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Episode 1022 · Oct 8, 2024

Think and Grow Rich: Desire, Faith, and Affirmations

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In one of the most timeless books ever written, Napoleon Hill laid out a blueprint that has helped millions create extraordinary lives. In this episode of the Daily Mastermind, George Wright III digs into the first three chapters of *Think and Grow Rich* and shows how these foundational principles can shift your mindset and your results starting today.

Hill's framework is not a collection of motivational platitudes. It is a precise, sequential strategy for rewriting the beliefs your environment has conditioned into you and replacing them with the ones that serve the life you were meant to live.

Why Desire Is the Starting Point of Every Achievement

Napoleon Hill calls desire the starting point of success, and George makes clear it is more than a wish. A burning desire is a direct reflection of what you truly want at the deepest level.

It's not just the fuel you use. It's actually a reflection of what you ultimately want.

If you genuinely desire something, your daily actions will show it. If your actions contradict your stated goals, that is a signal worth paying attention to.

Hill outlines six concrete steps to crystallize and pursue a burning desire. Using money as an example:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount you want. 2. Decide what you are prepared to give in return. 3. Set a definite date by which you will have it. 4. Prepare a definite plan and begin it immediately. 5. Write a clear statement combining steps one through four. 6. Read that statement aloud twice daily, as if it is already yours.

That sixth step is where many people stumble. The instruction to read the statement as if you have already got it is not a feel-good exercise. The subconscious mind cannot distinguish between a vividly imagined reality and an actual one. That is the mechanism Hill is using.

How Faith Turns Desire into Action

The second chapter is on faith, and its placement directly after desire is intentional. George notes that belief is built from past experience, but faith is a decision you can make right now regardless of evidence.

Napoleon Hill defines it this way: faith is a state of mind that can be induced by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind. That means faith is not passive. You cultivate it deliberately.

In actual life, every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith.

When you step outside your comfort zone, whether in business, relationships, or any new endeavor, you have no track record to draw on. Belief cannot help you there. Faith can. Think of it as the fertilizer that grows your desire from a seed into something real.

What Auto-Suggestion Actually Does in Your Brain

Chapter three introduces auto-suggestion, what most people today call affirmations. The principle is simple: repeat your written desire clearly and consistently until it is burned into your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious is ultimately the driver of your intuition, your gut feelings, and the inspired ideas that come to you unbidden. Feeding it the right input is not wishful thinking. It is intentional programming.

George is direct about the catch: auto-suggestion without effort does not work.

The key is it needs to be combined with effort and work.

You still need the definite plan from chapter one. You still need to put in the time. But when you pair a written statement with daily repetition, read as if the outcome has already happened, you create a daily ritual that trains your mind to work for you around the clock.

Why You Are More Deserving Than You Think

One barrier George addresses is the quiet belief that you are not worthy or deserving of what you want. He is unambiguous: that belief is conditioning from your environment, not the truth about you.

Your mind is being programmed constantly, whether you are paying attention or not. Every conversation, every media input, every offhand comment from people around you shapes what your subconscious accepts as real. Auto-suggestion is your tool to take that programming back into your own hands.

Action Steps

  • Write a specific, dated desire statement: what you want, when you want it, and what you are prepared to give in return.
  • Read that statement aloud twice a day, morning and evening, as if you already have it.
  • Make a conscious decision to apply faith to your desire, treating it as a state of mind you choose rather than something that arrives on its own.
  • Audit your daily actions against your stated desires. If they do not align, your subconscious is working from a different script.
  • Protect your mental environment deliberately. Recognize that environmental conditioning shapes your subconscious whether or not you engage with it intentionally.

