Living A Purposeful Life.

It has been said time and again that life is what you make it to be. However, we have to consider that at the end of it all, the choices and the decisions that we make often determine the direction that our lives are going to. In the quest to live a life full of purpose, certain fundamentals ought to be taken into account but these are from my own observations. Therefore, I consider them as the basics that are going to change the course of somebody's life:

• To start with, you've got to establish your main goal and objective on this planet. Living a purposeful life begins with you as an individual by putting down your main objective. Goals and objectives act as guides towards re-shaping and re-engineering our lives. Sticking to the various objectives that we have noted down helps us to be focused in life and thus at the end of the day we shall be able to attain meaning in our lives.
• Secondly, we need to cut out all the negativities that are present in our lives. We therefore have to replace these negativities with positivities. However negative the situation may seem to be, always seek to have a positive mind and you'll be surprised at how eventually the negative situations may positively turn to your favour.
• Most importantly, to live a purposeful life we need to review the list of those that we closely associate with. These associates, confidantes or friends in simple terms, will always determine the direction of our lives. Carry out an evaluation of your associates and make a decision of whether to continue furthering your relationship with them or to terminate it all together. To simply put it right, you associate with a failure and a loser, you'll end up being one and this the bitter truth. Try as much as possible to foster relations with individuals who will add value to your life. But we have to remember that we should also be close to those who seem to have veered off the way and try as much as possible to aid them to restore their lives.
• In finding purpose in our lives, we have to remember that our future is more important than the past. However, we need to note that the present is equally vital in helping us to have a brighter future. It does not matter where you have come from but where you are heading to is what will be used as a gauge to measure how effective you were in attaining your goals. Thus, we should cease living in the past and focus our energies on doing our very best at the present moment which will help in establishing a strong foundation for the future.
• We should take time to appreciate those who have assisted us in various ways whether materially or emotionally. Remember that making it through life is not all about the individual effort but also the efforts of  other well-wishers who strived to see that we live a fruitful life.
• Living a purposeful life demands that we have to drop the tag of laziness. Most people are lazy and they expect to change their lives to be completely different. This is a fallacy as living a purposeful life demands that we wake up from the slumber and push ourselves out of the comfort zone so as to achieve all the aspects of greatness that we have forever thought or dreamt about.
• Very effective and proper time management is a basic aspect in giving proof of whether we are leading a life that has purpose or we are simply going through life. We ought to have it in our minds that time is the most important resource that is freely disposable to any person and hence it all depends how best we make use of it. Living a purposeful life entails, therefore, that we should utilize efficiently the time that we have but it should be remembered that a rest is paramount for us to rejuvenate ourselves.  

It is my hope that we should be able to find purpose in our lives and this demands that we evaluate and assess all the aspects of our lives to know where we have come from, where we are and where we are heading to. Goodluck and have a purposeful life!

The 17 Principles of Success by Napoleon Hill.

As we begin the month of November, I have found it necessary to share with my esteemed readers this article from Napoleon Hill’s works in order to inspire and propel you towards greater heights of success and achievement. It is my sincere wish that it will act as an impetus for both the current and future successes of those who will spare time and read it.

Develop definiteness of purpose. Success and progress towards achieving your goals in life begin with knowing where you are going. Any dominating idea, plan or purpose held in your conscious mind through repeated effort and emotionalized by a burning desire for its realization is taken over by the subconscious and acted upon through whatever natural and logical means available. Your mental attitude gives power to everything you do. If your attitude is positive, your actions and thoughts further your ends. If your attitude is negative, you are constantly undermining your own efforts. The starting point of all human achievement is the development of a definite major purpose. Without a definite major purpose, you are as helpless as a ship without a compass.

Establish a mastermind alliance. This consists of two or more minds working together in perfect harmony towards a common definitive objective. Through a mastermind alliance you can appropriate and use the full strength and experience, training and knowledge of others just as if they were your own. No individual has ever achieved success without the help and cooperation of others. The value of gathering those of a like mind  is self-evident. A group of brains coordinated in a spirit of harmony will provide more thought energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will provide more energy than a single battery.

Assemble an attractive personality. A positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in any given situation. Courtesy is your most profitable asset…and it is absolutely free! Emotions are nothing but a reflection of your mental attitude, which you organize, guide and completely control. Your personality is your greatest asset or your greatest liability because it embraces everything you control…your mind, body and soul. To be happy, make someone else happy.

Use applied faith. Faith is awareness of, belief in, and harmonizing with the universal powers. Faith is a state of mind which must be active and not passive, to be useful in achieving lasting success. Close the door to fear behind you and you will quickly see the door of faith open before you. Fear is nothing more than a state of mind, which is subject to your own direction and control. Faith will not bring you what you desire, but it will show you the way to go after it yourself.

