Napoleon Hill Tribute

I was reflecting on yesterdays post and had to share this from napoleon Hill's site.

Napoleon Hill Philosophy and the Idea of Cosmic Ordering
by Jack Kennedy

"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve," an axiom of the motivational philosophy of the late Napoleon Hill, a Wise County, Va. native turned journalist, presidential speechwriter, and bestselling book author, leads one to the metaphysical concept of "Cosmic ordering."

Cosmic ordering sounds like some New Age religious cult or, some newly conceived physics theory, but it is a conceptual mental construct of Napoleon Hill as to the power of positive thinking and bringing dreams forth to reality. Some see the concept of cosmic ordering as a phony mystic belief of "wishful thinking." On the other hand, one only need look to many of the 20th century science fiction scriptwriters, such as the late Gene Roddenberry of the Star Trek series, or the late Sir Arthur C. Clark of 2001 and 2010 movies, to realize the power of an idea in the mind of man to beget the creation of future reality.

In the book Keys to Success, based upon Hills' observational power of learning the traits and actions of very successful people of the 20th century, the motivational writer provides insight as to seventeen traits humans may opt to undertake to achieve most anything professionally or personally. Many successful business leaders of the 21st century attribute their readings of "Think and Grow Rich" and "Keys to Success" as essential to their own personal success stories.

"The Philosophy of Achievement," as Hill adeptly later branded his teachings, has its foundation in the belief that freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony serve as the basic tenants of any personal success in life. Hill readily denounced the negative emotions of fear, selfishness, and jealous as the traits of the unsuccessful. These negative emotions are to be rooted out of our lives wherever possible, just as he composed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt with, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Central to embracing Hill's philosophy is the understanding of thinking positively, or the subconscious channeling of positive mental energy to think more affirmatively about our own human undertakings whether it be at work, hobbies, relationships, or play. One must constantly look to what one shall be as opposed to what they are now. Without mastering a positive mental attitude toward challenging goals, they are often lost to the negative side of mental energy.

The principal of 'Definite Major Purpose' suggests that a student of Hill's philosophy undertake self-examination of what is important. Without knowing what is truly important to us, it is improbable, at best, to achieve any great success. Hill wanted his book readers to question what is important to them first; then the reader could endeavor to apply the cosmic ordering or the keys to seek to undertake meaningful personal achievements.

Recently, Don Green, the adept executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation in Wise, spoke of the late Napoleon Hill to a new generation of Wise County students during a dinner break from building their first rockets to launch skyward the next morning. Each young rocket scientist received a copy of Hill's Keys to Success book as their own. Each would-be rocket scientist student has in his or her hands the means to begin their own cosmic ordering by adopting a positive mental attitude and a definite purpose.

While not providing each of the seventeen keys to success verbatim, Green gave the twenty or so Wise County high school students paraphrases of the meanings of Napoleon Hill's Philosophy of Achievement to apply in preparing for their individual cosmic ordering of their respective futures, to wit:

• Set a specific goal and pick a specific and reasonable date to achieve it,
• Project an image to the world of who and what you intend to be, and that will help you achieve it,
• Choose your own goals by not pursuing what someone else expects of you,
• Employ a 'mastermind alliance' network of friendships among people to form expert teams,
• Go the 'Extra Mile' by doing a little more each day than what others may expect of you,
• Turn thoughts into positive actions and avoiding procrastination and indecision,
• Power is in how to apply knowledge gained as opposed to knowledge without application; and,
• Dedicated practice of balance and self-discipline to stay focused on 'Definite Major Purpose.'

The Napoleon Hill philosophy is adaptable to almost any humanistic goal or aspiration - not just youthful Wise County rocket scientists, though their importance to the next generation is unquestionable. Men and women of the arts, sciences, and business apply the 'Nap' Hill school of thought around the world, as his works are today available in numerous languages.

By way of the Internet, a local newspaper report of Don Green's remarks to the aspiring aerospace engineers participating in the rocket building and launching weekend, made its way to the San Francisco, California radio station studio of Dr. David Livingston, a doctor of business administration. "Dr. Space," as his global radio listeners affectionately call Livingston, has booked Don Green to his niche interest space show next January. Green will share Hill's philosophy of the keys to success with commercial, civil and military space aficionados, perhaps to better enable their cosmic orders, so-to-speak.

While Wise County may only legitimately claim to be the birthplace and youthful home of Napoleon Hill, his works are applicable everywhere from teenage would-be aerospace engineers building rockets in Wise County's classrooms to the maverick inventor, space agency engineer, or international planetary scientist who may listen in to The Space Show, (www.thespaceshow.com), come January from around the planet.

