SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Everyone wants to be physically healthy. You want to be mentally healthy as well. The true measure of "mental fitness" is how optimistic you are about yourself and your life. In this newsletter, you learn how to control your thinking in very specific ways so that you feel terrific about yourself and your situation, no matter what happens. Control Your Reactions and Responses There are three basic differences in the reactions of optimists and pessimists. The first difference is that the optimist sees a setback as temporary, while the pessimist sees it as permanent. The optimist sees an unfortunate event, such as an order that falls through or a sales call that fails, as a temporary event, something that is limited in time and that has no real impact on the future. The pessimist, on the other hand, sees negative events as permanent, as part of life and destiny. Isolate the Incident The second difference between the optimist and the pessimist is that the optimist sees difficulti...

Most successful people can be characterized as having very high levels of energy. Since energy is the fuel with which everything is achieved, there seems to be a direct relationship between energy levels and levels of accomplishment. It is hard to imagine a tired, burned-out person achieving much in life. On the other hand, energetic, positive, forward-moving individuals seem to get and enjoy far more of the things life has to offer than does the average person. Physical Energy is Basic We have been led to believe that there is basically one kind of energy. We supposedly replenish this energy by sleeping at night, and during the day, we use it up again. It is as though we are machines powered by batteries, and each night we recharge our batteries for seven or eight hours. However, there are some problems with this view of energy. The biggest problem is that it does not deal with the fact that there are actually three different kinds of energy, each of which is necessary for maximum per...

The most important moment in your life is when you recognize that you have met with defeat. It is the most important because it provides you with a dependable means to foretell the possibilities of your future success. If you accept defeat as an inspiration to try again, with renewed confidence and determination, the attainment of your success will be only a matter of time. If you accept defeat as final and allow it to destroy your confidence, you may as well abandon your hope of success. Every defeat you meet will mark an important turning point in your life, for defeat will bring you face to face with the necessity of renewing confidence in yourself, or of admitting that confidence is lacking. Defeat often serves to relive a man of his conceit. But there is a difference between conceit and self-reliance based upon an honest inventory of one's character. The man who quits when defeat overtakes him thereby indicates that he mistook his conceit for self-reliance. If a man has genuin...

I recall knowing the names Napoleon Hill and Think & Grow Rich growing up in 80’s & 90’s. However, during those years they had no meaning to my life as I lived it on a daily basis. In the late 1990s I was reacquainted with the name Napoleon Hill when I took a personal development seminar. In the seminar I set a goal to become computer literate. One of the first online searches I did was for Napoleon Hill. That search led me to the Napoleon Hill World Learning Center. I contacted the Director, Judy Williamson, and promptly found myself enrolled in the on line PMA-Science of Success course. I successfully completed the course and began implementing the 17 success principles on a daily basis. I now keep a copy of Think & Grow Rich within reach on my desk, as well as a list of the 17 success principles. I often refer to them when making decisions. As an employee, my “first among equals” of the principles is Think Accurately. Accurate Thinking in my mind is one of the keys to s...

The Law of Capital - your most valuable asset, in terms of cash flow, is your physical and mental capital, your earning ability. Your Earning Ability You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life. By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far. Use Your Time Well The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: "Your most precious resource is your time." Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability. Poor time management i...