1007. How much thought do you give thought? | Napoleon Hill The Law Of Success

Let me read to you a passage from Napoleon Hill's Law of Success.

"You're searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the source of power, and yet you've been having the key in your hands the whole time, and you can make use of it the moment you learn to control your thoughts." I wanna talk today about controlling your thoughts with the help of Napoleon Hill as the framework, it sounds so cliche to say. It's kinda like, "Yeah, I know. I get it." But I don't think that we give any thought to the kinda thinking that we do. And he says this. This, this just like blew my mind. He said, your brain is like dynamite, and it generates or sets into motion the mysterious energy that we call thought. You ever give any, any thought to thought, like the energy of it? That's what it is. It's an energy. But he said there's two kinds of thought. There is one kind of thought which is auto-suggestion. That's self-suggestion. And then the other one is suggestion. And let me break down the two. Auto-suggestion is where you're the one who is selecting the material out of which your thinking is produced. You're in control of that. You're the one shaping your thinking, and you're selecting the material, I love that word, the material at which your thinking is produced. That's auto-suggestion. The other thought is suggestion. This is the dangerous one. Suggestion is where you permit others to select the material out of which your thinking is produced. He continues on. Watch this. It's a humiliating fact that most thought is produced by the outside suggestion of others. And he said, wait, it even gets better. And it's even more humiliating to admit that the majority of us accept this suggestion. Remember, suggestion is where others are projecting their thoughts upon you. Okay? There's auto-suggestion. You're the one controlling your thoughts. You're the one selecting the material, or others are selecting the material for you. They're telling you what you should think. They're projecting themselves upon you, and most of that is limitations. So he said, "It's even more humiliating that we accept this suggestion without either examining it or questioning its soundness." Think about that. Think about how many family members, how many friends, how many coworkers, how many people that you work for, society, how much outside influence is just projecting their limitations into your life. I don't think… You know, I was reading this, I'm like, "Oh my God," like, you are in control of your thoughts, but I don't, I don't think we realize this, especially when you don't break the two down. How often do you just accept things as true? How often do you let people just pour into you in such a way that you don't… You're just mindless about it. It's no fault. I, I, the, I'm bringing this to your awareness, so this way now you give thought to the thought. You're either shaping your thoughts or you're being shaped by someone else's thoughts. Control your thoughts, or someone will control those thoughts for you. Pure and simple And we don't even question it. We don't even say, "Is that true?" We don't even put forth any effort. We just accept it as,"Oh, yeah, you're right. It's not gonna happen. Yeah, it's not possible. I, I get it, yeah." But think about that He continues on, "We read daily papers as though every word were based upon fact." Now, keep in mind, Napoleon Hill, I don't know how long ago he wrote this, probably in the '20s or something, but you know, I mean, he's talking about daily papers. But the daily papers for our lives now is media, is social media, is what it… And we're just constantly being inundated. We have access to everything. Unfortunately, because of that, and when you're not controlling your thoughts, everything has access to you And so you're just letting these things pour into you and you just accept them, even subconsciously accepting these things as fact. He said, "We are swayed by the gossip and idle chatter of others as though every word were true." How much… Hey, you know, bro, that's like a majority of your day. If you really just, like, put your thumb on it, gossip and idle chatter. Sometimes people can't even leave the room before the other person is already talking about them. Gossip and idle chatter. No more. Continuing on, thought is the only thing you have absolute control over. I don't think you realize that. Thought is the only thing. Look, there may be circumstances outside of your control, but the one… I mean, Viktor Frankl says this in Man's Search for Meaning, "The last of the human freedoms is for the man who chooses his attitude toward his circumstances." He's talking about thought. That's what he's talking about. And so thought is the only thing you have absolute control over, yet you permit people to enter into the sacred mansion of your mind. Do you think of your mind as a sacred mansion, or do you treat it like a trap house? You let people enter into the sacred mansion of your mind, and you let them deposit their troubles, woes, adversities, and falsehoods and you act like you didn't have the power to close the door and keep them out. Bro, you can't save those kind of people. I mean, you get around people, man, you're just like, "My God, is anything good in your life?" And they just drain you, and you wanna be there for those people, but they're not there for themselves. And if they're not there for themselves, you can't be available to them. Hallelujah. Amen. You can't. You can't. And what's happening is you're an open source, your mind is wide open, and people are projecting all of their insecurities, their limitations, all of their personal troubles, all into you, and it becomes burdensome, so much to the point that instead of shaping your worldly destiny, you're just trying to get to tomorrow."I'm just trying to make it through the day." And we say stuff like that and give no thought to it Back to the book. You have within your control the power to select the material that constitutes the dominating thoughts of your mind. You do. You can select or be selected. So you have the power within your control. Nobody can take that from you. It's the last of the