YOUR POTENTIAL IS UNLIMITED.
Chapter Two : Principle # 1 – Your Potential Is Unlimited
Chapter Two : Principle # 1 – Your Potential Is Unlimited
Principle # 1 – Your Potential Is Unlimited
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” (Henry David Thoreau)
Your mind has all the power you need to get you anything you really want in life. Your ability to harness the incredible creative and constructive capacities of your thinking determines everything that happens to you. When you unlock your mental powers, you will accomplish more in a few months than many people do in several years.
Thought Is Creative
Perhaps the most important corollary of the Law of Cause and Effect is this: “Thoughts are causes, and conditions are effects.”
Your mind is the most powerful force in your universe. You are where you are and what you are because of your habitual ways of thinking. Your thoughts are creative, and they ultimately create your reality. As Emerson said, “A man becomes what he thinks about most of the time.” Therefore, if you change your thinking, you change your life. You actually become a different person and get different results.
The greatest thinkers of all time, dating back to the earliest religions, philosophers and metaphysical schools, have all emphasized the power of the human mind to shape individual destiny.
Become A Magnet For Good Luck
The Law of Attraction explains perhaps the most important luck factor of all. This law, first written about 3000 years before Christ, says that, “You are a living magnet, and you inevitably attract into your life the people, circumstances, ideas and resources in harmony with your dominant thoughts.”
The Law of Attraction falls under the Law of Cause and Effect. The Law of Attraction explains almost every circumstance of your life. People who think and talk continually about what they want seem to attract more and more of those very things into their lives. People who talk about what they don’t want, or the things they fear or worry about, or who are angry and resentful, continually attract negative and unhappy experiences into their lives as well.
The Law of Attraction is neutral, as are all of these other laws and principles. Natural laws do not play favorites. They function automatically and unemotionally. They affect you either positively or negatively, depending on whether you use them constructively or destructively.
Perhaps the most important lesson you will ever learn is this: to be successful and happy, you must think and talk only about the things you want. At the same time, you must discipline yourself not to think and talk about the things you don’t want. This may sound simple and obvious, but it is often the most difficult of all exercises in self-control and self-mastery.
You Will See It When You Believe It
The Law of Belief is another luck factor that you can use to your advantage. The Law of Belief states that, “Whatever you believe, with conviction, becomes your reality.”
William James of Harvard wrote that, “Belief creates the actual fact.” In the New Testament it says, “According to your faith, it is done unto you.” In the Old Testament it reads, “As a man thinketh (or believeth) in his heart, so is he.” Throughout all of history, people have recognized that our beliefs play a major role in the way we see the world, and in the way we think and behave.
If you absolutely believe that you are destined to be a great success in life, you will think and behave accordingly, and you will make it come true. If you confidently believe that you are a lucky person, and that good things are continually happening to you, your belief will become the actual fact of your life.
You See What You Already Believe
Once upon a time, two shoe salesmen, from different companies, were sent to an African country to explore the market for shoes. The first shoe salesman hated the assignment and wished he didn’t have to go. The second shoe salesman loved the assignment and saw it as a great opportunity for advancement in his company.
When they each arrived in the African country, they studied the local market for shoes. They then both send telegrams back to their head offices. The first salesman, who didn’t want to be there, wrote, “Trip has been wasted. No market in this country. Nobody wears shoes.”
The second salesman, who saw this as a real opportunity and believed that he could make something of it, said in his telegram, “Wonderful trip.
Market opportunities unlimited. No one wears shoes.”
You Create Your Own Reality
There is a short poem that says, “Two men looked out through prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.”
Shakespeare wrote that, “Nothing is but thinking makes it so.”
Your beliefs do become your realities. The Law of Mind, a corollary of the Law of Belief, says that, “Thoughts objectify themselves. Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” The results of your habitual ways of thinking eventually appear in the world around you. All you have to do is to look around you to see the truth of these timeless principles.
By Their Fruits
In the New Testament, Jesus says, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” You can tell what a person thinks about most of the time by looking at the fruits of his or her life. A happy, healthy, prosperous person with good friends and family is invariably a person who thinks about his life in positive terms - most of the time. He absolutely believes that happy and success are in the natural order of things for him.
