Personal Initiative

by Fred Wikkeling

You may or may not know that “Personal Initiative” is Napoleon Hill’s 6th Principle in the Keys for Success. Being the Sixth Principle out of seventeen success Principles should give you a better sense as to the importance of Personal Initiative in relationship to the overall 17 Keys of Success. The sixth Key is what I call the DO IT NOW principle. I equate initiative with action, personal action. Things will only begin to happen when you start to make things happen. You can have the best plans, ideas and thoughts in your mind and nothing will happen until you take action.  Like the old Chinese proverb elegantly says “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. You can begin by taking one step and then taking another step and continuing the steps to cover the thousand mile journey. Now that’s example of personal initiative- Do it Now!! Starting and finishing what you set out to do is taking personal initiative.   “Things do not happen by themselves.” A wise man once said “if you are on the fence- get off the fence.” Sooner than later you will quickly figure out if you are on the right or wrong side of the fence. Take Action Now. Do something positive and get off the fence. Do It Now!  Do the things you have to as fast as you can so that you can do the things you want to do as long as you can!

Personal Initiative is something we are all born with. Here is an example of how you use Personal Initiative:  when you were a baby, you took the initiative to learn how to rollover, you learned to crawl and as you learned how to pull yourselves up, you learned how to stand up right. Once you gained your balance, you learned how to take one step after another step. And you would fall and then you get up and you eventually learned how to walk fluidly. So you also learned to skip, jog and run. As you got older somehow you stop taking new steps and instead you take less steps. You stop jogging and stopped running and the older you get the less Initiative or actions you take. Have you ever heard it said “that many people die at the age of 30 and they do not get buried until the age of 70.” In other words most of you stop learning, stop growing at the age 30. You stopped pursuing your goals and dreams. You get so busy making a living instead of creating a life style. You may have forgotten about taking Personal Initiatives.

So you may ask what one can do to become successful, what can I do to have all the things I want from life with the power of Personal Initiative. Like the Journey of a thousand miles, as your first step you should have a road map, you should make a list of all the things you want from life. You can call this your goal list, your want list, your bucket list or your wish list.  To make it easier for you to make your wish list pretend that money is not object. Let your Imagination flow whatever you want and wish for and write it down. Now, writing down your goals, wants and wishes is the first step towards Personal Initiative. The second step is to assess what needs to be done to accomplish the goal or destination. Take inventory of your resources and become resourceful. Then take action.  It’s as simple as planning a vacation- taking action.  It’s been said that people spend more time planning a vacation than planning their lives. Now that you just read this take action and create a life style. In taking action the most important thing to do is engage all your senses. Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, Smelling and Feelings act as if you already have what you want. Writing, verbalizing, visualizing, smelling and feeling success is how you initiate personally.

Forty years ago in 1976, I picked up my first copy of “Think and Grow Rich” and as I look back I am happy to say I took the Personal Initiative to study and read this book over and over until I learned to apply all the seventeen principles by taking action. In the past forty years I learned the difference between PMA & NMA Positive Mental Attitude verses Negative Mental Attitude. I realized most of my thoughts were negative. I realized I hated life.  Most people are not happy by choice of their own thoughts. This is one of the areas we can all start to make immediate changes. Start thinking “yes I can.” You are at the point in your life when you should become aware of your thoughts. Are you always thinking negative thoughts such as I never have enough money or I have too much month at the end of the money? Or do you say I am always broke or do you say that cost too much. I quickly learned that we are and become what we think about. Negative thoughts will get you negative results and positive will get you positive results. I also learned that by saying anything over and over will create and start the Personal Initiative. I learned positive affirmations. I first proved this to myself when I set my first goals to own my own home, to own my first brand new Mercedes Benz and to become a millionaire. Personal Initiative starts by saying and attracting the things we want.

My first Positive Affirmations and my first personal initiative started when I went to the Mercedes Dealer and picked up a brochure of the car I wanted. I took the pictures of the car and placed it on my bathroom mirror and everyday as I would look at the picture I would say over and over “I, Fred, have a new Mercedes Benz.” I exercised the power of visualization and affirmations. I remembered that speaking the affirmation in the present tense is the major key for successful results. “I, Fred have a Mercedes Benz, I Fred have a Mercedes Benz,” I said this over and over and three days before my 27th Birthday I drove off the Mercedes Dealer’s lot with a brand new Mercedes. This formula really works I have owned four Brand New Mercedes over the last forty years. For years, every day, I would say I am a millionaire, I am a millionaire, I said this until I reached my goal. Visualize, Verbalize and Actualize!

I have used these same techniques by owning many homes, businesses, becoming a millionaire and being blessed with good health.  By the way this also works especially with your Health. I have learned from Émil Coué, the Doctor that helped cure many people by having them take the Personal Initiative of repeating over and over “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” When you believe that every day in every way you are getting better and better you will find yourself doing better and better!  Say this to yourself right before you drift off to sleep and right when you wake up in the morning. This really works.  Try doing this for 21 days and see what happens!

So as you have read and learned how I use Personal Initiative, I challenge you to start becoming aware of your thoughts and make the efforts to stay in the Positive Mental Attitude and start your own Journey of a thousand steps by using your Personal Initiative to create your own positive personal affirmations. Say it and “Do it now!”  Remember to use all your senses.  Remember Personal Initiative is “Do the things you have to as fast as you can so that you can do the things you want to as long as you can.” Do it now! Do it right now!!

Photo of Alfred Fred H Wikkeling
Realtor Emeritus, Real Estate Probate Specialist, Human Behavioral Specialist, Certified Napoleon Hill Instructor, Hypnotist. Tola Properties, DISCpeople.comMotivational, Inspirational San Jose CA USA

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Notes

You may or may not know that “Personal Initiative” is Napoleon Hill’s 6th Principle in the Keys for Success. Being the Sixth Principle out of seventeen success Principles should give you a better sense as to the importance of Personal Initiative in relationship to the overall 17 Keys of Success. The sixth Key is what I call the DO IT NOW principle. I equate initiative with action, personal action. Things will only begin to happen when you start to make things happen. You can have the best plans, ideas and thoughts in your mind and nothing will happen until you take action.  Like the old Chinese proverb elegantly says “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”….

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