I’m sure you’ve heart of the book, “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napoleon Hill. Why is it that all of his books are so successful? Born in to poverty in 1883, it seems as though he tapped in to the Universal Secret of becoming successful financially, physically and spiritually.

In his book, The Seventeen Principals of Personal Achievement, Hill lays out the principals in a practical and concrete way. His first chapter speaks about developing a ‘Definiteness of Purpose’; figuring out what it is that you want to achieve, know as much about it as possible and then performing it exceptionally well. After you write out your plan, you then read it out loud to yourself every day.

In the second chapter, he encourages one to form a Mastermind Alliance with two or more like-minded individuals to work in harmony toward a definite purpose. Each member must agree on the contribution that each will contribute toward the goal.

Hill states that an important step in achieving success in life is to form a pleasant personality. He speaks of the PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) as the most important aspect of any pleasant personality. He encourages one to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and emergencies without becoming upset or angry. He feels that having a flexible disposition is helpful in any situation.

Hill speaks of Mahatma Gandhi and how his five sources of power helped him to defeat the British Empire:

- Definiteness of Purpose
- Going the Extra Mile
- Applied Faith
- Mastermind
- Self-Discipline

In Chapter 13, Hill writes of learning from adversity and defeat and how to turn it in to a blessing. He stresses that one’s attitude about defeat is important in mastering it. “You can see it as a loss or as a chance for gain.”

The last chapter deals with habits to be aware of; “Poverty, Laziness, Envy, Greed, Vanity, Cynicism, Irritability, Revenge, Jealousy, Dishonesty and Arrogance.” I’m just sure you might be familiar with one or two. Hill asks that the reader embrace them and replace them with the follow, “Definiteness of Purpose, Faith, Personal Initiative, Enthusiasm, Self-Discipline and Going the Extra Mile”. I believe these are the same habits that Gandhi used in his quest.

After I read one of Napoleon Hill’s books, I usually feel a bit prideful in my awareness of the obvious, but a bit guilty for not applying the principles. I can only hope that it all comes in sync and I become the person that I know I Am.

Rita Blair
rita@tellthesecret.com

http://www.renegade-rita.com

http://www.imaginetravel.ws

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

Developing a positive attitude is the single most important factor to your success, both in a personal and a financial sense. The importance of being positive and taking what life throws at you and coming back for more cannot be stressed enough. If you carry this throughout your life your chances of success will improve a hundred fold and more.

Napoleon Hill, in his seminal book `Think And Grow Rich`, called it applied faith, you can do it if you believe you can. It is funny how it is very rarely the most talented or cleverest people who get to the top of their chosen profession. It is the ones with a positive attitude, who have the drive and determination to fail, sometimes time and time again, but come back for more because they know in their heart that eventually they will succeed.

And of course success is all the sweeter for it, if you have looked adversity in the face and beaten it you will enjoy it all the more. People who have developed a positive attitude are not put off by setbacks, they just see it as another great challenge to overcome. They know that their will to succeed is far too big for anyone or anything to stand in their way.

I often have watched professional football matches, and seen certain players who had very little skill or technical ability, but keep getting picked by their coach week after week, and wondered why this was.

And now I realize that in every team you need some players who refuse to be beaten. When the team or 2-0 down away from home on a stormy day, with the opposition kicking lumps out of you, you need players who will not accept defeat, and however difficult the situation they fight to the very last minute.

They might not be the best player, but their positive attitude drags the rest of the team along with them, and so they are worth their weight in gold to the coach. The coach knows he can trust them implicitly every time that they go out on the pitch for the team.

Do you ever lack confidence or suffer from anxiety in social situations? If so you need the Panic Away program to teach you how to rid yourself of any sense of panic in peoples company. This revolutionary new program will transform your life and make you less prone to panic and more self confident. Just click on Panic Away for more information.

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

This information is from the 1937 edition of Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”

Which one is your favorite?

