In this episode of “Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom,” Paul H. Flowers Jr. continues his series interpreting Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. After recapping the first two steps—Desire (a six‑step plan for defining a specific monetary goal and repeating it twice daily) and Faith (building confidence through a five‑step formula)—he delves into the third step: auto‑suggestion. Flowers explains auto‑suggestion as the process of consciously feeding the subconscious mind with positive, present‑tense affirmations, repeated aloud, in sleep, and during daily activities. He stresses the importance of phrasing affirmations affirmatively (“I am the number one agent”) rather than negatively (“I will not be broke”), arguing that the subconscious only registers the literal words. Using personal anecdotes from his sales career, he illustrates how consistent, emotionally‑charged affirmations led to repeated top‑performer results. He introduces several metaphors—a garden where seeds must be watered with high‑pH alkaline water (positive language) rather than soda or gasoline, and a mountain climb that must always ascend—to convey the need for continual, disciplined practice. Flowers outlines a practical routine: write affirmations, phrase them positively, repeat them at least twice a day (morning and evening), and pair them with strong emotion. He warns that affirmation alone is insufficient; action must accompany thought, referencing the original desire step’s action plan. Finally, he encourages listeners to adopt a childlike, innocent approach to the process, trusting the method while persisting through ups and downs. The episode ends with a call to integrate desire, faith, and auto‑suggestion—what he calls “Act and Grow Rich”—and a promise to continue the series.
Chapters
Welcome to Wednesday's Words of Wisdom. Paul H. Flowers Jr. here, and this week we're in part 3 of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Third step is auto-suggestion. Just to recap on the first couple of steps, we first talked about desire, where there was a 6-step program outlined in order to actually help you to see what it is that you wanna do, right? Whatever it is that you wanna do, ideally most people are doing this surrounding money or some sort of monetary gain. You would write it out, write the definite amount that you want, give it a timeline, what are you expecting to give in terms for the service, actually put the plan in place and say it out loud twice a day, write the plan out, say it out loud twice a day. Then last week we discussed faith. Well, you have to have some sort of faith or belief in something, right? And this is really the faith and belief in yourself. So we talked about how to develop the confidence by another 5-step formula in order to actually develop the faith to put your plans in action, to be able to accomplish and obtain the things that you wish and desire for. Now, I had some questions about the process of obtaining faith, and we actually alluded to it last week when we discussed how to obtain faith, how to have faith, and that came through the idea of autosuggestion. So that's what's in Chapter 3— excuse me, that's what's in Chapter 4, but it's the third step from, again, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich that outlines what autosuggestion is. And this is really one of my favorite parts of the book because it talks about something that we don't talk about, which is what we talk about, but what we talk about to ourselves. So with this idea of autosuggestion as a catalyst for faith. Auto-suggestion says, you know what you want and you've gotta tell yourself that this is what's going to be. You have to have an insane amount of belief. I mean, belief so strong that somebody comes to you and they can't shake it out of you. They can't shoot it out of you, they can't do anything but rely on your conviction. And because you'll be so convinced about whatever it is that you want, they too will be just as convinced for you. Thereby you bring more belief, more energy into whatever it is that your goal is, more substantiating, more substance to it. Alright, so autosuggestion is quite frankly really the only way to influence the subconscious mind, and this is a really, really simple topic. You have to say these things, you have to repeat things out loud to yourself, you have to say them in your sleep, you have to say them in your wake time, you have to dream about it You almost become obsessive with that which you want, and that comes through influencing your subconscious mind through repeating these things over and over and over. Now, how you repeat it is really the specific part that most people want to pay attention to. When you repeat these things, you're not repeating them in a way that's against you. In other words, you're not having an affirmation that says, "Well, I'm not going to be broke." Right? Because your subconscious is only hearing, "Broke, broke, broke." Right? I'm not gonna be broke. I'm not gonna be poor. I'm not gonna drive this car for longer. Well, if you keep saying it like that, then you're gonna keep getting more of that. So it's those little parts of language that make a difference in how you actually pick up what it is that you want to have. Right? How it is that you feel about a thing. What kind of emotional support you'll be giving it yourself, right, comes from how you're actually putting it out there for you to have it. That makes sense. You're giving yourself either leverage, right, or a lesson in something that you'll look back on