A few weeks ago I read the Napoleon Hill classic, “Think and Grow Rich” and i can’t get enough of this stuff. These are a couple of short stories in the same vein as that Napoleon Hill classic. Both of these seem like great stories and similar messages. Everything you really need right now to be successful is already within you.

52 Weeks of Book Reviews. Week #18 The Richest Man in Babylon & The Magic Story: Two Classic Parables about Achieving Wealth and Personal Success – Napoleon Hill Foundation

These 2 stories follow similar paths. The truth about success is that it comes from within, what you have inside is enough to win, you just need to know a few things. Everyone wants to win. Everyone really wants to win. Everyone deep down inside hates losing and wants to be a winner. The difference is that not everyone knows how to do that, how to make that change or how to keep winning and not everyone knows what actions are needed or has the will power to keep up with those actions. Winning isn’t just about winning on the tax return at the end of the year, although wealth and prosperity can and do facilitate a healthier lifestyle. Winning is also about those small moments where you make choices, do I watch TV right now or do I go read a book? You body and your brain will tell you that watching TV feels better in the moment and you are “winning” when you make that choice to take the easy route. Your brain will tell you that you are winning when you stop at the Fast Food place instead of going to the Gym. The truth is that we are all winners, we are just winning at the wrong things.

When you take a bite of that Cheeseburger and you make that “Mmmm mmmm mmm” sound you are choosing to give yourself positive feedback for your choice. You want to tell yourself that you worked hard for that bite and that it was your reward and you deserved that option. It’s much harder to deprive yourself of that instant gratification time and time again so that you can have that same feeling 3 months from while looking in the floor to ceiling mirror. The feeling you get from biting into that cheeseburger is eerily similar to the feeling you get when looking at yourself in the mirror and appreciating the grind you’ve gone through to get to where you want your body to be. The different isn’t that feeling in the moment, the difference is the feeling AFTER the moment. after you eat the cheeseburger you feel guilty and try to justify the choice you made, possibly by making the choice more often to prove a point. On the other hand you when you walk away from the mirror you are encouraged to keep driving past the fast food places and you carry more confidence with you in other social and business situations because you are confident in your life choices.

The man who makes bad decisions and then has to justify them will play the victim and blame others for his situation. He will do this while continuing to make even more bad decisions just to justify all of the previous choices and then proclaim, “Why does this keep happening to me?” The man who breaks the cycle and begins to make good decisions in confident enough to ask for help in order to keep making good decisions and has a track record to rely on for positive reinforcement. The Magic Story breaks down positive and negative in all of us and let’s us know that both possibilities live within us. The Richest Man in Babylon breaks down a few basic rules of wealth such as not living above your means, paying yourself first, don’t invest in anything you don’t understand, ask for advice and learn about your options and if it seems too good to be true it probably is but you need to invest your money and make it work for you. These both seem like very basic stories, but basic structure to your life will bring vast improvement over time as long as you have the will power to always follow the rules. Buy the book and remind yourself of what you need to do.