A goal is a dream with a deadline.
Napoleon Hill

Action is the real measure of intelligence.
Napoleon Hill

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

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.
Napoleon Hill

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
Napoleon Hill

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.
Napoleon Hill

Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.
Napoleon Hill

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
Napoleon Hill

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Napoleon Hill

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Napoleon Hill

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
Napoleon Hill

Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
Napoleon Hill

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.
Napoleon Hill

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
Napoleon Hill

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

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.
Napoleon Hill

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.
Napoleon Hill

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.
Napoleon Hill

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
Napoleon Hill

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.
Napoleon Hill

Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.
Napoleon Hill

Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind’s eye, and you will be drawn toward it.
Napoleon Hill

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.
Napoleon Hill

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
Napoleon Hill

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
Napoleon Hill

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.
Napoleon Hill

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.
Napoleon Hill

It is always your next move.
Napoleon Hill

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
Napoleon Hill

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.
Napoleon Hill

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.
Napoleon Hill

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
Napoleon Hill

Money without brains is always dangerous.
Napoleon Hill

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.
Napoleon Hill

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.
Napoleon Hill

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.
Napoleon Hill

No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person’s enemies say about him.
Napoleon Hill

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.
Napoleon Hill

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.
Napoleon Hill

No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.
Napoleon Hill

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.
Napoleon Hill

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
Napoleon Hill

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
Napoleon Hill

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
Napoleon Hill

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

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.
Napoleon Hill

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.
Napoleon Hill

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.
Napoleon Hill

The battle is all over except the “shouting” when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.
Napoleon Hill

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.
Napoleon Hill

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.
Napoleon Hill

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.
Napoleon Hill

The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.
Napoleon Hill

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.
Napoleon Hill

The starting point of all achievement is desire.
Napoleon Hill

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.
Napoleon Hill

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.
Napoleon Hill

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.
Napoleon Hill

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.
Napoleon Hill

Think and grow rich.
Napoleon Hill

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Napoleon Hill

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.
Napoleon Hill

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
Napoleon Hill

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.
Napoleon Hill

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.
Napoleon Hill

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.
Napoleon Hill

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.
Napoleon Hill

Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.
Napoleon Hill

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.
Napoleon Hill

You give before you get.
Napoleon Hill

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.
Napoleon Hill

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.
Napoleon Hill

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
Napoleon Hill

Find your opportunities and find people who think like you do. It is the core foundation of the philosophy of master mind groups.

“Think And Grow Rich” teaches you lessons that successful businessmen had learnt from life. It teaches you how to overcome adversity, the importance of planning, the belief and power of oneself, and the importance of not quitting even though the chips are down. Clever axioms such as “Failing to plan is planning to fail”, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve” and “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits” play on the readers mind and egg him on to at least start believing in himself.

1. Sound Health
2. Peace of Mind
3. Labor of Love of Own Choice
4. Freedom from Fear and Worry
5. Positive Mental Attitude
6. Material Riches of Own Choice and Quantity.

If you’ve ever wondered about how to create a positive mental attitude take a moment and read what he suggests through his philosophy of Applied Faith, Mental Attitude and Capacity for Believe.

1. Know what you want and believe that you can and will get it.
2. Gratitude for having received what you want – even before you get it.
3. Keep an open mind for hunches from within.
4. Defeat is a challenge to keep on trying.
5. Be definite, believe and act. Burning Desire is the starting point for Applied Faith.
6. Faith is not something you get. Faith is something you already have.

This is just a glimpse, a grain of sand on a full beach of the insights Hill presents to you in his books.

We all have things we want in life, sometimes things we want really really badly. Many people often dream of working for themselves and ditching their unhappy work lives. It is a sad fact that so few of us are living the lives we want. I do not believe that it is our destiny to trudge through life and then die. A successful entrepreneur has taken that leap from thought to action, something most of us never do because of fear and doubt. We are surrounded by mediocrity at every turn and this leads to us to think that this is just what life is about. Now, I am not saying the only way to be happy is to be a successful entrepreneur. I am sure there are many people who are happy in jobs and careers that have a structured schedule and require them to report to someone. But I know for a fact that many people are simply not and they lament the lives they have settled into(by their own choice whether or not they realize that).

