Napoleon Hill's "Self Confidence Formula"

One of the things that is making all the difference in the world to me these days is Napoleon Hill's "Self Confidence Formula", from the marvelous book with what, to many, is an offensive title, Think and Grow Rich. I wish my Sunday School class would let me teach it, because it's not just about monetary wealth. It is (thought I doubt Mr. Hill would say it this way) about being all God created you to be, doing all God created you to do, and not letting this world keep you from it.

The formula is in five parts, and I intend to devote my next five posts, one for each of the five parts. The fifth is pretty long and may be a multi-parter.

First, the formula, as I recite it. Part of the process is memorizing the formula and reciting it daily. In reciting it over and over, I have changed it a bit to fit my particular point of view.

Here it goes:

In the Name of Jesus:

First: I know that you have given me everything I need (ability, attitude, and opportunity) to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life; therefore I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment; and I here and now promise to render such action.

Second: I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward and physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality; therefore I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture.

Third: I know, through the principle of autosuggestion, any desire I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it; therefore I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence.

Fourth: I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.

Fifth: I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity; because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself. I will sign my name to this formula, I will commit it to memory, and I will recite it aloud once a day with full faith that gradually it will affect my thoughts and actions, so that I will become a self-reliant and successful person.--Napoleaon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, 1937, p. 54f, with some rewording by me here and there.


The formula reminds me that God created me for a purpose, it encourages me when I haven't done my best toward that purpose, it encourages me to get up tomorrow and seek to do my best for that purpose tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

More later.

Dream a Godly Dream

Do you remember Kermit the Frog singing "Rainbow Connection" at the beginning of "The Muppet Movie"? Honestly, I think that song should be included in the hymnal.

It turns out, when God created you, he left fingerprints. He left his will for your life imprinted in you (the computer tech in me says "hardwired" in you). Where? you ask.

Get quiet, very, very quiet, listen to the silence, until you find the deepest, most fundamental desire in your heart, your innermost dream. That is God's will for you. If you and I are anything alike, it may take a long time. Maybe years.

We are told dreams are for infants. We are told to face "reality" (Why is "reality" always unpleasant? Why are the things of joy and pleasure considered "just feelings"? If we really believe in heaven, isn't "All good things must come to an end" ultimate blasphemy? Doesn't our doctrine of Eternal Life mean Only good things NEVER come to an end? Anyway...)

Bruce Wilkinson has written a marvelous book, The Dream Giver. Bruce says God has implanted a dream in each of us; I am not the creator or the owner of my dream, I am merely the custodian. It is God's will that I launch out and do everything I can to realize that dream. It is God's will for me, and it is God's will for everyone around me.

God gave me a dream, and he gave me talents, gifts, and graces. But he didn't give them to me for me! He gave them to me to share with others. I am supposed to build something that will help others, serve others, save others, heal others, empower others, inform others, enable others. And as I carry out that ministry, I build the Kingdom of God, my part of it.

On the other hand, if I bury my dream; if I consider my talents and gifts to be worthless; don't I now only deny them to others? Don't I also slap the face of the One who created me?

How many children didn't need to starve to death or suffer life-crippling abuse, how many young people didn't need to go down to drug addiction, how many people could have been saved from divorce, from abortion, from murder, from suicide, if more of us had marshalled the courage to launch out of our comfort zones to pursue our God-given dreams!

Are you 55 years old, wondering where your youth went, when all the dreams died, when the fire went out, while you were marshalling the courage to keep getting up in the morning for that dead-end job you only barely tolerate? Is it getting harder and harder to fend off bitterness and futility? Are you watching the last sparks of hope sputter down to die?

Get back in touch with your dream. It's God's will. It's his way out.

And it's his way in.

Freedom

“Not everyone is willing to embrace liberty; liberty requires not just effort, but risk. Some people choose to delude themselves and see their chains as protective armor.” ― Terry Goodkind, Chainfire

I have devoted my life to freedom.

I have to free myself. And I have to show others how to free themselves. I can't free them. They have to free themselves.

And a shocking number of people really don't want to be free. "Who doesn't want to be free?" you ask.

When I called my mother to tell her about where the bishop was sending me, what turned out to be my last appointment, I told her the church members said they wanted to grow.

"That's good," she responded, supportively.

"It doesn't mean a thing," I said.

"How can it not mean a thing?"

"Mom! I keep saying I want to be skinny. I just don't want to diet and exercise."

Freedom, as the saying goes, isn't free. And it's not something you just buy and keep. It requires maintenance. It's like your health: if you don't work to maintain it, you lose it. Ask a 55-year-old man who's about forty pounds overweight; who has the horrible letters "MI" in his medical history; who is on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and coronary artery spasms; who has arthritis-induced cervical spondylosis--in other words, if I don't do my neck stretches daily, I have horrible pains up the back of my head. I'm not a teenager anymore, and I would swear I was a teenager just a couple of years ago.

It's an adult thing, freedom. You don't give it to children. They can't handle it. They'd use it to hurt themselves and others.

Would I do well if I were free?

A clinical psychologist I saw after my divorce told me he had a dream that someone had given me several million dollars, and in the dream he was afraid for me. It made me think: if I didn't have to get up and go to work 40 hours a week, what would I do? If I could afford to buy whatever I want, what would I get? There's a lot of alcoholism in my family. Would I die the death John Belushi died? The death Robert Downey Jr. has avoided, and I predicted he wouldn't?

But "For freedom, Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1). It's what God wants.

I have promised God I will live the rest of my life for freedom.

Care to come along?