Harvard University did a study a few years ago and made three predictions for that year. These predictions, as it turns out, seemed to be true for every year thereafter. The Harvard study predicted that first, in the coming year, there will be more changes than ever before. Second, in the coming year, there will be more competition than ever before. Third, in the coming year there will be more opportunities than ever before. The fourth conclusion, which was contained in a footnote, said that those who do not adjust to the rapid rate of change, respond to the increase in competition or take advantage of the new opportunities available will be out of their jobs within two years.
The Opportunities of Tomorrow
The truth about opportunities is that there are more of them today than ever before, but they are different from the opportunities of the past. There are more opportunities for more people to achieve more of their goals of health, happiness and financial independence today than have ever existed in all of human history. But to take advantage of them, you will have to adjust and adapt to the new realities of your situation, whatever they are.
One of the greatest luck factors of all, which few people realize or appreciate, is the factor of being born and living today in our world as it exists at this moment. Most of the major illnesses have been eliminated, there are no major wars or revolutions, inflation is under control, unemployment is down and the possibilities for positive, creative people are virtually unlimited.
We are entering into the Golden Age that has been dreamed about throughout all of human history. Your goal must be to take full advantage of all the wonders of the modern world to design and create your own future.
Of course, there will always be social, political and economic problems to contend with. The problems of world terrorism create new feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. But these ups and downs are inevitable. They are challenges that we will rise to, and eventually meet successfully. The good news is that for you, the possibilities are unlimited.
There Are No Limits
Your greatest limits are not external. They are internal, within your own thinking. They are contained in your personal “self-limiting beliefs.” These are the beliefs that act as the brakes on your potential. These are the beliefs that cause you to sell yourself short, and to settle for far less than you are truly capable of.
Many people think that they are not smart enough, creative enough, or talented enough to get the things they want. But the fact is that most of these beliefs have no basis in reality. They are simply not true. There are very few limits on what you can really accomplish, except the ones you accept in your own mind. As Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can do a thing, or you believe you cannot, in either case, you are probably right.”
Here is an important point. You cannot intensely desire something without having simultaneously the ability to attain it. The existence of the desire itself is usually proof that you have within you everything you need to fulfill that desire. Your job is simply to find out how to do it. Your job is to identify all the things that you can do to increase the probabilities and improve the averages that you will achieve your goal as you desire it, and on schedule.
Expect The Best
The Law of Expectations contains and explains another luck factor. This law says that, “Whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Perhaps the most powerful and predictable motivator of all is an attitude of positive expectations. People are most motivated to act when they are convinced that their actions will lead to a successful, positive outcome. They take action because they confidently expect good things to happen as a result of what they do.
One way to manufacture your own mental force field of positive expectations is to start off each morning by saying; “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today!” Repeat this affirmation several times until your entire mind is charged up with confident expectancy. “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.”
At the end of the day, do a brief review and think over the events of the past few hours. You will be amazed to notice the great number of wonderful things, large and small, that actually did happen to you when you mind was supercharged with this power of confident expectation.
Successful people are characterized by this attitude of positive selfexpectancy. They expect to succeed more often than they fail. They expect to win more often than they lose. They expect to gain something from every experience. They look for the good in every situation. They see the glass as half full rather than as half empty. Even when things go wrong for them, they look into the temporary setback or reversal for the lessons they can learn and the advantages they can gain from the experience.
The Success Secret of the Wealthiest 500
Napoleon Hill, in his study of 500 of the richest men in America, concluded that one characteristic that they all had in common was this attitude of positive expectancy. They made a habit of looking into every obstacle or setback for an equal or greater advantage or benefit. And they always found it. You must do the same.
When you start any new career or a business, you should confidently expect to succeed. You should confidently expect that people will buy your products or utilize your services. You should confidently expect that your bank or others will provide the funds that you require. You should confidently believe that you will attract the very best people to help you realize your business dreams. This expectant attitude goes before you like a shining light, throughout the day, affecting everybody that you come in contact with.
When you have a setback or difficulty, no matter what it is, look upon it as a valuable lesson, and try to learn as much from it as possible. Refuse to consider the possibility of failure. Remain open minded and flexible. Be prepared to try new things and abandon old methods that are not working. Resolve in advance that you will never give up. And if you think this way all day long, what do you think will eventually happen to you?
Your beliefs about yourself and your world create your expectations. Your expectations determine your attitude. Your attitude determines your behavior and the way you relate to other people. And the way you behave toward and relate to other people determines how they relate to and behave towards you.
The more confident and positive you become, the more you will believe yourself destined for great success. You will generate a more powerful force field of attraction around you. You will draw more people and opportunities into your life to help you to achieve your goals at a faster rate. You will create your own future, and people will continually call you “lucky.”
