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How to Make Practical Use of Imagination

Napoleon illustrated how the use of imagination can yield great fortunes by sharing 2 powerful stories where great riches were accumulated. The first story he shared was titled The Enchanted Kettle which told the story of how Coca-Cola was first formed! A young drug store clerk was bartering with an old Doctor who had an old style kettle, a big wooden paddle and the recipe for Coca-Cola. The clerk paid the doctor $500 (his entire life savings) for the kettle and recipe and took a giant leap of faith in what he had just purchased.

The clerk never did conceive the idea himself, yet he was able to add a magical ingredient that the Doctor never could have conceived… Imagination! I’m sure we are all well aware of how successful Coca-Cola has been in the past 100 years. A huge fortune has been made all from which started as an idea in a young drug clerks mind.

The second story, What I Would Do If I Had a Million Dollars, is about Doctor Frank W. Gunsaulus, a man with a vision to become head of an educational institution where students would be taught through ‘doing’ as apposed to the traditional methods of teaching.

This story highlighted an important message which Napoleon didn’t emphasize yet it hit me like a ton of bricks. Dr. Gunsaulus was a philosopher as well as a preacher, he had a burning desire to begin his work, yet he lacked one thing… $1 million dollars that would be spent setting up this educational facility.

Napoleon takes up the story…

He needed a million dollars to put the project across! Where was he to lay his hands on so large a sum of money? That was the question that absorbed most of this ambitious young preacher’s thought.

But he couldn’t seem to make any progress. Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over and over in his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him. A million dollars is a lot of money. He recognized that fact, but he also recognized the truth that the only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind.

Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr. Gunsaulus recognized, as do all who succeed in life, that DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE is the starting point from which one must begin. He recognized, too, that definiteness of purpose takes on animation, life, and power when backed by a BURNING DESIRE to translate that purpose into its material equivalent.

He knew all these great truths, yet he did not know where, or how to lay his hands on a million dollars. The natural procedure would have been to give up and quit, by saying, “Ah well, my idea is a good one, but I cannot do anything with it, because I never can procure the necessary million dollars.” That is exactly what the majority of people would have said, but it is not what Dr. Gunsaulus said.

“Ah well, my idea is a good one, but I cannot do anything with it because I never can procure the necessary million dollars”

How many times have we all been in that situation??!

You’ve received an inspired idea, your palms have gotten a little sweaty, you’re feeling really excited by where this new idea may lead … and then … your thoughts start to kick in …

• Who do you think you are?
• Don’t be so stupid
• Be realistic
• Do what you know
• You can’t earn money doing what you enjoy
• You’ve got financial responsibilities
• Get real…

Great idea but you’ve come to a brick wall. How you react when you see that brick wall will ultimately determine your success or failure.

This is why having a “success consciousness” is so important. If you don’t have the right mentality how could you ever expect to create what you’ve been dreaming about? If you’re willing to curl up at the first sign of a problem, how could you ever expect to achieve anything great?

Applying Napoleon’s 13 principles will lead you to great achievements – but you will have to put the work in, and actually apply the principles if you truly desire your ticket to successful living.

Back to our story then …

The time had come for ACTION!

I made up my mind, then and there, that I would get the necessary million dollars within a week. How? I was not concerned about that. The main thing of importance was the decision to get the money within a specified time, and I want to tell you that the moment I reached a definite decision to get the money within a specified time, a strange feeling of assurance came over me, such as I had never before experienced. Something inside me seemed to say, ‘Why didn’t you reach that decision a long time ago? The money was waiting for you all the time!’

Things began to happen in a hurry. I called the newspapers and announced I would preach a sermon the following morning, entitled, ‘What I would do if I had a Million Dollars.’

In just 36 hours after making the decision, Dr. Gunsaulus had organized a sermon, attracted the right people to the event and had met someone willing to give him the $1 million required. He went on to found the Armour Institute of Technology, named after Phillip D. Armour the gentleman who provided Dr. Gunsaulus with the money.

If that’s not an inspiring story, then I don’t know what is!

What dreams have you had lingering on for a while?
What definite plan can you formulate just like Dr. Gunsaulus did?
When will you make the decision?

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How to Develop Your Imagination

Whether you believe you have a creative imagination or not, you have the ability to be just as creative as anyone else. The difference between your creativity and the perceived creativity of another is the repetitive use of the imagination.

See your imagination like a muscle that you must exercise in order to get the juicy ideas. The more you practice using your imagination, the easier, clearer and more creative your imagination becomes.

So we develop our imaginations by using it more!

Every morning I complete something called a “Gratitude Diary” which I use to write down a list of everything I am grateful for that day. This simple process has helped to increase my imagination tenfold because I set myself a task of completing an entire page before I go onto other things.

