Let's gain a greater understanding of how inner happiness is the foundation necessary before lives can be changed. We must remember that if we are chasing after happiness, we will never find it. If we are seeking after God, we will find endless joy.

The Napolean Hill Foundation recently released one of its audio clips to Success Magazine. Napolean Hill and W. Clement Stone corroborated together and published their works. W. Clement Stone is one of the legends of the success movement in America that changed the mindset of those seeking to achieve their goals. As the former editor of Success Magazine, he shared success principles with an entire generation of Americans.

During their studies, Stone and Hill asked many people who did not consider themselves successful, what held them back. The reasons they gave tell the tragic story of the causes of failure, such as:

• I never really had a chance to get ahead;

• My father was an alcoholic;

• I was raised in the slums and that's something that you can never get out of your system;

• I only had a grammar school education.

These people are all saying in essence that the world has given them a raw deal. They are blaming the world and circumstances outside themselves for their failure. They start out with a negative mental attitude. With that attitude, they are handicapped.

Stone and Hill discovered that even though discontented people tend to blame outside circumstances for their failures,the real reason is internal. They are not happy. These people had failed to develop a clear picture in their minds of the world they would like for themselves. They could not initiate change.The starting point of all achievement is definiteness of purpose.

Through their study of the lifetime experiences of hundreds of the most successful persons our nation has known, W. Clement Stone and Napolean Hill learned that achievement results from the application of 17 success principles. A brief overview of these principles include:

1. Positive mental attitude

2. Definiteness of purpose

3. Going the extra mile

4. Accurate thinking

5. Self discipline

6. The master mind

7. Applied faith

8. A pleasing personality

9. Personal initiative

10. Enthusiasm

11. Controlled attention

12. Teamwork

13. Learning from defeat

14. Create a vision

15. Budgeting time and money

16. Maintaining sound physical and mental health

17. Using natural law or cosmic habit force

Stone is quoted as saying, "As long as you live from this day forward, you can analyze your every success and every failure. That is, if you imprint these 17 principles indelibly in your memory, you may develop and maintain a permanent positive mental attitude by making it your responsibility to adopt and apply these 17 principles in your daily living. There is no other known method by which you may keep your mind positive. Analyze yourself courageously now. Learn which of these 17 principles you have been using and which of them you have been neglecting. Life never leaves us stranded. If life hands us a problem, it hands us the abilities to overcome that problem. Our abilities vary of course as we are motivated to use them.

Dr. Mike Murdock, when teaching about his seven Wisdom Keys to changing your life, relates the following:

1. What you tolerate, you cannot change.

2. What you respect, you will attract. If you are trying to live without something, you have no respect for it and your life will not change.

3. What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you. Bless them and go to God for your harvest.

4. The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. Successful men do daily what unsuccessful men do only occasionally.

5. Your rewards in life are decided by the kinds of problems that you are willing to solve for others.

6. If you insist on taking something God did not give you, he will take back something he gave you. A 10% tithe is a seed of authorization to God so that He can bless the 90%.

7. An uncommon seed will always create an uncommon harvest. Take inventory of your seeds, not your needs. There are two kinds of seeds; those you plant in a time of crisis and those that you plant in obedience.

This all goes back to being happy. Count your blessings. Search for a way to be useful. Go into mental action if you are physically handicapped. Work out a plan. Become part of a team. Have definiteness of purpose. You can achieve more with a positive mental attitude.

Happiness must be our foundation for change. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all worthwhile achievement. When you have selected some specific goals, and stated them so clearly that you can actually see them in your mind's eye, success principles will begin to operate automatically. Your personal picture of success becomes a self-motivating symbol. When it becomes a part of you, you dare to aim higher.

Make it your responsibility to adopt these principles in your daily living to change the course of your life.

Works cited: Success Magazine June/July 2008 DualDisc

Dr. Mike Murdock, Television program June 22, 2008

Submitted by Amelia Johnson