“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”
W. Clement Stone
‘W Clement Stone was born in 1902 and began his successful business career selling newspapers on the streets of Chicago at the age of six! By the age of twenty he was focused on establishing a nationwide insurance business which, was best known as the AON Corporation, employing over 15,000 people worldwide. Mr Stone never quite amassed a billion-dollar personal fortune, because he gave most of his money away, but he was very close! He is fondly and rightly remembered as one of the greatest men of all time, dying from a sudden bout of pneumonia in September 2002 aged 100’ (Michael Finnigan, CEO I2I)
Around ten years ago I was fortunate enough to learn of Stone and his work, the owners of a business I worked for knew a gentleman who was introduced to W Clement Stones’ teachings through his former personal assistant Art Niemann (eventually themselves becoming business partners) and tenacious as I am I was able to push the right people into introducing the teachings of W Clement Stone into a business I worked for.
W Clement Stone (Mr PMA; Positive Mental Attitude) as he was happy to be known due to the simple fact that the person calling him this would feel profoundly positive by thinking positive thoughts anyway (quite a selfless thing).
Stones sites the physical ‘digital’ computer as something that you can never get more out of than you put in where the ‘human’ computer (the brain) you most certainly can; mostly and quite simply through repetition. A child learning to walk will continually fall but through repetition, repetition, repetition will eventually walk and ‘so it is with all things.’
This ‘human computer’ and the positive mental attitude philosophy is not something taught in schools; indeed, Stone’s book was published in 1959; Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (Napoleon Hill and W Clement Stone), over 60 years and nothing has changed in this regard.
Qualifications, degrees etc can be achieved at schools, colleges, and universities all around the world simply through having a good memory, there is no original thought needed, simply your memory. Stone across the world made it his lifelong goal to train people how to use their brain, their human computer to achieve any goal (notably; providing it doesn’t break any universal law).
Writing a book with Napoleon Hill, a now famous acronym was derived by Stone and Hill: R2A2 (Recognise something, relate it to yourself, assimilate it and apply/action it)
Aim for a goal, have your mind on a goal (often impossible in the minds of others but as long as they don’t break a universal law then they will become inevitable) you will then be alerted to something that might help you achieve it. Through proper study and repetition anything is possible.
Sounds easy? Simple? Almost too basic right? Exactly what I thought, so when I heard about the science that backed this up, I started to pay more attention.
Michael Finnigan and I2I (I won’t give too much away, go and find out for yourself) say that this is achieved by the ‘self-talk’ of positive mental attitude, literally, the things you tell yourself. One analogy would be to imagine yourself as a tree, what are the worst things you think about yourself and the best: your feelings. Then what is the best and worst attitudes and how can you replicate this (the tree trunk), down to the roots; what are your fundamental beliefs and on a spectrum are they limiting (and negative) or inspirational (and therefore positive?) Underpin all this with who or what is conditioning you to feel/be/believe/feel this? This is a very simplistic recollection, but we are looking at how our behaviour is driven by our thinking and a reminder; we are in control 100% of the time.
Then look at what underpins this, the things you remember and why you remember them, look at the great communicators, the politicians of our time and yes, a very small part of what you remember are the words,
‘(we remember) 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we personally experience, 95% of what we teach others’
Edgar Dale
Words are powerful yes of course they are, but emotions are much more so a way for people to remember things. It’s what we hear, who is saying it and what we see combined with how this makes us feel.
The science is centred on the dendrites, and these are the input or receiving part of the neurons in your brain. As per the above when people say something is ‘habit-forming’ they are literally talking about dendrites. Dendrites grow out of the neurons when we listen to, write, talk about, practice something. According to studies and research, the more we practice, the size of the dendrites grows thicker with a fatty coating of myelin. Therefore, the thicker the dendrites, the faster will be the signals travelling. With enough practice, the dendrites build a double connection. The faster, stronger, and dual connections of dendrites last for a longer time, i.e. we remember what we learned. Thus, dendrites grow only when we are actively practising or doing something repeatedly.
You want to start a positive, new ‘good’ habit, listen, write, talk about that thing and practice doing it, especially if you cannot do that thing to start with; mimic the behaviours that you see people who are successful at doing whatever that thing is (and literally we mean whatever that may be). Without fail, keep practising and going back to W Clement Stone, as long as it is not in contradiction to any universal law you will be able to succeed in that endeavour.
Practice positive thoughts and this becomes habit, the opposite being true.
Look out for part two of habit forming coming out soon and my book; the pillars of moderation; ‘Living Your Best Life’ (At 40+ years old) on Kindle Digital Publishing at the end of April 2024.
Expand. Your. Mind.