I have decided to first start off with the book Think and Grow Rich as it is one of the cornerstones to many people’s fortunes, empires, and exceedingly happy lives. I am going to be covering the main points of the chapters, but for brevity’s sake I am going to leave out most of the story telling details. DO NOT think that these are unimportant. They allow you to visualize and put yourself in the person’s shoes so you may relate their experiences to real life examples. I highly suggest your grab a copy of the book to understand what it is I’m referring to as the facts are not nearly as easy to understand and compare to your own experiences as the stores are within the book.
In addition, the methods, anecdotes, and ideas in place in this book all “make sense” but they won’t be able to work for us unless we put them into effect, practice them every day, and become a student of how they truly work. Seeing as how I how this is my first book I’m dissecting, it may be sloppy, it may be terrible but it’s for my own use as well as yours, so a small hoorah to improving before we begin!
Ch.1 – The Power of Thought
When purpose, persistence, and a burning desire are attached to thoughts, those thoughts become exponentially more powerful. And often we believe that wealth, success, and a different life are supposed to appear magically overnight. These things do not appear in one sitting, they come SLOWLY, and often we have no idea how to bring our vision about! One thing is for sure: we must have a definite purpose for our goal and stop at nothing to achieve it (read: get knocked down 1000 times, get back up 1001). When a person risks everything to achieve their dream, he/she is destined to succeed because there is no other way.
Example: Trying to find a job. If you put it in your mind that you have to land a job to support your family and their well-being and survival depends on it. You will most likely get the job. IF you believe you can get a job and are constantly striving to find the information to help you succeed in that pursuit. Applying to 1 job a day will probably not get you there. But the law of averages is in our favor. Eventually, with enough effort, all blockades and boundaries can be surpassed. We have infinitely powerful minds and as soon as a person realizes that, is when the momentum of forward progress begins.
An example would be a once poor child who had worn potato sacks as dresses and who was molested by two members of her family as a teen. Who could this unfortunate soul be? Oprah! She has since turned her life around and become a beacon of hope for many people aspiring to make an impact on the world. The question is: HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?!
We must get started! Take the plunge! You will never know how something will work out until you try it. What a different world we would live in if only everyone who had an idea or desire would attach themselves and hold onto that vision until it came to fruition. DO NOT let failure or temporary defeat seem like a reason to stop striving to achieve your mission, these circumstances are placed there to test your resolve and determine if you are truly invested and willing to go the distance to achieve your desire.
Failure loves to play games with the people striving for something. It takes pride and joy in its ability to cut mortals down to size when they are inches away from success. Be prepared for this in your endeavors. Mindset also plays into your stickability factor as well. If we are able to look at every bad experience as a learning lesson instead of being angry and disappointed, we will be sure not to repeat our failures and be much more prepared for similar situations in the future.
When a definite purpose is combined with an alertness to our surroundings while searching for the answers to our problems, the answers will begin to flow to you naturally. In any of the various chapters of the book may be found a single idea (ONLY ONE!), plan or purpose that will allow you to tap into the power to bring to fruition your vision and goals. This idea may cause you to look back into your life at a past defeat and pull to the surface a lesson through which you can acquire that which you lost through defeat.
The strange thing about wealth is that once it starts to come into your life, it happens so rapidly and in such large quantities, one typically thinks “where the heck have you been all these years I’ve been struggling!?”
The road to riches can be obtained simply by mastering the principles of these philosophies and others in the book and utilizing the instructions for putting them to use in everyday life. But to do this, one must change their mind from being failure conscious to success conscious. Unfortunately most people’s habits and behaviors are entrenched with failure consciousness: AKA poverty, want, misery, failure, and defeat.
The beauty of it all is we ultimately have control of what goes into and out of our mind! We have the amazing ability to control our thoughts. While it is easy to think positive thoughts, it is also easy to think negative ones as well. Our minds do not distinguish whether a thought is going to be harmful or helpful, it simply receives it. If we desire riches, we have to tune our minds to the frequency of intensely desiring riches, in which the desire for money drives us to create definite plans for acquiring it.
Reclaim Time 