You’ll hear a lot of talk about principles and techniques when it comes to self improvement.

Techniques are touted as the “real world practical methods you can apply right now” while principles seem to be the “safe” answers, the general things that experts can “hide” behind when asked for specific things to do from their audience. They hide behind it by saying things like “all you need to know is these 10 principles to do x,y,z”.

Now don’t get me wrong, principles and techniques are great, but you have to understand the difference between them and moreover, know that there’s something even better than the two.

Techniques lie at the bottom of the hierarchy when it comes to doing anything. They’re action steps you can take right now to yield a type of result.

Go up a level and you then come to principles and it’s from principles that techniques are naturally derived.

To give a brief example illustrating the difference and relationship between the two, let’s say a person sets a goal of gaining some muscle.

One technique for doing that would be do to 3 sets of a particular exercise with weight heavy enough that he could only do 4-6 reps for each set.

The principle that technique is based upon is that you need to lift a heavy enough weight to literally tear your muscle tissue so that your body can rebuild it, thereby helping you gain muscle.

The technique was naturally derived from the principle.

If you focus on techniques alone, you don’t really understand exactly why you’re doing what you’re doing and you limit yourself because you don’t see the whole picture.

You’re only as good as the techniques you have. Moreover, you have no “compass” to guide you to see what other technique there might be.

Principles are the next level because if you focus on principles, then you naturally derive techniques from those principles.

Probably the easiest arena to illustrate the difference between the two is in the area of dating.

Say a nice guy first starts dating and things don’t go right. The ladies just don't seem all that into him. What will he do?

He will automatically go into “technique” mode, trying to learn the “rules of the game”.

You know the kind of techniques I’m talking about – act aloof, don’t call after three days, play it “cool”, etc., and so his behavior becomes “artificial”.

But what are these techniques based upon?

They’re based on a principle.

The principle that desperation drives the opposite sex away. But some people don’t understand the principle, so they focus on techniques and sure the techniques may “work”, but sooner or later, time will erode all the techniques away and show what lies beneath and the person will be at square one once again, reeking of desperation.

So through this, we can see that techniques are helpful, they can give you results, but ultimately they don’t last long if that’s all you got. Time will expose the superficiality of it all.

But if you understand the principle behind the techniques, you get a better understanding of the game and can use it to your advantage and develop more techniques based on that principle.

BUT, is there a third level, a third level that naturally induces principles the way principles naturally induce techniques?

There is – and this is the promised land for all areas of life, whether it’s business, sports, career, family life, etc.

This is the level you should strive for because it’s through this level, that principles are naturally learned and applied and techniques are naturally induced and it all starts to flow from there.

A lot of people, especially in the beginning, try to mimic techniques to get the same results as another person but that will only take you so far and limit you in the process in the sense that you’re only as good as the techniques you have.

Understanding the principles behind the techniques will broaden your understanding and vision and will help you generate more techniques, but that too will eventually limit you as well.

It’s understanding the THIRD level, the level ABOVE the principles you want to apply because it’s only through there, that you see the TRUE, big picture of how you can naturally apply the principles you need and the techniques that will flow from those principles.

Most people get stuck working on techniques. They never “get” it.

Some see the light and move on to principles.

But there are so many principles as there are techniques and they get lost trying to learn them all.

Experts realizing this proclaim that they’ve found THE 10 Principles or THE 7 Ultimate Principles, and while it’s a nice attempt to save the reader the time and pain of trying “filter”, you can always find more and more and more and more principles and argue that principles x,y,z are more important than principles a,b,c.

You want to derive the principles you need naturally and as a result derive the techniques you need naturally as a result too. So going back to the dating example, what is the “third level” that naturally induces the principle of not being desperate and naturally covers all the techniques to show you’re not desperate?

It’s what I wrote in my nice guy article which I will quote directly here below.

Nice guys revolve their entire lives around the women. Nice guys spend all their time dreaming of all the future possibilities with her. They do all this from the get go. What must I do to get her? I’ll write her poetry. I’ll take her out to the most expensive restaurant and show her how wealthy I am. I’ll buy her favorite pair of shoes that she mentioned in a conversation nine years ago. They’ll drop whatever they are doing at a drop of a dime and be at their beck and call 24/7.

