Napolean Hill: Applied Faith - Powerful Personal Development

daithiD (0:00)

To be successful, you must become a person with a great capacity for belief. And the place to start believing is with yourself. Faith is the only thing that will give you hope. Applied faith is the only thing that will make it come true. I say this is your greatest asset, with which you may tap and draw upon the supreme power, which created you and runs this entire universe. The name of this principle is applied faith. And I want you to remember it. It is not something I am bringing to you, but it is something you already possess, although you may not have made use of it in the past. And now let me tell you what applied faith is and what you can do with it. Applied faith is the mental attitude, wherein you may clear your mind of all fears and doubts and direct it to the attainment of whatever you desire in life. In our first visit, I told you that you and I and every person were blessed with the privilege of complete control over but one thing, and that is the exclusive right to take possession of our own minds and direct them to the attainment of whatever we desire in life. Applied faith is a mental attitude we must cultivate and maintain before we can take complete possession of our minds. It is the means by which we may break the seal of that envelope I mentioned in our first visit and take full possession of the six forms of riches we get in return for taking possession of our minds and using them. Those six riches were, as you may remember, sound health, peace of mind, a labor of love of your own choice, freedom from fear and worry, a positive mental attitude, and material riches of your own choice and quantity. We are now, this very moment, standing in front of the gateway which can be opened only with the great master key to success. And I'm giving you the closest clue I have yet mentioned as to how you may take possession of this key. In order that you may condition your mind to embrace and use applied faith, you must understand that there are two ways in which you can use faith. You can put it into reverse gear and use it in a negative way, by allowing your mind to dwell upon the circumstances and the things you do not want, such as poverty, ill health, failure, defeat. And this is precisely what the majority of people do, which explains why the majority of people go through life in misery and want. Or you can take possession of your mind and direct it to think of the six riches which came over with you in that sealed envelope. And you will attract these riches to bless and serve you all through your life. Isn't it a strange fact that most people make a negative application of their great power of faith by thinking about and believing in poverty, ill health, fear, failure, and defeat, when it would be so easy for them just to change their thinking over to the circumstances and things they desire? Now let me give you a description of the one thing which represents the main difference between a successful person and a failure. Please listen carefully and think for yourself as I speak, because failure to recognize the truth I am about to give you is the starting point of most failures. Successful people in all occupations, all professions, and all callings have one trait which distinguishes them from the failures. It is their capacity for belief. The failures see the hole in the donut, but do not see the donut around the hole. The successes see the hole also, but they see the donut around the hole. Thomas A. Edison believed that he could perfect an incandescent electric lamp, and despite the fact that he failed over 10,000 times before he was crowned with success, he made his belief uncover the secret for which he was searching. Give one guess as to how many times the average person must fail before he quits. Fails because of the lack of capacity for belief. How many times can you meet with defeat before you give up the ghost and quit? Henry Ford believed he could build a self-propelled vehicle which would take the place of the horse and buggy. And despite the ridicule of relatives and neighbors, and the lack of finances, he transmuted his belief into an industrial empire which changed the entire American way of life. Mind you, Ford did this with very little education and no operating capital to begin with. Right here, let me ask you a question which may well change your entire life. You perhaps have an idea or a plan which would be useful to other people, but you have done nothing about it because you lack the self-confidence to give you a start. In other words, you are now where Henry Ford was before he built the first model of his world famous automobile. Mr. Ford broke through that wall of fear, which may now be holding you back and put his idea into operation by making use of the mastermind principle I mentioned in our second visit, through an alliance with his wife. Now, the question I wish to ask you is this. Why don't you form a mastermind alliance with someone and begin putting your ideas to work for you? Belief is truly a magic word because it is the beginning of all successes. It is the very foundation of civilization. It is the one quality you must develop before you can make use of the great master key to success. To be successful, you must become a person with a great capacity for belief, and the place to start believing is with yourself. You should begin by recognizing that you were born with the privilege of complete control over your own mind. You should also recognize that by the application of the master key to success, which I am passing on to you through these visits, you can take full possession of your mind and make it yield you whatever you demand in life. Observe, I use the word demand, not beg. The Creator never intended for you to beg for anything. If He had, He would not have blessed you with full control over your own mind. If your life is not what you want it to be, you can change it. As a matter of fact, you can do anything within reason that you desire to do if you embrace the principle of applied faith and keep it directed to the attainment of the things you want and of the things you do not want. I should know what I'm talking about because I was handicapped at birth by the four horsemen which keep most people in bondage all the days of their lives. Poverty, fear, illiteracy, and superstition. Theoretically, I had not the slightest foundation for hope that I could ever escape the influences of these four curses. But I did escape and now I am devoting my entire life to helping other people to gain deliverance from these four basic enemies of mankind. I have discovered the master key which gives one deliverance from all the evils one does not want and opens wide the gateway to the riches which the creator intended every person to enjoy on this earth. Applied faith is the only means by which the master key can be appropriated and used. Therefore, I give you these instructions through which you may create a mental attitude which is favorable for the expression of faith. One, know what you want and believe that you can and will get it. Two, give expressions of gratitude many times daily for having received that which you want, even before you actually get physical possession of it. Possession starts first in the mind. Please remember this. Third, keep your mind open for hunches from within. And when you are inspired to action, do not wait but move on your own personal initiative at once. Remember, there can be no application of applied faith without action. Fourth, when overtaken by defeat, as you may be many times, remember that man's faith is tested many times before he is crowned with final victory. And accept your defeat as nothing more than a challenge to keep on trying.