"The Secret" of "Think and Grow Rich"

First published in 1937, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is reported to have sold over 70,000,000 copies. Written at the time of the Great Depression, application of the principles in Think and Grow Rich is as significant today as it was over 60 years ago. Napoleon Hill challenges the reader to discover the “money-making secret” mentioned in each and every chapter of the book. With the release of The Secret many have come to believe that the Law of Attraction is the “money-making secret” to which Napoleon Hill refers. The basic consensus of Law of Attraction believers is that your thoughts, both conscious and unconscious, create what happens in your life. While I believe that it is vitally important that we focus our thoughts on what we would like to become reality in our lives, how can we control our unconscious thoughts? The opening paragraph on Think and Grow Rich states, “Truly, thoughts are things, and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.” After many years of study, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to ultimately control our unconscious thoughts is to make the diligent practice of monitoring and controlling our conscious thoughts a habit until our unconscious thoughts support our positive goals, desires and dreams. Unfortunately, most adults tend to be more negative than positive. This tendency may be linked to the results of a UCLA study that revealed that the average one year old child hears the word “no” more than 400 times per day! Most of us have the tendency to think about, talk about and focus on what we don’t want rather than what we do. If you truly want to “think and grow rich” then your first step will be to take the time and the effort to begin to become aware of the words you speak and the thoughts behind those words that are either leading you to your fortune or sending you in the opposite direction. In his book What To Say When You Talk To Yourself, Shad Helmstetter says, “Leading behavioral researchers have told us that as much as seventy-seven percent of everything we think is negative, counterproductive, and works against us.” When you make the effort to begin to really listen to what it is you’re saying to yourself, you may be shocked. You may find that you say things to yourself that you would never even consider saying to a family member or friend. If someone else said to you some of the things that you’ll discover that you’re saying to yourself, those statements would cause fights and/or tears. You may even be the person who is always caring and supportive when someone else is in a difficult situation, but put yourself in the very same situation and you may find your own self talk to be anything but caring and supportive. Awareness of your critical self talk is the first step toward the change that will allow you to “think and grow rich.” The key to success in any endeavor is “right thinking.” Our thoughts produce our philosophies and beliefs which then drive our attitude. Our attitude drives our actions which then determine our results. Those results become our lifestyle. To have the lifestyle of your dreams, begin with “right thinking.”