"Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation.
(…)
Two important laws enter into the act of concentrating the mind on a given desire. One is the law of Auto-suggestion and the other is the law of habit.
Let me tell you, the course in Success is getting a little intense. Mr. Hill wraps everything up in this lesson and shoves the magic pill right down your throat. It's a very pleasurable ride, though!
Concentration goes hand in hand with Definite Chief Aim and Self-Control. It allows us to cut through any obstacles, as if with a use of a razor. It's the power of focus – so important and so abandoned in today's world of multi-tasking and ADHD.
We focus on everything at the same time – maybe even reading this, you listen to music, you have Facebook or e-mail open in another window – instead of forcing our way through things, one at the time.
Let's see what Concentration is all about.
„Auto-suggestion is the tool with which we dig a mental path; Concentration is the hand that holds that tool; and Habit is the map or blueprint which the mental path follows. An idea or desire, to be transformed into terms of action or physical reality, must be held in the conscious mind faithfully and persistently until habit begins to give it permanent form.” Napoleon Hill
„THIS is at one and the same time the most important, the most interesting and the most difficult to present lesson of this entire course on the Law of Success. (…)
The purpose of this lesson is to aid you in so unfolding and expanding your mind that you will be able to think with accuracy, for this unfoldment will open to you a door that leads to all the power you will need in completing your Temple of Success.” Napoleon Hill
This is a fascinating lesson. In a way, it's a recap of all the crucial principles of Napoleon Hill's 'Law of Success' course: Definite Chief Aim, Self-Confidence, Self-Control, Imagination… It's a concept on which all the great motivation, self-development writers built on, ever since: Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Joe Vitale, Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale… You name a guy and he read it and was inspired by it.
In a way Napoleon Hill's 'Law of Success' is the Rosetta Stone of all XX & XXI century self-improvement literature. And the Accurate Thinking lays in the heart of it.
I've spent some time cutting out the obvious – Napoleon Hill, treats his reader as a half-moron. Maybe it made sense in 1928, but it surely doesn't now. I focused and developed what I believe is most important. I hope you'll enjoy it!
„WHAT is an ATTRACTIVE personality? Of course the answer is: A personality that attracts.
But what causes a personality to attract? Let us proceed to find out. Your personality is the sum total of your characteristics and appearances which distinguish you from all others. The clothes you wear, the lines in your face, the tone of your voice, the thoughts you think, the character you have developed by those thoughts, all constitute parts of your personality.
(…)
Even the manner in which you shake hands forms an important part of your personality, and goes a very long way toward attracting or repelling those with whom you shake hands.
This art can be cultivated.
The expression of your eyes also forms an important part of your personality, for there are people, and they are more numerous than one might
imagine, who can look through your eyes into your heart and see that which is written there by the nature of your most secret thoughts.
The vitality of your body – sometimes called personal magnetism – also constitutes an important part of your personality.” Napoleon Hill
As most of our endeavours need support, and even if they don't they still deal with people, it's not a surprise 'Pleasing Personality' is listed among the other 15 laws of success.
Any business you're in, any venture, any relation… you can't go wrong if you're somebody people want to spend time with. In today's world there's not much space left for the lonely ranchers, farmers and troopers – and even they'd benefit if they could convince others to pay them more for their goods!
OK, enough of explaining. I think most of un know that by now.
Before I move on, though, I'd like to put your attention on the fact that 'Pleasing Personality' Law is presented in the second part of this course – long after we talked about developing a clear goal in life, self-confidence or initiative. The reason is simple – it cannot be created outside in. All the clothes, all the appearences won't make you into a magnetic personality, if your core is not in tact. It's the same in selling, public speaking or attracting the opposite sex – it's the inside you that counts. The character must be developed first.
„By far the most important part of your personality is that which is represented by your character, and is therefore the part that is not visible. The style of your clothes and their appropriateness undoubtedly constitute a very important part of your personality, for it is true that people form first impressions of you from your outward appearance.” Napoleon Hill
„Personally I never received a promotion in my life that I could not trace directly to recognition that I had gained by rendering more service and better service than that for which I was paid. (…) important feature of this habit of performing more service and better service than that for which we are paid; namely, the fact that we can develop this habit without asking for permission to do so.
Such service may be rendered through your own initiative, without the consent of any person. You do not have to consult those to whom you render the service, for it is a privilege over which you have entire control.” Napoleon Hill
Most of us create traps for themselves. We choose a job we don't like and later we don't put enough effort, because of it. Maybe, if they'd pay us justly! We try to eat the meal and pay for it later – it works only in restraunts (and not in all of them!). We stay at the position we hate for years, because we never show enough passion, never try to do more than we're asked. It's a trap.
But there's an easy way out. If you do more than you're paid for, if you put passion into your work, miracles will start happening and what's more important you'll feel much better with yourself.
