We’ve talked about your definite major purpose before. But I don’t think I wrote about how to develop it. It’s not just goal setting – goals are what will help you achieve your definite major purpose. They are like the stepping stones towards reaching it. This is a very important post. Here Napoleon Hill shows you how to find your definite major purpose and articulate it.

How to Develop a Definite Major Purpose
by Dr. Napoleon Hill

This procedure in the development of a Definite Major Purpose is simple, but important, viz:

    (a) Write out a complete, clear and definite statement of your Major Purpose in Life, sign it and commit it to memory. Then repeat it orally at least once every day, more often if practicable. Repeat it over and over, thus placing back of your purpose all of your faith in Infinite Intelligence.

    (b) Write out a clear, definite plan by which you intend to begin the attainment of the object of your Definite Major Purpose. In this plan state the maximum time allowed for the attainment of your purpose, and describe precisely what you intend to give in return for the realization of your purpose, remembering that there is no such reality as something for nothing, and that everything has a price which must be paid in advance in one form or another.

    (c) Make your plan flexible enough to permit changes at any time you are inspired to do so. Remember that Infinite Intelligence, which operates in every atom of matter and in every living or inanimate thing, may present you with a plan far superior to any you can create. Therefore be ready at all times to recognize and adopt any superior plan that may be presented to your mind.

    (d) Keep you Major Purpose and your plans for attaining it strictly to yourself except insofar as you will receive additional instructions for carrying out your plan, in the description of the Master Mind Principle, which follows.

Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you may not understand these instructions the principles here described are not sound. Follow the instructions to the letter; follow them in good faith, and remember than by so doing you are duplicating the procedure of many of the greatest leaders this nation has ever produced.

The instructions call for no effort that you may not easily put forth.

They make no demands upon time or ability with which the average person may not comply.

And they are completely in harmony with the philosophy of all true religions.

Decide now what you desire from life and what you have to give in return. Decide where you are going and how you are to get there. Then make a start from where you now are to get there. Then make a start from where you now stand. Make the start with whatever means of attaining your goal that may be at hand. And you will discover that to the extent you make use of these, other and better means will reveal themselves to you.

That has been the experience of all men whom the world has recognized as successes. Most of them started with humble beginnings with little more to aid them than a passionate desire to attain a definite goal.

There is enduring magic in such a desire!

Source: The Master Key to Riches. Fawcett Crest Book. 1965. Pgs. 41 & 42.

Have you worked on yours or do you already have it solidified?

Terrie

Do you go the extra mile in your job or in your relationship? Or do you expect to get the best you can for what you do? Do you have someone in your employ that you notice has gone the extra mile? Maybe it’s like this story. It’s a very important story and should be the basis for how you live your life if you wish to succeed.

A Sharp Contrast
by Dr. Napoleon Hill

Andrew Carnegie had a story about this principle of going the extra mile which he often liked to tell.  “Several years ago,” he would say, “a policeman noticed a light burning at a late hour in a small machine shop on his beat in which he knew that no night work was being done.  Becoming suspicious, he telephoned the owner of the shop who came down immediately, unlocked the door and cautiously crept inside with the policeman.

“When they reached the small room where the light appeared, the owner of the shop looked in and, to his amazement, found one of his employees at work at a machine.  The young man quickly explained that he had been in the habit of coming to the shop at night to learn how to operate the machine and thereby make himself more useful to the employer.

“The newspapers carried the story, and I happened to read it.  The newspaper article made it appear that it was all a big joke on the employer.  For I contacted this young man and employed him at double the wages he had been getting in this small machine shop.  Today he is head of one of our most important plant operations at a salary four times what he was getting at the machine shop, and if he keeps on as he is going and continues to exhibit the same wonderful mental attitude, he will some day have our top plant job – provided he doesn’t first go into business for himself.

“There is no way to hold down people who spend their spare time preparing to render grater and better service for others.  These persons go right to the top of their profession or calling as naturally as a cork rises to the top of water.”

There is little one can add to a story like that.  It would be like trying to gild the lily.  If you are ready to grasp the secret of real success, somewhere as you study the lessons in this course, you will find it.  You will grasp the significance of each of these principles, and will be on the way to the achievement of your own definite major objective.

Source: PMA Science of Success Course. Pgs. 139 & 140.

