13 Principles for Life for life from the book Think and Grow Rich

The infamous Think and Grow Rich book written by Napoleon Hill

These principles are tools to enhance and improve your mental abilities, and
to help you connect to limitless Intelligence. Once you learn to implement
the right frame of mind, you can receive insight and intuition from your
limitless Intelligence. You can also learn to attract things, from wealth to
a loving partner to more free time, using the power of your mind….Sounds
good?

Let’s get right to it!

Principle 1 – Desire

The first step in attracting what you want is to have a desire for it.  A
burning desire. Then create a vision of your life where you have it. I have
recently seen the topic of visualisation been discussed over the various
social media platforms. From celebrities, entrepreneurs and so many others.
It is a technique that has been put into practice as part of their daily
routines. This desire and visualisation has to be strong enough to sustain
you even when things get rough.

Principle 2 – Faith

Once you have your desire, you need to have faith in the process. Faith is
what Napoleon Hill calls an ‘eternal elixir which gives life, power and
action to the impulse of thought.’ It changes your ordinary thoughts into a
spiritual force and being, which empowers your unity with Limitless
Intelligence. We often hear the phrase just have a little faith and see it
through. But according to this principle, you cannot have ‘a little faith’
but in fact ‘complete faith’.

Principle 3 – Self Suggestion

If you want to maximize your faith, then you need to monitor your self-talk.
Nowadays, this principle has changed to the word ‘affirmation’. Self-talks
or affirmations is the words and mental scripts that you tell yourself,
whether it’s, “I struggle for money and I’ll never be wealthy” or, “I
attract plenty of money with ease.” Your self-talk starts in your conscious,
thinking mind; but if you repeat a certain affirmation in your head every
single day, it will seep into your subconscious mind. Hill calls this
process ‘autosuggestion’.

Principle 4 – Knowledge

The fourth principle, contrary to popular belief is that knowledge is not
power. Knowledge attracts riches when it is organized and intelligently
directed through practical plans of execution. Hill differentiates
specialized knowledge (knowledge organized and used for action) from general
knowledge (knowledge that’s not organized and used for action, essentially
just trivia). Specialized knowledge can help you to become wealthy, whereas
general knowledge is useless until used in a general setting. Bottom line,
you can have all the knowledge in the world but if you lack the know-how of
how to use it then it is in fact useless.

Principle 5 – Imagination

One of the most famous Napoleon Hill quotes is “whatever the mind of man can
conceive and believe, it can achieve.” If you want to attract riches, start
with an idea. The ability to use your imagination to see a picture in your
mind of what you want, starts the process of creation. This is something
that many young people lack in today’s time because it is a copycat culture.
The ability to look around you and imagine something is an easy task but you
have to couple that with your desire and faith that it will work out.

Principle 6 – Planning

Having a well-defined plan of how to achieve your goals is extremely
important. Why? Because sometimes you’ll take a wrong turn and wander away
from the right path. That’s why it’s important not just to make a plan
before you begin, but also to be able to make the necessary changes when
things go wrong. The sooner you can make those changes, the faster you reach
your goal.

Principle 7 – Decision

Instead of making vague wishes, Napoleon Hill recommends that you make a
conscious decision. Setting a target-whether it’s R100 000 per year, or R10
million, or something else, make a decision to aim for that target. You’ll
need a certain state of mind to employ this principle. One of the first
decisions you’ll need to make is to be mindful of your thoughts and
feelings. That is one of the prerequisites for benefitting from this
philosophy.

Principle 8 – Persistence

The easiest and most common thing people do when faced with difficulty, a
temporary setback, or rejection is to quit. Instead of giving up, when
you’re feeling low, now is the time to double down and persevere. The most
successful people aren’t the ones who never take a hit, they’re the ones who
know how to take a hit without giving up.

Principle 9 – Mastermind

You must do it yourself, but you can’t do it alone. Weird right?

Instead, Napoleon Hill recommends creating a mastermind with other talented
entrepreneurs, so that you can work on problems together.

When two or more people join their talent, knowledge, and effort to achieve
a definite purpose, Hill argues, it’s almost as though a third mind enters
the room, one with more wisdom and experience than any individual member
has. Almost all great achievement is the result of a group of dedicated
individuals working together.

Principle 10 – Transmutation

One of the secrets hidden within this success system. There are certain
emotions that evoke a mental state and it allows you access your Limitless
Intelligence. Every feeling must have a vibration, and for you to come into
coordination with the universal mind, you must be resonating on the same
frequency as what you want to receive. Therefore, it cannot be stressed
enough to be aware of your mental, emotional state and choose to transmute
your thoughts and feelings, degree by degree, step by step into a higher
(i.e. more positive) frequency.

Principle 11 – Subconscious Mind

The subconscious mind is the power centre of your mental activity. It has
power over every vital function taking place in your body and brain. The
subconscious mind is also the part of the brain that converts ideas, plans,
dreams, and desires into material form.

Principle 12 – The Brain

Hill asserts that the brain is similar to a radio. Just like a radio, your
brain operates at specific set frequencies. In the case of your brain, these
frequencies are emotions: love, hate, despair, fear, confidence, and more.
When we adjust our mental frequency, we have the ability to communicate, not
just from one finite brain to another, but to the mind of Limitless
Intelligence as well.

Principle 13 – Sixth Sense

This is where the entire philosophy of Think and Grow Rich culminates.
Achieving a complete understanding of the other twelve principles prepares
you to receive guidance from an infallible source. Namely Limitless
Intelligence. When you’re receiving guidance from this source, it’s almost
as though you develop a sixth sense that guides you, with unerring accuracy,
to take the steps needed to manifest your desires.

I hope that you can instil these 13 principles in your life to achieve
limitless intelligence, all the riches and more importantly control your
life from a mental aspect.