„Without self-control enthusiasm resembles the unharnessed lightning of an electrical storm – it may strike anywhere; it may destroy life and property. (…) Enthusiasm is the vital quality that arouses you to action, while self-control is the balance wheel that directs your action so that it will build up and not tear down. (…) No man can control
others unless he first controls himself. (…) Men who control themselves
usually boss the job, no matter what it may be.” Napoleon Hill
Self-Control allows us to do the stuff, we'd rather put down for later. It enables us to deal with people, we'd rather not go on vacation with. It stops us from hurting ourselves.
Last time we were talking about Enthusiasm and how this enormous force can change our life. It can, but it has to be harnessed, controled and focused toward one or two most important goals, and not dispersed. We need self-control for that. Enthusiasm should push us, but not pull us.
„A survey which I have just completed of the 160,000 adult inmates of the penitentiaries of the United States discloses the startling fact that ninety- two per cent of these unfortunate men and women are in prison because they lacked the necessary self- control to direct their energies constructively. (…)It is a fact that the majority of a man's griefs come about through lack of self-control.” Napoleon Hill
„ENTHUSIASM is a state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand. It does more than this – it is contagious, and vitally affects not only the enthusiast, but all with whom he comes in contact.” Napoleon Hill
Enthusiasm is the fuel, the power, the joy. Ralph Waldo Emerson couldn't be more right, saying that nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.
It's our lesson number seven of the 'Law of Success' course, inspired grandly by Napoleon Hill's book of the same title.
A really cool picture, taken from stuffkit.com
„The act of constructive intellect in grouping the materials of knowledge or thought into new, original and rational systems; the constructive or creative faculty; embracing poetic, artistic, philosophic, scientific and ethical imagination.” Webster Dictionary
„IMAGINATION is the workshop of the human mind wherein old ideas and established facts may be reassembled into new combinations and put to new uses.” Napoleon Hill
Last time we were talking about Initiative & Leadership. Now will focus on every leader's greatest tool: Imagination.
How to create diamonds out of coal? How to find opportunity, where there seems to be none? How to find a way out of the most complicated situations?
The answere to these is Imagination.
It's a human's most amazing faculty. I found this Napoleon Hill's particularly inspiring and I hope so will you!
„The imagination is both interpretative and creative in nature. It can examine facts, concepts and ideas, and it can create new combinations and plans out of these.” Napoleon Hill
„Leadership is essential for the attainment of Success, and Initiative is the very foundation upon which this necessary quality of Leadership is built. Initiative is as essential to success as a hub is essential to a wagon wheel. (…) One of the peculiarities of Leadership is the fact that it is never found in those who have not acquired the habit of taking the Initiative.” Napoleon Hill
Last time I talked about the power of saving money.
Today's Lesson subject is Leadership and all that it entails.
As usual, we'll be reminded of the previous lessons, as Definite Chief Aim and Self-Confidence are crucial to becoming a decisive and effective leader. Of course, the value of being a great leader comes from the power of organized effort and Master Mind, both we should all be acquainted with by now.
Before we begin, a very short definition by our 'head teacher':
„And what is Initiative? It is that exceedingly rare quality that prompts – nay, impels – a person to do that which ought to be done without being told to do it.” Napoleon Hill
„Neither a borrower, nor a
lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself
and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge
of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own
self be true,
And it must follow, as the
night the day,
Thou canst not then be false
to any man.”
William Shakespeare
Welcome to the Lesson 4 of our Napoleon Hill's 'Law of Success' series! If you think that today's lesson is all about saving money, tightening the belt and implementing personal austerity, European-Union-style, you're thinking wrong.
Yes, it is a lesson on managing one's financial resources in a more responsible way, but more importantly it's a lesson with a goal of showing how one can become free.
Financial freedom is the first step to achievement of personal freedom, doing stuff we love in life and having a chance of acting on all fascinating opportunities that come our way.
Money is quite important today…
„The cold, cruel, relentless truth is that in this age, of materialism a man is no more than so many grains of sand, which may be blown helter-skelter by every stray wind of circumstance, unless he is entrenched behind the power of money! (…) The man without money is at the mercy of the man who has it!” Napoleon Hill
„The human mind, if you will pardon repetition, may be likened to an electric battery. It may be positive or it may be negative. Self-confidence is the quality with which the mind is re-charged and made positive.” Napoleon Hill
Last time, we were talking about the nead for a definite purpose in life.
Today's lesson focuses on belief in one's capacities. According to Napoleon Hill, the biggest enemy of self-confidence is fear, the greatest weapon against fear is auto-suggestion.
Self-confidence is necessary to achieve success, as it provides us with motivation, determination and leadership abilities. We won't give any task 100% effort (especially not for a long period of time), if we don't believe that in the long run we'll succeed and our sweat will allow us to reap rewards. To do so, we need to believe in the possibility of achieving our goals.
The same way, we need self-confidence to convince people to help us, follow us and invest in our ideas.
Let's begin our lesson number 3…
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