By Don Radebaugh – TOLEDO, Ohio – It’s that time of year…lose a few pounds here…lose a few there. New Year’s resolutions are all the rage these days; at least until they’re not. Give it a month, and often we sink right back into that dark place we’re trying to escape. Regardless of the goal, the best way to get there is through your mind, not necessarily through the physical grind. The secret is to create the image in your mind first and steer toward it, no matter the obstacles.
“You either think you can, or think you can’t; either way, you’re right,” said Henry Ford so many years ago. No truer words have ever been uttered. You are what you think you are. You’ll be what you think you’ll be. The thoughts you think today will create the life you’ll have tomorrow. You’re the boss…it’s 100 percent on you. You’re the director, the producer, the star…you’re literally writing your own script. In fact we’re all ‘self-made’ but, more often than not, it’s only the successful people who admit it.
Thoughts are things…vibrations if you will that attract things that vibrate on the same frequencies. “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality,” said Albert Einstein. You either learn to control the thoughts in your mind, or they will most assuredly control you. You just have to decide who’s running the show.
When Napoleon Hill wrote “Think And Grow Rich” in 1937, he revealed a formula that works in the pursuit of success…success defined in your own terms of course, according to how each of us defines success. For Hill, it was about attaining great wealth. But the formula works no matter your goal, whether it’s the pursuit of wealth or the pursuit of your soul mate.
For more than two decades, Hill closely studied the most successful men in America…the Andrew Carnegie’s, the Henry Ford’s, the John Rockefeller’s and the JP Morgan’s of the world. After years of close interaction with the aforementioned industrial icons, and several others, he learned that successful people, the roughly five percent of the people who own 95 percent of the wealth, think differently than most of us. In fact, Hill came up with a formula that he discovered was common among the most successful humans, an eight-step process that went like this….
- It starts with an Idea, a Desire that excites the soul to new heights. We all have great ideas; however, we don’t all have the courage or umph to act upon them. It’s all too easy to discard them as ‘wild and crazy schemes’ with no hope to get off the ground. But if you can match the desire with a specific goal, and follow Hill’s formula in between, anything is doable.
- That said, the strong and courageous are eager to take it to the next level, or in this case, Hill’s next step, which is to back up your desire with complete Faith…not wishing and hoping, but faith that the goal is not only achievable, but that it’s already done. And because it’s already done, you begin to fill your mind with a new level of emotional excitement that causes you to feel exhilarated, which produces a new action plan that ultimately brings about a new and improved result.
- Step three involves Auto Suggestion, which is literally learning to reprogram your mind, creating a cultural shift in your way of thinking. It involves telling yourself all the right things. I am successful. I am innovative, creative, smart, enterprising, healthy, wealthy and wise. It could be anything you choose, but get in the habit of telling yourself you can accomplish anything, and that you have all the right stuff to get there. It’s about choosing the right thoughts consciously in order to influence your subconscious mind. Your subconscious will take anything you feed it, and you had better feed it all the right thoughts. In fact, you’ll get a response, a reaction from your subconscious mind based on the thoughts you habitually think in your conscious mind. Your subconscious is listening….be careful what you feed it. “Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate on a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.”
- The fourth step involves the pursuit of Specialized Knowledge, not general knowledge but specialized/organized knowledge directed through practical plans for the specific purpose of achieving a designed goal. Hill also points out that “an educated person is not necessarily one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated person is one who has so developed the faculties of their mind that he or she may acquire anything they want, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.”
- Step five focuses on Imagination, what Hill calls the “workshop of the mind”, the place where the desire begins to take shape in a specific form. Instead of believing it because you see it, turn it around and see it because you believe it. We all have big imaginations…engage them. Create the exact mental image in your mind that you want to achieve. See the success you desire and keep the image front and center. Imagine ways to get there. Excite yourself with the knowledge that if you believe it, you can achieve it.
- Now that you have all this great mojo going, it’s time for a plan, which is Hill’s sixth step – Organized Planning. No idea or desire can come to fruition without a plan of action…the courage to move forward with your desire, based on complete faith that the goal is already done. And if Plan A fails, move to Plan B, and so on.
- Step seven is nothing more than good old-fashioned Decision Making…chiefly, the art of mastering procrastination. Seems simple enough, but how many times have you put something off until tomorrow. We don’t have a contract to live forever. There are no practice runs in life. Get it done, and get it done now. I’m too tired or I don’t know how are no excuses.
- Hill’s final step may be the granddaddy of them all – Persistence. a major cause of failure. You can hit a home run with the first seven, but if you fail on persistence, the deal is lost. It reminds me of the prospector digging for gold. After digging for years, he finally gives up, not knowing he was just one inch away from the precious metal…just one more swing of the axe. Persistence is all about not being afraid to fail…to get up every time you’re knocked down, and I mean every time, no matter how hard the fall.
While Hill doesn’t list it as one of his eight steps to success, he does talk a great deal about Focus. It’s about keeping your eye on the chosen goal. Obstacles are only those things you see when you take your eye off the target.
If you want to improve your future, you’ve got to train your mind for success. If you’re stuck in a rut, the good news is that you can get out. If you’re not pleased with your circumstances, change them. Or, create a new paradigm. Don’t get stuck in your current ‘reality’. Have the courage to create a new reality, or a new model that makes the old model obsolete. “The cave we fear entering holds the treasure we seek,” said Joseph Campbell.
Whether it’s losing weight, acquiring wealth or pursuing your wildest dreams, you’ve got to learn to reprogram your mind for success. You can do this…you just have to go for it.
Happy New Year all. Get ready, get set, go…..
Sources:
Think And Grow Rich, written by Napoleon Hill, the 21st century edition, Copyright 2004.
The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind, written by Joseph Murphy, first published in 1963
More Suggested Readings:
The Secret of the Ages, written by Robert Collier
Self-Reliance, The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson, as Inspiration for Daily Living