Napoleon Hill

The Master Key to Success

The Thirteenth Principle: Cosmic Habit Force

The thirteenth visit brings us to the analysis of a law of nature, which is the basis of all of our habits, both the good habits and the bad.

This law is a vital part of the 17 success principles, because it is the means, by which you and every other person can put into operation an irresistible power by which your aims and purposes are attained almost automatically, by the action of your habits.

I have named this law, cosmic habit force, because it is the law which gives definiteness of action to everything, which moves throughout the entire universe.

It keeps the stars and planets in their accustomed places and it fixes the life patterns of every living thing, from the smallest insects to the largest animal, excepting only man,

who has been given the means by which he may use this law to establish his own

habits and determine his own desires and movements throughout life.

Cosmic habit force binds every living thing lower in the scale of intelligence and man with what we call instinct.

But man can rise above these fixed patters by which lower forms of life live and establish his own pattern.

This privilege is the only thing over which man has complete power of control and direction.

And it is interesting to observe, that the Creator never gives man any form of riches, without sending along with it the means by which man may do whatever he pleases with those riches.

Like every other natural law, cosmic habit force has both a positive and a negative potential application.

The negative application of this law is called hypnotic rhythm. Which means, among other possible results it fastens upon individuals, that by our neglect to fix our thoughts upon the things we desire in life and thereby gain the power of cosmic habit force in attaining these desires, the law automatically acts through the negative hypnotic rhythm feature and fixes our minds on the things we do not desire and attracts to us the physical counterpart of these desires.

Understand this principle of the law of cosmic habit force and obviously you will have a better conception as to how essential it is to keep your mind occupied with the life pattern and the things and circumstances you desire, until this pattern is taken over and made permanent by cosmic habit force.

Cosmic habit force is the watchdog, so to speak, which looks over your shoulder all through life, examines every thought you release, every act in which you engage and forces upon you the penalties or the rewards in those two sealed envelopes I described in the previous visit.

When you understand the principle of cosmic habit force, it is clear enough, that you cannot go through life without using the power of this law to carry out the circumstances and the desires you voluntarily choose or, by your neglect, allow the same law to force you to pay the penalties I described.

You have the power of choice here, the same as in all other things, but your neglect to exercise this power brings certain, if not always swift, retribution upon you.

Perhaps you now see why I warned you in a previous visit that the two sealed envelopes were not imaginary but real.

And of course you now understand that you must avail yourself of the benefits of one or be forced to accept the penalties of the other. There is no halfway compromise for any human being.

Ponder over this profound truth and you will probably get a more impressive understanding of the power which is available to you through the application of the 17 success principles of the science of success.

And you may also acquire a better understanding as to why the 17 principles have spread throughout the world without organized business management behind them.

Why this science of success philosophy is believed to have brought personal success to more people than has any other philosophy designed to help individuals to take possession of their own minds.

The nearest to a description of the law of cosmic habit force I have seen, is Emerson's law of compensation. In which he so clearly established the truth, that nothing ever just happens by luck, but every effect has its definite cause. Albeit we often observe effects, the causes of which we cannot isolate or understand.

If you will read Emerson's essay on compensation again in view of what I have said about the law of cosmic habit force, you may get much more from it than you absorb from it previously.

Now I shall give you a variety of illustrations as to how the law of cosmic habit force operates.

1.

First of all let me call your attention to the fact, that cosmic habit force fixes the habits of the electrons and protons of matter, so that their relationship and chemical behaviour always follow the same pattern.

Thus we see that everything throughout the universe comes under the influence of cosmic habit force. And everything moves and exists by a pattern, which is immutable and enduring, except man who, as I have said, can break the habits established by cosmic habit force which affect him and set up in their place habits of his own choice.

2.

Cosmic habit force fixes the pattern of every form of vegetation which grows from the soil of the earth, so that each thing reproduces after its own pattern.

A grain of wheat always reproduces other grains of wheat but never makes the mistake of producing oats or some other form of growth.

One atom of hydrogen and atoms of oxygen combined always produce water, never anything else, because the pattern of their chemical reaction has been fixed by cosmic habit force.

3.

When the human mind is focused on a definite major purpose, the law of cosmic habitforce goes into action immediately and attracts to the individual the material equivalent of that purpose. And the procedure is inexorable and never varies.

However hypnotic rhythm, the negative application of the law, will just as definitely attract to one all the undesirable things and circumstances which the mind is allowed to dwell upon, such as poverty, ill health, failure, fear and all other undesirable things.

4.

Cosmic habit force expressing itself through the emotion of sex is the means by which every living thing perpetuates its species. Understand this truth and you will better understand the irresistible forces of the profound emotion of sex. The means by which nature creates all living things.

You will also better understand why aims and purposes, which are expressed orally under the great creative forces of sex emotion, are acted upon so rapidly by cosmic habit force.

5.

We sometimes hear people speak of successful men as being on the beam. By which they mean, that those who enjoy success, have established a success thought pattern in their minds, which cosmic habit force has picked up and carried out to its logical conclusion. Direct it to definite ends in a spirit of belief in your attainment of those ends and keep your mind busy in carrying out your purpose, instead of allowing it to drift to subjects you wish to avoid.

You are on the beam when you can truthfully say, I know precisely what I want from life and I have faith I shall get it.

You are not on the beam, when you have no definite major purpose and you are drifting aimlessly through life.

People who are failures also are on the beam. But they are on the negative side of the beam, because they have neglected to use those riches, which came over with them in that sealed envelope. And they have placed themselves under the influence of hypnotic rhythm, which is the negative application of cosmic habit force.

There is one word witch doctors dread and it is the word fixation,. Which means that a six person believes in his sickness as something which cannot be cured.

Fixations can become a priceless asset by those who have discovered the great master key to success and have learned how to develop fixations in their minds based on the things they desire most in life.

Cosmic Habit Force is the power which makes fixations permanent.

You should have a definite fixation based on your major purpose in life.

But you are the only one who can create this fixation. You can do it by taking possession of your own mind and keeping it directed toward the attainment of your major purpose.

If you will do this by following all the instructions I have given you in these visits, in a short time you will find yourself on the beam and headed directly toward everything you desire and deserve to receive.

Lastly, remember that your mental attitude is something you control outright and you must use self-discipline until you create a thought pattern or a thought habits which keep your mental attitude positive at all times.

Your mental attitude is important because it acts as a magnet which attracts to you everything, every circumstance, which makes you what you are and where you are.

If you wish to keep on the beam that leads to success, be sure that you give cosmic habit force a thought pattern based on the things you want most in life and it will do the rest.