January 9, 2007 at 3:03 pm · Filed under People, William James
In the Law of Success by Napoleon Hill, Hill relates back to William James. William James was a Psychologist and Philosopher. He wrote ‘The Principles Of Psychology’. He wrote about habit and instinct. Just before christmas I ordered ‘Psychology’ (an edited version of his greater work) and ‘Talks to Teachers’ ( a book created from a few public lectures on Psychology to the Cambridge teachers). Both books arrived yesterday and I’ve been devouring them over the last 24 hours.
More info on William James - William James at Wikipedia
William James Photos and Bio
October 26, 2006 at 5:07 pm · Filed under Napoleon Hill
I told in my post the other day how I’d ordered Benamin Franklin’s Autobiography and I’m glad to say that they were delivered by amazon in their normal prompt way. What I didn’t tell you was that I also ordered Napoleon Hill’s Law Of Success. This book was the actual culmination of all the long years of study that Napoleon Hill had so studiously undertaken for Andrew Carnegie interviewing over 500 wealthy and brilliant people for the best part of twenty years.
Published in 1928 in a set of eight volumes, it is a monument to Personal Development. I can feel in my bones that I’m about to partake on a great adventure of discovery and I can see no other option but to study all of Hill’s works. I know of no other person that would have spent the amount of time Hill did to get the information he did. Heck, half of the people he’d interviewed had died by the time he’d published his work!.
I had a vested interest to read “The Law Of Success” (LOS) because of Napoleon Hills “Think And Grow Rich” (TGR). In TGR Hill plainly states in several chapters of how controlling Habits is a fundemental part of success.
I’ve only been flicking through LOS but Already Two chapters have the word Habit in the title. (The copy I’ve got is the updated 21st Century Edition, aparently LOS was originally 15 chapters long. This is 17 ).
Here is a quote that just sends shivers down my spine too:
“The word Habit is an important word in connection with this philosophy of individual acheivement, for it represents the real cause of everyones economic, social, professional, occupational, and spiritual condition in life. As has already been stated, we are where we are and what we are because of our fixed habits. And we may be where we wish to be and what we wish to be only by the development and the maintenance of our voluntary habits.”
Anyway, back to the study, and to my original ideas on Benjamin Franklin soon…
October 20, 2006 at 3:08 pm · Filed under Good Habits, Benjamin Franklin
One of the people I’m studying at the moment is Ben Franklin, in fact I just ordered his Autobiography on Amazon because I’m finding it very hard to read it properly on line. It should be here in a few days. I’ll let you know when it arrives.
The reason I’m studying Ben Franklin is because of his study of Habits. I think he called them Virtues. He believed that his personal happiness and development stemmed from the Virtues that he followed on a regular basis. I’m going to be talking more in depth about The types of habit and why he thought them to be so important in his life.
It’s strange, but the more and more I’m thinking about habits, and trying to write this book, the more positive I feel about it. I’ve also been reading ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill, and the ‘Desire’ to write this book is becoming an overpowring goal in my life that I want to complete. It’s going to be interesting…
