WORK A 4 HOUR DAY – Arthur Robertson & William Procter

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR PERSONAL PRIORITIES - LIST AND RANK YOUR PERSONAL VALUES:

 

This exercise is a variation on writing your own obituary, but you may want to try both just to be sure you didn't leave something important out. This exercise can take you one step further by emphasizing taking action to realize or fulfill your priorities.

 

Step #1 – List ten of your most important values, guiding principles for living, or highest life priorities. Put them down in any order that comes to your mind. These may include family, prestige, honesty, wealth, knowing God, serving the poor, or anything else you feel is important. Feel free to refer back to the things you remembered in your obituary, and include them here.

 

Step #2 – Rewrite the above priorities, with the items listed in order of their importance to you, beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.

 

Step #3 – Finally, write out each of your priorities as an action. For example, if you listed "family" as one of your values in Step #2, you might now write, "Care for my family members by giving time and energy to them". Or if you have a priority to "prestige", you might expand that by saying, "Build personal prestige by gaining awards". Or "honesty" might become "Be honest in all my dealings, both in business and private life"

WORK A 4 HOUR DAY – Arthur Robertson & William Procter

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR PERSONAL PRIORITIES

Write your own OBITUARY:

 

Imagine yourself, after your death, writing your own obituary. This write-up should go beyond a mere description of what you have accomplished in your career. It should also focus on the significance of who you are inside; on personal strengths and special traits; on the quality of relationships you have created; and on the contributions you have made to other individuals and to society.

 

You are not limited in this exercise to what you have actually accomplished or become at this point. The idea is to project ahead and consider what you would like to become and how you would like to be remembered.

 

After the first draft, re-write your obituary with the qualities, achievements and personal characteristics listed in descending order of importance or priority.

The Master Key to Richness - Napolean Hill - Part 7

Andrew Carnegie's analysis of the Master Mind Principle

 

Occupation:

Every man has a tendency to take on the mannerisms, beliefs, mental attitude, political & economic viewpoint as well as other traits of the more outspoken of the men with whom he associates in his daily work. The tragedy of this lies in the fact that not always is the most outspoken among one's daily associates the soundest thinker; and very often he is the man with a grievance, who takes pleasure in airing the grievance among his fellow workers

 

Men of sound character, who know exactly what they wish, usually have the wisdom to keep their own counsel and seldom waste any of their time trying to discourage others. They are so busily engaged in promoting their own purpose that they have no time to waste with anyone or anything which does not contribute in one way or another to their benefit

The Master Key to Richness – Napolean Hill - Part 6

Self Suggestion, the connecting link between the Conscious & the Sub-Conscious Mind

 

Thoughts backed by faith have precedence over all others in the matter of definiteness and speed with which they are handed over to the subconscious section of the mind and are acted upon.

 

The Infinite Intelligence never attempts to modify, change or otherwise alter any thought that is submitted to it, and it has never been known to act upon a mere wish or indefinite idea, thought or purpose

 

So called "hunches" often are signals indicating that Infinite Intelligence is endeavoring to reach and influence the conscious section of the mind, but you will observe that they usually come in response to some idea, plan, purpose or desire, or some fear that has been handed over to the subconscious section of the mind.

 

All "hunches" should be treated civilly and examined carefully, as they often convey, either in whole or in part, information of the utmost value to the individual who receives them. These "hunches" often make their appearance many hours, days or weeks after the thought which inspires them has reached the reservoir of Infinite Intelligence. Meanwhile, the individual often has forgotten the original thought which inspired them.

 

The Master Key to Richness - Napolean Hill - Part 5

How to demonstrate the power of faith

a. Know what you want and determine what you have to give in return for it

b. When you affirm the objects of your desires, through prayer, inspire your imagination to see yourself already in possession of them, and act precisely as if you were in the physical possession thereof. The possession of anything first takes place mentally.

c. Keep the mind open at all times for guidance from within, and when you are inspired by "hunches" to modify your plans or to move on a new plan, move without hesitancy or doubt

d. When overtaken by temporary defeat, as you may be overtaken many times, remember that man's Faith is tested in many ways, and your defeat may be only one of your "testing periods". Therefore, accept defeat as an inspiration to greater effort and carry on with belief that you will succeed.