human freedoms. They can take everything a- away from you. They cannot take your thoughts away And just as sure as you're reading these lines, the thoughts that dominate your mind are gonna bring you success or failure. What is dominating your mind? Your fears You're adversity. You're uncertain about some things Like what's dominating your mind? And I can tell you this, the thing that's dominating your mind is going to either create success for you or failure It's a natural phenomenon. Back to the book."The fact that thought is the only thing that you have absolute control over is within itself is the most profound significance, and it strongly suggests that thought is your nearest approach to divinity on this earthly plane." It's heaven on earth. It is a divine tool. He even says that. It's a divine tool It is. Thought is your, is your most important tool that you have because it can Actually, let me read it to you."Thought is your most important tool, the one with which you can shape your worldly destiny according to your own liking." Bro, how much plainer does that have to be? The one thing that nobody can ever take from you is your thought, and how you control your thought, and the material that you select for your thoughts, and who you keep out of your thoughts. It is a divine tool that you can use personally to shape your worldly destiny according to your liking. You want something better? It's up to you. It's up to you to controlling your thoughts Now, you didn't get thought just to have thought. He continues on, "Surely divine providence," call it what you want, life, universe, God, "divine providence did not make thought the sole power over which you have absolute control over without associating it with the power of potentialities." You didn't get the divine tool of thought control just to have thoughts he said it is paired with the ability, with the power of potential You have the power of potential. So you put that thought and accompanying that with the power of potential, and if you would understand and develop, it would stagger the imagination. Oh my God. So look, it's not just gonna come to you. Your potential, you're not going to reveal those potentials. You have to control your thinking. Those thoughts have to dominate your mind for success. You have to keep other people out and be very cautious about what you let in, because those things dominate your mind, and if you will do that You will have access to the power of your potential. And when you understand and develop those powers of potential, it's not just gonna come to you. You gotta work it. When you understand and develop, it will stagger your imagination. Those last three words, stagger the imagination. Bro,. do you even have an imagination anymore? or are you just trying to get through the month? It's time to pop the lid open. I just did an episode, go back to episode 1006, about creativity and the access that you have to creativity stagger your imagination. Self-control is a matter of thought control So how do you control your thoughts? Let me just give you a quick little way to, to just have access to it, and it's really just bringing an awareness to it. Number one, you gotta prime your mind. If you're waking up just reacting to the day, checking your email, checking social media, all of that. If you're doing that before you do anything else, you're, you're being controlled by those thoughts. But if you select the material, and you're the one that is priming your mind… this is why I read in the mornings. Short form, 15 minutes. This is why I write. This is why I reflect on what I just read, because my mind is primed. So you prime, now you're setting the sail, you're controlling your thoughts. Then you go push yourself to go live that today. Short form. Just go live it. That's the game of it. That's the spice of it. Try new things. Be naive. You're backed with experience. I did an episode on that a few episodes ago. Go back and listen to that, even if you listened to it before. I'm telling you, go back and listen to it again. There's a lot of episodes, man, I go back and listen to as reminders, as reinforcements. It's a strengthening every single day. That's what creativity is, man, it's that muscle. So you're gonna prime your mind. You're gonna push yourself. Then I want you to pause. This is how you control your thoughts. You pause. Sometimes it's a mental knee where your mind is just overwhelmed with circumstances and fears and insecurities and uncertainty. You take a mental knee. You don't drop out of the race. You just take a pause for a minute, bringing an awareness to it Dominate your mind with success. Sometimes it don't look like it's gonna happen. Re-engage. R-re-dominate. You pause, and then you, you get back in the game. Get back at it You're not defeated. It's temporary failure, but you're not defeated. Keep going. It's the man who won't quit. But then also I want you to pause too. When that idle chatter comes in, when people start projecting, you just, you, you feel like that your mind is just wide open and they're just all of a sudden starting to just dump into you, peel out. Get away from that. You ain't got time for that. It's not that you can't be there for people, it's just sometimes people gotta be there for themselves first, okay? I'm not saying be hardcore about it, but understand too, bring an awareness that, oh, hold up. I'm not gonna start giving all these opinions and go, "What? It's isn't…" No, not gonna feed into that. Don't feed into it, is, is what I should say. Peel out of there. And then the last thing is pronounce it. Man, pronounce it, meaning that you gotta constantly reinforce this. You gotta constantly remind yourself what you're going for, what's going on, what's happening this is that key that I began this episode about, the key to unlocking. We're all looking for the magic key, the key to unlock our situations, the key to unlock the power to achieve, to shape our worldly destiny according to our liking. And Napoleon Hill says, "You had the key the whole time." And you can use that key in that lock when you begin to control your thoughts. All right? I'll see you back here next time. Remember, keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.