work for Christians and non-Christians alike.  It is The Power of Positive Thinking.

If we cultivate our thoughts this way we can have a huge success crop.  If we fail to do that we just may find ourselves gleaning the left overs in another mans field.

Peale also has a book about visualization, Positive Imaging, which is a gem.  Like Hill and Wattles, Peale teaches you to see your desired results without shooting it down with negative thoughts.  See the vision and cultivate the thoughts it generates.  Then become inspired to action because you will receive actionable ideas.

And so it goes, these are timeless mental technologies that will work for you.  The thing is recognize where your thoughts are coming from and pick the ones with your desired outcome.  Cultivate the thoughts that come with the visions and begin to take action.  Each action will raise you a little higher and you will see a little farther.

See your vision as if it is here now.  Feel the feelings that you will feel when it is real.  Cultivate your thoughts – think the thoughts that serve you.  This will help keep the desire hot until by your actions you receive it.

Other Wealth Building Resources

Learn to internalize the mindset, learn to create the visions and make them plain so you can take the action you need to bring the results  into your life: discover The Science of Getting Rich.

Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate

Think and Grow Rich and Napoleon Hill have inspired millions on to success.  One of the biggest reasons people succeed in life is because they are optimists.  They get up and look at where they are going with perhaps an unreasonable belief that they will succeed.

With Only A Dream

Often with only a dream they push forward and when an obstacle appears they ask: how?  How do I solve this, how can I get to where I want to be?  They look for the solution believing it is there.

Most people don’t have the habit of asking how.  How can I?  Where is the solution?  They don’t ask how and if they do they don’t expect an answer?

Success Motivation

“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.”  –Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich tells the story of being “Three Feet From Gold.”

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again–all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The “Junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

Hill goes on to talk about the fact that before success comes to anyone that person will meet with temporary success many times.  Welcome these problems, embrace them, use them to train your mind to see past them at your desired outcome and then ask how?  How can I?  How do I?  Ask with an expectation of an answer.

In the story above, R. U. Darby, who had invested in the mine lost a lot of money – but he took the lesson of  “Giving Up When Thee Feet From Gold” and made a great success by resolving not to repeat the mistake of giving up when a temporary roadblock was in his way.

Personal Motivation Strategies

That is a lesson we can all take.  A problem presents itself, instead of going home and pulling the covers over our heads we ask ourselves what can we do next, how can we go over, around, or through?

Your mind has greater power than you may know – it is your connection to the infinite and yet most of us keep it focused here on the earth plane rather than on the infinite where the solutions lie.

Think and Grow Rich and Napoleon Hill have turned the minds of many from ordinary reactive thinking into believing in the possibility of great success, turning those minds from being reactive to being visionary.  Turning those minds from not believing that “All Things Are Possible” into being extreme optimists.

Can you look at a problem or temporary failure and ask yourself “what is good about this.”  Remember Pollyanna?  A great book and Disney movie where Pollyanna comes to live with her aunt out of the tragedy of her parents death.  Through her optimism and looking for the good turns a cranky closed minded town into a community of understanding and possibility.  I recommend that you get the movie and watch it again or read the book.  These are great attitudes to take in and make a part of you.

Become a believer, this is really what Napoleon Hill is writing about in Think and Grow Rich.  Believe in the power of your intentions and of your ability to affect a desirable outcome in your life.

Success Resources: Learn More About Napoleon Hill And His Work

Napoleon Hill discusses the principals of Think and Grow Rich

• Napoleon Hill – Grow Rich! With Peace Of Mind- Napoleon Hill – Grow Rich! With Peace of MindIn this exciting book, the renowned author of THINK AND GROW RICH, Napoleon Hill, reveals his latest.
• Book review: Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill – Background to Think and grow rich Think and Grow Rich is based on Napoleon Hill’s earlier work The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill’s close association of more than 500 men of great wealth.
• Napoleon Hill – Three Feet From Gold ! – Keep on keeping on. Git ‘er done. Winners never quit and quitters never win. Don’t stop now! Keep plugging away… We’ve all been there – times we would have choked on any combination of the words above.

• Was Napoleon Hill Crazy? – If you have read a newer “censored” version of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich you may not be aware but in Chapter 14 Entitled – “The Sixth Sense The Door To The Temple of Wisdom,” Hill describes how he held imaginary cabinet meetings in his mind with “Invisible Counselors.”

