The Choice of Two Envelopes

Since I can remember, I always had a pretty positive mental attitude which I believe has helped me get through many of the health ailments I have lived through and are living with today. A healthy PMA can help you live a happy life no matter what you may be dealing with. This is taken from a book I am currently reading called, "Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement" by Napoleon Hill. I liked this one chapter so much that I wanted to share some of it with you all today!

"At birth you arrive figuratively clutching two sealed envelopes. One is labeled "Rewards" and the other "Penalties".The first envelope contains a list of all the benefits you will enjoy from taking possession of your own mind and using it to get what you want. The second carries a list of the consequences that will befall you if you neglect controlling your mind and directing it toward a worthwhile goal.

If you do not use a muscle, it will wither and become useless. If you do not use the powers of your mind, they will do the same thing. Your brain and your life will become subject to every passing influence, unable to resist them or to act positively-unless you fix your mind on the object of your desire and create and act upon a plan for attaining it.

You've probably heard something like the old saying, "Success attracts success while failure attracts more failure." Nothing could be more true. Striving for success makes you better able to attain it. Doing nothing and accepting failure only brings more failure your way.

If you put your mind to work with a positive mental attitude and believe that success is your right, your belief will guide you unerringly toward whatever your definition of success might be. If you adopt a negative mental attitude and fill your mind with thoughts of fear and frustration, your mind will only draw those same things to you. That is the power of mental attitude. Why not make yours positive?"

Rewards of Positive Mental Attitude

If you take possession of your mind and direct it toward desirable goals, you will enjoy:

1. Success consciousness, which attracts other means for success
2. Sound health, both physical and mental
3. Financial independence
4. A labor of love in which to expose yourself
5. Peace of mind
6. Applied faith, which makes fear impossible
7. Enduring friendships
8. Longevity and a well-balanced life
9. Immunity from self-limitation
10. The wisdom to understand yourself and others


Penalties of a Negative Mental Attitude

If you neglect taking possession of your mind and directing it toward a worthwhile goal, you are doomed to:

1. Poverty and misery your entire life
2. Mental and physical ailments of all kinds
3. Self-limitations which trap
4. Fear and all its destructive consequences
5. Hatred of the means by which you support yourself
6. Many enemies and few friends
7. Every brand of worry known to humanity
8. Being a victim of every negative influence you encounter
9. Subjection to the will of others
10. A wasted life which does nothing to better the human condition

[Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement; Chapter 7 pg. 86-88 :Napoleon Hill]

The choice is yours! What will it be? If you do not make the first one and gladly accept it without hesitation, the second will be bound to you. There is no middle point, no bargains or special deals. So the choice is yours! Which will it be?