I believe anyone can be a successful entrepreneur if they truly want it bad enough. So badly that they cannot imagine living any other way. This desire has to be red hot and detailed. Just saying you want to work for yourself is not enough. That is obvious. You need to specifically outline the why’s and keep them in your mind at all times. Write them down and post them where you can see them to remind you that all your effort, both physical and mental is worth it completely. I was miserable working the corporate world because I hated commuting. I consider myself to be a calm patient person but traffic was some sort of Achilles heel for me. I just could not deal with it like a normal person might. Jersey might be small but there is a lot of people on the road. I also hated being on someone else’s schedule and having to sit somewhere for 8 or 9 hours even if I had nothing to do. I got real good at looking busy. But the thing I hated most was vacation time. I have a desire to travel that is so strong and it is probably my number one factor for delving into self-employment with a very lucrative opportunity. The desire for the life I want is so unbelievably strong that once I started out on my own, I NEVER looked back. Those desires drove me every day to do what I needed to do because I knew the end result was going to be living an extraordinary life that most people do not think is possible for them.

So we know that a successful entrepreneur has an unshakeable desire for certain things in life and has made the decision to have them. The next step is having clear goals and action steps to get there. It requires a certain amount of discipline but if you have those burning desires in the forefront of your mind at all times, it is actually not that hard to keep motivated and do what you need to do. You need to have some sort of plan and what you need to do to get there. This does not mean you have to have every minute detail planned out but you should have daily, weekly, and/or monthly goals for yourself. This keeps you on track and will assure you are doing what you need to do. When I get up in the morning, I have a general idea of what I am doing that day. I may or may not have specific plans, sometimes I just go with my intuition and it seems to work well for me. If I have questions, I get in touch with my mentors and ask them for assistance and get right back to what I was doing. Remember to be patient and persistent as it can take some time to build up regular clients or prospects. Make sure you are doing something EVERYDAY and you will see that your efforts are paying off. This will serve for even more motivation and will spur you to step up your efforts even more, getting yourself closer and closer to realizing your dreams.

A successful entrepreneur knows what they want and why. These desires are so strong that nothing will keep them from reaching the goal. I think it is possible for anyone if they cultivate certain habits and traits. Remember that you can be whatever type of person you want to be and you can change any habits, beliefs, and personality traits that may be holding you back from living the life you truly want.

A Legitimate Home Business PHENOMENAL Personal Mentoring and Training. Up to 2,000 per sale. You Can Earn 6 Figures With This.

Take the tour, watch the video. It can be the start of a new day. It was for me!

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

The morning after the great Chicago fire, a group of merchants stood on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had been their stores. They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild, or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country. They reached a decision-all except one-to leave Chicago.

The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed a finger at the remains of his store, and said, “Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world’s greatest store, no matter how many times it may burn down.”

That was more than fifty years ago. The store was built. It stands there today, a towering monument to the power of that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE. The easy thing for Marshal Field to have done would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed easier.

Mark well this difference between Marshal Field and the other merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes Edwin C. Barnes from thousands of other young men who have worked in the Edison organization. It is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who succeed from those who fail. Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money, wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

The method, by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical steps, viz:

First. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter).

Second. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.)

Third. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ- SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

It is important that you follow the instructions described in these six steps. It is especially important that you observe, and follow the instructions in the sixth paragraph. You may complain that it is impossible for you to “see yourself in possession of money” before you actually have it. Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it. Only those who become “money conscious” ever accumulate great riches. “Money consciousness” means that the mind has become so thoroughly saturated with the DESIRE for money, that one can see one’s self already in possession of it.

To the uninitiated, who has not been schooled in the working principles of the human mind, these instructions may appear impractical. It may be helpful, to all who fail to recognize the soundness of the six steps, to know that the information they convey, was received from Andrew Carnegie, who began as an ordinary laborer in the steel mills, but managed, despite his humble beginning, to make these principles yield him a fortune of considerably more than one hundred million dollars.

It may be of further help to know that the six steps here recommended were carefully scrutinized by the late Thomas A. Edison, who placed his stamp of approval upon them as being, not only the steps essential for the accumulation of money, but neccessary for the attainment of any definite goal.

The steps call for no “hard labor.” They call for no sacrifice. They do not require one to become ridiculous, or credulous. To apply them calls for no great amount of education. But the successful application of these six steps does call for sufficient imagination to enable one to see, and to understand, that accumulation of money cannot be left to chance, good fortune, and luck. One must realize that all who have accumulated great fortunes first did a certain amount of dreaming, hoping, wishing, DESIRING, and PLANNING before they acquired money.

I beg you, just take a look at my website [http://www.thatcertainway.com] and if you are really interested in more exciting information with out for my articles. My name is Al Sowerby I am an information publisher. My dream is to change peoples lives through the information on self-help which I continue to send out.

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