• Napoleon Hill — Think and Grow Rich - Hill’s 1937 classic is perhaps the best known and best selling success book of all time.

  

  “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”

Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich is named by numerous successful people as providing the seed and plan for their success.  Thus it seems that reading the book and taking the message to heart is one of the first things you should do to get your financial freedom card punched.

“Ideas are the beginning point of all creation of wealth.” –Napoleon Hill

An electronic copy of Think and Grow Rich along with four other success classics are available at no cost here.

Other views about Think And Grow Rich and getting your financial freedom card punched:

• Hypnotic Thoughts.: Book Review: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon … – “Be prepared… when you expose yourself to the influence of this philosophy, to experience a CHANGED LIFE which may help you not only to negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding, but also to prepare you for wealth.
• Book Review: Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Blogcritics.org) – The Grandfather of All Motivational Literature Reveals The Secrets To Real Wealth and Lasting Success. Originally posted here: Book Review: Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Blogcritics.org)
• Book review: Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill – Background to Think and grow rich Think and Grow Rich is based on Napoleon Hill’s earlier work The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill’s close association of more than 500 men of great wealth.
• Book Review – Think and Grow Rich – This book has sold millions of copies and is a ‘Bible’ for people who search for financial freedom. It was twenty years in the making, and though it’s over 70 years since the book was first published, it is as relevant today as it was when Hill wrote it.
• Out of the Mouf! Book Review: Think and Grow Rich – I thought I’d start this series out by reviewing an old classic that I happen to be re-reading at the moment, Think and Grow Rich by Dale Carnegie. I’m not sure if I like Think and Grow Rich more for it’s early-twentieth century charm.

The Thirteen Steps to Riches, Napoleon Hill – A Brief Look at Each

By Kathy Munslow

In his book “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill talks of the Thirteen Steps to Riches. This information is still as relevant today as it was at the time of publication. This article looks at each of the steps briefly.

Step 1: Desire

You need to have a burning desire to achieve success. If you are tentative and timid, then it is not true desire. Have a definite and specific goal for what you want to achieve, and stick to it. Have a plan for how you are going to achieve that goal.

Step 2: Faith

Have faith that you really can achieve what you desire. If you have truly believe it, then it is more likely to manifest itself.

Step 3: Autosuggestion

Have a mental picture in your mind that you have already achieved what you desire. By replaying this consistently in your mind, you will gain the faith that you need to achieve it.

Step 4: Specialized Knowledge

Knowledge is not power, it is potential power. It becomes power if that knowledge is used, and put into definite plans of action. Take the time to learn what you need in order to become an expert in your field of expertise. Associate with others who are already experts and learn from them.

Step 5: Imagination

Albert Einstein said “Imagination is everything. It is the preview to life’s coming attractions”. This sums it up beautifully. If you can visualise what you want in life, and then focus on it, it should become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Step 6: Organized Planning

Once you know what your goal is, you need to have a definite and practical plan for how you are going to achieve it. Put the pieces in place that will help you achieve your success.

Step 7: Decision

Come up with a firm decision and stick to it. Don’t let others make your decision for you, and don’t delay your decision or procrastinate.

Step 8: Persistence

Lack of persistence keeps many people from great accomplishment. Keep working towards your goal, no matter what obstacles get in your way. Many people give up the minute they reach the slightest obstacle. You have to keep rising above the challenges thrown at you, and keep focusing on your end goal.

Step 9: Power of the Master Mind

Often those that are close to us will send us off course with their opinions and ridicule. Surround yourself with like minded people, who are all working towards a common goal. By doing this you create synergy, which is an unstoppable force.

Step 10: the Mystery of Sex Transmutation

There are a number of different stimulants that increase the intensity of our thought way beyond the realms of ordinary thought. For example love, a burning desire for fame or financial gain, music, fear. The most powerful of these stimulants is that of sex.

Step 11: the Subconscious Mind

The thoughts you have determine what you get in your life. Focus on your plan, and imagine that you have already achieved it.

Step 12: the Brain

It has been said that we only use somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of our brain. The rest of our brain power forms the subconscious mind, which is what we need to tap into in order to achieve the successes we desire.

Step 13: the Sixth Sense

The ability to use the sixth sense is gained when you apply and master all the previous steps. It takes time to develop it, and it is not something that can be switched on and off at will.

