Success Is Almost within Reach

A few months ago I reproduced an extract from Napoleon Hill's classic, "Think and Grow Rich".  If you are really serious about achieving your goals (whether or not they are financial goals), you simply have to get a copy of this book and start putting into practise what Napoleon Hill preaches.

In the meantime, here is another valuable and informative extract, this time showing just how easy it is to give up when you are on the brink of success!

"Now, let us ... study a man who had plenty of tangible evidence of riches, but lost it, because he stopped three feet short of the goal he was seeking. 

THREE FEET FROM GOLD 

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the goldrush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite. 

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine. 

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits. 

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail. 

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some "junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with "fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found! 

The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so. 

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. 

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance." 

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his "stickability" to the lesson he learned from his "quitability" in the gold mining business. 

Before success comes in any man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of men do. 

More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. 

It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach."

I can almost guarantee that this has happened to you too.  Not once.  Not twice.  But many times!  You will probably never know, of course, unless like Darby you learn the truth from someone who picked up the baton when you dropped it.  What is more, I can pretty much guarantee that it will happen to you again.  And again.  And again.  Unless you do something about it and learn to keep going so you can reach your goal.

Hopefully this little extract from "Think and Grow Rich" has reminded you of the need to get your own copy if you don't already have one.  Here is the link for you:

Or if you are in the UK:

Thought Forms

Have you ever sensed a "presence"?  Perhaps a strong feeling that you should do something, or avoid doing something, yet a feeling that doesn't seem to have originated within you?  Or maybe a feeling that someone or something is there, perhaps watching you, and yet you can see, hear and feel nothing?  These are examples of what I would call a "presence".

Have you ever seen a ghost, or something that seemed to you to be a ghost?  The difference from the above definition of a "presence" is that this time you can see or hear it, or both.

Such feelings are commoner than you may believe.  If you have not had any such feelings yourself, then ask around and see how many of your friends have.  The results may surprise you.

What causes them?  Personally I do not believe such presences or sightings have anything to do with a real person who has died but not yet "passed on".  I believe they are "thought forms".

When you focus strongly on an idea you concentrate mental energy.  That energy cannot simply disappear.  It remains.

This has profound implications.

Firstly, think about "affirmations".  When you repeat affirmations they actually create a real energy that is distinct from its creator (you).  Think of it like a genie.  You have rubbed your lamp by concentrating on the affirmation and now the genie is there to grant your wish.  The power of this genie will depend on the skill you have used to create and use your affirmation.  If you have done so with total belief, your genie, or thought form, will be very powerful.  While you carry on with your normal life it will move around you, bringing into your life circumstances and contacts that could lead to manifesting your desire if you respond correctly to them.

If, though, you start to have doubts, you will be creating other thought forms that will conflict with the original affirmation thought form.  Depending on their strength and the strength of the original thought form they may not make it impossible for you to achieve your wishes, but they will certainly make it more difficult.  And the more of them you create, the more difficult it will be.

All your thoughts produce thought forms, although in most cases they are so weak that they can have very little effect.  But they do have some effect, even if it is only slight.

This means you can truly make the world a better place simply through your thought processes.  Think good thoughts, thoughts based on love, peace and harmony, and the thought forms from these thoughts will impact on the world around you.  They will induce similar feelings in both yourself and others, which in turn may result in both you and them performing good deeds.

The opposite is also true, of course.  If you are filled with evil thoughts, this will spread evil through the universe.

Don't become too fixated on this though.  If you have had bad thoughts, accept that this is the human condition and it is virtually impossible to avoid.  Hopefully the thought forms you have created will not be very powerful; this will be the case if you did not focus all your energy and power to turn those evil thoughts into independent evil thought forms.  When you realize your thinking has not been good and positive, simply counter the weak thought forms you have created by focusing on and creating good ones.

The concept of thought forms is well known in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism.  Here, a thought form is known as a "nirmita" or "tulpa".  In both the Indian and Tibetan tradition, a thought form is illusory.  But don't let that term deceive you - according to this philosophy everything we sense around us is "maya", or illusion.  A tulpa can therefore be regarded as just as real as the chair you are sitting on or the computer or i-phone you are using to read this article.

If you are interested in pursuing the theory of thought forms further, try studying the book by Annie Besant and C W Leadbeater, simply called "Thought Forms".  This book was first produced in 1901.  As it is now out of copyright you can download a free copy from Project Gutenberg here:

"Thought Forms"

Or if you would like a step by step system to create and use thought forms properly, try "Magical Use of Thought Forms", by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki:

"Magical Use of Thought Forms"

If you prefer to receive this publication from the UK, use this link:

"Magical Use of Thought Forms" (UK Source)

More Things in Heaven and Earth

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  So said Hamlet to Horatio in Shakespeare's play.  This is so true, even today!

Many people I meet refuse to believe in anything they cannot see, hear, taste, smell or touch.  They trust their five senses but nothing else.  And they believe this is the true scientific approach.  They are completely wrong!

Maybe a century ago a scientist would have refused to believe in something he or she could not test with one of the five senses, but that is certainly not true today.

For example, I am currently studying cosmology.  I am doing this study for no other reason than I am constantly looking to improve myself, and that includes continuing education in many different fields.  Something I encourage you to do too.  When I began my study I had no idea it would impact at all on my thinking about personal development or the articles I write in this blog - but it has just done so now.

