When giving a talk at a community college in Sacramento, California, I thought about how people think and settle for less. My life has always been punctuated with the decision of settling for less. I understood the power of positive thinking, so I thought, yet I always dream of settling for comfort which is often less. I recall knowing that a positive mental attitude is the first and the most important of the 12 riches of life, and it cannot be attained by the drifter. It can be attained only by a scrupulous regard for time, through habits of self-discipline. It’s understood that no amount of time devoted to one’s occupation can compensate for the benefits of a positive mental attitude, for this is the power that makes the use of time effective and productive.
Napoleon Hill wrote “a positive mental attitude does not grow voluntarily, like the weeds of the fields. It requires cultivation, through carefully disciplined habits of thoughts. And the greatest of all training grounds for the cultivation of a positive mental attitude is provided by your chosen occupation, where you spend the greatest part of your life. Here you may combine your efforts to make them financially productive and to develop a positive mental attitude.
When you get your own thought habits under control, you will have yourself under control, but you cannot do it by drifting. Organize your thoughts. Decide what you want, to what position in life you aspire. Then plan ways and means to express your thoughts, in terms of organized action. Follow through with applied faith and unremitting persistence. This is the means by which you can become the master of your fate, the captain of your soul.”
Evans Akpo 