Kathy Munslow is an internet marketer and mentor, who loves helping others achieve greater levels of success in their lives. To find out more about Kathy and what she does, visit http://www.onlinesaleswiz.biz

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Munslow

If you have a longer time here is a YouTube playlist of video’s about Napoleon Hill and his principals.  It includes a section about W. Clement Stone.

Reading Think and Grow Rich Is A Great Place To Start If You Want To Get Your Financial Freedom Card Punched.

There’s Only One Person Who Can Help You

Napoleon Hill writes of a man who came to see him one day.  The man’s business had failed and he left his family because he couldn’t take care of them.

The man was unkempt, but the day before he had been given one of Hill’s pamphlets and now the man had come to Hill’s office seeking help.

Hill told him that he was sorry that he could not help, but that there was a man in the building who could help and Hill would introduce the man.

Hill led the man into the next room and stood him before a curtain.  When Hill pulled the curtain back the man was looking in the mirror.  Hill explained that this was the only man on earth who could help and there he was in the mirror.  Hill goes on to tell of the mans later success (“Hills Golden Rules“).

Self Reliance

Poor Richards Almanac put it this way: “God helps them that help themselves.” The great Emerson wrote: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

And so it is with all of us.  This is not to say that a hand up does not help from time to time but – any real forward movement lies in our own hands, our own actions, in our own mind as Emerson said, “self reliance“.

What keeps a person from doing the things he or she knows to do?  What keeps a person from moving forward?

That question usually comes down to 1. beliefs, there is a belief that the thing is impossible, OK for someone else but impossible for me; and 2. lack of a compelling reason – there is no vision or purpose to pull you forward nor is there a sufficient monster coming up from behind to force you to move.

So most of us just sit there.  Jim Rohn (or is it Les Brown?) talks about an old dog lying on a nail poking up out of the wood floor of the front porch.   The dog is whining but just lays there.  The nail is annoying but just doesn’t hurt enough to get the dog to move.

Greet The Future Each Morning

What reasons do you have to move forward with your dreams and plans?   What compelling vision of success can you make so you can see the outcome of those plans, a vision so compelling that you are drawn happily into the future?

“See the vision and make it plain on tables that he may run who reads it…”  That’s how the Bible puts it in the book of Habakkuk, it’s a little different context, but the idea is the same.

Write down your vision of the future, nurture that vision until you take off running towards it everyday.  You see your mind is the only thing that will get you off your ass.

You can’t beat yourself into doing anything that is truly worthwhile.  But a compelling vision that you repeat to yourself, consistently and often enough, is a vision that you will come to believe.  It’s a vision that will shine a light on how you are going to accomplish it.  It’s a vision that will cause you to jump out of bed everyday and run to greet it.

There are many paths to learn greet the future this way – using the law of attraction and creating a compelling vision.  You can learn more about a compelling future in The Science of Getting Rich Program: www.TheRealMikeGriffin.com/sgr/

Bob Proctor Teaches The Science of Getting Rich & The Law of Attraction like you have never heard it before. Pick up where The Secret leaves off with Bob Proctor. You can make the law of attraction happen using the teachings of The Science of Getting Rich. Answer the question, Is Bob Proctor for real or a scam.

SuccessCast is an excerpt of TSTN’s dynamic programming. Everyday, our viewers get the key insights and ideas for how to succeed at work, in their families, with their finances, and with their health. TSTN Presents is your ticket to the best live events from the nation’s top presenters. Discussion topics range from improving relationships to enriching the lives of your children, from setting goals to building successful presentations, from creating a winning life to managing a healthy lifestyle.

Get Excited Now!!! and Create the Life you Really Want

When you think of your future, does it get you excited? Does it keep you up at night daydreaming of the endless possibilities? When you think of your future, is it better or worse than things are now? And, if it’s better what does that mean to you?

Positive Thinking in Golf – Part 1

You can learn how to remember successes, to recall and relive them and to feel the confidence and drive from these times and to draw upon the components of success and transfer them to your future performance. … Why not spend a little bit of time in learning to visualize effectively? You can learn how to create more powerfully compelling visualizations with the help of hypnosis downloads. Why do you think the professionals use golf hypnosis?

The Power of Visualization! | Suzanne McKenna Life, Career

A wonderful quote from Neville Goddard sums up how important visualization and your imagination is in the change process. To attempt to change circumstances. … As you are inside the goal adjust the qualities of the picture, sounds and the feelings in order to make the goal the most real and compelling for you. – Imagine stepping out of the picture but leave your body in the picture, as if you are looking at a Polaroid snapshot of you attaining the goal. …

This is a presentation by Rich Shefren about successful business. Specifically he is talking about internet marketing, but you will get a lot out of it no matter what your business.

