Autosuggestion is a great way of speeding up the achievement and realizations of our dreams.
Napoleon Hill wrote his book “Think and Grow Rich” almost 100 years ago (1937) and his principles are still as valid today as they were back then.
It is one of the best books ever written and if you want to be successful in life, this is THE ONE to read!
This book was written during a period of 20-years (before internet and cheap flights etc….), whilst Napoleon was researching and interviewing 500 of the most successful people in the world. The likes of: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Andrew Carnegie etc. Andrew Carnegie was the inspirational source behind the idea but unfortunately he did not live to see the finished work of Napoleons great efforts.
My intention here is to give you a short summary of what his principles are but also my personal reflections followed with some action points, but before we start, let’s read one of Hills famous quotes on success:
“No one may achieve success without first knowing precisely what he wants. Study any person who is known to be a permanent success and you will find that he has a Definite Major Goal; he has a plan for the attainment of this goal; he devotes the major portion of his thoughts and his efforts to the attainment of this purpose.”
– Napoleon Hill
Hill’s main principles for success:
- Burning Desire
- Faith
- Autosuggestion
- Specialized Knowledge
- Imagination
- Organized Planning
- Decision
- Persistence
- Power of the Master Mind
- The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
- The Subconscious Mind
- The Brain
- The Sixth Sense
Principle 3: Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is a great way of speeding up the achievement and realizations of our dreams. Hill explains that our subconscious mind can be put to work for us as whatever we continuously auto-suggest, our mind will eventually be taking for a fact. This happens once it has been truly ingrained in our minds.
He continuous to suggest that you should focus on your chief aim (or ultimate goal) by frequently closing your eyes and read (out loud) your written statement which you wrote down when you read about Principle 1: Burning Desire. When you do this, it is instrumental that you both see and feel as if you are already in possession of your goal, that you talk about it in detail with gratefulness and passion.
Make sure that you have that written statement of yours written down and always close at hand (on your phone and computer) so that you clearly see it every day and by doing so, you are putting the principle of autosuggestion to work!
My reflections and take on the principle of Autosuggestion:
Autosuggestion makes perfect sense to me as I truly believe that we become and behave based on what we spend most of our time thinking about. It has been proven that our brain has no idea whether something is happening in real life or in our minds only and that is extremely powerful to know because then you can choose what your mind is to think about so that it works in your favor!
Just think about a time when you were watching a horror movie. What did your body feel like and what happened when it got really scary? Higher pulse, breathing changed, posture changed, fear arising? You know what I am talking about, that feeling… and it is all in your head yet extremely powerful as if it were in real life!
So, why not make sure that you have more powerful and empowering feelings by using your mind to create them. It will help you generate those highly stimulating and motivational emotions where your body can’t tell the difference from your imagination and real life.
By doing this you are boosting your energy levels, your mindset and your emotional state and by continuously working with yourself like this, it gets hammered into your subconscious mind and you will change your whole state of being. Your subconscious mind will start to help you in that direction you have been ingraining as it knows the importance of it to you. You will of course also have to take action and use all the opportunities that come your way, else nothing will change. The really cool thing is that there will be so many opportunities for you to act on so make sure you make the most of them! It will make you see and hear things related to those thoughts of yours. This all has to do with our Reticular Activating System and I recommend you to read my post on this topic to learn how to master it.
For further info on how we become what we think about – read my post on autosuggestion.
Actions to take:
- Reminder – remind yourself several times per day about the impact of autosuggestions and train your brain to focus on the right things and just let other thoughts flow by.
- Mindset – train everyday so that you are in control of your thoughts. Read my post on Creating a Winning Mindset.
- Personal Affirmations, copy mine or set your own!
- Meditate to quiet your mind down so that you can then decide what it should spend time on! Check out this post on Why successful people meditate.
- Vision board – live with it and use it several times per day to ingrain it into your mind! Read this post on How to create your own vision board.
– Jakob
“Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.”
– Napoleon Hill
Tejinder singh says
Very very motivation book.i have read whole book in a week’s time.
Tejinder sir
Counseling psychologist
Body mind healing center
Udaya Kumar Nizamkari says
In many situations used Auto-suggestion and come outside of the situation. But I came to know now when I read this book. nurturing my mind, correcting my mind set