Thoughts - Words - Power

I have always believed in Lord Buddha’s most important teaching to the world, ‘With our thoughts we make our world’ or ‘what we think we become’. However the power of thoughts gets multiplied and impacts eternity when they are crafted by the greatest sculptors and expressed in the form of words.  

Hence thinkers, philosophers and man/woman of substance who ever stretched their soul to the greatest possible extent become artists whose art is invaluable and the world has got no money to barter. Therefore they simply give it for free which may be a reason that we tend to ignore it.

One such piece of craft is left behind by Napoleon Hill, ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe; it can achieve.’ Let us observe this with all our sensory faculties and especially feed our head & heart which generally get starved in the rat race of filling our homes and our days with stuff like TV, Smartphone, Skype, Facebook etc.  

Firstly the quotation above is not complete. The whole of it which Napoleon Hill wrote was –“You can be anything you want to be, if you only believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve” Yet the second half represents the essence of it. Let us try to understand the same by breaking it into pieces.

I am no authority to give meaning to what Mr Hill said. I am just helping you to make more sense out of this so profound, poignant, beautiful and meaningful collection of words. Such word crafts always make me realize that pen is truly mightier than sword.

The quotation, “whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”, has one noun – ‘the mind’ and three very powerful verbs – ‘conceive, believe & achieve’.

The mind does not only mean the left side of the brain or the so called argumentative mind rather it implies to conscious, subconscious & super conscious minds together. All three have to do the activity of conceiving, believing & achieving collectively.

Now coming to the verbs - – ‘conceive, believe & achieve’.

Conceive: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to become pregnant with’. When a lady becomes pregnant she is very clear about the result and she has a timeline for that too. Exactly in same fashion for achieving BIG things in life we must develop a dream in our heart and convert that into a goal. Importance of having a goal can’t be overemphasized and we convert our dreams into goals when we put a deadline to them. Conceiving really means choosing one idea to parent and nurture until the ‘D day’ is reached. Making it a reality also needs a plan to gather & utilize resources (your time, focus, money) in reach.     

Believe: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to accept something as true’. We must accept our goals as true. ‘Can I do it?’ is a wrong question once you have believed in the idea. You need to have faith in the idea and in yourself. People generally find the later as difficult. Faith and belief in oneself needs to be cultivated step by step. One should do small things with impeccable consistency to strengthen self-belief. For example if you can set a goal of waking up at 6 am every day and do it without fail for 3 months or decide to be on time in all the appointments and are on the point for 3 months it gives immense self-belief which really helps in achieving your BIG dreams which you conceive.     

Achieve: Dictionary meaning of this word is ‘to attain something with effort or despite difficulties’. It requires persistence which is more of one’s attitude for continuing against all the odds than a skill. Conceiving & believing gives you a destination and the strength to reach there but still you will have to walk the distance. The journey is as important as the result and the means matter. Make sure, you have right guidance, motivation and other resources helping you walk the distance.       

So what is your BIG idea which you want to conceive, establish faith in the idea and yourself and work incessantly towards achieving the same? If you do not have time to think about and write down your dreams; where will you find time to act and achieve them?