I have just learned about "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy".  Did you know that Dark Matter and Dark Energy cannot be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched?  And did you know that between them they constitute 96% of the universe?  Things that we can detect in one way or another with our senses only constitute 4% of the universe.  This is the mainstream scientific view, not a half-baked idea of a few radical dreamers.  There are some scientists who dispute the existence of Dark Matter or Dark Energy, but they are very much in the minority - and the only way they can dispute this is by arguing that the laws of physics, including particularly the law of gravity, do not apply throughout the universe.  Most scientists prefer to accept the idea of matter and energy we cannot detect with any of our "normal" senses.

For more information on Dark Matter and Dark Energy, check out this web page, which is not some "New Age" site, but a website of a highly respected international astronomy project, endorsed by scientists in the University of British Columbia, Edinburgh University, Leiden University and Oxford University:

"Dark Matter"

If you can accept that there are things out there which cannot be detected, this opens up wonderful possibilities.  Possibilities Shakespeare suggested in 1599.

Reflect on this for a moment.

Take the Law of Attraction for example.  Is there something out there ready and willing to give us what we desire?  I believe there is, and have always believed so before I heard that it is only possible to detect 4% of what is actually out there.

Take Extra Sensory Perception as another example.  If 96% of the universe is made of stuff we cannot detect with any of our five senses, then if we can detect it at all it must be with a sixth sense, or a perception that goes beyond the five senses - Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).

Take ghosts, elementals, spirits - call them what you will.  Or Astral bodies.  4% of the world we live in is composed of what we call "matter".  Although this matter is comprised mainly of nothing (the gaps between the particles in our atoms are relatively enormous), we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch this matter.  We cannot walk through walls, even though both they and we are mainly comprised of nothing but space, as the small particles that make up "matter" strongly repel each other and give us the illusion of solidity.  But that is not true of the dark side, the other 96%.  It is here, all around us, but it is invisible and flows through us as though we were a liquid or gas rather than a "solid" object.  Who is to say there are not life forms composed of Dark Matter and Dark Energy?  Who is to say we do not have a Dark Matter / Dark Energy "body" ourselves which passes through walls and doors and travels through an Astral Plane at the speed of light as we sleep?

The next time you are tempted to scorn the idea of the existence of anything incorporeal, anything mystical, anything beyond our current understanding, think again.  Remember what Shakespeare had Hamlet say and realize there is more truth in this than most of us probably ever believed.

Setting Yourself Up for Success

If you are anything like the majority of people you either didn't set yourself any New Year's Resolutions, knowing you wouldn't keep them if you did, or you have already broken most or all the ones you did set.

It doesn't have to be this way!  It is perfectly possible to create Resolutions that you DO keep.  And you don't have to restrict yourself to doing so just on New Year's Day.

The first thing you must do when setting goals (for that is really what Resolutions are) is to prepare yourself for success in advance.  By following this advice you will actually enjoy the process of setting goals and achieving them.

One of the first things you should do when setting a new goal is to not make it an "all or nothing" goal.  Instead of having only the options of "success" or "failure" create your goal so that it is setting you up to succeed.  One way to do this is by creating smaller goals along the way.  As you reach each one you will feel good about it and be motivated to continue. And having reached that "mini goal" you can congratulate yourself that you HAVE kept a resolution!

Track your progress towards your goals. By tracking your progress you can celebrate your successes. You can also identify your weak areas and spend more time working on them.  To track your goals you can use something as simple as a basic spreadsheet and then record your progress. Some people prefer to track weekly while other prefer to use a daily tracking system. 

Set yourself a monthly, weekly or daily target that you can achieve. This could be something such as reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke or not having that beer after work each night.  As you meet each small goal you are again setting yourself up for continued success, rather than simply having a goal of "I will stop smoking" or "I will stop drinking". 

For goals that have numbers (often business related goals) set minimum numbers as targets as opposed to maximum numbers.  By all means have those higher targets as an aspiration, but be ready to congratulate yourself just for achieving the minimum.  Congratulate yourself and feel good about yourself - that will lead to even greater success.

Setting appropriate goals will help you set up for success. Don't set a goal for something that you already do on a regular basis. A new goal should be based around something that you are not good at (or at least haven't tried yet), or one that could be classified as a bad habit.

Always be ready to ask for help in achieving your goals. At work if you are not good at something see if there is help available. Or is it possible to get this task delegated to someone else? Look for options when it comes to setting goals, especially for those tasks that you really don't like doing. 

Plan out a method for reaching your goal before you even start working on it. The majority of people who just decide on a goal will fail without having a good plan of action in place first.  

Even if you are not sure of all the steps just start outlining your first one or two steps. As you begin your journey you may identify other steps that are required for you to be successful. Simply add these into your plan of action. 

One good way to create a plan of action is to look at your goal in reverse. Think about how you might have arrived there and write down the steps. It is often easier to think in reverse when it comes to goal planning! 

A great example of this is having a goal of owning your first home. The last thing you do is sign the deal and pay for the house. So consider how you raise the money for your home, how you choose your location and so on. As you create your list backwards you have just completed a plan of actionable steps. 

If you plan on creating new goals then recording your goals will help you with your next goal. You will have a plan in place that you can follow to a certain extent. More importantly though, your recording of your first plan will highlight any problem areas you had. You will be more aware of them this time around and will know how to deal with them.

Follow these steps and there is no reason at all why you should not be very successful this year!

If you would like even more help in setting and reaching your goals, try my program "Resolution Revolution", which you can access here:

"Resolution Revolution"