Go the extra mile. Strength and struggle go hand in hand. Render more and better service than what you are paid for and sooner or later you will receive compound interest from your investment. The end of the rainbow is at the end of the second mile. The quality of the service rendered, plus the quantity of service rendered, equals your compensation. The more you give, the more you get.

Control your attention. Keep your mind ON the things you want and OFF on the things you don’t want! It is much easier to focus your attention on something you believe will happen than on something you believe is unlikely. Controlled attention is the act of coordinating all the faculties of your mind and directing their combined power to a specific end. Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy your mind at the same time. Independence starts with self-dependence.

Inspire teamwork. There is no great contribution to civilization without the cooperation of others. Enthusiasm is contagious and teamwork is the inevitable result. A good football team relies more on harmonious coordination of effort than individual skill. Most people will respond more freely to a request than they will to an order. Helping others solve their problems will help you solve your own.

Learn from adversity and defeat. Everyone faces defeat. It may be a stepping-stone or a stumbling block, depending on the mental attitude with which it is faced. Failure and pain are one language through which nature speaks to every living creature. You are never a failure until you accept defeat as permanent and quit trying. Thomas Edison failed 10000 times before perfecting the electric light bulb. Don’t worry if you fail once. Every adversity, every failure, and every unpleasant experience carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit which may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Cultivate creative vision. Creative imagination has its base in the subconscious and is the medium through which you recognize new ideas and newly learned facts. Synthetic imagination springs from experience and reason; creative imagination springs from your commitment to your definite purpose. Imagination recognizes limitations. Creative imagination sees no limitations. Your imagination faculty will become weak through inaction. It can be revived through use. The man who dipped a chunk of ice cream in chocolate and called it “Eskimo Pie” made a fortune for five seconds of imagination it took to create the idea!

Maintain sound health. To maintain a positive mental attitude and develop a healthy mind and body, you must conquer fear and anxiety. Anything that affects your physical health also affects your mental health. A positive mental attitude is the most important quality for sound mental and physical health. Exercise produces both physical and mental buoyancy. It clears sluggishness and dullness from mind and body. If you haven’t the willpower to keep your physical body in repair, you lack the power of will to maintain a positive mental attitude in other important circumstances that control your life.

Budget your time and money. Tell me how you use your time and how you spend your money and I will tell you where and what you’ll be ten years from now. Take regular inventory of yourself to learn how and where you are spending your time and money. The secret of getting things done is: DO IT NOW! Time is too precious to be wasted on arguments and discontent. Some mistakes can be corrected, but not the mistake of wasting time. When time is gone, it is gone forever.

Use of cosmic habitforce. It takes a habit to replace a habit. All of your successes and failures are results of habits you have formed. The orderliness of the world of natural laws gives evidence that they are under control of a universal plan. For every result, there is a cause and results are brought about through the use of cosmic habitforce. First you get a habit, then it gets you.

Create personal initiative. It is better to act on a plan that is still weak than to delay acting at all. Procrastination is the archenemy of personal initiative. Personal initiative: is contagious, succeeds where others have failed, creates work, creates opportunity, creates the future, creates advancement. Procrastinators are experts at in creating alibis. Personal initiative is the inner power that starts all action.

Build a positive mental attitude. A positive mental attitude is the single most important principle of the science of success, without which you cannot get the maximum benefit from the other sixteen principles. Success attracts success and failure attracts more failure. Your mental attitude is the only thing over which you and only you have complete control. A positive mental attitude attracts opportunities for success, while a negative mental attitude repels opportunities and doesn’t even take advantage of them when they do come along. A positive mind finds a way it can be done… a negative mind looks for all the ways it can’t be done.

Control your enthusiasm. To be enthusiastic-act enthusiastically! Enthusiasm is to progress towards success, as gasoline is to a car’s engine. It is the fuel that drives things forward. Enthusiasm stimulates your subconscious mind. By feeding your conscious mind with enthusiasm, you impress upon your subconscious that your burning and your  plan for attaining it are certain. Enthusiasm is a state of mind. It inspires action and is the most contagious of all emotions. It is more powerful than logic, reason or rhetoric in getting your ideas across and in winning over others to your viewpoint.

Enforce self-discipline. Self-discipline is the process that ties together all your all your efforts of controlling your mind, your personal initiative, positive mental attitude and controlling your enthusiasm. Self-discipline makes you think before you act. The subconscious has access to all departments of the mind, but is not under the control of  any. If you don’t discipline yourself, you are sure to be disciplined by others. Without self-discipline, you are as dangerous as a car running downhill without brakes or steering wheel.

Think accurately. Thoughts have power, are under your control and can be used wisely or unwisely. Accurate thinkers accept no political, religious or other type of thought, regardless of its source, until it is carefully analyzed. Accurate thinkers are masters of their emotions. Accurate thought involves two fundamentals. First you must separate facts from information. Second you must separate facts into two classes; the important and unimportant. Accurate thinkers allow no one to do their thinking for them.

Goodluck as you create an atmosphere and environment that is success-oriented.