Kay:
Hello, there Questers thank goodness it’s Thursday. Tomorrow is Fabulous Friday and we hope that you will enjoy today’s episode 364. We have a quote from one of the fathers of personal growth and development, Napoleon Hill himself, but it’s not from his most popular source “Think and Grow Rich.” This one comes from the 2011 release of his unreleased works called “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success.”
Shi:
This quote says, “From what you say, I infer that time is the friend of the person who trains his mind to follow positive thought habits and is the enemy of the person who drifts into negative thought habits.”
Kay:
Okay, so this is one tiny sentence from a book that is super power-packed. Just want to take a quick second to talk about this book here at the beginning, because if you have yet to pick up “Outwitting the Devil” we would highly, highly suggest this…
Shi:
Super.
Kay:
…kind of salacious work.
Shi:
It is kind of salacious and if you’ve read “Think and Grow Rich” you’re familiar with Napoleon Hill’s style. This one is a little bit different. It is told in story form as a conversation between Napoleon or the character of Napoleon and the devil himself. So, he quests to have a conversation with the devil about the nature of life and the nature of prosperity, and the nature of manifestation. In it are just some absolutely profound insights this one included. But I think the story behind the very late release is that his wife and his family read this work after he passed away and said we absolutely cannot release this.
Kay:
It will ruin his name.
Shi:
It will ruin his name. Obviously, religion is a hard topic to talk about and you’re talking about speaking with the devil and the devil’s insights on success. But it’s not about you selling your soul to get success. It’s actually about understanding what steals our success. He does it through this allegory of the conversation with the devil. That’s why the quote kind of starts off because this is Napoleon now saying back to the devil character, “From what you say I infer the time is the friend of the person who trains his mind to follow positive thought-habits and is the enemy of the person who drifts into negative thought-habits.” When you hear that knowing now the context around it, you can see how truly powerful this quote is.
Kay:
One of the things that I love in this book, and it gets just kind of anecdotal and funny is that when Napoleon surmises what the devil says in a good way, and like a quick one-liner, the devil gets all mad.
Shi:
Yeah.
Kay:
He’s like, no.
Shi:
Don’t tell that to other people. I could be ruined.
Kay:
I wouldn’t have any power over them if they knew about that. But let’s get into the meat of this quote. Let’s take the gist of it here. “Time is the friend of the person who trained his mind to follow positive thought habits.” Now he says, time is the friend. So, time is on our side. For the person who trains his mind, not trains his body, not forces his wealth, trains his mind to follow positive thought habits, not positive eating habits, not positive workout habits, not positive journaling habits. Now, of course, all of those positive physical action habits can help you lead to positive thought habits. But he’s talking about establishing constructive forms of thought consistently so that time can continue to help you build that consistency and compound into something positive.
Shi:
Well, Kay just said the magic words. I was getting ready to go into consistency compounds teaching. But that’s exactly what is behind this quote here. What you consistently do will compound, how you consistently think will compound. Compounding is the effect of your actions over time. Consistency means that you’re doing the same thing over and over again. So, doing the same thing over and over again will have a compounding effect over time. So, if you are thinking bad thoughts consistently, then time is your enemy because it just continues to compound that. It makes your life miserable. It makes your experience not very enjoyable. It makes you not very resourceful and if we consistently think in a positive way, if we use our thoughts positively, habitually in that consistent way, then it compounds in a way that becomes our friend. That means our results are better and more magical and more exciting the longer the time goes on. So, it’s the same tool either way time, but how we spend it in how we use it either makes it our friend or our enemy.
Kay:
Do you want to just put in here too that positive thought habits don’t mean perpetual, optimistic, ever-flowing ra-ra thinking? Positive thought habits really mean: is this constructive? Does this build your life, or does it destruct your life? So, if it’s constructive and that means that that thought habit adds to you, that you gain from thinking in that particular way. Oftentimes it really comes down to do you have the habit of resourcefulness and ability to pull yourself through any situation. So, positive thought habits don’t always mean positive thoughts. It means: are your thoughts being constructive toward what you’re looking for out of your life and from your goals. So, to remind you what Napoleon Hill says in “Outwitting the Devil.” He says, “From what you say I infer that time is the friend of the person who trains his mind to follow positive thought habits and is the enemy of the person who drifts into negative thought habits.”
Shi:
Alright, that brings you to your Thoughtful Thursday Quest today. We want to challenge you to tune out the negative thought habit voice that may sometimes sneak into your head and instead act on the thoughts inspired by your internal constructive thought habits. What’s one action you can do to give peace a chance today? Are you ready? Say it with us now.
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