One 21st century aerospace engineer has successfully applied the Philosophy of Achievement with great success. Eric Anderson, a University of Virginia aerospace engineering graduate and founder of Space Adventures is an avid reader of Napoleon Hill. Anderson frequently quotes Hill in remarks to audiences --- as he pitches the sale of seats to ride in momentary zero gravity for $5,000 or a Russian-made Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station for about $25-million, or as Anderson urges purchase of a would-be space trek around the moon for about a mere $100-million. He has sold hundreds of Zero Gravity flights, eight successful orbital spaceflights, and he expects to sell seats for the over the moon flight in the next few years. It makes me wonder if Napoleon Hill would have dreamt of such metaphysical manifestations of the future in 1930's.

Let us hope it is in the Cosmic Order for one would-be aerospace engineer now in a Wise County high school to one day utter in 2037, "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve," as she or he makes a stand on the planet Mars in freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony. A young Appalachian student aspiring to a 21st century fulfillment of Napoleon Hill's then 100-year old words would be most appropriate in the grand scheme of the cosmic order.

Stop Start or maintaining progress?

As we head into the holiday period it is easy to relax and say make excuses for not making progress towards our worthy ideal.

Therefore this week I decided to explore ways to maintain momentum.

STEPS TO MAINTAIN MOMENTUM

1. Keep the vision and goals out front.

You need to have a burning vision, a reason why you are going to work your business, a reason why you are going to make the next approach and a reason why you will place that next ad for your web site or product. Take this vision and keep it out front. Keep it where you will see it every day, where it will always beyond your mind. Write it down, visualize it and gather photos that remind you of your vision.

2. Remind team members about the vision.

Don’t just keep the vision in front of yourself, keep the vision out front of your whole team, so that everyone knows where they are going, and every knows WHY they are going in that direction. Continually recasting the vision for your team will be an important part of your maintaining momentum.

3. Develop consistency in your efforts.

You need to be continuously moving. Don’t get some momentum going and then think you can stop and your business will grow on its own. You’ve clearly been doing something right to create momentum – so don’t stop doing those things. Set your self a pace that you can keep consistently. Determine what activities you need to do to reach your goals and commit to daily action on those activities.

If you are calling potential customers, determine a number of approach calls that you can make each day and determine a number of follow up calls you can make each day. Then follow through on that commitment. How often will you post to your blog? How often will you work out? Whatever area you have momentum in, determine the activities you need to do on a daily basis; Then don’t stop. You won’t need to work as hard as you did when you were creating the momentum, but you will have to work much more consistently.

4. Beware of the sprint/stop syndrome.

One problem people often face when they create momentum is that they fall into the sprint/stop syndrome. This is when people go break neck speed towards their goals for short time and then stop. This is acting like the hare from the “Tortoise and the Hare fable”. In that fable the Tortoise wins the race by continually moving forward, beating out the Hare who does a sprint/stop style of race.

There are many motivations for this sort of attitude. People may stop because they want to reward themselves, so they take a week off or go on a vacation; they may stop because they get stressed out and need a break; they may collapse from exhaustion; or they may get so many sales they have to spend a week catching up on paperwork that got behind. All of these are equally dangerous. In each case you have broken the consistency of action and put your momentum in jeopardy. Sure it may seem like you are still acting, that paperwork needed to be done after all, right? Even in this case you are moving away from action that moves your business forward and are focusing on action that only maintains the current position.

5. Creating balance in your life.

Working hard and consistent at your business, but don’t burn yourself out. Creating balance will allow you to maintain your energy. Allow time for personal development; allow time for spiritual growth, and make sure you stay physically active. Develop a pace to life, one that is aggressive and forward moving, but one that you can maintain for long periods of time without needing to collapse or take a significant rest. It is good to rest, but take short rests, take a little time here and there, at most a day here and a day there, but you shouldn’t need to be taking days off to recover from you pace – if you do, you’ve been working too hard.

Momentum can be your best friend as you work towards personal or business goals. There are deliberate steps you can take towards building momentum and maintaining it. Now get started!

Blank Page

A new year has well and truely arrived. I hope you are well and are well on your way towards your new year goals. Now that the NY has started I have reduced what I am pursuing. I think in the past one of my down falls has been me casing after too many things nad not honing in after a few really well. This is alos highlighted by Dr Hill who comments that the stronger the fire the bigger the fire. When I am truely passionate about something I will see it through. The blank page represents an idea. Truely master one thing at a time before moving off onto another thing. This was it helps build experience and stil at that level rather than chasing this and that.

