11. Find your master key
I used to have the feeling that everyone else in life had at one time or another been issued instruction books on how to make life work. And I, for some reason, wasn't there when they passed them out.
I felt a little like the Spanish poet Cesar Vallejo, who wrote, "Well, on the day I was born, God was sick."
Still struggling in my mid-30s with a pessimistic outlook and no sense of purpose, I voiced my frustration once to a friend of mine, Dr. Mike Killebrew, who recommended a book to me. Until that time, I didn't really believe that there could be a book that could tell you how to make your life work.
The name of the book was The Master Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill. It sat on my shelf for quite awhile. I didn't believe in motivational books or self-help. They were for weak and gullible fools. I was finally persuaded to read the book by the word riches in the title. Riches would be a welcome addition to my life. Riches were probably what I needed to make me happy and wipe out my troubles.
What the book actually did was a lot more than increase my earning capacity (although by practicing the principles in the book, my earnings doubled in less than a year). Napoleon Hill's advice ultimately sparked a fire in me that changed my entire life.
I soon acquired an ability that I would later realize was self-motivation. After reading that book, I read all of Napoleon Hill's books. I also began buying motivational audiobooks for listening to in my car and for playing by my bed as I went to sleep each night. Everything I had learned in school, in college, and from my family and friends was out the window. Without fully understanding it, I was engaging in the process of completely rebuilding my own thinking. I was, thought by thought, replacing the old cynical and passive orientation to life with a new optimistic and energetic outlook.
So, what is this master key to riches?
"The great master key to riches," said Hill, "is nothing more or less than the self-discipline necessary to help you take full and complete possession of your own mind. Remember, it is profoundly significant that the only thing over which you have complete control is your own mental attitude."
Taking complete possession of my own mind would be a lifelong adventure, but it was one that I was excited about beginning.
Maybe Hill's book will not be your own master key, but I promise you that you'll find an instruction book on how to make your life work if you keep looking. It might be The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, The Last Word in Power by Tracy Goss, Frankenstein's Castle by Colin Wilson, or The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden. All those books would have worked the primary transformation for me, and they have all taken me higher up the motivational ladder. Your own key might even come from the spiritual literature of your choice. You'll find it when you're ready to seek. It's out there waiting for you.