Napoleon Hill

The Master Key to Success

The Seventh Principle: A Positive Mental Attitude

This brings us to the seventh visit. And I hope to hand you the master key to success before I finish, because my subject will lead you so near to the master key, that you will be have to recognize it.

As I have suggested in previous visits, a positive mental attitude can clear away all obstacles which stand between you and your major purpose in life.

Because of the importance of the subject of our visit, I shall not only tell you, that a positive mental attitude hits the entire list of the 12 great riches in life. But I am going to give you explicit instructions as to what you must do to keep your mind positive.

In all the success books I have written, I have never suggested to my readers, what they should do without clearly telling them how to do it.

Are you ready? If you are ready, this visit may bring the most important change in your life you have ever experienced:

1.

Learn to adjust yourself to other people’s state of mind and difficulties, so as to get along peacefully with them, and to refrain from taking notice of trivial circumstances in your relations with other people by refusing to allow them become controversial incidents. Great people always avoid small incidents of controversy when possible.

2.

Establish for yourself a definite fixed system of conditioning your mind at the beginning of each day, so you will keep it positive under all circumstances.

3.

Learn the art of selling yourself to other people by indirection, such as asking leading questions, which will bring out the sort of reactions from others which you desire. And do not permit yourself to be drawn into argument over unimportant subjects.

4.

Adopt the habit of having a good heart at laugh every time you become irritated or angry. And it will help you, if you begin each day with one minute of hearted laughing. This will change the chemistry of your brain and start you out with a positive mental attitude. However, you better get out of sight, when you take your laughing exercise.

5.

Start each day with an expression of gratitude for all the adversities, defeats, failures you have experienced in the past. And search for the seed of an equivalent benefit, these have yielded you through the passing of time. Then, give thanks for the blessings you expect to receive during the day.

6. Learn to concentrate your attention on the can-do portion of all of your problems and desires and start action where you stand in carrying out this portion. No matter what may be your problem or your desire, there is always something you can do right now that will help you. Find out what this something is and do it.

7. Learn to transmute all unpleasant circumstances into immediate action, which calls for a positive mental attitude. And make this a fixed habit. For example: When you are angry, switch your mind to some sort of action in connection with your hobby or your major purpose in life. And keep it busy with that subject for five minutes.

8.

Recognize that every circumstance which influences your life, whether it is a pleasant or unpleasant circumstance, is grist for your mill of life. And so use it to make it pay you dividends in one form or another. Remembering, meanwhile, that your strength grows out of your struggles. Follow this instruction and you will soon learn that there is no such thing as an unprofitable experience.

9.

Look upon your life as a continuous process of education, of learning from all your experiences – good and bad. And be always on the alert for gains of wisdom which come to you a little at a time in both your pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

10.

Make the world over to fit your own pattern, if you choose. But begin with yourself in some sort of self-improvement which will make you more open minded and patient and generous in your relations with others.

11.

Express gratitude twice daily for your recognition of the fact that you have been given complete control over your own mind. And ask for guidance in order that you may use this profound gift wisely in all your thoughts and acts.

12.

Go out of your way daily to commentate enthusiastically on the good qualities of those whom you live and work. But do not mention their negative qualities. Then observe as benefit to yourself, how quickly others will begin to concentrate on your good qualities. Remember: I’m still talking about how to keep your mind positive.

13.

Accept all criticism of yourself as an occasion for self-examination to determine how much of it is justified and you will be sure to make startling discoveries about yourself which will help you to the remainder of your life.

14.

Do not accept from life or anyone else anything you do not desire. And remember that Mahatma Gandhi proved himself to be more powerful than the great British military forces by this simple method of passive resistance.

15.

Remember always that there are two kinds of circumstances which cause you to worry. Those you can do something about and those you can do nothing about. Nothing that is except to use passive resistance and refuse to permit them to worry you.

16.

Keep your mind eternally engaged in thinking of that which you desire most, your major purpose in life. So no time will be left for you to waste on thinking of that which you do not want. And let me digress here, while I tell you, we are now rubbing elbows with the great Master Key of success, this very moment.

17.

If you should ever be so unfortunate as to feel sorry for yourself, look around until you find someone who is worse off than yourself. And start where you stand and give him help. Make this procedure a habit and you will witness one of the great miracles of life. Because that which you do to or for another you do to or for yourself.

18.

Choose some person whom you consider to be the sort of person you would like to be. Then go to work and emulate this person in every way possible. Great people have always been hero worshipers. But they picked the right sort of people to emulate.

19.

Cultivate your tone of voice so that your words have a pleasing, musical sound. And remember that the sound of your voice is an open window through which other people look into your very soul. It will be a profitable investment if you will get a tape recording machine and record samples of your voice daily, while you practice the art of expressing yourself through a friendly, sounding voice. If you are engaged in selling this practice will quickly pay off in monetary dividends.

20.

Last, but by no means the least, write out this sentence and paste it in a prominent place where you work and on a mirror where you see yourself in your home:

“Whatever the Mind can conceive and believe, the Mind can achieve.”

Remember also, that you are the only person who can provide you with a positive mental attitude. What are you going to do about it? On your answer to this question rests your entire future.