Fear of Poverty

I did a lesson review of chapter 15 of Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich for a mentorship group which I am part of and I wanted to share it with you because I think it has such widespread application today.

There is a ton of content in the last chapter of Napoleon Hill's book. He talks about the six ghosts of fear.  The first 3, fear of poverty, fear of criticism, and fear of ill health are really at the root of all other fears.  The other three are the fear of the loss of someone's love, the fear of old age, and the fear of death.  But from here what Hill spends most of the chapter talking about is the fear of poverty.  Nature has given us only one thing over which we have total control and that is our thoughts.  It has been proven time and time again that our thoughts are things.  They bring about in physical reality that which we think about with great feeling.  And fear and worry are Very strong feelings.

We can either be in control of our thoughts and, therefore, our future or we can let our mind be filled with what Hill calls "the tramp thought impulses which are being released by other brains."  There can be no compromise on this.  The road which leads to riches and the road which leads to poverty are in opposite directions.  Hill is careful to point out that he is talking about riches in the broadest sense: financial, spiritual, mental and material estates.  If we are willing to accept poverty in any of these areas we may as well make up our mind to be there. If we demand riches in any form we are to determine in what form and how much will be required to satisfy us. This is not a gentle "well I would like to be...”  No this is an absolute demand that says "I will accept nothing less than..."  The path to riches demands but one thing and that is a state of mind that has no room for poverty.    

Hill lists the symptoms of the fear of poverty: indifference, indecision, doubt, worry, over-caution and procrastination.  If I had to pick my greatest fault here it would be procrastination.  This is symptom of the fear of poverty.  If I truly believed with all my being in the success of my endeavor, whatever it is, would I hesitate about giving it everything I had?  No I would not.  And how we do one thing in life is how we do all things in life.  Therefore, I have to assume that my procrastination in many areas of my life means there is fear behind it.  This is where self talk and affirmations and turning off the TV come into play.  We need to remove ourselves from the constant negative bombardment and the selling of fear on TV.

Hill addresses his critics who ask why he is always talking about money.  I love this passage by Westbrook Pegler which Hill quotes: "money is only clam shells or metal discs or scraps of paper, and there are treasures of the heart and soul which money cannot buy, but most people, being broke, are unable to keep this in mind and sustain their spirits.  When a man is down and out and on the street, unable to get any job at all, something happens to his spirit which can be observed in the droop of his shoulders, the set of his hat, his walk and his gaze. He cannot escape a feeling of inferiority among people with regular employment, even though he knows they are definitely not is equals in character, intelligence or ability...."  There is so much warning for us in these times.  We need to believe in ourselves and our power to change our circumstances by hard work and thought control.

The fear of criticism comes in here.  We feel that if we cannot get a job, pay our bills right now, etc. that things will never get any better. Then we imagine that everyone is criticizing us.  Because we fear others' judgments we are robbed of our initiative, our power of imagination, our individuality, and our self-reliance.  We make decisions based out of fear, and decisions which are made out of fear will never yield the results we want.  Here Hill gives us another checklist to see if the fear of criticism is working against us.  The symptoms are self-consciousness, lack of poise, personality weakness, inferiority complex, extravagance, lack of initiative, and lack of ambition. 

Worry is a state of mind based upon fear.  It is slow but insidious.  Hill says "Worry is a form of sustained fear caused by indecision; therefore it is a state of mind which can be controlled... We do not worry over conditions, once we have reached a decision to follow a definite line of action... Kill the habit of worry, in all its forms, by reaching a general blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry."

Once we have made this decision we will have poise, peace of mind and calmness. I have found this to be very true. When you are able to let go of the worry it is as if a 1000 pound weight has been lifted off your shoulders.  So, let’s all focus on possibilities and make a firm decision to believe in our future.

