The power of autosuggestion as talked about in the Napoleon Hill’s book of Golden Rules, transcends what the writer puts into perspective in this particular book. Here’s how:

The author had a regular practice of thinking up imaginary meetings where he would sit down and chat with distinguished guests such as Abraham Lincoln, Socrates and Aristotle to mention a few. House of wax type of setting.

During these meetings, Hill would concentrate on certain characteristics of his guests that he hoped to make his own. In Lincoln’s case, he hoped to take on his ability to be fair, to help others and to be courageous in finding new ways of doing things. Every night, Hill would spend an hour performing this exercise, adding more inspiring figures to his meetings as he would learn about them.

Later, Hill found that using autosuggestion to focus on inspiring thoughts one can grow their personality, change their way of thinking and ultimately find transformative success. As a result, Hill was able to overcome his fear of public speaking taking on qualities of successful orators such as the abolitionist clergyman Henry ward Beecher.

Autosuggestion allows you to shape how develop as an individual by feeding your mind inspiring thoughts and images.

Now take the practice of autosuggestion and use it when reading the Bible especially the stories of people God used and their characteristics. Jesus with the highest number of followers, illuminate’s godliness in a nutshell.

I used this skill when reading the first chapter of Genesis and I have to say I gained much insight than I ever did while cramming the days of creation in a CRE class.

For starters, we learn than God is an artist. In his days of creation, he showed that creativity is work. It states clearly that in the beginning God created (worked) and not ‘sat majestic in the heavens.’ On the contrary, he designed planned, focused on one major task in a day and on the seventh day, he rested to enjoy the view and the fruits of his work. Productivity 101. This is it.  

He prioritized, then tackled one major task at a time.

He was not overwhelmed by success nor did He compare Himself with anyone. After all, He was alone. He literally had a vision and worked hard to see it to fruition.  What this highlights is how the power of muting distractions and having focus can work to our advantage. By not comparing ourselves against others, we learn to trust in the process and have faith that we shall attain our goals.

God’s achievement took him only seven days because He is supernatural. On the other hand, we are just humans. This being no direct link on how to realize your dream in 7 days, if you pay close attention, you will note that the 7 days aren’t mentioned in the beginning of his creation: but after He completed his work. This tells us that we should not constrict our success with age or a particular timeline. God did not hurry and neither did He limit Himself with time.

If we trust in the process and focus on our goals, we are bound to see the fruits of our labour and have a rest on the seventh day. Again, God is supernatural: but look at this paragraph and ask yourself, are the characteristics mentioned above extraordinary from what any successful person has garnered or what any average human can exemplify?

It’s worth to note: although we might argue that God used word of mouth (Let there be…) to manifest creation, (Gen 1:3) from this we also learn that, what we envision starts the moment we have the right words to describe it. Example; can you have a successful business without having a Business canvas to describe/illuminate what it is you sell, your niche, target audience, benefits?

A dream will always begin with a word. It takes time and a process for the dream to become a reality. Imagine Israel was rescued from slavery overnight yet it took 40 years to reach Canaan? From today’s geography, we learn that Canaan is 8482 KM from Egypt through Philistia. Israelites could have used the way of the Philistines as the shortcut instead of the roundabout by way of the wilderness, which is where God led them. (Exodus 13:17-18)

 A journey of 11 days took them 40 years. Trust in the process.

Genesis also teaches us to believe that it is okay to rethink our strategies. It is okay to go back to the drawing board. Illustration: After God finished His creation and had man living on earth, what came after marred his beautiful work with sins, jealousy and murder in the case of Abel and Cain and the arrogance at the tower of Babel.

God instead changed the strategy from creating solo and used man to continue His work. Creation didn’t stop after the seventh day, He used people like Abraham, Joseph, Noah, Esther, Rebekah, Rachel and now you to restructure the world and restore the beauty, it was. This also highlights that after success we should not stop, but work harder to change the world into a better place.

Then God made man on the sixth day, Gen 1: 24. He was tasked with ruling over all creation, naming and guiding the earth’s proper use. It is mentioned that God took delight in the names man called the animals and whatever name man came up with, so it was. What does this say, we are sired to be rulers and governors of the earth and all its creation, with the potential and skills we already have.

Nature was gifted to man for his use and it is only logic that as humans we should take responsibilities for our actions. In this case, as superior beings, we should be responsible for what we use from the Garden of Eden (the earth), and hence conserve animals and the environment. From David Orr, “when we heal the earth,we heal ourselves.”

Adam and Eve were the originals, setting rules, principles and standards for everything that followed. Their lives illustrates how God expects us to govern living things on earth and what He loathes. From this not only do we learn that we are inventors and trendsetters but education is only a tool meant to expand our understanding of worldly trends, changes and guide us systematically in implementing what we already know. Adam and Eve were ecologists with no degree nor formal education. This only shows that as knowledgeable creatures we are made with the potential to do anything we want to and in this digital era ask Marie Forleo; she will tell you ‘Everything is figureoutable.’

On the seventh day, God rested and made this day holy. Instinctively, this could be a good time to reconnect with God as He is not hard at work. In retrospect, we deserve to take the time off and rest for optimal productivity. We need the time to focus on ourselves, recharge and what a better time to disconnect to reconnect.

Like they say, sometimes you need a wise sage to answer your questions. Other times you just need to look into the Big Book siting somewhere in the shelves, waiting to remind you of how dusty your house is.

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Call to action: Which figures and their characteristics help you develop your personality? Most importantly, can you recall a time you saw God in someone? Any faith applies.  

Actionable advice on productivity: One main priority a day; has Genesis given you a head start for a productive week ahead?