Personal Development and Your Inner Power Revealed

My initial understanding of Napoleon Hill describing the tenth step to riches, Sex Transmutation, in his famous book “Think and Grow Rich” has evolved into a deeper understanding.  It is proven fact that when you read a book over and over again you will get different nuggets from it.  “Think and Grow Rich” is one such book.  I have now read this concept about six times now and my understanding is deeper. Transmute is the changing or transferring of one element or form of energy into another.

Watch the video below to learn more about my initial impression:

I thought originally that the tenth step to riches of Sex Transmutation was about abstaining from sex and using that power to achieve your goals.  I have expanded my thinking to include harnessing that power achieving a higher plane and then attacking your endeavors with a renew concentration.  I think that these concepts are similar to long distance runners and marathoners who push their bodies beyond what the average person can do.  Runners get into what is called a zone where they feel they can run forever.  These runners achieve a level where speed and comfort are maximized.

The runner has to fight internally when they reach the “wall” where the desire to quit becomes stronger and stronger.  As a runner you have to go deep to overcome ultimate failure.  Willpower is easier said than done, but the ultimate reward is substantial.  The stronger your power to will yourself to the finish line the closer you will be to being successful.  Sex transmutation is an excellent example of having to get into that “zone” to combat something that is so natural.

Sexual expression is a natural part of your life and can never be destroyed.  The choice is either finding a constructive outlet for it or indulging in the purely physical aspect of it.  An animal becomes docile after their sex organs are castrated so imagine a man without this source of power.  A transmutation of this energy will help you in the long term when you have the power to overcome the will to indulge in sexual activity.

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Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich” discussed that the Fear of loss may derail you in your path to success.  This fear of loss can be detrimental to your business. They are always some degree of risk associated with every thing that you do.  When you are more worried about what you could possibly lose as oppose to gain, then you will not be successful.

Life gives us the opportunity to apply perfect theories to an imperfect world. If you go through life believing that success will come easy, then you are living in a fantasy world.  When you wear these blinders, then you will have great difficulty in seeing things the way there are actually.  If you continuously focus on loss, then you will lose sight of your goals and objectives. Some of the symptoms of this fear are low self-esteem and not acknowledging it.  Low self-esteem develops when you put someone ahead of your own success.

When you survive from low-esteem, then you are less prone to take changes in your life, business and relationships.  You must possess confidence in yourself that will allow you to take risks.  They are many different way to improve how you view yourself.  Personal development is a great way to improve your self esteem. When you continue to live in denial, your home based business will not succeed. Another symptom of this fear is not acknowledging it.

You may go through life ignoring it, but it is always just below the surface ready to explode.  If you ignore it, then it will go away but it never does because it takes different forms.  It may appear in the guise of you never take a chance in your life to be successful.  The key to defeating this symptom is by first acknowledging it. Acknowledge the fear of loss that you have within you. The good thing about fear is that you can outwit it before you become engulfed in the flames of failure.

The fear of loss may force you to become a person who you don’t even know. You can definitely defeat this fear and be successful in your life, business and relationship. If you feel that the system that you are using is all you need to generate riches, then it becomes reality. Feeling that you are missing something to increase your wealth is also valid. Controlling your mindset is a great way to overcome the fear of loss. Perseverance is the main determining factor that will help you overcome this fear.

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The Fear of Old Age is a fear that encompasses most of the six major fears. The fear of criticism, fear of ill health and fear of dying are all symptoms of the Fear of Old Age. The Fear of Old Age has nothing to do with the level of success that you can achieve in business. Napoleon Hill writes about the six major fears in “Think and Grow Rich”. The other minor fears are all a subset of the six major ones. It is never too late to be successful in business no matter the age. When people become older society dictates that they should be a certain way. When you get older in our society you are expected to retire and travel the world.

They are some people that no matter the age there are always in the right mindset and are still parachuting out of a plane and don’t miss a beat. I am not discussing those people in this article I am talking about people who allow “old age” to interfere with them being the person that were always meant to be. These people as they are entering the era of “old age” might feel a combination of the six major fears. Your confidence might falter a little due to the fact that you might not be as active as you were a few years ago.

The fear of criticism might start to rear it ugly head, because now you might hear people say “you look good for your age”. You might tend to feel more self conscious about your physical appearance, sexual prowess and mental faculty. You are more concern about being ill health or diseases possible deteriorating your body. The older you get the closer that you feel you are to dying, so therefore you might not take as much chances as you did when you were younger. If you control your mindset all of these fears may be overcome. The opportunity to achieve the level of success that you want in your business of choice will open up. When you enter retirement it should because you want not, because you are expected or forced to retire.