Debby Riddick
http://Squidoo.com/DRiddick

 

Decision Making - The Other Half

This is Part 3 of Decision Making, based upon Spencer Johnson’s book, "Yes" or "No." We have already looked at the “logical” side of decision-making. We have asked ourselves "Am I meeting the Real Need, Informing Myself of Options, and Thinking It Through?" We can review our past decisions to see how we went about making those decisions and what the results were, good and bad. The point is to learn from the past without beating ourselves up about how those decisions turned out. We did the best we could do at the time.

Now, let’s move on to the other side of the process of decision-making. We will make even better decisions when we learn to look into our heart for confirmation after we have asked the head questions. Most people make their decisions emotionally and then look for logical reasons to justify the decision they already made. It works better when we involve the feelings and the head simultaneously.  The second set of questions is: “Does My Decision Show I Am Honest with Myself, Trust My Intuition, and Deserve Better?”  

We need to make decisions in integrity, that is, telling ourselves the truth. The consequences, down the road,  of a decision which is based in illusion will generally be much harder to deal with than dealing with the illusion now. We need to ask ourselves what are our beliefs about (1) our integrity, (2) our intuition, and (3) our insight into our own worth.  The more aware we are of our own character, the more often we make better decisions. We will only use those portions of our character we think have real value for us in making our decisions, so our decisions depend on how we view our character and they also reveal our character.

One way of finding the truth is by identifying the illusion, or fiction, we would rather believe and then looking for it’s opposite. If we can’t see the illusion our friends and family can help us see it if we can get our ego out of the way. Our challenge is to discover the truth; once we see the truth the decision is obvious.  

How do we learn to trust our intuition? Our intuition is our unconscious knowledge based on our personal experience and our “gut” reactions to events in the moment. Again, look back at decisions we made in the past and see how we felt at the time we were making them. Did we force the issue? Did we feel anxious or enthusiastic? Did it feel clear or confused? Did we feel stressed or peaceful? How did those decisions work out?  

Most of the negative fear responses freeze us. We then force a decision that we are not happy with because we are afraid.  We need to ask “What would I do if I were not afraid?”  Feeling the fear is okay, but we need to learn to acknowledge it, see where it comes from and then move ahead with the decision that is not fear based.  Decisions made with enthusiasm tend to have a better outcome that those made in fear. If the decision doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Our intuition is working; we just need to pay better attention to it.

Next week we will cover the last part of this question: Does my decision show I deserve better? Now there’s a can of worms.

Debby Riddick

http://DRiddick.bigmlmtruths.com

Making Better Decisions

For the next couple of weeks I want to share some thoughts from a book that has been a great help to me, Yes or No by Spencer Johnson. This is a book that teaches us a method for making consistently better decisions. Where we are in life is largely the result of decisions we have made, or not made. Johnson has discovered a pretty foolproof system for knowing how to "say ‘Yes’ to what works well for each of us and ‘No’ to what doesn’t.”

Our poor decisions cause problems in all areas of our lives – with our families, our finances, and our work. The act of putting off a decision because we are afraid of making a mistake is a decision in and of itself. We don’t have to make perfect decisions; we just need to make better decisions. A better decision is one where we feel better about how we made the decision and we get better results.

Most people have heard the axiom that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we don’t know what to do, the first step is to stop what we are doing right now. We need to stop the behavior, based on the poor decision, which has become familiar and comfortable, even though it is not working for us, and create a void so that we can fill it with something better. As long as we are busy acting in the old way, the better way will not present itself.

So step one is to stop doing what we are currently doing and ask ourselves some questions. We need to make our initial decision in our normal way and then ask a cool head question and a warm heart question. Most of use one or the other, but better decisions are made when we take advantage of all the faculties we have. For example, use your logical mind to figure out what makes sense and then ask your heart how you feel about that; check in with some other folks in your Mastermind group; make the decision and act on it.

By using this system every time for every decision we will make better decisions overall. It doesn’t mean that we will never make a mistake, but it does mean that we will make more good decisions. As we perfect this process those decisions will get better and better.

Stay tuned for the next installment, The Real Need

Debby Riddick

http://DRiddick.bigmlmtruths.com