As such, I would like to spend some time going through the principles and laws outlined by Hill and how they tie in with what I have been teaching for the past four decades.

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Principle 1: Thoughts are Things

Developing self-governed thought is a very powerful principle. Each of your greatest achievements or accomplishments started with a meaningful idea or thought.

In almost every talk that I do, I mention that you have a unique set of priorities or a set of values that you live your life by. Whatever is highest on your list of values, you are spontaneously inspired to act upon.

What is also important is that your innermost dominant thought, which becomes your outermost tangible reality, is an expression of what you value most. It is for this reason that I encourage you to go through the free Value Determination Process on my website, so you can find out what your life demonstrates as being truly important to you, instead of what you think it “should”, “must”, or “ought to” be for you.

Your highest value or priority will underlie your inner most dominant thought that you will not get out of your mind. As an example, my most dominant thought is teaching, which has remained at the forefront of my thoughts since I was 17.

As such, it is wise to discover what this highest value and inner most dominant thought truly is or what you truly would love to do. Clarifying what you most inwardly think about and ultimately bring about is essential. If you prioritize your life and fill your day with the highest priority action that is most important in your life and do that every day, you will automatically think about how you want your life to be and increase this as a reality.

P rinciple 2: Be Inspired

Napoleon Hill speaks about “desire”, but I prefer the term “inspire”.

You will be spontaneously inspired to act on something that is aligned with your highest value. In fact, you will not require external motivation to do it because you will be spontaneously inspired from within to do it.

In other words, your innermost dominant thought will become your outermost tangible reality, and you will automatically get up and spontaneously do it.

When you can’t wait to get up and be or service to people, people can’t wait to get your service and pay for it.

Principle 3: Faith

Faith has two forms:

1. You can have “pseudo faith” - That you are going to achieve an unrealistic expectation or fantasy that is impossible or highly  improbable - for example, having faith that a billion-dollar check will arrive in your mailbox without doing a billion dollars worth of service or having wealthy elders. That kind of faith is more of a delusion or fantasy.
2. You can have “true faith” - That you are going to go out and serve people, work at it, put your energy into it, focus on it, get feedback and refine your skill so that you become more efficient in service, that if you stay with it, you will overcome the obstacles and eventually achieve your inspired outcome.

Even though you don’t yet see your outcome initially, you know that if you keep applying the principles and action steps, that you will get there.

As an example, I wanted to be financially independent for a very long time. Finally at age 27 I became serious and I started by first saving and then investing a dollar an hour, or $10 a day, $50 a week or $200 a month. I then kept expanding this amount 10% every quarter until it grew to tens of thousands of dollars each month. I had faith that eventually, my actions would lead to my desired outcome and it did.

Principle 4: Autosuggestion or Internal Dialogue

Napoleon Hill’s principle of “autosuggestion” or internal dialogue or affirmation, which essentially means “making something firm in one’s mind.”

It is wise to ensure that what you are affirming is truly aligned and congruent with what you value most and to ensure that it is truly obtainable and not a fantasy - something that your life demonstrates you are willing to work towards and achieve.

By writing out and then inwardly articulating exactly how you would love your life to be (autosuggestion) and then checking up on your internal dialogue list daily you can help yourself build momentum.

Principle 5: Specialized Knowledge

Specialized knowledge can be powerful. When you live congruently with your highest values, more of your glucose, blood, and oxygen all go in your forebrain. When it does, it wakes up the gating and filtering center of the pulvinar nuclei of your thalamus, which allows you to filter in anything that is in line with your highest value and absorb information that is congruent.

As such, anything low on your list of values initiates what could be termed attention deficit. However, anything high on your list of values initiates an attention surplus. So you will become most attentive to and more easily absorb what you value most and therefore accumulate or gain specialized knowledge in it.

For this reason, it is wise to find out what is truly highest on your values and concentrate on that. You will then be most likely to think about it, internally dialogue with yourself about it, and see it in your mind’s eye, which is the next principle.

Principle 6: Imaging

Napoleon Hill refers to “imagination”, but I prefer to use the word “imaging”. For me, “imagination” refers to something in the future, but “imaging” is something you see as taking place in the now as if it is actually present.

When you live in accordance with your highest values, you activate the medial prefrontal cortex and the visual cortex from the front and back portions of your brain, which allows you to see your intention in your mind’s eye.