When I review what I’ve written in my gratitude diary there is often a clear progressive thought pattern emerging. It’s like the first item links to the second item, and the second item links to the third, and so on.

If I was to ask you to think of a candle and tell me other thoughts that you have around a candle, you may answer by saying wax, flame, flickering, white, etc. Your imagination works from the food (thoughts) that you feed it.

Abraham Hicks has told us that if we focus on a thought for as little as 17 seconds, the Law of Attraction will bring you another similar thought that you did not have access to previously. This is exactly what happens every morning when I complete my gratitude diary. I start off and focus for a few seconds until another thought ‘pops’ into my mind!

Anyway, I use a very simple technique to focus my imagination and to acquire new ideas that I would like to share with you. Let’s say I’m searching for an idea of a new article to write about, first I grab a sheet of paper and write my point of attention in the middle. So in this example, I would write “Law of Attraction Article” (point of attention) in the middle of that piece of paper. I then focus on that subject and begin to write words around the point of attention that I currently have access to in my head.

In this example I may begin to write things like… gratitude, energy, the secret, etc.

Within just few short seconds of doing this and holding my attention on this subject, new ideas spring into my mind as if by magic. These are the new similar thoughts that the Law of Attraction has yielded to me. Although those ideas were already in my mind somewhere, I didn’t have access to them until I began to focus!

This is an extremely powerful and quick method to gain new ideas and insights with very little effort at all. Why not give it a try yourself!

I’ve prepared a hand out that you can use to develop your imagination in the same way as I have documented here. Just click on the link below to view the PDF document.

Click here to download the Imagination Exercise Sheet

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The Two Forms of Imagination

The only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind.

There are two forms of imagination. One is known as Synthetic Imagination and the other Creative Imagination.

Synthetic Imagination is simply the re-ordering of current knowledge. It is just the re-arranging of old plans and old ideas into new combinations.

Creative Imagination can be likened to the use of infinite intelligence. When you receive inspired ideas or hunches, it is in those moments when you are using your creative imagination. There is very little control over this faculty as it works automatically for you, you only have access to this type of imagination when your energy is much greater than normal. For example, you have a strong desire for something and you are expelling high amounts of fast, pure energy towards your desire, this is when your creative imagination will begin to receive ideas and inspirations from source energy.

Like any muscle in the body, repetition is essential to developing these imaginative faculties.

In previous chapters we’ve discussed how to create your definite written statement. Step 4 of the practical actions is:

4. Create a definite plan of action that you will adhere to in order to carry out your desire. You must begin this plan at once, whether you feel ready or not.

Use your synthetic imagination to begin creating your plan of action. Re-arrange old plans and ideas that may be swirling around in your mind and organize a new combination of thoughts to form your plan. You do not need to reinvent the wheel, just take an idea that you like and improve upon it.

In the past when I’ve made the decision to start a new business, I’ve always begun doing substantial research. In other words, I look around and see if there is a real demand for what service or product I want to offer. I then look at two important areas, Niche Suitability and Niche Profitability.

Although I am not going to go into detail about them here, what I do always look for is a product or service that is already being offered on the market. Why? Because it has already been proven that it is a profitable niche and a profitable product. I’m not trying to copy anyone though, what I’m doing is improving on something that is already proven to sell. I then look at my competitors products and see what I think they’re doing wrong or how I could improve on it to make it even better.

This is tapping in on my synthetic imagination. There are times when I will run into problems and have no idea how to overcome them! This is the time when creative imagination is needed and the best thing you can do to call upon it is stay focussed on the goal at hand. Remind yourself what you are doing and focus upon the desired outcome, not the problem that may face you.

If you ask the question, the universe will always respond. You just need be in a receiving mode. You cannot receive the answers if you are feeling miserable about coming to a dead end or upset because you’ve hit temporary failure. But you can receive the divine inspiration if you are in harmony with your goals and hold a positive outlook.

Napoleon makes a crucial point in the chapter on Imagination and states:

Detailed instructions for the building of plans have been given in almost every chapter. Carry out the instructions best suited to your needs, reduce your plan to writing, if you have not already done so. The moment you complete this, you will have DEFINITELY given concrete form to the intangible DESIRE. Read the preceding sentence once more. Read it aloud, very slowly, and as you do so, remember that the moment you reduce the statement of your desire, and a plan for its realization, to writing, you have actually TAKEN THE FIRST of a series of steps, which will enable you to convert the thought into its physical counterpart.

Have you written out your definite statement yet?

Click Here To Download: Think & Grow Rich Written Statement Help Manual