later and say, wow, I wish I had done it a little differently, right? So you've got to give that leverage to yourself by stating these things, but you're stating them in the affirmative. I used to train for a living. And I would tell agents, you have to say that I am number one, I am the best agent. Not I'm going to be, not I want to be, not I'm thinking about it, not I might be someday, but I am today. In fact, my own story followed that up quite well, just as a living testimony to going in with the right attitude and using this method of positive affirmations for the things that you want and expect to happen on a daily basis. Daily and consistently I'd say to myself, "I'm the number one agent, I'm the top closer, I'm the best salesperson here," right at that last company. And what happened? I did that month after month, week after week, season after season, I'd be at the top. Well, it's not magic, it's not because, you know, Paul has some special formula for success. I mean, it is, but it's not something that's so secret that you can't have it too. It just took discipline to do it. It took not making excuses about the language skills that you have and how you actually practice those language skills in order to give yourself the advantage for your future over your previous self. So if you don't work on changing your language into the positive and affirmative for now, you're only damaging yourself for later. So you want to make sure that when you're talking to yourself, when you're having these conversation with yourself, when you've got your index cards and you've written out statements of affirmation, that you're putting them in a way that's gonna be beneficial to the future you. And that future you starts now, right? That future you starts with what you say to yourself today, tomorrow, next week, next month. And that you a year from now is starting with the you that you're talking about and bringing into fruition right now. So consider that when you write down these things. The dominating thoughts in your mind are the ones that you put there, and you have to ask yourself, what do I want there? Do I want to think that I'm not going to be a failure, or subconsciously you're hearing failure, or do you want to say that I am a success, right? I'm an absolute success in whatever it is that I endeavor upon, right? The latter is obviously the one that most people feel comfortable with But the former is the one that we say, right? I'm not gonna be bad, I'm not gonna be broke, I'm not gonna be this. But we don't talk about ourselves in a positive way to give our future selves the ability to grow from that in which we say today. It's almost like a garden, if you will. If you are in the garden, you're putting the seeds in there, right? But you've gotta water those seeds. Now, what do you wanna water them with? I mean, you can water them with Kool-Aid. You can water with Pepsi, you can water with gasoline, or you can water them with high pH alkaline water that's been proven to actually grow the seeds faster and more full. And so you have to think about what kind of water am I putting on the seeds that I'm giving for myself to grow into down the line. Now, are you giving yourself soda pop, right? Are you putting pop on your own seeds? Are you putting ginger ale on your seeds? Are you shaking it up, putting a little tequila on it, right? What are you doing with the seeds that you're planning for your future self. You have to put high pH alkaline water on it. You have to give yourself the most positive affirmations that you can to give yourself the best chance of obtaining that which you desire in the future. But that will only happen if you pay the price, right? And what's the price? Well, it takes time. There's no shortcuts to success. There's not going to be a thing that you can do and write down and say once that will absolutely happen and come to fruition You have to do this on a continual basis. It's going to be the morning time. You're going to say, "Why am I talking to myself in the morning?" And as soon as you say that, switch it, right? Turn it into whatever that affirmation is for you. In the afternoon, you might say, "Oh," you find yourself getting down and whatever it is. We have these ups and downs, right? It happens. We're human. But it's those people that can take those downs and immediately bring them back up that make the difference between the mediocre or kind of ones that just ride the line versus the ones that shhew. Kind of ride that rocket ship to success. So it's a practice that you cannot skip. You can't say, well, maybe I'll practice it on Monday and I'll be entirely positive on Monday, but by the time Tuesday comes around, I'll let everything else that I was positive about on Monday that I let get past me, I'll let it get to me today. But it's okay, I can take the negativity today because I'll be more positive on Wednesday, right? So you're up on Monday You're down on Tuesday and you're up on Wednesday. But realize this, it's almost like climbing a mountain, right? If you go up this mountain, what point is it, uh, for what purpose is it that you would choose to then start going down this mountain if your goal is to be at the top? Think about that. For what purpose would you climb a mountain, start going down to then go back up? No, if you've got a path to the top, you stay on that path to the top. Now, that path might not be entirely smooth, right? That path might have some curves in it, it might absolutely have some bumps, you might scrape yourself on a tree on the way through, but you have to stay on