The Fear of Old Age can defeated easily be being careful with the thoughts that manifest in your mind. You may have success at any age and any time period of your life. Our thought become our destiny; if you spend time thinking about death then guess what you will be that much closer to death. My grandma is eighty-nine years old and she sometimes makes me nervous when she speaks like if death is upon her. I would love her to live to at least a century, but I am obviously biased. If my grandma was not truly inflicted with illness I would love to know that if she wanted to be semi-retire and with the right attitude she would be able to do it. This fear has nothing to do with you continuing being a vibrant, contributing and outstanding member of society. Forget about it and live your life the way that you choose.

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The Fear of Death is the final major fear that Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill believed that this fear is the “cruelest of all the basic fears” because “we know not what to expect after death”. I look at the fear of death as a fear of living life to the fullest. If you are scared of living, then you would not try to succeed in your business. If you are fear death and keep your mind focused on it on a daily basis, then your desire to take risk will be gone. If you go through life not taking any chances, then your reward will be small and insignificant.

Napoleon Hill believed that “death will come, no matter what anyone may think about it”. Your fear of death is a useless emotion, so we should not be preoccupied with it. The time spent on this fear could be spent trying to figure out better ways to be more successful in your life, business and relationships. The fear of death encompasses all of the other major fears. As a human being we never know when death is coming so it is pointless to be consumed by it. It is a fear that you must choose to ignore and live your life. There are some occupations that fearing your death could be good or bad for you. Police officers who fear death could either over react or use this fear to make them a better officer.  A fire fighter runs into a burning building while the average person runs away from fire. What is it about fire fighters and police officers that they use fear to help people?

The reasons why might be unknown to us, but these fine men and women does the opposite everyday. We could relate these using fears of death to be successful in other areas of our lives.There are a number of reasons why we fail in business, both tangible and intangible in nature. We must control the things to the best of our abilities and let go of the ones we have no control over. Napoleon Hill consistently revisited the fact that our thoughts leads to our riches. We can control our thoughts and our reaction to any given situation.

The opportunity to expand your business requires that you have to fly to an island. When you get on an airplane to fly to another city, you are taking a risk. They say that you have a better chance of having a car accident, than a plane crashing. This is a situation where we can not control the flight, but we can control our thoughts. If you feel that you will crash on a plane, then you might let this opportunity slip right through your fingers. When the fear of death dictates your business decision, then you must overcome it. The best way to overcome it is to focus on living your life to the best of your ability.

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The fear of criticism is a strong emotion that can bring a grown man to his knees. Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” listed this fear as one the six fears that cripples people from achieving success in life, relationship and business. Your sweaty palms and shaky knees may be overwhelming from doing something as simple as speaking in front of a crowd. This fear can be detrimental to anyone seeking success in business and cause them to reach only a fraction of their potential.

When you are in a crowd moving along with the masses in a non-descriptive mode you are great. Your name is the best thing that is bestowed upon you as a child. You love the sound of your name and you stand at attention when someone calls your name. Yet when someone calls your name to bring you out of the crowd and places you in a fish bowl the sweaty palms and beads of sweat rolling down your head makes you frightened. The fear of public speaking is only second to spiders in the top 10 phobias. Social phobias are the fear of being evaluated negatively in social situations.

A successful leader stricken with the fear of criticism would find it very difficult to succeed. A leader must be able to make decision about policy and not worry the negative chatter that might arise from it. You must overcome this fear if you are truly going to generate the riches that you want in your life. If Henry Ford was ever afflicted by this fear all he would have to do is push one button and have someone else’s take care of it. This method might only work for Henry Ford, but there are more practical and psychological ways to defeat the fear of criticism.

There are a number of simple and not so simple ways to overcome this fear. Three ways that you may use is to unlearn the fear is through therapy, Counter Conditioning and Behavioral Therapy. Counter Conditioning uses relaxation method to allow you to think of a better scenario that you are in as opposed to being on the stage in front of people speaking. We have all heard about the suggestion of imagining the people naked is a form of Behavioral Therapy.

The fear of criticism can do tangible and intangible damage to a person’s confidence and psyche. Tangible damage could be an inability to get on a public stage to talk to a group of people. Intangible damage might be stripping a person of their imagination, limiting individuality and destroying self reliance.  The fact remains that you must beat this fear to achieve success in your life, love, relationships and business.   The fear of Flying is the #3 phobias and once you get on the plane whether the plane crashes or not is beyond your control.  The fear of criticism is a fear that you do have control over.