Use All Your Mental Powers
Your subconscious mind can be another luck factor, when you use it correctly. The Law of Subconscious Activity says: “Whatever thought or goal you accept in your conscious mind will be accepted by your subconscious mind as a command or instruction.”
Your subconscious mind, the sending station of the power of attraction, once programmed with your goals, will then begin drawing into your life the people and resources you need to achieve them. Your subconscious mind will make your words and actions fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept, with your dominant thoughts and ideas about yourself. Your subconscious mind will determine your body language and the ways that you interact with other people. The commands you have given to your subconscious mind by your habitual ways of thinking will affect your tone of voice, your energy levels, your enthusiasm and your attitude.
Your subconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful. It works 24 hours per day. Once you begin using it in achieving your goals, you will begin to move forward at a speed that you cannot now imagine.
Activate Your Reticular Cortex
In your brain, there is a small finger-like organ called the “reticular cortex.” This reticular cortex is like a telephone switchboard that accepts and forwards calls from the outside. Your reticular cortex takes in information and passes it on to your conscious mind, as well as to your subconscious mind. Your reticular cortex, or reticular activating system, works on the basis of commands that you have given it regarding what you want and what is most important to you.
For example, if you decide that you want a red sports car, you will begin to see red sports cars everywhere. This desire or goal will activate your reticular cortex and make your mind highly sensitive to red sports cars. You will become aware of red sports cars wherever you go. You will see them turning corners and parked in driveways. You will notice pictures and advertising for red sports cars. And you will attract people and ideas that will help you to finally acquire a red sports car. Was there ever anything you really wanted for a long time that you didn’t eventually get, often in the most amazing way?
If you decide that you want to become financially independent, you will immediately develop a heightened awareness to information, people and opportunities that can help you financially in some way. You will begin to attract into your life people who have ideas and advice for you. You will come across books and articles that answer key questions. You will find yourself taking actions that help you achieve the financial independence you desire.
Program Your Mind For Success
You act on the outside consistent with the way you are programmed on the inside. This programming can be accidental and random, or it can be deliberate and purposeful. When you take charge of the suggestive influences in your life, you activate another luck factor. And you can control your own programming with affirmations that you repeat over and over.
The power of repeated affirmation actually changes your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Just as you become what you think about most of the time, you also become what you say to yourself and believe. Whatever goals you repeat, over and over, in a positive, present tense, personal way will be accepted by your subconscious mind as commands. Your subconscious mind will then go to work to attract these goals into your life.
For example, when you repeat an affirmation such as, “I earn $50,000 per year! I earn $50,000 per year! I earn $50,000 per year!” over and over, you program this command deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind. Eventually, this goal is accepted by your subconscious mind and begins to take on a power of its own. Very soon, things will start to happen inside you and around you to help make this goal a reality.
You will find that people who are described as “lucky” are always talking confidently about the things that they want, and about the specific things they can do to get them. They recognize that, just as you become what you think about, you get what you talk about, as well. So they make sure that what they talk about is what they truly want, and not what they don’t want.
Your Outer Life Reflects Your Inner Life
The Law of Correspondence explains one of the most powerful of all luck factors. This timeless principle underlies and explains almost everything that happens to you. It says that, “Your outer world tends to be a mirror image of your inner world.” What is going on outside of you is a reflection or manifestation of what is going on inside of you. And it cannot be otherwise.
When you stand in front of a mirror and you see your reflection, you know that this picture is determined by what you are presenting to the mirror. When you look at each part of your life, you will see your own attitudes and beliefs reflected back to you. You do not see the world the way it is, but the way you are. The person you are inside primarily determines what is happening to you on the outside.
Your character and your personality largely determine the quality of your relationships with other people. Your attitude, and the way people react to you, is largely determined by your own beliefs and expectations, and your attitude toward yourself. Your inner level of desire and determination creates your outer world of success and financial achievement. People are poor on the outside primarily because they are poor on the inside.
Your levels of health and fitness on the outside are largely determined by the way you think about your health and fitness on the inside. People who think about food all the time tend to be overweight and unfit. People who think about health and fitness all the time tend to be thin, trim and highly energetic. Health and fitness always begin with your thinking.
The Law of Mental Equivalence
The summary principle of all of these mental laws, and perhaps the most important luck factor of all, is the Law of Mental Equivalence. This law says: What you experience in your life is the mental equivalent of what you create in your mind.
