Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude Book Summary - Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude Book explained in key points

Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude summary

Name: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
Rating: 4.3 (69 reviews)
Author: Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill

Discover the Secret of Making Your Dreams Come True

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Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
Summary of 8 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Classic knowledge about achieving all you want.

Go to your nearest bookstore and check out the self-help aisle. Chances are, you’ll find row upon row of titles. The self-help and self-improvement market is truly massive – because people really want to know what will make them better, more successful people.

And yet, of the thousands of titles, only a few have become classics. Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude is one of them.

Though hatched way back in the 1950s, the book’s ideas are still relevant today. They show you how anyone can become a success, just by adopting a positive way of thinking. These blinks highlight some of those ideas. Read on and start your journey toward a new, successful life.

Also find out

how a positive mental attitude allowed Henry Ford to change the world;
how a swamp became one of America’s greatest entertainment spots; and
why the Wright brothers succeeded where all others failed.

Reach your goals by developing a positive mental attitude.

To many of us, success is a mysterious thing. Is it the result of favorable conditions over which we have no real control? Does it come down to knowing the right people, or having the right timing? No, no and no. In fact, success is about having a positive mental attitude (PMA).

The level of your success directly corresponds to whether you nurture your PMA – or its rival, your negative mental attitude (NMA).

People with PMA are success magnets. They approach life with positivity, and they’re unfazed by failures or mistakes; in fact, they see missteps as opportunities. To someone with a PMA, each failure is a step that brings you closer to a solution.

Because they’re unafraid of failure, such people are unafraid of trying, even if success seems unlikely. They’re eager to try, and hungry for self-improvement. Those with a PMA achieve greatness because they burn to accomplish new goals and ascend to new heights.

Take Henry Ford, a prime example a man with a PMA. He wanted to develop a cheap V8 engine suitable for mass production. Hitherto, eight cylinder engines were only used in luxury cars, and Ford’s engineers criticized his dream, claiming it was impossible. Nevertheless, he continued to fight for his idea, and after a year, he achieved the unachievable: the mass production of the V8 prototype.

The V8 was a massive hit – the innovation that established Ford’s brand, making him one of the most successful businessmen in history. And all thanks to his PMA.

The great news is, it’s never too late to improve your mental outlook. Anyone who starts working at the age of 25 will work roughly 100,000 hours before retiring at around the age 67. This means you have plenty of time to start cultivating your PMA.

A PMA allows you to see problems as opportunities for success.

Success is all about confronting and solving problems. Just think of history’s greatest minds and business moguls: behind every great invention or innovation was a problem that someone faced and tried to solve.

It’s precisely our mental attitude that dictates how we handle problems. When you encounter a challenge, do you resign yourself to failure and throw your hands up, or do you find the positive in the problem and take it upon yourself to fix it?

You can only be successful if you avoid mental near- and farsightedness.

Maybe you’ve learned to live with some sort of visual impairment. But what if you suffer from mental near- or farsightedness? Such dysfunctional mentality will bar your way to success.

So what is mental nearsightedness? It means you’re unable to see the possibilities lying in your future. Perhaps you fail to understand the importance of planning and having goals to strive for, or you waste all your energy tackling problems that are right in front of you, and are blind to the bigger picture.

Along with a PMA, you also need determination.

A PMA gives you a solid grounding for success but it must be accompanied by determination and motivation. Rather than blaming all your difficulties on the world, you should set about changing it into a place you want to live in. When you feel determined to make a difference, your motivation will soar, which will allow you to reach new heights in your life.

Someone who embodied passionate determination and motivation is farmer Milo Jones. Due to a severe illness, Jones became paralyzed. Although his body no longer served him, his head was working overtime and he began figuring out how to accomplish certain tasks in the most effective way. With this motivation, determination and PMA, he managed to convert his little corn farm into an empire that sold Jones' Little Pork Sausages, which made him a millionaire.

Anchor your goals to your subconscious by using autosuggestion.

Our actions are the result of our conscious decisions, right? Well, not quite. Our subconscious mind wields a powerful influence over us, too, affecting our dreams, desires and needs, as well as driving our behavior.

Thankfully, we can harness this subconscious power and use it to our advantage using autosuggestion. With autosuggestion, we can anchor goals and wishes to our subconscious. This, in turn, will influence our thoughts and, thus, our life.

Change your behavior by changing your habits.

We’ve seen how we can have more control over our mind, but what about our behavior? Good actions are what make us good people – and improving the way we act is merely a matter of the right training.

We know that our feelings influence our actions. But the converse is also true: our actions influence our feelings.

Never give up and always look out for any missing pieces that can help you on your path.

Oftentimes, our plans don’t quite come to fruition because one last piece of the puzzle was missing – the crowning glory that would’ve made your project a huge success. People with a PMA know that they always need to be on the lookout for this last piece.

Everyone who can see their final goal on the horizon should stop and ask themselves what this last piece might be. If you let a negative attitude creep into your thinking, failure is a sure thing. But if you failed, think about it and be frank with yourself – what more could you have done? And what is that special something that could take your project even further?

Motivate others by motivating yourself.

When it comes to motivation, we all play two roles – we’re motivated by others and, in turn, give others motivation. First, though, you need to be able to motivate yourself.

Motivation is what governs your choices; without it you won’t make any progress toward success. Therefore, it’s paramount to your journey.

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What is Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude about?

Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960) shows how to achieve the life of your dreams by developing a positive mental attitude. Near the turn of the twentieth century, at the behest of Andrew Carnegie – one of the wealthiest men of his time – Hill interviewed hundreds of famous and successful people in an attempt to uncover the secret to success. This book is one of the outcomes of his findings.

Best quote from Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude

The greatest secret of success is: theres no secret.

—Napoleon Hill

Who should read Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude?

Anyone who wants to know the secrets of highly successful people
People curious about how a positive attitude can help them achieve everything

About the Author

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) was an American author. In 1937, he published the landmark self-help book Think and Grow Rich (also available in blinks), which has sold over 60 million copies.

Categories with Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude

Career & Success Mindfulness & Happiness

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