These three chapters are the foundation that everything else in *Think and Grow Rich* builds on. George will continue through the book in the days ahead, covering specialized knowledge, imagination, and organized planning. It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

Okay, welcome back to the Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. Welcome back to the Mastermind. It seems like I just started doing the podcast yesterday, but I've been doing this for a while now. And as many of you know, that have been listening for a while, you know, I started the Daily Mastermind as a way for myself to gain that daily inspiration, motivation, and continue to learn and grow. And, you know, I've enjoyed that, and now it's turned into something that's a true passion project. And today, and this week, we're talking about ways to change your reality, and talking about how we can start creating the life that you are meant to live at a better, bigger, more ongoing level. So we're talking about the book, Think and Grow Rich, which I believe is one of the ultimate guides to taking control of your life and crafting a true plan that you could go back to. And like me, maybe you've read it multiple times and depending on where you're at in your life, there's new insights that you can gain from this book. In fact, I've heard that many truly successful people have read this book 20, 30, 40 times. And I believe that because I've done that. I've probably read it at least a dozen times, skipping through, but also reading it cover to cover. So I want to talk to you today about sort of the first three chapters of this book, and I'm going to break them down over the next week just to give you some of my insights, some thoughts, because one of the things I truly believe is that Think and Grow Rich, it's definitely a pattern, a strategy, a plan you can use to create success. I mean, look, success leaves clues, and more, I really believe this, more success has been created from that book than any other. After 80 years and over 100 million copies sold. Outside the Bible, this book is literally one of the best-selling books of all time, admittedly by many of the greatest leaders that we've heard of. So today I want to talk to you about these first three chapters. And it's sort of laying the foundation of what you need to do because it talks about your desire, your faith, and auto-suggestion or affirmations. And I think there's a couple of quick thoughts I want to give you on these, and then I'll let you get going throughout your day. So let's kick it right off with desire. What is desire? You know, desire, Napoleon Hill talks about, is the starting point to success. And it's perhaps the most important principle that you need to learn and you need to identify. And a lot of us don't really think about it. We just think about what's our motivation, right? But desire is a reflection of what you truly want. What do you desire? What is it that you truly want in life? It's not just described as because Napoleon Hill talks about it as a burning desire it's not just the fuel you use it's it's actually a reflection of what you ultimately want and I here to tell you that if you desire it you can achieve it or you wouldn have look I don believe that we would be given these desires or these dreams that we have inside ourselves if we didn have the ability to achieve them I just don't think that would be the case. You wouldn't have those if the possibility wasn't there. But how do you create a burning desire? How do you create this drive? Because if it's a burning desire, if it's something you truly desire, then it should be reflected in your day-to-day because if your actions don't reflect what you say you want then it's doubtful that you truly want it. So it's all about your approach and it's all about this concept that how you do anything is how you do everything and so you have to ask yourself when it comes to your desires are you all in? Are you sort of wondering or testing or hedging your bets or are you all in? And in this chapter Napoleon Hill talks about six steps that you can use to achieve your desire. And I believe that the steps are sort of a way to kind of clarify and also pursue your desires as a burning desire. So let me give you kind of a quick rundown example of the six steps that he talks about. And we'll use the example of money. And I realize some of you might have a desire for a relationship or communication or lifestyle, whatever it is. But let's use money for this example. The first step is to fix in your mind the exact amount of money that you want in your possession or the desire that you want. Fix in your mind exactly what you want. And second, decide what it is you're prepared to give in return for that desire. Maybe it's time, it's money, maybe it's not doing certain things, maybe it's committing to something. But fix in your mind your desire, decide what you're willing to give up for that. Third, select a definite date. What is the time? A timeline I can't overemphasize enough is so important to have a timeline in your desire. And then prepare a definite plan. Obviously, the plan is going to be important, but you've got to begin that plan immediately to go closer towards your desire. And step five is, based on the first four steps, you know, fixing your mind, what are you going to give up, what's a date, and what's the plan, write down a clear statement of exactly what it is. So in the case of money, write down exactly the money that you're going to get, the time that you're going to get it in, what you're willing to give up, and what you're going to do to get it. And writing that statement down is key. And then the sixth step, which actually will lead to, you know, this third thing I talk about today is read your written statement out loud every day. And here's the key. Listen to me here. Read it as if you've already got it, as if it's already in your possession. Because see, the subconscious mind doesn't differentiate between reality and not reality. It's sort of why your mind at times when you're watching a movie, you could just get so sucked into it that you feel it, right? Or a dream, you wake up from a dream and you just felt real. Because what we're doing here with your desire is we're trying to clarify it, give, you know sacrifice for it a date a time a plan and then write a statement that you can use This is the true way that Napoleon