Habits are the Stairway to a Richer Life

Habits are the Stairway to a Richer Life


by Napoleon Hill

You can see that an oak tree grows from an acorn, always, and a pine tree grows from the seed of its ancestor. And you know that Nature never makes a mistake and grows a pine tree from an acorn, nor an oak tree from the seed of a pine.

There are facts you can see. But do you recognize that they do not “just happen” by chance – something has to make them happen! That something is the power which fixes habits and makes them permanent. Man is the only creature which the Creator permits the privilege of fixing his own habits to suit his own desires.

We are ruled by habits, all of us! Our habits are fastened upon us by repetition of our thoughts and acts. Therefore we can control our earthly destinies and our way of living only to the extent that we control our thoughts. We must direct them to form the sort of habits we need to serve as our road map to guide our lives. Good habits which lead to success can be ordered and used by any individual. Bad habits can be broken and replaced by good ones at will by anyone.

Man Has Control

The habits of every living creature except man are fixed by what we call “instinct.” This places them under limitations from which they cannot escape.

The Creator not only gave men complete, unchallengeable control over the power of thought, but with this gift came the means of possessing thought power and directing it to any desired end.

The Creator has also given man another privilege whereby thoughts are made to clothe themselves in their physical likeness and equivalent.

Here, then, is a profound truth. With it you may open doors to wisdom and live an ordered life, you will be able to control those factors necessary to your success.

The rewards available to the person who takes possession of his own mind power and directs it to definite ends of his own choice are great in number. But penalties for not doing so are equally great in number.

Source: Napoleon Hill. Science of Success Series. Miami Herald. June 1, 1956