W. Cement Stone became a Billionaire by reading Think and Grow Rich yet Napoleon Hill became broke near the end of his life. Stone bought the intellectual property rights to all of Hills work.

Ray Kroc made Billions off the McDonalds brothers ideas but the McDonalds brothers came no where near the level of success.

Thomas Watson Sr. was fired from NCR and was hired by IBM and turned it into one of the largest companies in the world.

This presentation is how to take these processes into the internet. How to become one who reaches the levels of success rather than one who does not. Think strategically focus on what and not how.

Watch Rich Schefren discuss the powerful concepts behind his successful business building career.

Many look at Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich as a get rich quick guide.  In fact it has been used by the unscrupulous as a part of their sales pitch to pull people into money making schemes and programs that are less than sound.  For many this may have been their first introduction to Hill and his book and that is unfortunate since these people, having been burned by the business, may put the book down forever, and that is unfortunate.

And yet others take the book, regardless of their experience in the business, and take it to heart and are able to put it’s principals to work and achieve something fine, even great.  Years before Think And Grow Rich Hill had his beginnings writing for magazines, and eventually his own magazine: “Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine”  and “Napoleon Hill’s Magazine.”

Napoleon Hill on Concentrated Action

Some of Hill’s earliest writing in these magazines dealt with the lack of concentrated action, moving from one idea or job to the next without ever fully fleshing out the first.  Thus there is no concentrated effort, little action and no success.  Hill is a big proponent of finishing what you start.  Take your idea and stick with it – don’t jump from one thing to the next simply because the first does not pour out dollars when you first take it up.

“Nearly every man has intellegence enough to create ideas in his mind, but the trouble with most is that those ideas never find expression in action.  The finest locomotive on earth is not worth a shilling nor will it pull a single pound of weight, utill the stored up energy in the steam dome is released by the throttle.

You have energy in that head of yours — every human being does — but you are not releasing it at the throttle of action!  You are not applying it through the principal of concentration to the tasks which if completed, would place you on the list of those who are regarded as successes.”  –Napoleon Hill from  Napoleon Hill’s First Editions

This idea of concentrated action is why Hill and so many success authors talk about writing not only goals, but a short list of what you should do the next day.  It keeps you focused, it keeps you in a state of concentration on the ideas, on the goals, it also facilitates visualization which Napoleon Hill covers in detail in Chapters 3 and 4 of Think and Grow Rich.

Napoleon Hill on Persistence

From Chapter 9 of Think and Grow Rich:

PERSISTENCE is an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting DESIRE into its monetary equivalent. The basis of persistence is the POWER OF WILL.

Will-power and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair. Men who accumulate great fortunes are generally known as cold-blooded, and sometimes ruthless. Often they are misunderstood. What they have is will-power, which they mix with persistence, and place back of their desires to insure the attainment of their objectives.

Henry Ford has been generally misunderstood to be ruthless and cold-blooded. This misconception grew out of Ford’s habit of following through in all of his plans with PERSISTENCE.

The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on DESPITE all opposition, until they attain their goal. These few are the Fords, Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Edisons.

Napoleon Hill and Others on Procrastination

This brings us to procrastination.  Procrastination is a form of fear.  Procrastination often results when there is anxiety over something you want to do or need to do.  Wikipedia has this to say:

The psychological causes of procrastination vary greatly, but generally surround issues of anxiety, low sense of self-worth, and a self-defeating mentality^[4]. Procrastinators are also thought to have a lower-than-normal level of conscientiousness, more based on the “dreams and wishes” of perfection or achievement in contrast to a realistic appreciation of their obligations and potential.

Napoleon Hill had this to say about procrastination:

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.

Persistent action carried out now.  These ideas are two of  the primary keys to success.  W. Clement Stone had a saying:

“Do it now.”

And why not, why not now?  Do we have genuine reasons or are they procrastination and hidden fear?

Napoleon Hill was writing about periodic self examination when he wrote the first quote above.  That if you are jumping around from one thing to the next then you will never put forth the concentrated effort that you need to really put the thing over.  And if you have a good idea and are not going forward with it – with persistence and with belief in it – then perhaps there is some hidden fear that you need to understand that is causing you to procrastinate.