What has this story meant for you? Tell us below.

Terrie

Are you ready to do something bigger and better? In this time that may seem like a daunting task but you should NEVER be discouraged or kept from trying to better yourself and your circumstances because of the “appearances” around you. You are bound ONLY by your own thoughts and imagination, NOT by the events in the world outside of you. Take heed to what Napoleon Hill writes.

Your Beginning
by Dr. Napoleon Hill

You will come to the point, sooner or later, at which you will want to do something bigger and better than you have ever done before. When you do, you are going to be discouraged by those around you who know you best, and who will say the plan you have is foolish or beyond your power to carry out. You will find more people willing to tear you down by discouragement than you will find sympathizing with you and helping you to build your ego.

The best way to avoid such discouragement is to confide only in those who have a genuine sympathy with your cause and an understanding of your possibilities. Otherwise, keep your plans to yourself and let your actions speak. Adopt the motto Deeds – Not Words. It is a good motto for everyone.

It may not be in the best taste for you to overestimate your abilities, but it is better than to underestimate, and it will do less harm. If you aim at a very big achievement and attain only a moderate achievement, you will still have attained something. If you allow yourself to be held back before you even begin, you will have sold yourself short and will attain nothing.

Maybe you are a man with a big idea. You have nursed this idea for a long time. You have made an experimental model, or have worked it out on paper and refined it over a period of time until you know it will work. But you haven’t really done anything about it. Perhaps the reason you haven’t acted is that you lack the self-confidence sufficient to start you looking for a master mind ally to help you carry out your idea.

The thing for you to do is take hold of the principles of this philosophy and apply them to yourself. It will do you no good to read these lessons and think, “That’s a wonderful lesson! I’ll bet it really works for somebody else.” Why not start building up your self-confidence through mastery and application of these time-tested principles which have lifted others from poverty to places of eminence? The rules will work for you as well as for anyone else, but you have to take the initiative. No one else will do it for you.

    When a man can manage himself, he
    is ready to start managing others.

You have every quality in the world that it takes to succeed if you will organize what you have according to the seventeen principles of this philosophy. To do that requires self-discipline, faith in yourself and concentration on your objective. Your success or failure is entirely a matter of how you discipline your mind.

Source: PMA Science of Success. Pgs. 277 & 278.

Terrie

This is another great idea by Napoleon Hill. You can use the characters he mentions because they are of the highest quality OR you can pick your own characters and substitute the qualities you wish to instill in yourself.

The Magic Plan
by Dr. Napoleon Hill

“A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”

As surely as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, here is a plan that will transform your personality into whatever you wish it to be:

Place this page on the walls of your room.  Each night before you retire, relax, shut out all other thoughts and repeat the following, with firm determination to build it into your character, keeping your eyes fixed upon the picture of each character as you repeat the words which indicate the qualities you wish to build by emulating that character:

    LINCOLN:  As I look upon your face I definitely pledge my earnest efforts to develop in my own character those qualities of patience, tolerance and love for all humanity, the weak and the strong, friend and foe, which were your distinguishing marks.  I will emulate your example by looking for the good there is in others and by developing a love for justice.

    EMERSON:  As I look upon your face I resolve to develop in my own character those qualities which helped you to leave your footprints on the sands of time, namely, the ability to read the handwriting of Nature, as it is written in the faces of men, in flowing brooks, in the flowers, in growing trees, in the singing birds, in the faces of little children and in the rocks of prison walls.

    ELBERT HUBBARD:  As I look upon your face I resolve to develop in my own character that rare ability, that was your distinguishing mark, to state my conclusions in words that vibrate with life, action and enthusiasm.
        
    WASHINGTON:  As I look upon your face I resolve to develop courage and the persistence with which to complete all that I undertake.

    NAPOLEON:  As I look upon your face I resolve to develop the strategic ability to lay hold of the organized forces that are available for my use, and to develop the self-confidence to master all handicaps which come my way.  You shall serve as a constant reminder that the quitter never wins; that eternal vigilance and the courage to carry on in spite of every obstacle are the price of success.

    ________________________________

          (Sign here)

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.  Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”  
—ALLEN.

Source: Napoleon Hill’s Magazine. September, 1921. Pg. 24.

Let us know how this works.

Terrie