Your main aim is therefore to create within yourself the mental equivalent of what you wish to enjoy on the outside. To enjoy greatly, and to achieve greatly, you must build up within yourself the consciousness of success, health, happiness, prosperity and personal achievement consistent with what you really want. You must create your desired reality in your mind before you can experience it in your world. And you have complete control over your own mind.
You can start at any time to create this mental equivalent. It is not your past thoughts or your future thoughts that determine your life and your destiny. It is only the thoughts that you think right now, in the present moment. You are not bound by the mistakes of the past or the uncertainties of the future. Your potential is unlimited because you are free to choose your thoughts at this moment, and what you think at this moment determines the future direction of your life.
Grab the Steering Wheel of Your Own Life
If you are driving down the road, and you turn the wheel of your car sharply in one direction or the other, that is the direction that you will go at that moment. If you keep your car moving in that new direction, that will determine where you end up. Your future is not determined by how you drove yesterday, or how you drive tomorrow. It is determined by what you think and do right now.
You cannot control the entire world. You cannot control all the intricate and infinite details of modern life. You cannot control all the years that lie behind or the years that lie ahead, but you can control this present moment. Fortunately, this is all that you need to do to create your own future and achieve all the success that is possible for you.
Control the Influences That Affect You
Your mind is continually changing, based on what is going on in the world around you. The information and influences that you allow into your mind during the day have a major impact on the evolution and direction of your thinking. These changes in your thinking can either be conscious, deliberate and positive or they can be random, haphazard and negative.
The power of suggestion influences the way you think, feel, and behave. It affects the person you are and the person you become. The influences bombarding your mind each day are creating a force field of attraction that is either bringing you things you want, or bringing you things you don’t want.
Because you tend to be sensitive to your environment, you must take control over the influences that you allow to reach your conscious mind. Just as you would only eat healthy nutritious foods if you wanted to be superbly fit physically, you must only take in healthy, nutritious mental influences if you want to be superbly fit mentally, as well. You should read inspiring material, listen to positive audio programs, watch uplifting educational video programs and associate with positive people. You must guard your mental integrity as a sacred thing.
Take Charge of Your Life
Another factor that is guaranteed to increase the number of lucky breaks you get in life is the acceptance of complete responsibility for yourself, and for everything that happens to you. The mark of the excellent person is that he or she refuses to make excuses, blame others or complain about his or her situation. Instead, you say over and over, “I am responsible!”
In the final analysis, since you become what you think about, and only you can think your thoughts, you are completely responsible for every aspect of your life. You are where you are and what you are because you have decided to be there. If there is any part of your life that you don’t like, you are responsible for changing it.
The acceptance of responsibility is the great liberator. It puts you completely in charge of your life, and of everything that happens to you. Since your thinking controls your destiny, by taking charge of your thoughts, you can control the rest of your life.
By deciding to think only about the things you want, you can become an extremely lucky person. You will activate your reticular cortex and get it working for you. You will program your subconscious mind. You will increase the probabilities that you will achieve the success you desire. Meanwhile, you can stop doing the things that are holding you back. You can decide to reject any ideas that limit your belief in your own potential.
If you buy a brand new, beautifully engineered car from the dealership and take it out on the road and it runs beautifully, do you ascribe it to luck?
Of course not! The fact is that whether it is a sophisticated piece of sound equipment, a hand crafted watch, or a beautiful automobile, you know that each of them was built according to specific laws of mechanics, physics and electricity. The fact that they run beautifully is not luck.
It is the same with you. When you begin applying these luck factors to your life, you will start to achieve extraordinary things. You will surge ahead of the people around you. You will enjoy greater success and accomplishment than you ever imagined. You will create a wonderful future for yourself. And it will be the result of design, not luck.
Action exercises – what to do now:
Resolve today that you are going to think and talk about only
those things that you really want in your life. What are they?
Challenge your self-limiting beliefs; identify the negative ideas
you have that are holding you back, and then act as if they weren’t true.
Expect the best in every situation. Imagine that you have been guaranteed of great success in everything you do, and act accordingly.
Identify your biggest problem or source of worry today. What can you learn from it that will make you better and stronger in the future?
Program your mind for success by repeated affirmations of your goals in the present, positive and personal tense.
Control the suggestive influences in your environment; continually feed your mind with positive books, audios, people and conversations.
