Think and Grow Rich

Ahhhh… “Impossible.” What a word.

(You use it often? Please say, “No!” :)

And, I LOVE the idea of staking EVERYTHING on your ideals.

Hill kicks off the book with a story of a guy named Edwin C. Barnes who “thought himself into partnership” with Thomas Edison. Cool story. Edison could sense something about Barnes’ clear, unyielding purpose and had this to say: “I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.”

How about you? Do you have a *burning* desire for something in your life on which you’d be willing to stake your entire future?

Rule #1 of thinking and growing rich: DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE. You’ve gotta know what you want.

So, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!? What is your definite major purpose in life?

My major definite purpose in life is: _________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Strong recommendation you write that down NOW. Once you get that, it’s time to:

Wow. Love that.

Puts things in perspective, eh? Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “That’s a little extreme.” And, well, yep. You’re right. It’s extreme. That’s the WHOLE point.

Weak desire will get weak results. INTENSE desire will get intense results. Of course, in the process of learning to manage that kind of intense flame of desire, we often burn ourselves up and burn up those around us. That’s part of the deal.

When that happens (and it will), you have two choices: read the Gita learn to meditate, renounce all desires, and strive to be like your guru who’s dead from the neck down and just kinda smiles and bobs his head OR learn to MANAGE the intensity. (And, of course, while managing your intense desires we can (and should!) still do stuff like meditate, read the Gita and all that, but then we learn to make a distinction between NO desires and ATTACHMENT to desires… but that’s another discussion. :)

Ken Wilber and John Eliot come to mind here.

First, Eliot—a leading expert on “Overachievement” who wrote a book by the same name (see Notes). He’s also the descendant of a bunch of Harvard Presidents and the great T.S. Eliot who said, “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

In his great book, Eliot likens the idea of trying to turn your desire/stress down to a race car driver swapping out his v12 engine for a v4 because it “rides smoother.” Well, sure, it rides smoother. But it *definitely* isn’t going to win any races. Of course, if your ultimate goal is to serenely watch life pass by then a v4 (or just not driving at all, really) would be a good bet. If, however, your ultimate goal is full and complete expression of your divine gifts in the greatest service to the world then keep the v12 and learn how to handle it. ;)

Now Ken Wilber.

He has a *phenomenal* passage in One Taste where he’s addressing this same issue from the perspective of transcending one’s ego. He makes the SUPER important distinction that as we transcend our egos we need to make sure we don’t EXCLUDE them. We need to go beyond a merely egoic sense of self but NOT get rid of the individualized expression of God that makes us who we are.

Wilber talks about the fact that the great sages we admire were INTENSE (imagine Jesus walking into a TEMPLE with a BULLWHIP (gives me goosebumps) and then tell me he wasn’t an INTENSE dood). He offers this in his remarkable prose:

“The great yogis, saints, and sages accomplished so much precisely because they were not timid little toadies but great big egos, plugged into the dynamic Ground and Goal of the Kosmos itself, plugged into their own higher Self… they opened their mouths and the world trembled, fell to its knees, and confronted its radiant God…

There is certainly a type of truth to the notion of transcending ego: it doesn’t mean destroy the ego, it means plug it into something bigger… Put bluntly, the ego is not an obstruction to Spirit, but a radiant manifestation of Spirit. The integral sage, the nondual sage, is here to show us otherwise. Known generally as ‘Tantric,’ these sages insist on transcending life by living it. They insist on finding release by engagement, finding nirvana in the midst of samsara, finding total liberation by complete immersion.” [from “One Taste: November 17”]

Wow.

So, uh, you want to get rich?

Burn your ships. Plug into source and shine!

Brilliant. EVERY great teacher tells us how important it is to control your mind. Something powerful happens when we lock our minds on an idea (good or bad, btw).

Thoreau: “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary: new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or old laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with license of a higher order of beings.”

W.H. Murray: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!’”

Paulo Coelho (see Notes): “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

So, how about you? What are your DOMINANT (magnetic) thoughts? Set your major definite purpose. Go for your biggest dreams. And pass through an invisible barrier, move with Providence and watch the Universe conspire for your success.

Again, what thoughts do you allow to dominate your consciousness?!?

As Hill says: “It is essential for you to encourage the positive emotions as dominating forces of your mind, and discourage—and eliminate negative emotions.”

* echo! *

EVERY great teacher echoes this sentiment.

Brilliant.

Let’s be clear by recognizing the fact that before the “first” in this self-confidence formula, you MUST know your major definite purpose.

(Did you fill your major definite purpose in above? If yes, sweet. If not, what are you waiting for?!? Even if you don’t have 100% clarity, write SOMETHING (anything!!) down and churn the idea until it really has deep resonance for you that can stoke your fire of burning desire… In fact, perhaps the most powerful purpose you can have at that stage is to figure out what your definite purpose is! THAT is a HUGE step forward. Get a burning desire to really figure out what you’re here to do, refuse to see failure as an option and take consistent action toward your objective and voilà! You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results. :)

OK. So, you have your definite purpose.

Now, DEMAND of yourself “persistent, continuous action toward its attainment” and promise to take such action.

And, knowing that your dominant thoughts WILL manifest in your reality, why not spend 30 minutes imagining your ideal self. Super powerful way to rock your confidence.

(Also, you might dig Kelly Howell’s 30-minute guided meditation called “Destiny.” Check it out at BrainSync.com. I’ve done it 125+ times in the last several months and love it. :)

Wow. I love that.

So, once you have your purpose lined up, see that thoughts are things and know how important your faith is, Hill gets into the importance of “Organized Planning.”

Of course, if you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.

If you want to laugh WITH God, however, just keep on trying new plan after new plan—never allowing the seed of doubt to take root as you remember Winston Churchill’s wisdom: “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

How do you stack up and how can you grow in these areas?

Tony Robbins (see Notes) shares the wisdom of his mentor, Jim Rohn, in an even more powerful way. He says: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Think about that.

Write down a list of the five people you spend the most time with and do the math. If you consistently hang out with people who are less inspired than you, you’ll be pulled down. Consistently hang out with people more inspired than you and you’ll go up.

Powerful stuff.

So, GET YOUR AVERAGE UP! Ahem.

And remember this as you wisely choose your company: “Without doubt, the most common weakness of all human beings is the habit of leaving their minds open to the negative influence of other people.”

On a personal note: As I write this on my sabbatical in Bali, three of my closest “friends” right now are God, my Highest Self, and the great teachers. I hang out with God every morning for an hour when I wake up with the sun and do my AM meditation. I chillax with my Highest Self when I’m journaling and with the great teachers throughout the day as I read/study/contemplate/write.

(Plus, I once took a year off of dating and would go to Starbucks on Saturday night and pretend like I was hanging out with a best friend as I read Nietzsche and Rand and Rumi. Fun. :)

Now, I’m not a steel authority, but last time I checked, if you removed carbon from steel, well, you wouldn’t have the steel. Same with persistence. You remove persistence from your character and you’ve lost ANY and all hope of living with material, spiritual, emotional riches. Period.

And, know this, according to Hill: “The ease with which lack of persistence may be conquered will depend entirely upon the intensity of one’s desire.”

You may want to re-read that. Lacking persistence? That’s ENTIRELY b/c your DESIRE is weak. You want to increase the persistence, START by getting a BURNING DESIRE.

Hill continues: “The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat. If you find yourself lacking in persistence, this weakness may be removed by building a stronger fire under your desires.”

Echoes Emerson’s genius: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” :)