e. Any negative state of mind will destroy the capacity for faith and result in a negative climax of any affirmation you may express. Your state of mind is everything; therefore take possession of your mind and clear it completely of all unwanted interlopers that are unfriendly to Faith, and keep it cleared, no matter what may be the cost in effort.

f. Learn to give expression to your power of Faith by writing out a clear description of your Definite Major Purpose in life and using it as the basis of your daily meditation.

g. Associate with your Definite Major Purpose as many as possible of the nine basic motives, described previously.

h. Write out a list of all benefits and advantages you expect to derive from the attainment of the object of your Definite Major Purpose and call these into your mind many times daily, thereby making your mind "success conscious". (Called autosuggestion)

i. Associate yourself, as far as possible, with people who are in sympathy with your Definite Major Purpose;people who are in harmony with you, and inspire them to encourage you in every way possible.

j. Let not a single day pass without making at lest one definite move toward the attainment of your Definite Major Purpose. Remember, "Faith without works is dead".

k.Choose some prosperous person of self-reliance and courage as your "pace maker", and make up your mind not only to keep up with that person, but to excel him. Do this silently, without mentioning your plan to anyone. (Boastfulness will be fatal to your success, as Faith has nothing in common with vanity or self-love)

l. Surround yourself with books, pictures, wall mottoes and other suggestive reminders of self-reliance founded upon Faith as it has been demonstrated by other people, thus building around yourself an atmosphere of prosperity and achievement. This habit will be fruitful of stupendous results.

m. Adopt a policy of never evading or running away from unpleasant circumstances, but recognize such circumstances and build a counter-fire against them right where they overtake you. You will discover that recognition of such circumstances, without fear of their consequence, is nine-tenths of the battle in mastering them.

n. Recognize the truth that everything worth having has a definite price. The price of Faith, among other things, is eternal vigilance in carrying out these simple instructions.

The Master Key to Riches - Napolean Hill ; Part 4

Fundamentals of Faith

 

1. Definiteness of Purpose supported by personal initiative or action
2. The habit of GOING THE EXTRA MILE in all human relationships
3. A Master Mind alliance with one or more people who radiate courage based on Faith, and who are suited spiritually & mentally to one's needs in carrying out a given purpose
4. A positive mind, free from all negatives, such as fear, envy, greed, hatred, jealousy and superstition.
5. Recognition of the truth that every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit; that temporary defeat is not failure until it has been accepted as such
6. The habit of affirming one's Definite Major Purpose in life, in a ceremony of meditation, at least once a day
7. Recognition of the existence of Infinite Intelligence which gives orderliness to the universe, that all individuals are minute expressions of this Intelligence, and as such the individual mind has no limitations except those which are accepted and set up by the individual in his own mind
8. A careful inventory of one's past defeats and adversities, which will reveal the truth that all such experienced carry the seed of an equivalent benefit.
9. Self-respect expressed through harmony with one's own conscience
10. Recognition of the oneness of all mankind

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

A comparison between the classical and romantic points of view.

 

"A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate appearance. If you were to show an engine or a mechanical drawing or electronic schematic to a romantic it is unlikely he would see much of interest in it. It has no appeal because the reality he sees is its surface….But if you were to show the same….. to a classical person he might look at it and then become fascinated by it because he sees that within its lines and shapes and symbols is a tremendous richness of underlying form.

 

The romantic mode is primarily inspirational, imaginative, creative, and intuitive. Feelings rather than facts predominate. "Art" when it is opposed to 'Science' is often romantic. It does not proceed by reason or by laws. It proceeds by feeling, intuition and aesthetic conscience. In the northern European cultures, the romantic mode is usually associated with feminity, but this is certainly not a necessary association.

 

The classic mode by contrast proceeds by reason and by laws - which are themselves underlying forms of thought and behavior. In the European cultures it is primarily a masculine mode and the fields of science, law and medicine are unattractive to women largely for this reason. Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.

 

I think I am a person with a romantic view. Am quite superficial in that way. Hate to get into the depth of technical things at least. Though it is changing of late. As I have maintained always, I can do it, no problem, but don't have that creative thought that differentiates a genius from a hard worker.

 

This is one of my first few books on philosophy. I frankly am pretty inept in reading these kinds of books. Well, the experimentation has been done courtesy Tushara. It is due to her that I have increased by range of reading as you might call it. It is paying off, I would say as it helps reflect at times.

 

Reflection though is quite a rare commodity nowadays. I hope I don't get too caught up in the rat-race to loose original thought.