Power of Focus

In the modern day and age it is amazing how fast paced life can get. We get so busy getting things done that we spend little time working on the things that are most important. It isnt always the big things that cause the hinderances...it can simply be the desk that is untidy. An unkempt bed. A messy car. These are all reflections of what is going on inside of us. The importance of being organised is not just the fact we are more able to focus. It saves the wasted time of looking for things.
For me my desk at home and at work is one of the places I spend a lot of time. Therefore it is important that we follow a system that works.

Here is a forumla that i have found to be very good:

Your office desk is like your second home. You stay and work there for the entire duration of your work hours. As such, you must see to it that you are comfortable and functional working there. You must see to it that it is organized.

But how do you organize your desk? How do you make it work for you? Well, the answer is as simple as the ABC: Arrange, Beautify, Clean.

Arrange

Your desk should have a certain system - and one that works for you. For instance, if you are more of the obsessive-compulsive type, then you would naturally want your items to have a proper order. For instance, all writing materials should be placed near one another and all documents and references should be on the same side.

Another way of organizing the items on your desk is by arranging them according to "frequency of use." What are the items that you frequently use? What are the things that are rarely taken out of the drawer?

Once you already have the complete list of the frequently used items (such as pens, papers, staplers, paper clips) and those that are rarely utilized (such as books, old clients' profile) then you can proceed with putting them in the right places. Make the frequently used items very accessible - and keep the seldom-used items far below your drawers.

Beautify

It's not enough to simply put the right items in the right places - as in the case of arranging the items on your desk. You also need to add aesthetics into your workstation. You can put photo frames, but just don't overdo this. You can even place a jar of candies or cookies for your guests and visitors. For a little touch of elegance, make use of desk organizers or desk business card holders.

Using minimalist lamps, earth-toned bookends and gold-plated pen holders would also be a fine way of incorporating aesthetics into your neatly-arranged desk.

Clean

Regardless of how sophisticated your desk organizer is or how efficiently arranged your desk items are, but if you don't observe cleanliness, your workstation would not be that appealing. Scattered papers and poorly arranged books and documents would always be a sore sight.

Therefore, to complete the perfect look of your desk, make it a point to keep it clean. In fact, make a habit out of cleanliness. For instance, as soon as you get in, be sure to wipe your desk with tissue and alcohol. It will give your desk a sense of freshness and cleanliness. Also, resist the urge to leave things unarranged. Regardless of how busy you are, make it a point to place them back to their respective "compartments."

By doing this, not only will you be inspired to work, but your colleagues would be more than happy to drop by your place because you have a very attractive workstation.

Organizing your desk is indeed as easy as ABC. You don't need to have complicated skills or to be


Remember that the clearer and tidier we are the better focused we are:

Fraser

Coaching

I was listening to an audio excert by napoleon Hill today and a phrase that he said made me sit up and listen. He said something along the lines of "...when i was being coached by Andrew Carengie I.." It was just the words that he used...coached. I have always associated the two of them working hand in hand yet I had never seen it from this angle.
Anthony Robbins comments that you find someone who has done what you want and then copy them. What about Tiger Woods? He is coached not by someone who is better than him but by someone who can help get the best out of him. I have been thinking recently that coaches should be further along the journey that us...me. However this isnt the case. They can be in a plce to help us get to the best place we can.
Everyday/night i review what I have done..asking what have i learnt? How hae i improved? A new question I will be adding is what have the people around me taught me today. No thing (Nothing) happens by mere accident..it is al aimed at helping us be the best we can. However am I, are you stopping and noticing the messages the universe is sending?

Here is a link for a great video on coaching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSM1mvMypWU

Thanks


Fraser

some succeed...some fail...why

The successful person knows precisely what he desires, has a plan for getting it, believes in his ability to get it, and devotes a major portion of his time to acquiring it.

The failure has no definite purpose in life, believes that all success is the result of "luck," and moves on his own initiative only when forced to do so.

Too often people blame others for where they are...however one of the traits of the truely successful goal achievers is they reaslise they choose to be where they are.

In the past few days the people of Samoa had to endure something they did not choose. However where they go from now is their choice. Some will see it as a failure and others will see it as an opportunity.

I am presently working with my personal coach and we are putting my life goals into a book. Each of the steps is a chapter in the book. It is a very effective method and I more than willing to share this great approach.

Remember we must be clear about what we want. The clearer we are in our mind the clearer it is out there.We cant afford to be wasting time thinking about what we will be doing..this is done in the planning stages...then it just a matter of doing it.

Lets be on the side that makes the life of our design.

Till next time

Fraze