by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
Owner:
1. Negative: (a) feelings, (b) emotions, (c) passions, (d) habits, (e) beliefs and (f) prejudices.
2. Seeing only the mote in the other fellow's eye.
3. Arguments and misunderstandings due to semantic difficulties.
4. False conclusions resulting from false premises.
5. All-inclusive, restrictive words or expressions as basic or minor premises.
6. The idea that necessity forces dishonesty.
7. Unclean thoughts and habits.
8. Fear that it is sacrilegious to use the powers of your mind.
And so you see there are many varieties of cobwebs-some small, some large, some weak, some strong. Yet if you make an additional listing of your own, and then examine the strands of each cobweb closely, you will find that they are all spun by
NMA.
And when you think about it for a while, you will see that the strongest cobweb spun by NMA is the cobweb of inertia. Inertia causes you to do nothing; or, if you are moving in the wrong direction, keeps you from resisting or stopping. You go on and on.
Ignorance is the result of Inertia. That which seems logical to the person who is ignorant of the facts or know-how may be illogical to the man who does know. When you make decisions
because you refuse to keep an open mind and learn the truth ? that is ignorance. And NMA keeps alive and grows fat on ignorance. Eliminate it! Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude indicates clearly how you can eliminate it.
The man with PMA may not know the facts or have the know-how. He may not understand. Yet he recognizes the basic premise that truth is truth and is not false regardless of his lack of knowledge or understanding. He therefore endeavors to keep an open mind and to learn. He must base his conclusions on what he does know, yet be prepared to change them when he becomes more enlightened.
Will you dare to clear the cobwebs from your thinking? If your answer is "yes," then let Pilot No. 3 guide you as you move forward into Chapter Four. You will be ready to see with an open mind. You will be ready to explore the powers of your mind. And when you do ? your exploration will lead you to a great discovery. But only you can make it for yourself.
PILOT NO. 3 Thoughts to Steer By
1. You are what you think. Your thoughts are evaluated by whether your attitude is positive or negative. Take a look at yourself. Are you 1) a good person?... 2) evil?... 3) healthy?... 4) psychosomatically ill?... 5) wealthy?... 6) poor? If you are, then 1) you have good thoughts... 2) your thoughts are evil... 3) your thoughts are of good health... 4) your thinking makes you so... 5) your thoughts are of riches... 6) your thoughts are of poverty.
2. Negative: feelings, emotions, passions ? prejudices, beliefs, habits: you clear these mental cobwebs by turning your talisman from NMA to PMA.
3. You can clear the mental cobwebs of negative passions, emotions, feelings, tendencies, prejudices, beliefs and habits by flipping your invisible talisman from NMA to PMA. You will learn how as you respond to what you read in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.
4. When you are faced with a problem that involves a misunderstanding with other persons, you must first start with yourself.
5. One word can cause an argument, develop misunderstanding, generate unhappiness and end in misery. One word with PMA, when compared to the same word with NMA, brings opposite effects. One word can bring peace or war, yes or no, love or hate, integrity or dishonesty.
6. Let's start with a meeting of the minds. When Dr. Fosdick brought about a meeting of the minds, the young man himself concluded that he was not an atheist, he did believe in God.
7. Frog legs taught him logic. When you reason by inference, be certain that your major and minor premises are correct.
8. Such all-inclusive, restrictive words as: always ? only ? never ? nothing ? every ? everyone ? no one ? can't ? impossible should be eliminated as premises in reasoning until you are certain that they are correct.
9. Necessity is the word. Does necessity motivate you to high achievement through your personal honesty and integrity, or
does necessity motivate you to try to get results through deception or dishonesty?
10. A teen-age problem child: you may know one. But don't give up hope. He may not become a saint. But someday be may make his world and your world a better world to live in.
11. Direct your thoughts; control your emotions; and ordain your destiny! Memorize and repeat frequently the self-motivators quoted from the Bible on page 45.
