This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Law of Success" by Napoleon Hill. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Can you influence your subconscious mind with conscious thought? Is there anything you can do to reprogram your subconscious mind?
Contrary to popular misconception, your subconscious is not totally out of your control. According to Napoleon Hill, the author of The Law of Success, your subconscious mind absorbs your habitual, conscious thoughts, which means you can, to some extent, influence your subconscious mind.
Keep reading for Napoleon Hill’s five-step subconscious mind reprogramming process.
Retrain Your Subconscious Mind to Create Success
According to Napoleon Hill, the author of The Law of Success, your subconscious mind determines the level of success you achieve: Your habitual thoughts leave an impression on your subconscious mind that shapes your thoughts and behaviors as well as everything that happens in your life.
Hill argues that, fortunately, your subconscious mind is malleable and adapts to reflect your habitual thoughts. This means that, by consciously controlling your habitual thoughts, you can retrain your subconscious mind to align with your goals and attract ideas, people, and experiences that will help you achieve what you want.
Hill suggests some subconscious mind reprogramming methods to realign your habitual thoughts and, in doing so, to prime your subconscious mind for success. We’ll cover his methods in a five-step process:
- Adopt a positive attitude.
- Define a specific goal.
- Create affirmations and visualizations.
- Take constructive actions to achieve your goal.
- Build a supportive team.
Step #1: Adopt a Positive Attitude
The first step toward retraining your subconscious mind to create success is to adopt a positive attitude. Hill explains that your attitude toward life determines the nature of your habitual thoughts—whether they’re negative or positive—and the overall impression they make on your subconscious mind. This impression then influences whether you move toward or away from success.
The more negative your attitude, the more negatively you think about your life. These negative thoughts leave a pessimistic impression on your subconscious mind—causing it to connect only to the parts of higher consciousness that reflect your pessimism. As a result, your subconscious mind creates experiences that reinforce your negative thought patterns and discourage you from moving toward success.
Conversely, the more positive your attitude, the more positively you think about your life. These positive thoughts leave an optimistic impression on your subconscious mind—causing it to connect only to the parts of higher consciousness that reflect your optimism. As a result, your subconscious mind creates life experiences that reinforce your optimism and encourage you to move toward success.
Step #2: Define a Specific Goal
While you work on cultivating a positive attitude, define a specific goal that you want to achieve. This will help you create a clear vision of what will make you feel successful, and it will give your subconscious mind a clear direction to move toward.
Hill offers advice for defining your goal: Focus on using your natural talents and interests. He explains that this will improve your chances of successfully achieving your goal in two ways:
1) You’re more likely to enjoy pursuing a goal that genuinely interests you. Your enjoyment will motivate you to take action to achieve your goal, which will increase your productivity and allow you to gain momentum with little effort.
2) You’ll be able to leverage your existing skills and knowledge, which will help you make progress more quickly and effectively than if you try to develop new abilities from scratch.
Hill claims that these two benefits will inspire you to think positively about achieving your goal. These thoughts will leave a positive impression on your subconscious mind that will train it to work in alignment with what you want to achieve.
Step #3: Create Affirmations and Visualizations
Once you’ve defined a specific goal, create affirmations and visualizations that encourage you to achieve it. Hill explains that continually affirming or visualizing yourself successfully achieving your goal leaves a positive impression on your subconscious mind. The more weight you add to this impression, the quicker you’ll convince your subconscious mind you’re capable of achieving success.
Hill recommends a three-step process for creating affirmations and visualizations to support your goal:
1) Write a short statement describing what you intend to achieve and read it multiple times a day. For example, “I intend to make 50 sales a day.”
2) Each time you read your statement, imagine what new skills or qualities you would possess and how your life would change once you’ve achieved your goal. For example, you might imagine yourself as more relaxed and confident or in charge of a large sales team.
3) Create visualizations and affirmations to support each new skill or quality you imagine yourself possessing. For example, visualize yourself interacting with your employees, and affirm, “I feel relaxed and confident about my ability to make sales.”
Step #4: Take Constructive Actions to Achieve Your Goal
Alongside practicing visualizations and affirmations, take constructive actions to achieve your goal. This will align your behaviors with your positive thoughts and focus your subconscious mind on exactly what you need to do to make progress. Hill recommends the following three-step process for taking constructive actions to achieve your goal:
- Break your goal down into daily tasks.
- Create a daily schedule.
- Expand your knowledge and skills.
Let’s explore each of these steps in detail.
1) Break Your Goal Down Into Daily Tasks
The first step toward taking constructive actions to achieve your goal is to break it down into a series of daily tasks. Hill explains that this process will help you prioritize your time and increase your productivity, which will help you build momentum toward achieving your goal.
2) Create a Daily Schedule
Once you’ve broken your goal down into daily tasks, create a daily schedule to accomplish them. According to Hill, you’re more likely to complete each task if you set aside uninterrupted time and avoid multitasking and distractions.
3) Expand Your Knowledge and Skills
After completing your daily task, focus your attention on expanding your knowledge and skills. According to Hill, the more you improve your capabilities, the faster you’ll achieve your goal.
Step #5: Build a Supportive Team
Once you’re comfortable taking daily constructive actions, build a supportive team to help you achieve your goal. Hill argues that you’re more likely to achieve success when you work with a team than when you work on your own. He explains that when a group of people collectively work toward a goal, their combined knowledge, expertise, and resources allow them to achieve much more than they could on their own. Teamwork has three primary benefits:
- It creates a hive mind.
- It provides social reinforcement.
- It generates better ideas and decisions.
Let’s explore each of these three benefits in detail.
1) Supportive Teams Create a Hive Mind
According to Hill, sharing a purpose with others aligns the conscious thoughts of each mind, creating a telepathic link between the subconscious minds of everyone involved. This telepathic link enables each individual within the group to access and leverage the knowledge and expertise of every other member of the group.
2) Supportive Teams Provide Social Reinforcement
Hill claims that sharing progress with others invites positive feedback and support. This positive attention inspires feelings of enthusiasm that boost the self-confidence and motivation of everyone within the team.
3) Supportive Teams Generate Better Ideas and Decisions
According to Hill, sharing ideas with others invites objective and constructive feedback that drives continual improvement. It also stimulates the imagination of each individual in the group—inspiring new, potentially successful ideas.
Hill suggests that you’ll benefit most from a team with diverse experiences and perspectives. Include people who will offer you encouragement and support, as well as successful mentors who will offer you constructive advice. Don’t include anyone who might discourage you from achieving your goal.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Law of Success summary:
- How your subconscious mind creates your life experiences
- Why the only way to achieve success is to realign your habitual thoughts
- Actionable advice on how to retrain your subconsciousmind for success