Discipline yourself to look for something good or helpful in every experience. You will always find i
Chapter Two : Principle # 1 – Your Potential Is Unlimited
Principle # 1 – Your Potential Is Unlimited
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” (Henry David Thoreau)
Your mind has all the power you need to get you anything you really want in life. Your ability to harness the incredible creative and constructive capacities of your thinking determines everything that happens to you. When you unlock your mental powers, you will accomplish more in a few months than many people do in several years.
Thought Is Creative
Perhaps the most important corollary of the Law of Cause and Effect is this: “Thoughts are causes, and conditions are effects.”
Your mind is the most powerful force in your universe. You are where you are and what you are because of your habitual ways of thinking. Your thoughts are creative, and they ultimately create your reality. As Emerson said, “A man becomes what he thinks about most of the time.” Therefore, if you change your thinking, you change your life. You actually become a different person and get different results.
The greatest thinkers of all time, dating back to the earliest religions, philosophers and metaphysical schools, have all emphasized the power of the human mind to shape individual destiny.
Become A Magnet For Good Luck
The Law of Attraction explains perhaps the most important luck factor of all. This law, first written about 3000 years before Christ, says that, “You are a living magnet, and you inevitably attract into your life the people, circumstances, ideas and resources in harmony with your dominant thoughts.”
The Law of Attraction falls under the Law of Cause and Effect. The Law of Attraction explains almost every circumstance of your life. People who think and talk continually about what they want seem to attract more and more of those very things into their lives. People who talk about what they don’t want, or the things they fear or worry about, or who are angry and resentful, continually attract negative and unhappy experiences into their lives as well.
The Law of Attraction is neutral, as are all of these other laws and principles. Natural laws do not play favorites. They function automatically and unemotionally. They affect you either positively or negatively, depending on whether you use them constructively or destructively.
Perhaps the most important lesson you will ever learn is this: to be successful and happy, you must think and talk only about the things you want. At the same time, you must discipline yourself not to think and talk about the things you don’t want. This may sound simple and obvious, but it is often the most difficult of all exercises in self-control and self-mastery.
You Will See It When You Believe It
The Law of Belief is another luck factor that you can use to your advantage. The Law of Belief states that, “Whatever you believe, with conviction, becomes your reality.”
William James of Harvard wrote that, “Belief creates the actual fact.” In the New Testament it says, “According to your faith, it is done unto you.” In the Old Testament it reads, “As a man thinketh (or believeth) in his heart, so is he.” Throughout all of history, people have recognized that our beliefs play a major role in the way we see the world, and in the way we think and behave.
If you absolutely believe that you are destined to be a great success in life, you will think and behave accordingly, and you will make it come true. If you confidently believe that you are a lucky person, and that good things are continually happening to you, your belief will become the actual fact of your life.
You See What You Already Believe
Once upon a time, two shoe salesmen, from different companies, were sent to an African country to explore the market for shoes. The first shoe salesman hated the assignment and wished he didn’t have to go. The second shoe salesman loved the assignment and saw it as a great opportunity for advancement in his company.
When they each arrived in the African country, they studied the local market for shoes. They then both send telegrams back to their head offices. The first salesman, who didn’t want to be there, wrote, “Trip has been wasted. No market in this country. Nobody wears shoes.”
The second salesman, who saw this as a real opportunity and believed that he could make something of it, said in his telegram, “Wonderful trip.
Market opportunities unlimited. No one wears shoes.”
You Create Your Own Reality
There is a short poem that says, “Two men looked out through prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.”
Shakespeare wrote that, “Nothing is but thinking makes it so.”
Your beliefs do become your realities. The Law of Mind, a corollary of the Law of Belief, says that, “Thoughts objectify themselves. Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” The results of your habitual ways of thinking eventually appear in the world around you. All you have to do is to look around you to see the truth of these timeless principles.
By Their Fruits
In the New Testament, Jesus says, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” You can tell what a person thinks about most of the time by looking at the fruits of his or her life. A happy, healthy, prosperous person with good friends and family is invariably a person who thinks about his life in positive terms - most of the time. He absolutely believes that happy and success are in the natural order of things for him.
Harvard University did a study a few years ago and made three predictions for that year. These predictions, as it turns out, seemed to be true for every year thereafter. The Harvard study predicted that first, in the coming year, there will be more changes than ever before. Second, in the coming year, there will be more competition than ever before. Third, in the coming year there will be more opportunities than ever before. The fourth conclusion, which was contained in a footnote, said that those who do not adjust to the rapid rate of change, respond to the increase in competition or take advantage of the new opportunities available will be out of their jobs within two years.
