Napoleon Hill tells us that Persistence is the sustained effort necessary to induce faith. It feels like even the sun had to be persistent this morning to make it’s break through the clouds!
So yesterday I told you that the first few paragraphs of Hill’s 8th Chapter on Persistence really spoke to me. If you are still reading my blog, no doubt you also have some interest in being more abundant! I hope that at the end, you too will take a moment to follow his instructions. It’s the first test to see if you are really ready and willing to do what’s necessary …. To stop procrastinating, get some ideas churning, and put a game plan together …
Here’s you have it. The first 12 paragraphs of this all important step towards riches:
PERSISTENCE is an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting DESIRE into its monetary equivalent. The basis of persistence is the POWER OF WILL.
Will-power and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair.
Those who accumulate great fortunes are sometimes called cold-blooded or ruthless. Frequently it is simply because their critics don’t understand that what they have is a strong desire backed up by willpower, which they mix with persistence. It is the combination that ensures the attainment of their objective.
The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on DESPITE all opposition, until they attain their goal.
There may be no heroic connotation to the word “persistence,” but persistence does for your character what carbon does to iron – it hardens it to steel.
The building of a fortune, will involve the application of the entire thirteen factors of this philosophy. These principles must be understood, they must be applied with PERSISTENCE by all who accumulate money.
Your Test for Persistence:
If you are reading this book with the intention of seriously applying the knowledge it conveys, your first test as to your PERSISTENCE will come when you begin to follow the six steps described in the second chapter on Desire.
Unless you are one of the two out of every hundred who already have a DEFINITE GOAL at which you are aiming, and a DEFINITE PLAN for its attainment, you may read the instructions, and then pass on with your daily routine, and never comply with those instructions.
Moreover, experience with thousands of people has proved that lack of persistence is a weakness common to the majority of people. However, it is a weakness which may be overcome by effort. The ease with which lack of persistence may be conquered will depend entirely upon the INTENSITY OF ONE’S DESIRE.
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 remedied by building a stronger fire under your desires.
Continue to read through to the end, then go back to Chapter two, and start immediately to carry out the instructions given in connection with the six steps. The eagerness with which you follow these instructions will indicate clearly, how much, or how little you really DESIRE to accumulate money.
If you find that you are indifferent, you may be sure that you have not yet acquired the “money consciousness” which you must possess, before you can be sure of accumulating a fortune.
Fortunes gravitate to those whose minds have been prepared to “attract” them, just as surely as water gravitates to the ocean.
In this book may be found all the stimuli necessary to “attune” any normal mind to the vibrations which will attract the object of one’s desires. If you find you are weak in PERSISTENCE, center your attention upon the instructions contained in the chapter on “Power”; surround yourself with a “MASTER MIND” group. And through the cooperative efforts of the members of this group, you can develop persistence.
You will find additional instructions for the development of persistence in the chapters on auto-suggestion, and the subconscious mind. Follow the instructions outlined in these chapters until your habit nature hands over to your subconscious mind, a clear picture of the object of your DESIRE. From that point on, you will not be handicapped by lack of persistence.
Your subconscious mind works continuously, while you are awake, and while you are asleep.
Spasmodic, or occasional effort to apply the rules will be of no value to you. To get RESULTS, you must apply all of the rules until their application becomes a fixed habit with you. In no other way can you develop the necessary “money consciousness.”
So here once again are the Six Steps of Turning Desire to Gold:
1. Write out the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Write out exactly what you will give in return for the money you desire. If you are uncertain, just begin to visualize the money.
3. Write out the date by which you will possess the money.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire. Begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan in action.
5. Write the plan out in a clear concise statement. Read this statement twice daily, with great emotion and feeling. Read it first thing when you wake up, and before you go to bed.
6. As you read, feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.
- Your objective is to make your subconscious believe that the money is already awaiting your claim, so that your subconscious must hand over to you practical plans for acquiring the money.
- Use your imagination to aid your subconscious.
- When the plans appear and flash into your conscious mind, you must act upon them immediately.
Skepticism in connection with all new ideas is a characteristic of all human beings. If you follow the instructions, your skepticism will soon be replaced by belief which will become faith. What the mind of man can believe, it can achieve.