Napoleon Hill’s writings are timeless and remain some of the foremost success liturature that we have.  That the unscrupulous would use it to manipulate those seeking to better their lives is unfortunate but that should not stop us from taking and using Hills literary works for our betterment.

by Michael Griffin

Jan 6th 2009 Podcast

What do you believe and why do you believe it? What part of what you believe is true? Have you examined your beliefs?

“Every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought”

Is this why some people, after reading books like Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” do become rich – new seeds of thought have been planted? Has Hill provided information that the person didn’t know or has Hill unleashed their thinking, allowing them to dream beyond the present conditions. It’s not an either-or proposition is it, clearly Hill provides both conditions to the reader.

Why then doesn’t Think and Grow Rich cause everyone who reads it to become rich? Isn’t life just a crap shoot? Some who Read Think and Grow Rich believe it and to others the words just pass by. What is magical is not the book or the words but the effect those words have on the mind that recieves them. And how open that mind is to believe that “thoughts become things” and “anything the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Does the reader have so much junk stored in his mind that he cannot get to the beliefs necessary to move forward? Those seeds of thought can be good seeds and bad. Earl Nightingale talked about seeds of the deadly poison plant, nightshade, being planted and those seeds growing to full pushing out the good crop. And this is what Allen is saying in “As A Man Thinketh”

The seeds of thought planted in our minds first by our parents, our families, our friends, the media, what kinds of seeds are those? Even church and religious services of all kinds, what seeds are these really bringing. In the Christian traditions there is the preaching of fire, damnation, and judgment – of a God of retribution — and there is the teaching of a God of love who intends the very best for you. All of these ideas taken from the same book. So it is in life, one person sees life as an endless opportunity while another sees life as a struggle for existence. One sees and participates in an abundant feast while another sees only the scraps that fall to the floor.

Why is this? Allen says, quoting scripture: “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” When a person picks up Think and Grow Rich and begins to read through with what eye is he seeing the book? What beliefs does he have to overcome to accept the ideas that if he changes his thinking then the whole world opens to him. What has gone into that mind before these new ideas? What mental baggage has to be overcome? How much does he “know” that just isn’t true?

Before the great runner Roger Bannister everyone knew it was impossible to break the four minute mile. Yet within weeks of Bannister’s record other runners had beaten it. Since then the record has even been broken in high school events. Many point to this as a psychological barrier that runners couldn’t cross. Then after the idea was out, after the belief was in the minds of the runners then their training, their work was able to attain new levels of performance.

“We become what we think about all day long,” as Earl Nightingale put it. We generally think about things that have been put there by family, friends, teachers, media — have we examined those thoughts? People shook with and were paralyzed by fear in their homes after hearing Orson Well’s 1938 broadcast of “War of The Worlds,” and believing that Martians were actually invading the world. What might you believe about your business that isn’t true? Do you believe in a bad economy that your business can’t grow? If so why would you get up and try? The fact is plenty of people are going to get rich in bad times while others will loose out. What do you believe about the challenges of the economy, about the challenges of life?

Are challenges supposed to destroy us or are they a way to make us stronger? “As A Man Thinketh” says:

The act is the blossom of thought and joy and suffering are it’s fruits – thus does a man enjoy the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

What will your act be in response to a challenge? Will you hunker down in your house in fear? Or will you go out to discover what the truth about it is? Allen quotes scripture when he says:

He that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Thats a promise of a way, of an answer if you are looking for a way to meet the challenges. But if you shiver in your home, if the covers are pulled up over your head as you wait for – what is it you are waiting for? If you are waiting then you are not looking, you are not seeking, and nothing good can come of it. Your mind will take on the mantra of the world, of the media.

As A Man Thinketh is a challenge to all to examine your thoughts, they are probably not even your thoughts. You will be controlled by those thoughts, by that message, you will act in accordance: “the act is the blossom of thought…” If you are not happy with your life, with circumstance, put some new thoughts in.

Do you believe that change is bad or is it opportunity? Is a crisis bad or is it an opportunity? Shakespeare said, “there is nothing either good or bad, but only thinking makes it so.” Do you want to go back to the good old days, or are these the good old days?

Change and crisis are forces in the world that beckon us to look again at what we believe. To look at the habitual thoughts that cycle through our conciousness, drive our actions, and produce our results in the world.