Matchbook Diaries

Think and Grow __________

I've been reading Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich and have realized that a lot of what he is talking about in there is straight from the Bible. God has told us throughout the ages that "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Hill has simply turned that around to say, where your heart is, is where you will build your treasure! If your heart is in money, you will begin to seek ways to gain more money. If your heart is in family, you will seek ways to spend more time with family. If your heart is in God, you will seek ways to grow more God-like. Now, I have been taught this principle since grade school, but I've suddenly seen it in a whole new light.

Hill speaks in his book about repeating your goals and desires aloud when you get up, and before you go to bed at night. This way you train your subconscious to focus on acquiring whatever it is that you desire. This may as well have been pulled directly from scripture! God has told us time and again to meditate on His principles and values so we can ingrain them into ourselves. There are many laws that God has built into our world that are unseen, and yet as real as the earth we stand on. Gravity, you can't see it, but you see the law of gravity in effect all around you. The same thing applies to your desire. If you desire something, and focus yourself and your energy towards acquiring it, you can have it! You need to make sure that what you are desiring is something that is not in conflict with God's values of course, but in truth, anything is possible!

I think one regret I have is that I didn't focus early enough on what I wanted to be when I grew up. We are asked this over and over throughout our childhood, but I never really spent much time thinking about it. I seemed to think that I would just kind of do it when I got there. I've found out that you never really get there. If you don't choose your life, life chooses it for you. What bothers me most, I think, is that I'm good at many things, but I never spent the time to become great at anything. I could never make up my mind to the point that I said "This is what I want to do with my life!" because I always looked at what that pushed aside. If I decided to become a Doctor, then I would loose all that time and all that sleep during med school, and I would miss being able to hang out with friends and family as much as I did. If I became a Pro Baseball player (not that this was really a choice I had since I'm not very good!) I would be on the road all the time and would have to commit myself to a life of practice. What kept me undecided was wondering if I would miss out on something else. Let me tell you from my experience, JUST DECIDE! Make a decision and stick to it. Everything you leave behind is replaced with something else that is just as good if not better! I have spent a lot of my life looking back. I spend a lot of time trying to keep everything under control. The only way to keep everything under control is if nothing ever changes. You have to train yourself to thrive on change. There is so much out there, but before you can get it, you have to make room be getting rid of something else.

I think the next biggest thing that kept me from choosing is fear of failure. I knew that if I choose a certain career, I would have to be very good at it, and people would be judging me on how good I was. If I didn't choose, I could just say that this was my job and not really worry about whether or not I was the best at it. I could always just say "I just work for him" or in other words "I'm just doing what I'm told". I think this is one way I kept myself out of the spotlight, and therefore, out of the position one needs to be in to be recognized. If you are just doing what you're told, who do you think will be recognized for the successes you accomplish? You have to put yourself out there and do something that can only be traced back to you. Then you will know how good you really are at it. Only when you know how good you are, can you make yourself better.

Let me make one thing very clear at this point. I am very happy with my life. I've got a great wife, lovely children, and lots of wonderful friends. I wouldn't change anything about my life if it meant loosing any of these. I'm just writing this in the hopes that it will encourage someone to make that choice early on, and make something more of themselves. I'm not just talking about making money either. God put this law in place for a reason. If you put your mind to something, you can achieve it! Make the choice early that you will be pure. Tell yourself when you get up every morning and before you go to bed, that you will not give in to the temptation of the perversions of the world. You will be amazed how easy it becomes to resist temptation! Choose to be that person you admire. Choose to do the things that you think make them who they are. If you see something you admire in someone else, add that quality to your personality. If you don't make yourself into who you want to be, no-one else is going to!