I explain to individuals who attend my signature seminar program the Breakthrough Experience that when they define their primary objectives or what I call their Love List, which is how they would love their life to look like in all seven areas of their life, that when they write something down that is truly authentic and congruent with their highest values, it does not feel like it is in the future, it is almost as if they have already done it. As such, it feels destined and feels almost impossible for them not to fulfill. That is the imaging that Napoleon Hill writes about in this principle.

Principle 7: Organized Planning

When you live in alignment with your true highest values, you will find that yourself automatically strategically planning, thinking in advance, living with foresight, anticipating what may happen in the future, and mitigating any potential risks. In doing so, you can then become fully present and see your desired outcome clearly in your mind’s eye and be inspired to take action.

By planning ahead thereby mitigating risks, you are more likely to take out any emotion and become more objective, centered and balanced.

Principle 8: Decision

When you live in accordance with your highest values, you tend to gather the most data, make quicker decisions and become more spontaneously inspired to act. As a result, those decisions are more likely to be firm and certain, ones you are committed to instead of those that are wavering and wishy-washy.

Principle 9: Perseverance

When you do some action that is in alignment with your true highest values you are more likely to persevere and not give up. If you find that you are hesitating, procrastinating or frustrating on a certain task, you will tend to find that the task at hand is not perceived to be high on your list of values. In this case, it is wise to delegate it or link it to one of your highest values temporarily so you can at least see it as being “on the way” instead of “in the way”.

Principle 10: Power of a Mastermind

I have participated in many masterminds in my life over the years, which have undoubtedly contributed to many of my achievements in life.

It is wise to surround yourself with people who are consciously expanded, clear about their mission, inspired by what they are doing, and who would love to see you achieve your objectives and dreams because they also want to achieve, and they know if they help others achieve, they help themselves in turn to the same.

You can either follow a culture or lead a culture. People who are inspired by what they do are likely to build a culture of people around them who also rally around their objective. Participating in masterminds with different specialities can help you catalyze the actions that lead to the  fulfillment of your innermost dominant thought.

Principle 11: Mystery of Sex Transmutation

Sexual responses have two forms:

• An survival impulse form that is a procreative in nature necessity for survival.
• A thrival response because you deeply love somebody.

When you do what you love and love what you do, you generate a creative energy that helps you solve problems and achieve your objectives and you transform normal survival based sexual impulse into more elevated and inspiring thrival based expressions of love.

You may have had moments in your life when you have been so engaged and so inspired that your sexual energy has transformed into creative expression more than procreation. In this way, it becomes a way of expressing your love for life.

Principle 12: The Superconscious Mind

What Napoleon Hill refers to as the “subconscious mind”, I prefer to call it the “superconscious mind”.

When you are inspired, grateful, doing what you love, are enthused, have a burning fire and desire to do something, are present, confident and certain about what you are doing, you are activating your superconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind stores your polarized emotional baggage – philia and phobia, elation and depression, fantasy and nightmare. The superconscious mind stores your transcendental feelings such as gratitude, love, inspiration, enthusiasm, certainty, and presence. These latter feelings are the ones that are most likely to lead to your greatest achievements.

Principle 13: The Executive Centre

When you live congruently with your highest values, you activate the executive center in the forebrain which results in an inspired vision, foresight, strategic planning and self-governance.

Principle 14: Intuition

When you are infatuated with someone, you are likely to be conscious of their upsides and unconscious of their downsides. When you are resentful of someone, you are likely to be conscious of their downsides and unconscious of their upsides. As such, you become polarized. Your intuition will then try to reveal to you the side that you are ignoring or unconscious of to bring your perceptions back into balance.

In that way, your intuition leads you to a more stable state of objectivity and back to your highest value(s). When you live in your lower values, try to please everybody else around you, and lose track of your own purpose and mission in life, you are likely to live with volatile impulses and instincts and get distracted. In that case, you will need your intuition to re-center you, make you fully conscious, see both sides, and make wise decisions.

Your intuition is not to be confused with your “gut instinct”, which is an animal-like impulse.

Napoleon Hill also specifies TWELVE LAWS that I go over briefly below:

Law #1: Definite Chief Aim

Having a definite chief aim is what I would call your highest value, mission or purpose. When you live congruently with your highest value, your identity and purpose revolve around it.