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Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” discusses the 6 six most common fears that are destroying our success in life, business and relationships.  These super fears may be the single most cause of many failing businesses or people never even attempting a business. These fears appear in many different forms such procrastination, staying within the box, easily influenced, etc. You may be ridden by one or more of the following 6 common fears as listed below:

1. Fear of poverty
2. Fear of criticism
3. Fear of Ill Health
4. Fear of loss of love of someone
5. Fear of old age
6. Fear of death.

All other fears are of minor importance and can be grouped under these six fears. The good thing is that we are normally not afflicted by all of them at once. These fears or in any combination could stop you in your tracks when it come to succeeding in your life and business. When you have fears that are paralyzing and hindering you from achieving success in your life, relationships and businesses, then you must overcome these fears to succeed. The fear of poverty is the very first one I will discuss in this article and the others in subsequent articles.

Poverty is a crippling fear that a majority of the masses suffers from. The current state of The Economy has everyone running scared. We are seeing an increased in violence, neglect and excuses among other things. If I had a dollar every time someone says to me I am not succeeding because of the economy, I would be a billionaire. Poverty is a state of mind, yet it has enough power to destroy a person chance to succeed in life and business. This state of mind fundamentally annihilates the ambition of a person before they even take his or her first step to riches.

There are a number of symptoms of this fear such as indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over caution and procrastination. If you are stricken with all or some of these symptoms, then how are you going to make the necessary changes? The first step to riches is desire, but before that you have to the right mind set. Our thoughts determine our words, words determine our actions, actions determine our habits, habits determine our character and our character determines our DESTINY.

Our thoughts therefore control our destiny in life so therefore, the best way to overcome our fear of poverty is to control our thoughts. When you are in control of your state of mind, then you would be able to rejuvenate your ability to reason. You would therefore have a renewed enthusiasm towards succeeding and taking the initiative to change your state of mind aggressively. You would only take actions that will be conducive to your success in life and business; thereby indirectly you would be in control of your destiny.

Personal Development is another method that you can use to help you embark on your journey to control your state of mind. Personal Development will help you eliminate those limiting beliefs and thoughts that are holding you back from achieving your riches in life and business. Riches are defined on an individual basis from one person to the next. Some people define riches as money, status, power and for others it might simply be gratitude. The fear of poverty must be broken immediately to prevent future generation from being afflicted with it.

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I feel that assuming full responsibility is one of the most critical leadership qualities necessary to succeed in business. Your business will not succeed if the head does not accept full responsibility for his or her organization. Willingness to assume full responsibility is written in the #10 spot of Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich”, but that position has nothing to do with its importance. Napoleon Hill did not write his list in order of importance. The fastest way for a leader to be distrusted by his followers is never having their back and passing the blame to someone else. The foundation to build a successful business will crumple at the leader’s feet because his example of passing the buck will translate throughout his organization.

The leader is the one who has failed if his followers make mistakes and become incompetent. This is a tough pill to swallow for many people because we are so accustomed to being responsible for our own actions. This goes back to the fact that as a leader you better pick a very efficient staff. When the President of the United States administration fails no one looks at the Vice President. As the president it is his responsibility to be the impetus to getting his policies carried out to the letter. If he does not follow up and make sure, then he may only have one person to blame himself. The general public don’t look at the VP as a failure, unless he specifically did something that made him stand out as incompetent.

When I worked in the Restaurant Industry I had one such manager. I knew that he would never fall on the sword for any of us. If his supervisor visited, we automatically knew that if any thing was wrong one of us was getting blamed. He quickly put us under the bus, and did not accept responsibility for anything that went wrong. When business was striving, then it was his chest that puffed out the furthest. We never respected him as a true leader. His title was General Manager but as one of his assistant I would not go above and beyond for him. A leader must accept responsibility when things are perfect and also when things are not going well.

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The gems of knowledge that you get from Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” are endless. The previous articles we discussed Napoleon Hill’s leadership’s philosophies of unwavering courage, self control, definiteness of decision and definiteness of plans.  We will discuss of a leader who has a habit doing more than he or she is paid for. This leadership philosophy in correlation with his other ideas gives you different ways to achieving success in life and business. The question of who makes a great leader is an idea that is dependent on the person. Leadership means different things to different people. A person who you respect is a leader in your eyes might be a nuisance to others.

People are more prone to keep following a leader that goes above and beyond the call of duty. The ideal world is prone to perfect execution and flawless execution of all plans. We don’t live in the ideal world so a leader who can roll with punches and succeed no matter the obstacles is truly appreciated.  Successful leaders do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. When you have goals that are not on track someone has to do extra work. Leaders sometimes take it upon themselves to put the extra time necessary to get back on track.