The Opportunities of Tomorrow
The truth about opportunities is that there are more of them today than ever before, but they are different from the opportunities of the past. There are more opportunities for more people to achieve more of their goals of health, happiness and financial independence today than have ever existed in all of human history. But to take advantage of them, you will have to adjust and adapt to the new realities of your situation, whatever they are.
One of the greatest luck factors of all, which few people realize or appreciate, is the factor of being born and living today in our world as it exists at this moment. Most of the major illnesses have been eliminated, there are no major wars or revolutions, inflation is under control, unemployment is down and the possibilities for positive, creative people are virtually unlimited.
We are entering into the Golden Age that has been dreamed about throughout all of human history. Your goal must be to take full advantage of all the wonders of the modern world to design and create your own future.
Of course, there will always be social, political and economic problems to contend with. The problems of world terrorism create new feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. But these ups and downs are inevitable. They are challenges that we will rise to, and eventually meet successfully. The good news is that for you, the possibilities are unlimited.
There Are No Limits
Your greatest limits are not external. They are internal, within your own thinking. They are contained in your personal “self-limiting beliefs.” These are the beliefs that act as the brakes on your potential. These are the beliefs that cause you to sell yourself short, and to settle for far less than you are truly capable of.
Many people think that they are not smart enough, creative enough, or talented enough to get the things they want. But the fact is that most of these beliefs have no basis in reality. They are simply not true. There are very few limits on what you can really accomplish, except the ones you accept in your own mind. As Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can do a thing, or you believe you cannot, in either case, you are probably right.”
Here is an important point. You cannot intensely desire something without having simultaneously the ability to attain it. The existence of the desire itself is usually proof that you have within you everything you need to fulfill that desire. Your job is simply to find out how to do it. Your job is to identify all the things that you can do to increase the probabilities and improve the averages that you will achieve your goal as you desire it, and on schedule.
Expect The Best
The Law of Expectations contains and explains another luck factor. This law says that, “Whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Perhaps the most powerful and predictable motivator of all is an attitude of positive expectations. People are most motivated to act when they are convinced that their actions will lead to a successful, positive outcome. They take action because they confidently expect good things to happen as a result of what they do.
One way to manufacture your own mental force field of positive expectations is to start off each morning by saying; “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today!” Repeat this affirmation several times until your entire mind is charged up with confident expectancy. “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.”
At the end of the day, do a brief review and think over the events of the past few hours. You will be amazed to notice the great number of wonderful things, large and small, that actually did happen to you when you mind was supercharged with this power of confident expectation.
Successful people are characterized by this attitude of positive selfexpectancy. They expect to succeed more often than they fail. They expect to win more often than they lose. They expect to gain something from every experience. They look for the good in every situation. They see the glass as half full rather than as half empty. Even when things go wrong for them, they look into the temporary setback or reversal for the lessons they can learn and the advantages they can gain from the experience.
The Success Secret of the Wealthiest 500
Napoleon Hill, in his study of 500 of the richest men in America, concluded that one characteristic that they all had in common was this attitude of positive expectancy. They made a habit of looking into every obstacle or setback for an equal or greater advantage or benefit. And they always found it. You must do the same.
When you start any new career or a business, you should confidently expect to succeed. You should confidently expect that people will buy your products or utilize your services. You should confidently expect that your bank or others will provide the funds that you require. You should confidently believe that you will attract the very best people to help you realize your business dreams. This expectant attitude goes before you like a shining light, throughout the day, affecting everybody that you come in contact with.
When you have a setback or difficulty, no matter what it is, look upon it as a valuable lesson, and try to learn as much from it as possible. Refuse to consider the possibility of failure. Remain open minded and flexible. Be prepared to try new things and abandon old methods that are not working. Resolve in advance that you will never give up. And if you think this way all day long, what do you think will eventually happen to you?
Your beliefs about yourself and your world create your expectations. Your expectations determine your attitude. Your attitude determines your behavior and the way you relate to other people. And the way you behave toward and relate to other people determines how they relate to and behave towards you.
The more confident and positive you become, the more you will believe yourself destined for great success. You will generate a more powerful force field of attraction around you. You will draw more people and opportunities into your life to help you to achieve your goals at a faster rate. You will create your own future, and people will continually call you “lucky.”
