Principle 1: Definiteness of Purpose

Introduction 

Napoleon Hill is one of the widely read authors of history and his 17 principles of success are very popular among the masses. The first principle of 17 principles of success is the Definiteness of Purpose. He said that the Definiteness of Purpose is the starting point of all achievements. Suppose we are traveling with a supercar at an amazing speed of 250 mph but in the wrong direction then we can never reach our destination. We can reach our destination only when we have the right direction. In a similar way, Principle 1: Definiteness of Purpose is an absolute necessity for achieving great success. Napoleon Hill rightly said that “successful people always move on their own path but they know where they are going”.

Find Definiteness of Purpose in 3 Steps

We must not be a rudderless ship, powerless and directionless. We must also decide our target, execution plan and take daily small actions to achieve those big targets. We can find our purpose in 3 simple steps:
1. Guidance
Even great achievers have their personal coaches. They continuously work under the guidance of someone and hence achieve unimaginable victories. Here many people can say that they cannot afford a personal coach but Napoleon Hill suggests that we can have our imaginary Gurus also. He strongly advises us to read about Great leaders through their writings and when we know about great people then we can also think about their actions in adversities. In this way, we can have our breakfast with Abraham Lincoln, lunch with Mother Teresa, and dinner with Mahatma Gandhi.
2. Inner Instinct
Almost every one of us experiences inner voice or instincts in our daily lives. This inner instinct helps us to rationalize between right and wrong. Keep talking to your inner instinct and it will guide you to scale great peaks.
3. Apply 80:20 Principle
This principle is also known as the Pareto principle and we can do wonders by implementing this principle in our lives. This principle explains that there are certain activities that are only 20% of our work but can help us to achieve 80% of the results. We must focus on that 20% as the rest of 80% work is not that much important.

Summary

There are two very famous facts about Thomas Alva Edison which can further boost our motivation. Almost everyone knows that Edison is the man behind the invention of the light bulb but very few people know that he failed 10,000 times before the invention of the light bulb. Edison many times said, “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” The second fact was that Edison was totally deaf from one ear and hard of hearing from the other. He used this adversity as a boon because his deafness helped him to keep conversations short. Edison called himself a "two-shift person" because he worked 16 out of every 24 hours. Many times his wife used to remind him about sleep and food.
We can find our Definiteness of Purpose with the help of ways explained in this article and take inspiration from the life of Thomas Edison.