that path that's going up, not on the one that you choose to then take down to bring back up. Because it's something about when you go down and then attempt to come back up that makes that second rising so much harder. So when you take that rising from the beginning, again, take the curves, take the bumps, take the bruises, take the scrapes along the way, but you continue to rise even if it's only an inch, right? You're not going up feet at a time, you're not going up miles at a time, but you're still rising. That makes the difference. That's how you're paying the price, and that's how you're subconsciously programming yourself to actually have the faith that you want, which is going to, again, when you mix it with emotion, bring about the things that you desire. Now emotion is a really interesting one. I mean, 'cause some people say, "Well, wait, I thought I just had to say the words." Well, think about your favorite song, whatever it is. Think about your absolute favorite song. How would that song feel for you if they just sang it like this? Dry red eyes, get clear eyes. Anybody ever heard the Clear Eyes guy? Think of your absolute favorite song. For those of you who like Michael Jackson, Tupac, Chief Keef, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, whoever. Imagine Beyoncé singing one of her most famous and popular songs in a flat tone. It wouldn't be Beyoncé, right? It's only because Beyoncé chose to mix those words with an emotion that it gives you the feeling that you have when you listen to the music. Think about it. There's not a song out there that's sung in a monotone fashion that a person actually enjoys listening to. Maybe some mumble rap, but that's about it. Quite frankly, even that has emotion in it from the artist. They're giving themselves, right, into these words. They're pairing themselves with these words, they're becoming one with these words, and they're giving them to their listeners. You are your audience. You are your listener. You have to have some emotion with the words and consistently practice putting them in place in your subconscious mind if you wanna actually bring about the success that you desire. If you choose to act and grow rich and not just think, then you have to follow these steps. You have to pay the price. You have to positively water the things that you're putting into your mind with the right word choices. And if you're having trouble with that, again, work on that confidence from the previous video. There was a formula in there to develop the confidence so that you'll actually do the thing. Because most people will say, "Yes, I wanna be rich. Yes, I wanna go after my goals and dreams. Yes, I wanna get that car. Yes, I wanna have this degree. Yes, I wanna lose this weight." And then they're stinking— excuse me, they're thinking is stinking, right? So they're stinking up all the future them because they look at themselves and say, "Man, I'm just fat." No, you're on a weight loss journey, right? "Man, I'm broke." No, you're temporarily deprived of the dollars that you want, right? But you're en route to the dollars that you do. So you have to look at how you're talking about your current situation because I promise you it's going to make a difference to your future situation. So make sure that with this auto-suggestion you're A, again, writing these things down, B, you're writing them in the affirmative, and C, you're using that step from the very first video on desire where you're repeating these things to yourself at least twice a day. So again, in the morning and in the evening. So that you can actually bring about that belief, mix that with the emotion, and put that into the universe so that it can start to work on your behalf. Now, you still have to work too, right? Don't think that just because you think about it and you're emotional about it and you feel it inside when you say it, that it's just gonna magically come and you don't take a step, right? You don't walk outside the door to go and greet the very thing that you feel should be delivered to you. It's like expecting a package from Amazon but not opening the door when they deliver it, right? That doesn't make sense. So you have to take some action which should have been written and outlined in the plans from step 1, which was desire. So again, do it like a child, right? Have that childlike innocence and ignorance when it comes to this process because again, you're gonna start doubting yourself the moment you do it, right? It's happening, it happens, it's relatively normal for a person to do so. But for you, if you do it like a child, right, if you act as a child who's innocent and ignorant and doesn't know any better, take these steps, put them into action, they'll absolutely work for you. So again, we started with desire, we then mixed it with faith, and we found that the best way to have faith in your life is through the principle of autosuggestion. So again, take these words, make them positive, mix them with emotion, practice, practice, practice keeping yourself in that positive state by putting that positive emotion with the things that you actually see yourself having, the way that you see yourself being in the future. And I'm just absolutely looking forward to and excited at the results that are going to come for your life. So again, Paul H. Flowers Jr. here going over Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and my version, my take on it, which is Act and Grow Rich, so we can put the action behind the thoughts. Until next week, ladies and gentlemen, you have a great night. Bye for now.
