This chapter is very long and dense so I am taking the Initiative (yuk yuk) to break it up into 2 parts. Please enjoy my blog!

The Fifth Law of Success (Part 1)

Initiative and Leadership

"Initiative is the passkey that opens the door to opportunity!" -N. Hill

The Secret Sauce

Napoleon starts this chapter by giving us the secret ingredient to success. He states, "The world bestows it's big prizes, both in money and honors, for one thing, and that is INITIATIVE!"
So what is Initiative? I'll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told and/or only being told once.
Hill goes on to introduce this phrase goes like this: "Render more service than that for which you are paid and you will soon be paid for more than you render." Showing initiative in this way has yielded me lots of success over the years. I still use this idea every time I sit down to write a new steemit post.... I aim to bring you value with little or no expectation of pay in return. However, I am receiving value in return for my initiative in many ways beyond money. For example, I am meeting new great people such as you, I'm become part of the greater steemit community, adding data to the blockchain, I'm becoming a better blogger, I am brushing up on this great book and teaching it to others and I am seeing new insights in the book I had missed!

The challenge is:

Procrastination is your potential enemy and must be eliminated by all means necessary. Thankfully, Hill shares a formula to combat this. He uses again this idea of auto suggestion as the weapon (see https://steemit.com/life/@ground2feet/books-that-changed-my-life-series-blog-4-law-of-success). He gives us another mantra with ourselves and has us put it up in our room and recite it before bed and when we wake. The idea here is to stomp procrastination out in the subconscience. I will share the mantra with you and I challenge you to print it out and take on an area of your life that you are putting off and apply it to this. Bonus points for you if you take that really big one that is most likely at the bottom of your list, but would have the biggest impact on your life!!
Here is the mantra read it before bed and when you wake for the next week:

Having chosen a definite chief aim as my life- work I now understand it to be my duty to transform this purpose into reality.
Therefore, I will form the habit of taking some definite action each day that will carry me one step nearer the attainment of my definite chief aim.
I know that procrastination is a deadly enemy of all who would become leaders in any undertaking, and I will eliminate this habit from my make-up by:
(a) Doing some one definite thing each day, that ought to be done, without anyone telling me to do it.
(b) Looking around until I find at least one thing that I can do each day, that I have not been in the habit of doing, and that will be of value to others, without expectation of pay.
(c) Telling at least one other person, each day, of the value of practicing this habit of doing something that ought to be done without being told to do it.
I can see that the muscles of the body become strong in proportion to the extent to which they are used, therefore I understand that the habit of initiative also becomes fixed in proportion to the extent that it is practiced.
I realize that the place to begin developing the habit of initiative is in the small, commonplace things connected with my daily work, therefore I will go at my work each day as if I were doing it solely for the purpose of developing this necessary habit of initiative.
I understand that by practicing this habit of taking the initiative in connection with my daily work I will be not only developing that habit, but I will also be attracting the attention of those who will place greater value on my services as a result of this practice.

Share It With Me

Please share with me what things you are taking off your to do list and what it feels like once its done! As for myself, I am going to tackle some court paper that I have been putting off far too long. This is that important one that will have the biggest impact on my life!!

Stay tuned for Part 2 on leadership