Definiteness of Purpose by Napoleon Hill
Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash
Desire is the factor that determines that your definite purpose in life shall be. No one can select your dominating desire for you, but once you select it yourself, it becomes your definite chief aim and occupies the spotlight of your mind until it is satisfied by transformation into reality, unless you permit it to be pushed aside by conflicting desires.
To emphasize the principle that I am here trying to make clear, I believe it not unreasonable to suggest that to be sure of successful achievement, one’s definite chief aim in life should be backed up with a burning desire for its achievement. I have noticed that boys and girls who enter college and pay their way through by working seem to get more out of their schooling than do those whose expenses are paid for them. The secret of this may be found in the fact that those who are willing to work their way through are blessed with a burning desire for education, and such a desire, if the object of desire is within reason, is practically sure of realization.
These are the steps leading from desire to fulfillment: First the burning desire, then the crystallization of that desire into a definite purpose, then sufficient appropriate action to achieve that purpose. Remember that these three steps are always necessary to insure success.
A definite purpose is something that you must create for yourself. No one else will create it for you, and it will not create itself. What are you going to do about it? and when? and how?
When you come to select your definite chief aim, just keep in mind the fact that you cannot aim too high.
If your aim in life is vague, your achievements will also be vague, and it might well be added, very meager. Know what you want, when you want it, why you want it, and HOW you intend to get it.
Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a one-room cabin on the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a mountain reporter for small-town newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author. Dr. Hill's work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. Now you can preorder his illuminating memoirs, Master Mind, from Sound Wisdom and read previously unpublished, unpublicized details about his life, marriages, businesses, and experience teaching the seventeen principles of success by which the world’s most prosperous entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and cultural icons live.