Thoughts on Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and the concept of your thoughts creating your reality.

So, as everybody worth their salt knows Conor McGregor is now the dual belt wielding senior badass of the UFC and truly the “face of the fight game” he has undeniably lived an inspirational life and is only getting started at just 28. Much of his success he quite openly attributes to his ability to clearly and consistently see himself in the position he desires to manifest in reality and this has proven to work with quite astonishing accuracy enough times to wonder a big wtf.

I have also just started reading ‘Think and Grow Rich’ which is obviously a very respected book having sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In it, Napoleon Hill thus far has asserted that the average mans ability to accumulate wealth depends on whether he aligns his thoughts with that reality and refuses to acknowledge any other possibility but success, in other words, ‘dreaming things into reality’ as Conor put it after demolishing Alvarez.

Obviously this has to be backed with an unshakable determination and burning desire but the belief is the central cog of this process. If you believe, you will achieve. I have actually experienced this kind of irrational cock eyed optimism and self belief working very well for in a sales context. I do believe there is truth to the concept. However, it is not so much ‘The Secret’ but more like Dr Maxwell Maltz’ conception of the idea that appeals to me more. His is the idea that your self image works as a “Psycho-Cybernetic device’ which works to get to its goal through means of self-correction in response to external feedback in the same way an airliner on auto-pilot gets to its destination. The theory goes that your subconscious mind will use your ‘Reticular Activating System’ as RSDTyler talks about, to filter out all feedback that is not consistent with your goal of validating your self-image.

Therefore if a man see’s himself as a failure, he will notice only that which validates this, but if he see’s himself as a success, failures will slide from his mind like water off a ducks back and he will only internalise his success as part of his ego-identity. This process can be hacked through deliberate visualisation exercises aimed at seeing yourself in more successful situations thus changing your self-image over time and leading to outward improvements.

This is how I believe McGregor has achieved such heights and is is actually quite a well established branch of sports psychology. If you doubt your subconscious mind’s ability to hold you back. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, put your arm out straight in front of you, thumb up, and try to twist backwards as far as you can keeping your arm straight and tracking the point on the wall the thumb gets to. Then, once stood straight again, visualise yourself doing this again with your eyes closed. Do not actually move your body but see yourself twisting all the way around 360 degrees, do this three times visually and then try again physically, the result will probably astound you.

Tony Robbins also talks of this and therefore, on top of these ideas being relevant in order to ‘Think and Grow Rich’ I believe they have a lot of relevance applied to game and self development in general.

TL;DR

Visualise, with a burning desire to drag your visualisations into reality, yourself kicking life’s fucking ass and banging lots of hotties and growing really rich.