All acts reeking of extreme desperation.

What’s the solution? Is it to try not to act desperate?

These are when the “rules of dating” come into play. Call her three days later, act aloof, be a challenge. That’s all utter garbage. That’s all smoke and mirrors.

Don’t try to fake not being desperate by following these “rules”. Just don’t be desperate naturally. How?

Don’t make women the focal point in your life. Have something else going for you. Have a worthy goal or dream you are pursuing that is of higher priority than women.

Have a dream. Have a goal and work toward it. Women will not seem that intimidating anymore. You won’t spend all your time with her. You won’t become “too easy” or “boring” because you’ve got something else going for you.

Instead of using all your time, money, and energy pursing women, use all that to accomplish your own goals. Napoleon Hill refers to this as sexual transmutation. Channel all that energy into fulfilling your own goals and you will find yourself unstoppable. Go on your own program of self improvement.

Nice guys place their worthiness and happiness on getting the girl. Instead of doing that, make your own life happy and worthwhile by pursuing your own goals and ambitions. Then, she’ll be the one asking, “What can I do to get him?”

By adopting that third level natural mindset, everything flows naturally. You induce the right principle and the “techniques” that result from this are purely natural. Pure byproducts. You don’t have to “force” it. It will withstand the test of time and prove to be rock solid.

This is the natural level. When you access this natural level, you naturally induce the principles and you naturally induce techniques that help get what you want.

It’s the same thing with goal achievement. Most people get caught up in the minutia of it all by focusing on techniques like chanting, reciting affirmations, or some kind of other mental ritual, thereby pigeon holing themselves with whatever technique they’re using.

Techniques are at the bottom of the list.

Techniques alone will get you nowhere.

Take for example, the technique of affirmations. You can do all the affirmations you want, but that alone will get you nowhere.

The principle behind affirmations is that it forces you to concentrate on something positive and it’s repetitious so it drives the positive belief in that much faster.

But what is the third level, the third level that induces all of that?

Well you guessed it. It’s the natural level and what’s the natural level?

It’s your natural success mechanism, which Napoleon Hill clearly alluded to as the hidden secret he left behind in his bestselling book Think and Grow Rich and it’s exactly what I outline in my book and prove with the clues Napoleon Hill gave. I also show exactly where it is in every chapter of Think and Grow Rich. When you access this natural level, you don’t have to learn every single principle and every single technique. You don’t have to chase your tail trying to force all of it.

When you’re at the natural level, the principles and techniques you need to achieve your respective goal will be acquired naturally. This is why I’m so passionate about this book, because it frees people from technique thinking and more importantly frees people from principle thinking. Most, if not the vast majority of people are stuck in principle thinking.

They begin first in techniques, but soon realize it’s too “artificial” and they then get stuck in “principles land”, thinking they’ve got all the principles covered, but then finding another and another and another, failing to realize how they’re all connected, and just getting overwhelmed at trying to apply all of them forcibly.

Why do so many people get stuck in “principles land”?

Because that’s the material all the experts are using.

“Learn these 10 key principles.” “Here are the 24 principles of success.” “Know these principles and your life will change.”

Principles are heralded as the be all, end all.

But there’s the rub. There’s so many of them. Knowing that, some experts try to cut it down saying these 7 are THE most important but arguments can be made for/against that as well in terms of other principles as well. It’s a losing battle that many readers get sucked into, trying to make sense of it all.

You want to get to the natural level, the uppermost level, where the principles and techniques you need will be derived naturally. That’s why there’s NO other book like The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich in the entire world and it’s why people love it so much.

It “cleans up” all the mess out there and makes sense of it by providing that all important “STRUCTURE” to it, to see how everything is connected and flows to induce the principles and techniques you need.

Without understanding this structure and hierarchy, you will forever be stuck in a sea of techniques and principles, never getting to that “natural” level and trying to “force” it all with little results to show for it.

Techniques are great for starters.

Knowing the principles behind the techniques is even better.

But when it’s all done naturally, that’s when you know you’re on a totally different level.