Hill talks about you following and accomplishing your desires achieving your desires And so desire was the first thing I wanted to kind of highlight. The second chapter is on faith. And it's interesting that this is the very second thing that he puts in there, but faith is really that key element that's going to help you to accomplish your desire. And remember that faith, I've talked about this before, it's a decision. It's different from belief, where beliefs come from your experience. Faith is something you could decide to do. Napoleon Hill says, faith is a state of mind that can be induced by affirmations or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind. So this goes back to this idea that it could be a decision that you can also ingrain in your mind and increase and build and grow your faith. Another method that can provide the faith required is to create a mental image of achieving your desire over and over and over, like we talked about in the first one. When you get clear, super clear, and you create that image in your mind of what you have as if you already have it, it begins to build your faith. And this chapter is just filled with examples of how people throughout history accomplished massive things through faith, faith applied to their desire. You know, there's a great quote that says, in actual life, every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith. Because everything we do outside our comfort zone and life, business, relationships, it's all going to require faith because you don't have any belief that it's going to happen because it's new to you. So remember, when you apply faith to the desire you have, you'll begin to manifest or create what you're actually desiring. And that's the key. You have to apply. It's almost like faith is that fertilizer or water that's going to grow towards your desire, and it stems from what's deep inside you already. So just remember, you do have the talent. If you have inside you a desire or dream that you want, just know that that is something that is going to be possible for you. But all great things require some sort of faith. So make sure you take time to cultivate your faith. Now, the third chapter, this is the one on auto-suggestion. It's probably one you've all heard about or, you know, affirmations is something you've thought of before, but I want to give you a different take on this. This is the way you can actually drill into your subconscious mind and get your subconscious mind working for you through repetition, through repetition. The idea here is that you can concentrate your mind on what you desire so clearly and so often and repeatedly until you burn into your subconscious mind that it's a reality. And your subconscious mind is ultimately what's going to help you to create what you want, because this is something that, you know, sometimes you'll actually, you'll have that inspiration or gut feeling or intuition. These things come from your deep desires and your subconscious mind. And so that's why you want to follow your gut sometimes, right? But the key here is it needs to be combined with effort and work So many people feel like they can law of attraction their way to get what they want you know just repetition and affirmations But it going to take work It going to take like we talked about in that first section finding and creating a definite plan what you going to give up for it, and doing the work of the plan to get you there. And when you combine the principles of repetition, right, auto-suggestion to a written statement, like we talked about, it forms an awesome daily ritual. It's one that will train your mind to go to work for you. So when you say things like, I will, you know, I see myself as this, I will have this, I am going to, you know, and you have your written statement, whatever it is, you know, the point is, is whether it's your business, your finances, your relationships, write down that written statement, put a date on it, and then read that statement as if it's already happened. And that is a key principle that's difficult for us to do because here's the thing sometimes we don't accomplish the things we want in life because we really just don't believe that we're worthy or deserve them and one of the things I wanted to kind of comment on I'm going to let you go here is I really believe that if you don't feel that you're good enough or you're not worthy or you don't deserve something that is nothing more than conditioning and brainwashing that you've had from your environment from people around you because I truly believe that we're all deserving of greatness. We're all here for a reason. And affirmations, that's your secret weapon. Auto-suggestion is your secret weapon to be able to help you to program your own mind in a positive direction instead of letting it get programmed from your environment. Because make no mistake, whether you're being proactive or not, your mind is being programmed from everything around you. So just in review here real quick, we talked about desire and how you've really got to clarify what it is you want. And then you have to apply faith, which is that fuel and that decision to chase it and to go after it. And then using the power of auto-suggestion, you can ingrain that faith and build that faith and help you to accomplish your desires if it's already happened. Those are the first three chapters of the book, and I really encourage you to dig deep into it. tomorrow we're going to talk a little bit more about specialized knowledge, the imagination, and organized planning, creating a plan. And then we'll continue to go throughout the book. So that's my message for today. Do me a favor, a small favor, if you wouldn't mind, like and subscribe this podcast and share it with someone. Share it with someone that you know. It would mean the world to me. I think it'd make a difference in a lot of people's lives. I'm out at a high-end mastermind this week. And so I'm talking with a lot of people and I can tell that there's a lot of people out there that need these messages. And so that's why I do it as well in addition to for myself. So that's my message for today. I hope you have an amazing day and I'll look forward to talking with you more tomorrow.

About the host
George Wright III, host of The Daily Mastermind

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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