“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970); motivational author
Many of you may recognize the name Napoleon Hill. He’s the author of the international best-selling business book Think and Grow Rich, and proposed the idea of the “Definite Major Purposes,” which challenged his readers to ask themselves “In what do I truly believe?” In Hill’s view, 98% of people had few or no firm beliefs, and this alone put true success firmly out of their reach.
If you’ve never articulated your beliefs, now is a perfectly good time to begin examining them in your life. An honest investigation of your beliefs will help you align yourself with work that makes each day, well… less like work. While there’s no shame in working a job you don’t like to support a family, it’s not necessarily a recipe for a purposeful life.
At times, you may bridle at what you feel you should believe and what you actually believe. You may feel, for instance, that you should want to grow a multimillion-dollar real estate empire, but in your heart, you believe that it is enough in your life to grow a small, stable, community business that allows you to enjoy the little things in life more. But is growth for the sake of growth really a path aligned with your beliefs in this case?
Hill may have penned Think and Grow Rich, but what it means to “grow rich” can be defined a variety of ways. The first imperative, though is to think. You may derive great satisfaction in life from smaller pursuits, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
