“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” — Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill spent over 25 years of his life discovering the difference which made the difference in the lives of some of the most successful and influential people of his time. He was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to discover the secret of success and set out to interview over 500 self made millionaires and find a formula that could be used by anyone to replicate their results in any area they chose. He wrote at length about the formula in his book “Think and Grow Rich”.
The formula comes in two parts – the first, definiteness of purpose, the second passionate desire. I want to share with you my understanding of the components parts of purpose and desire.
To achieve anything you must have a clear vision of what you want and what the consequences would be if you got it. It’s often said to be careful what you wish for because you might get it – however much you ask from life you will get but you must be willing to accept and confront the challenges which are the price of whatever you asked.
I’m a keen believer that not only might you get what you want, but that in fact people are always getting exactly what they want. That might grate on you if you think you want something other than what you’re currently getting. I’d say look more closely at what you say you want & what your beliefs about it are and it will become apparent that you always get exactly what you want.
When you ask in a wishy-washy way “I’d like more money” or “I want a better relationship” you are failing to use the immense power you have to turn a focused, powerful, congruent intention into an outcome – to turn an idea into reality. A definite purpose involves a clear, detailed and specific outcome – not a vague wish.
You must have clarity of vision because it allows you to realise ahead of time the price which you will have to pay and to bargain with life on your terms. The path to true freedom, the freedom to choose with full information about what it is you are choosing, lies in clearly defining your goals.
How clearly do you understand your goals right now?
Can you honestly say that you are 100% congruent in wanting every consequence of those goals to come into your life?
Clarity of vision must come first since making a detailed picture of where you’re going makes clear what you need to do to get there and simultaneously motivates you. Make big, clear, colourful, focused views of your desired future and let them pull you towards it.
A huge reason why people keep doing the same old thing and getting the same old results lies in a failure to forsee any challenges or objections clearly and be prepared to deal with them. You also need to think through the consequences of the goal (both destination, and path) and whether or not it aligns with your values and beliefs so that you can congruently go for it.
True internal alignment, when all of your resources are working together rather than fighting amongst themselves, comes from taking the time to determine clearly what you intend to do and why. Once you have a clear enough vision and a strong enough reason for making it real you can deal with any incongruence or objections and put all your resources into achieving the goal.
“He who has a big enough Why can bear almost any How” – Friedrich Nietzsche
When you set goals about which you can feel this congruent the second ingredient in success – the passionate and unstoppable urge to achieve, is unleashed.
To really get behind your goals they must be in line with your own higher values. You have more power than you will ever know when you just line up all your forces in the same direction instead of allowing them to fight amongst themselves. Choosing goals that serve your own higher purpose in life and which have meaning to you will give you the emotional juice which makes things happen. Your goals are most powerful when they are aligned with a higher overall purpose, when each goal becomes one part of an integrated whole.
This kind of passion transcends its emotional component though – true passion comes from a synergy of the emotional and rational methods of setting goals. You use your logical, reasoning side to create plans, goals, targets and to plan a route to get you there, this creates persistence. To be persistent you must have a plan which allows you to take action even on those occasions when you can’t get emotionally juiced up about your goal for one reason or another – by continuing to act even when you don’t feel like it you keep your momentum.
Through judging your progress based on something you can control – your own actions, your own momentum - instead of some external measuring device like comparing yourself with others, the easier you will find it to stay juiced up about where you’re going.
What’s the very best thing that could happen if you pursued your goal? What’s the most exciting situation that could happen? What’s the most stimulating, growth enhancing outcome that could result?
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve” - Napoleon Hill
What would you do today if you knew you couldn’t fail? How would you act differently if you felt no fear? The power of faith comes from mixing the emotion of certainty with thought – how would you act differently if you knew for certain that you would succeed?
When definiteness of purpose and a burning desire to succeed which refuses to quit are combined, it’s as if the universe itself picks up on this and conspires to turn an idea into reality. An absolute inability to even consider the possibility of failure is manifested. It’s as though a clear vision of your desired outcome combined with persistence allow you to tap into an inexhaustible source of power that practically catapults you towards whatever it is you desire. That’s not to say you won’t repeatedly fall flat on your face before you reach your goal, but once you have the cast iron certainty that you will achieve your vision, the obstacles along your path cease deterring you and begin to spur you on.
“I’ve missed over 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Persistence and the certainty of success – faith - is the key to turning a congruent intention, an idea, into physical reality. Only when a person refuses to accept even the possibility of failure does the universe start to co-operate with their intent.
To me, both clarity of purpose and strength of resolve to achieve it can be summed up by the word congruence – when every part of you is aligned with a goal you cannot help but have clarity, and persistence comes easily and naturally when you are fully congruent with your intention.
Once you’ve decided what your goal is, write it down. Like anything else which anyone can do, setting well formed written goals is a learnable skill. If you’ve never set written goals before here’s an article on Goal setting which you will find helpful .
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