Use All Your Mental Powers
Your subconscious mind can be another luck factor, when you use it correctly. The Law of Subconscious Activity says: “Whatever thought or goal you accept in your conscious mind will be accepted by your subconscious mind as a command or instruction.”
Your subconscious mind, the sending station of the power of attraction, once programmed with your goals, will then begin drawing into your life the people and resources you need to achieve them. Your subconscious mind will make your words and actions fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept, with your dominant thoughts and ideas about yourself. Your subconscious mind will determine your body language and the ways that you interact with other people. The commands you have given to your subconscious mind by your habitual ways of thinking will affect your tone of voice, your energy levels, your enthusiasm and your attitude.
Your subconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful. It works 24 hours per day. Once you begin using it in achieving your goals, you will begin to move forward at a speed that you cannot now imagine.
Activate Your Reticular Cortex
In your brain, there is a small finger-like organ called the “reticular cortex.” This reticular cortex is like a telephone switchboard that accepts and forwards calls from the outside. Your reticular cortex takes in information and passes it on to your conscious mind, as well as to your subconscious mind. Your reticular cortex, or reticular activating system, works on the basis of commands that you have given it regarding what you want and what is most important to you.
For example, if you decide that you want a red sports car, you will begin to see red sports cars everywhere. This desire or goal will activate your reticular cortex and make your mind highly sensitive to red sports cars. You will become aware of red sports cars wherever you go. You will see them turning corners and parked in driveways. You will notice pictures and advertising for red sports cars. And you will attract people and ideas that will help you to finally acquire a red sports car. Was there ever anything you really wanted for a long time that you didn’t eventually get, often in the most amazing way?
If you decide that you want to become financially independent, you will immediately develop a heightened awareness to information, people and opportunities that can help you financially in some way. You will begin to attract into your life people who have ideas and advice for you. You will come across books and articles that answer key questions. You will find yourself taking actions that help you achieve the financial independence you desire.
Program Your Mind For Success
You act on the outside consistent with the way you are programmed on the inside. This programming can be accidental and random, or it can be deliberate and purposeful. When you take charge of the suggestive influences in your life, you activate another luck factor. And you can control your own programming with affirmations that you repeat over and over.
The power of repeated affirmation actually changes your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Just as you become what you think about most of the time, you also become what you say to yourself and believe. Whatever goals you repeat, over and over, in a positive, present tense, personal way will be accepted by your subconscious mind as commands. Your subconscious mind will then go to work to attract these goals into your life.
For example, when you repeat an affirmation such as, “I earn $50,000 per year! I earn $50,000 per year! I earn $50,000 per year!” over and over, you program this command deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind. Eventually, this goal is accepted by your subconscious mind and begins to take on a power of its own. Very soon, things will start to happen inside you and around you to help make this goal a reality.
You will find that people who are described as “lucky” are always talking confidently about the things that they want, and about the specific things they can do to get them. They recognize that, just as you become what you think about, you get what you talk about, as well. So they make sure that what they talk about is what they truly want, and not what they don’t want.
Your Outer Life Reflects Your Inner Life
The Law of Correspondence explains one of the most powerful of all luck factors. This timeless principle underlies and explains almost everything that happens to you. It says that, “Your outer world tends to be a mirror image of your inner world.” What is going on outside of you is a reflection or manifestation of what is going on inside of you. And it cannot be otherwise.
When you stand in front of a mirror and you see your reflection, you know that this picture is determined by what you are presenting to the mirror. When you look at each part of your life, you will see your own attitudes and beliefs reflected back to you. You do not see the world the way it is, but the way you are. The person you are inside primarily determines what is happening to you on the outside.
Your character and your personality largely determine the quality of your relationships with other people. Your attitude, and the way people react to you, is largely determined by your own beliefs and expectations, and your attitude toward yourself. Your inner level of desire and determination creates your outer world of success and financial achievement. People are poor on the outside primarily because they are poor on the inside.
Your levels of health and fitness on the outside are largely determined by the way you think about your health and fitness on the inside. People who think about food all the time tend to be overweight and unfit. People who think about health and fitness all the time tend to be thin, trim and highly energetic. Health and fitness always begin with your thinking.
The Law of Mental Equivalence
The summary principle of all of these mental laws, and perhaps the most important luck factor of all, is the Law of Mental Equivalence. This law says: What you experience in your life is the mental equivalent of what you create in your mind.