Michael Jordan was always the first one at practice and the last one to leave. Michael wanted to make sure that he was prepared to win every game. Michael work ethics made many of his team mates improve their game. He did so much more than was required of him that he inspired many others to do the same. Michael Jordan’s commitment to excellence led to many NBA Championships and the respect of millions of people. Some followers believe that it is their job to pick up the slack and don’t like to see the leader do the extra lifting.

A leader has to able to get down in the trenches and do the “dirty” work sometimes. When your subordinates know that you have no problem rolling up your sleeves and getting to work they have no issues doing more than is expected of them. We are not talking about the people who do it to further their own agenda. The followers who truly believe in the ideals of the leader and are committed to helping him or her accomplish these goals are the one deserving of the praise. If the habit of doing more than is expected of you becomes viral, then your business may explode beyond belief. If you start applying this leadership philosophy and the others in the previous article that Napoleon Hill writes about you will see a change in your business in a relatively short time.

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Napoleon Hill believed that people who cannot control themselves can never control others. A leader is placed under a microscope by your followers, his or her actions or inaction may be magnified to the extreme. Self-control along with unwavering courage could dictate whether someone believe in you as a leader or perceive you as a “fake”. The governing of one’s self and actions are indications of whether or not you have the ability to lead.  A follower will emulate a leader who stands by his conviction instead of the one who loses control of himself on a regular basis. For example, if you are an advocate against smoking cigarettes, but yet every chance you light up a cigarette.  This conflicting message will force many people to look at you in differently.

Most people are looking to succeed with as little amount of effort as possible to generate phenomenon results. We live in a world with many roadblocks and distraction opposing our ultimate goals and objectives. We live in a society of instant coffee, instant tea and instant gratification. When you live in the now with no concrete plans for the future, then you will have to suffer the consequences. The something for nothing mentality must be erased from your being and be replaced some of the attributes that Napoleon Hill wrote about.

The people who restrain themselves and put the necessary sweat equity into their endeavor are far more successful, than those who feel society owes them something. For example, Joachim de Posada, speaker and motivational coach, talks about an experiment where they took 4-5 year old kids, and left them in a room for 30 minutes. The kids were instructed that if you don’t eat the marshmallow that was in front of you, you would get another one when we return. Many of the kids did everything, but stand on their head to avoid eating the marshmallow.

The scientists then re-visited the kids 13-15 years later and found that the kids that ate the marshmallow before time was not as successful as the one who did not eat it. This experiment was about self control where you had a choice between instant gratifications or delayed gratification with a bonus. A true leader with self control may make the decisions that could impact the lives of many people and be trusted until the results come to fruition. The successful leader makes decision quickly, but changes slowly. Leaders must have unwavering courage and self control to build a network of followers who will trust them implicitly.

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Mastery of detail may seem very complicated, but it is a key leadership quality that you must develop. Your choice is to either master the detail or let the detail master you.  Napoleon Hill‘s “Think and Grow Rich” write that this as one of the eleven critical attributes in leadership development. For example, if we were 6 miles apart and started walking towards each other, but we were one degree off. We would never end up in the same location because of that slight deviation.  If that slight detail continued to be overlooked, then how far will we truly be apart?

The sooner we adjust our journey the less chance that it would become a major flaw in your plans. The big picture is normally easier to handle overall, but sometimes you must get down to the nitty-gritty of most situations.  If this quality is not part of you, then find the right person to handle that task. A true leader knows his weakness and uses his resources to overcome it.  One minor detail might put a hole in the boat, but a combination of neglected details might sink the Titanic. A businessperson will fail in the long run if he or she always overlooked the minor details.

For example, if you have the following 4 step system in place to increase your business

1. Generate leads using different lead generation  methods

2. Have a discussion with potential business partner
3. Invite potential business partner to get the information needed to make discussion
4. Follow-up for final decision

You will fail in this model if you had no leads to call which is a major detail. You might be a little successful if you only did only 1 to 3 on a consistent basis. The follow-up even though a minor detail could be the difference between being truly successful and unsuccessful. The leader who masters the details in a business transaction will truly have more success, than the one who just wings it.

For instance if your client is a vegan, but you order a meat entree for lunch that little detail might be the difference between keeping or losing that person as your client.  The chances that your business will grow under these circumstances are slim to nil. Napoleon Hill highlighted mastery of detail as one the key leadership qualities.  What other qualities do you look for in your leaders?

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