How Faith or Fear Will Guide Your Life
Napoleon Hill was one of the world's first self-improvement pioneers and wrote the legendary book Think and Grow Rich in 1938. Today's book Outwitting The Devil was written one year after Think and Grow Rich and is an imagined interview between Napoleon Hill and the devil himself. The book never saw the light of day for 72 years because his wife thought the book so controversial that she kept it hidden until it was finally published in 2011. In this interview, he wrestles certain truths from the root of evil which will help us avoid his grasp and live a good life.
Whether you take the "devil" as the literal figure, an invisible force or just the antics of our mind doesn't really matter. What is important is that there are truths told and tools to circumvent " the devil"/ the force / or even your own mind (however you perceive the devil).
If you are like me this book might make you uncomfortable and it pointed out flaws in my own life that were hard to admit. I think we all allow certain flaws to circumvent our lives and we don't even realize it, which is precisely how the "devil" operates. As with all positive life skills they take work and to be aware of how sometimes we go off course is at least a step in the right direction. At that point, it is up to us to do something about it.
3 Key Lessons From Outwitting the Devil
- There are only 2 places where we build our entire lives: Faith & Fear.
- The devil's goal is to make us aimless drifters and if we're not careful he quickly succeeds
- To attain mental, spiritual, and physical freedom, we must follow seven principles to escape the devil's grasp.
Lesson #1: Choose Wisely, Fear or Faith
Have you ever been paralyzed from not being able to make a decision? You know what to do, but your not sure how to act or apply what you know and end up postponing a simple task and end up playing it on the "safe" side. We do this because we are fearful of doing something new which would possibly lead us to something we can't predict. When we can't predict the outcome it makes us fearful, feeling unsafe, and puts us outside our comfort zone.
FEAR: If we always played it safe we wouldn't get married, have kids, drive a car, or start a business. It is OK to have fear as an instinct for physical threats, but most fear-based decisions are rarely good and deny us many life-changing adventures. There is a world full of new emotions and adventures and yes sometimes doing something bold will lead to a dead-end, but if you live your life playing it safe all the time you will truly never live. When you ask a majority of older adults what their biggest regrets were they tell us that they regret never taking "that" chance or that they never pursued their dreams and goals.
FAITH: If instead of using fear in our decision making we consult with our "other-self" we will discover that the cause of success is not separate and apart from ourselves and is a force most of us don't recognize. When we listen to our other-self we have faith in ourselves and we don't give in to fear and doubt. Faith is the foundation of all great achievements and what pushes us to reach our goals. This is the only way to properly live your life. The other-self is exactly what the devil tries to undermine at every opportunity in our lives by dividing mankind into "drifters" and "non-drifters".
Lesson #2: Are you a Drifter or Non-Drifter?
Habits can make us or break us and are one of life's most powerful tools which if not chosen and cultivated correctly can either put us down the road to success or to failure. The devil uses many clever ways to ruin us and one of his most deceitful and successful methods is by invading our minds with the principle of "habit" in order to establish the "habit of drifting". Straight from the devil's own words: "the drifter is one that does little or no thinking for themselves and would rather have me occupy their mind and do their thinking than go to the trouble of thinking for themselves".
DRIFTERS: Are motivated and respond to the impulses of fear and let themselves be tossed around in life and be influenced and controlled by circumstances outside of their own mind. They accept whatever life throws their way without protest or putting up a fight. Drifters are too mentally lazy to use their own minds and this is where the devil takes control and plants his own ideas in their minds.
NON-DRIFTERS: Find inspiration and momentum in "faith" and possess "definite of purpose" and because of that take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. There is nothing more powerful than understanding what you want out of life and doing the necessary steps to get there. They understand that things always won't go their way but are willing to overcome adversity and they never make fear-based decisions.
Lesson #3: Principles to Avoid Being a Drifter
These are the 7 principles that will help us gain mental, spiritual, and physical freedom and keep us from the grasp of the "devil". If you adhere to these principles it would be impossible to become a drifter and will propel you to success in whatever endeavor you choose to pursue.
- Definiteness of Purpose: Choose a purpose, a grand aspiration, a big goal, and move towards it relentlessly.
- Mastery Over Self: Disciple equals freedom. If you're driven by impulses all your life, you'll go nowhere, like a drifter.
- Learning From Adversity: Failures are just failures, whether we learn from them or let them stop us is up to us.
- Controlling Environmental Influences: Whom you hang out with matters, how your room or desk looks matters.
- Time: Time can make drifting and negativity permanent. On the flip side, it can make positivity and wisdom permanent.
- Harmony: In order for you to balance the mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of your life you must be the main actor.
- Caution: Always act! But always think before you act.
Setbacks happen to the best of us and if allowed could quickly turn into lasting indecisiveness. Don't let them, don't let the "devil" win because life is too important a game for us to lose.
One Last Thing
This book takes a unique approach to understand the issues we possess as a nation and also on an individual level. It is stated in this book by the devil himself that he controls 98% of the population which I would have to agree. If not careful we allow the "devil" to control our thoughts, habits, and surroundings which are making us prisoners to him. Going to hell doesn't happen after we're dead, it's happening this very moment while we are living (a living hell) that is if you let it.
Life is all about the choices you make. The insights from the conversations with the devil in this book hold the key to overcome the negative things that are happening in our own lives. By having a clear idea of where to go is crucial for defeating our inner demons and thriving as individuals. The choice is to acknowledge that the "devil" has a hold of you, and then what are you going to do about it.
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