Your main aim is therefore to create within yourself the mental equivalent of what you wish to enjoy on the outside. To enjoy greatly, and to achieve greatly, you must build up within yourself the consciousness of success, health, happiness, prosperity and personal achievement consistent with what you really want. You must create your desired reality in your mind before you can experience it in your world. And you have complete control over your own mind.
You can start at any time to create this mental equivalent. It is not your past thoughts or your future thoughts that determine your life and your destiny. It is only the thoughts that you think right now, in the present moment. You are not bound by the mistakes of the past or the uncertainties of the future. Your potential is unlimited because you are free to choose your thoughts at this moment, and what you think at this moment determines the future direction of your life.
Grab the Steering Wheel of Your Own Life
If you are driving down the road, and you turn the wheel of your car sharply in one direction or the other, that is the direction that you will go at that moment. If you keep your car moving in that new direction, that will determine where you end up. Your future is not determined by how you drove yesterday, or how you drive tomorrow. It is determined by what you think and do right now.
You cannot control the entire world. You cannot control all the intricate and infinite details of modern life. You cannot control all the years that lie behind or the years that lie ahead, but you can control this present moment. Fortunately, this is all that you need to do to create your own future and achieve all the success that is possible for you.
Control the Influences That Affect You
Your mind is continually changing, based on what is going on in the world around you. The information and influences that you allow into your mind during the day have a major impact on the evolution and direction of your thinking. These changes in your thinking can either be conscious, deliberate and positive or they can be random, haphazard and negative.
The power of suggestion influences the way you think, feel, and behave. It affects the person you are and the person you become. The influences bombarding your mind each day are creating a force field of attraction that is either bringing you things you want, or bringing you things you don’t want.
Because you tend to be sensitive to your environment, you must take control over the influences that you allow to reach your conscious mind. Just as you would only eat healthy nutritious foods if you wanted to be superbly fit physically, you must only take in healthy, nutritious mental influences if you want to be superbly fit mentally, as well. You should read inspiring material, listen to positive audio programs, watch uplifting educational video programs and associate with positive people. You must guard your mental integrity as a sacred thing.
Take Charge of Your Life
Another factor that is guaranteed to increase the number of lucky breaks you get in life is the acceptance of complete responsibility for yourself, and for everything that happens to you. The mark of the excellent person is that he or she refuses to make excuses, blame others or complain about his or her situation. Instead, you say over and over, “I am responsible!”
In the final analysis, since you become what you think about, and only you can think your thoughts, you are completely responsible for every aspect of your life. You are where you are and what you are because you have decided to be there. If there is any part of your life that you don’t like, you are responsible for changing it.
The acceptance of responsibility is the great liberator. It puts you completely in charge of your life, and of everything that happens to you. Since your thinking controls your destiny, by taking charge of your thoughts, you can control the rest of your life.
By deciding to think only about the things you want, you can become an extremely lucky person. You will activate your reticular cortex and get it working for you. You will program your subconscious mind. You will increase the probabilities that you will achieve the success you desire. Meanwhile, you can stop doing the things that are holding you back. You can decide to reject any ideas that limit your belief in your own potential.
If you buy a brand new, beautifully engineered car from the dealership and take it out on the road and it runs beautifully, do you ascribe it to luck?
Of course not! The fact is that whether it is a sophisticated piece of sound equipment, a hand crafted watch, or a beautiful automobile, you know that each of them was built according to specific laws of mechanics, physics and electricity. The fact that they run beautifully is not luck.
It is the same with you. When you begin applying these luck factors to your life, you will start to achieve extraordinary things. You will surge ahead of the people around you. You will enjoy greater success and accomplishment than you ever imagined. You will create a wonderful future for yourself. And it will be the result of design, not luck.
Action exercises – what to do now:
Resolve today that you are going to think and talk about only
those things that you really want in your life. What are they?
Challenge your self-limiting beliefs; identify the negative ideas
you have that are holding you back, and then act as if they weren’t true.
Expect the best in every situation. Imagine that you have been guaranteed of great success in everything you do, and act accordingly.
Identify your biggest problem or source of worry today. What can you learn from it that will make you better and stronger in the future?
Program your mind for success by repeated affirmations of your goals in the present, positive and personal tense.
Control the suggestive influences in your environment; continually feed your mind with positive books, audios, people and conversations.
Discipline yourself to look for something good or helpful in every experience. You will always find i
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