Your teleological purpose, which is the most meaningful thing you can do, revolves around your highest value. It will be the number one thing that you can’t wait to get up in the morning and do because it is so inspiring to you. It is well-known that, “When your WHY is big enough, the HOWS take care of themselves.”

Law #2: Confidence

When you live congruently with your highest value, you will experience greater self-worth and have the most certainty.

When you have a clear objective, clear plan of action, have completely strategized your process, and focus, you increase your certainty and have the confidence that Hill speaks about.

Law #3: Habit of Savings

If you don’t value yourself, don’t expect the world to value you.

It is wise to have an automated debit system that transfers money from you primary bank account into your savings and then investment accounts to periodically buy assets so that your money works for you instead of you having to work for it. By automating this process, you generate a second passive income so  one day you will be able to work because you love to, not because you have to.

If you don’t value yourself and don’t have an automatic savings and investment system in place, you will effectively hold back your achievements; When your passive income exceeds your active income, you will have achieved financial independence.

Law #4: Initiative and Leadership

When you live congruently with your highest value, you automatically wake up your natural-born leader.

If you want to be a leader in something, it will be wise to stick to the most important tasks in your life and delegate lower priority tasks.

Law #5: Clarity of Vision

It is wise to have clarity of vision so you can see your desired outcome in your mind’s eye. When you live congruently with your highest values clarity of vision emerges.  with a vision flourish.

Law #6: Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm means the God within or the spirit within. This is not to be confused with excitement.

True enthusiasm is poised, present, purposeful, patient, productive, prioritized and empowered. Enthusiasm is a state where you feel so inspired that you get tears in your eyes and can’t imagine not doing what you are here to do. That is true enthusiasm and is something contagious that lights a fire and that attracts opportunities.

Law #7: Self-Control

When you live congruently with your highest values, the executive center in your forebrain sends nerve fibers down into the amygdala to mitigate any impulses, instincts, infatuations and resentments that distract you. In that way, you can overrule some of the projected expectations from other people that can distract you and take up your time. You are, therefore, more likely to stay focused and have the self-control not to let outer influences interfere with your long-term vision.

Law #8: Doing More Than What You Are Paid For

When you love what you do, you tend to give more value than somebody who is just doing a job. In that way, you are wise to make sure that you stick to what you love doing.

I often ask people in the Breakthrough Experience what they absolutely love to do. I then ask them to think about how they can get handsomely paid to do it. Here’s why. When you get paid to do what you love to do, there tends to be a special enthusiasm and inspiration behind what you do. People can feel it and want to be a part of it. They also tend to think that they are receiving more value from you and will want to do business with you.

Law #9: A Pleasing Personality

When you live by your highest values, you are most likely to be objective, have the most reasonable communication, not expect something for nothing, and not attempt to give something for nothing.

As such, you tend to make sure a fair exchange takes place. People are then more likely to be magnetized to you and want to do more business with you.

Law #10: Accurate Thinking

When you live by your highest values, you are less likely to be subjectively biased, distort things and create uncertainties. As such, you will tend to be the most objective and have the most accurate thinking.

Law #11: Concentration

When you concentrate on your highest value, you are not likely to need to be reminded to think about it. If you find it challenging to concentrate, I would encourage you to revisit your current set of values by doing the Value Determination Process on my website.

If you need extrinsic motivation to get a task done, it is a sign that the task is not on your list of highest values.

Law #12: Co-operation

When you live by your highest value and perform your highest priority actions each day, you will tend to be more resilient and adaptable and find it easier to co-operate with others.

Emotions of frustration and procrastination are symptoms to give you feedback to let you know that you are not being authentic or living by your highest priority.

In conclusion,

• Read Napoleon Hill’s book, “ Think and Grow Rich”.
• Do the free Value Determination Process on my website to determine your unique set of highest values.
• Look at implementing each of the above 14 principles and 12 laws in your life – one at a time.
• Start with what you know, and let what you know grow!
• Join me at my 2 day signature seminar program – The Breakthrough Experience so that I can teach you how to govern your mind and thereby your emotions by applying the Demartini Method; empower all 7 areas of your life with the application of Values so that you can figure out what you love and be handsomely paid to live your most inspired and meaningful life.