I recently came across some old notes in a notebook about Napoleon Hill and wanted to share them with you. I apologize that I do not know where or when I took these notes. Napoleon Hill had many great ideas well before his time, and if you haven’t read any of his books, please do. They offer great ideas to implement in your life, as well as thought-provoking ones that will keep you pondering for a while.
1. A Positive Mental Attitude
All riches, of whatever nature, begin as a state of mind, the only thing over which any person has complete, unchallenged right of control. It is highly significant that the Creator provided man with control over nothing except the power to shape his own thoughts and the privilege of fitting them to any pattern of his choice.
Mental attitude is important because it converts the brain into an equivalent of an electromagnet, which attracts the counterpart of one’s dominating thoughts, aims, and purposes. It also attracts the counterpart of one’s fears, worries, and doubts. A positive mental attitude (PMA) is the starting point of all riches, whether they be riches of a material nature or intangible riches.
2. Sound Physical Health
Sound health begins with a “health consciousness” produced by a mind which, in terms of health and not in terms of illness, plus temperance of habits in eating and properly balanced physical activities.
3. Harmony in Human Relationships
Harmony with others begins with one’s self, for it is true, as Shakespeare said, there are benefits available to those who comply with his admonitions, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
4. Freedom From Fear
No man who fears anything is a free man! Fear is a harbinger of evil, and wherever it appears, one may find a cause which must be eliminated before one may become rich in the fuller sense. The seven basic fears which most often occur in the minds of men are fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of ill health, fear of loss of love, fear of the loss of liberty, fear of old age, and the fear of death.
5. The Hope of Achievement
The greatest of all forms of happiness comes as the result of the hope of the achievement of some yet unattained desire. Poor beyond description is the person who cannot look to the future with hope that he will become the person he would like to be, or with the belief that he will attain the objective he has failed to reach in the past.
6. The Capacity for Faith
Faith is the connecting link between the conscious mind of man and the great universal reservoir of Infinite Intelligence. It is the fertile soil of the garden of the human mind wherein may be produced all of the riches of life. It is the “eternal elixir” which gives creative power and action to the impulses of thought.
7. Willingness to Share One’s Blessings
He who has not learned the blessed art of sharing has not learned the true path of happiness, for happiness comes only by sharing. And let it be forever remembered that all riches may be embellished and multiplied by the simple process of sharing them where they may serve others, and the space one occupies in the hearts of his fellowmen is determined precisely by the service he renders through the form of sharing.
8. A Labor of Love
There can be no richer man than he who has found a labor of love and who is busily engaged in performing it, for labor is the highest form of human expression of desire. Labor is the liaison between the demand and the supply of all human needs, the forerunner of all human progress, the medium by which the imagination of man gives the wings of action. And all labors of love are sanctified because they bring the joy of self-expression to him who performs them.
9. An Open Mind on All Subjects
Tolerance, which is among the higher attributes of culture, is expressed only by the person who holds an open mind on all subjects at all times. And it is only the man with an open mind who becomes truly educated and who is thus prepared to avail himself of the greater riches.
10. Self-Discipline
The man who is not the master of himself may never become the master of anything. He who is master of self may become the master of his own earthly destiny, the “master of his fate, the captain of his soul”. And the highest form of self-discipline consists in the expression of humility of the heart when one has attained great riches or has been overtaken by that which is commonly called “success”.
11. The Capacity to Understand People
The man who is rich in the understanding of people always recognizes that all people are fundamentally alike, in that they evolved from the same stem; that human activities are inspired by one of the nine basic motives of life, namely the emotion of love, sex, the desire for material gains, self-preservation, freedom of body and mind, self-expression, for perpetuation of life after death, the emotion of anger and fear. And the men who understand others must first understand themselves. The capacity to understand others eliminates much of the friction among men. It is of fundamental importance in all leadership, which calls for friendly cooperation.
12. Economic Security
The last, though not the least in importance, is the tangible portion of the “Twelve Riches”. Economic Security is not attained by the possession of money alone. It is attained by the service one renders, for useful service may be converted into all forms of human needs, with or without the use of money.
Let me know in the comments what books you’ve read from Napoleon Hill and what you learned from him.
Make Today Amazing!
Bess
