The Master Key System

Charles Haanel

📚 GENRE: Personal Development

📃 PAGES: 116

✅ COMPLETED: January 14, 2020

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Charles Haanel shares the ultimate principles, causes and effects, and spiritual laws that typically lead to achievement and success. At the center of Haanel’s teaching is the proper use of thought and visualization. Haanel explains why success starts within. 

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Attitude and Effort — No matter what you’re faced with, your attitude and effort will dictate the results you get. Find the positives, believe in yourself, and keep your focus completely centered on what you can control. Everything else is a distraction and not worth the time and energy.

2️⃣ Gotta Act — At some point, you have to act. Thinking and visualizing will get you started, but action ultimately leads to change and results. Try to face your fears and commit to taking real action.

3️⃣ Visualize! — The imagination is a mental workshop. Visualize with purpose and see yourself making progress and achieving goals. See good things happening in your mind and then try to execute the vision. 

Favorite Quote

"The secret of all power, possession, and achievement is in your thinking."

Book Notes 📑

Chapter 1

  • All of our experiences in life are a result of our mental attitude.
    • Attitude is a product of your thoughts and thinking.
    • Quote: “The secret of all power, possession, and achievement is in your thinking.”
  • Harmony within, also known as positive thinking, is the key to everything, including achievement, health, success.
    • Harmony within comes with controlling your thoughts. When you control your thoughts, you control your path.
  • The subconscious mind controls emotion — fear, joy, happiness, etc.
  • Human consciousness = ability to think.

Chapter 2

  • The mind has a conscious and subconscious component.
    • Conscious — Your thoughts. 
      • The conscious mind controls the subconscious.
    • Subconscious — Your emotions.
      • When you get hooked by certain conscious thoughts, the subconscious will attach emotion. 
  • The conscious mind can suggest truth or error. In other words, positive or negative thoughts.
    • Fear, worry, anxiety, etc. happen when your conscious mind thinks unpleasant thoughts and gives false suggestions, and then your subconscious attaches the emotion to it.
  • Counter suggestion is the way to reverse bad habits in the subconscious mind.
  • Law of Attraction — The mind is creative and will bring thoughts into action.

Chapter 3

  • Thought patterns and real-world experiences have a ‘cause and effect’ relationship. 
    • Thought = Cause
    • Experience = Effect
    • By changing your thoughts, you can change your experiences. 
  • Quote: “The more energy we can radiate, the more rapidly we can transform undesirable conditions into sources of pleasure.”
    • Pleasant thoughts generate more energy. Resistant/unpleasant thoughts reduce it.
  • Thoughts of power, confidence, love, hope all produce good energy. 
  • Fear is at the center of all bad energy. 
    • When you kill fear, your good energy flows through. 
  • You can overcome any adverse condition with the power of thought. 
  • Quote: “It is our attitude of mind toward life that determines the experiences with which we meet.”
    • Everything starts with attitude.
    • Whether it’s people, opportunities, or anything else — it all starts with your attitude.
    • If we expect nothing, we will get nothing. If we demand excellence, we will get it. 

Chapter 4

  • Thought is energy and energy is power. 
  • Your personality is made up of a bunch of characteristics, habits, traits. These are all a product of your method of thinking.
  • The more we give, the more we get.
  • Feeling must be applied to thoughts.
  • Keep thinking good thoughts over and over and over again. Do it until it’s a habit.

Chapter 5

  • You are what you think. 
  • Think courageous, brave, loving, optimistic, and positive thoughts. Do it repeatedly. 
    • Try to avoid getting hooked by negative thoughts and visualizations that might come up.

Chapter 6

  • Action brings results.
  • Attention and concentration are two of the most essential things we can develop.
    • Focus on your thoughts. Focus on thinking positively and picturing what you want.
    • Focus on your thoughts to overcome anything.

Chapter 7

  • Visualize! It must appear in your mind before it can happen. 
  • It takes work to think positively and visualize what you want.
  • It’s like designing a building — visualize the building, plan it, and then make it happen.
  • Repeatedly visualize a picture. Make it clear.
  • Don’t concentrate on the negative. It will only lead to more negative.
  • See it, feel it, be it.

Chapter 8

  • Thought ➡ Action ➡ Results
  • Your mind, imagination, visualizations, and thoughts create everything in your life. 
  • Your predominate attitude will steer your life.
  • Your thoughts are the material with which you build. Your imagination is your mental workshop.
  • Quote: “Imagination is the matrix in which all great things are fashioned.”

Chapter 9

  • Two conditions can’t exist at the same time.
    • If you are anxious, weak, fearful you must replace these thoughts and visuals with ones of confidence, strength, and power.
  • Health, wealth, and love are the keys to happiness.
    • Thinking positively brings all three to you.
  • What you visualize will manifest.
  • The only way to get love is to give love!
    • The more you give, the more you get.
  • Wish the best for others. Eliminate all jealousy or ill-will towards others.
  • Positive affirmations drive out negativity.
  • If our attitude is of power, strength, confidence, our environment will reflect that.
  • Concentrate on what you want.

Chapter 10

  • Apply all of the knowledge you’re learning here.

Chapter 12

  • Thoughts of love are the most powerful.

Chapter 13

  • Your thoughts won’t do anything unless they are directed with effort.

Chapter 14

  • It takes discipline to think positively.

Chapter 15

  • Try to infuse your thoughts with love.
  • Speak positively. Your words reveal your thoughts.
  • Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Overflow your mind with positive thoughts.

Chapter 16

  • Hold your desires in mind. Focus on it. Visualize it.
  • To get what you want and what you want to accomplish, you have to see it in your mind.

Chapter 17

  • What you focus on and think about you attract.
  • Desire + Concentration = Achievement
  • Your strength is determined by your attitude. 
  • If you want to eliminate fear, concentrate on courage. See yourself as strong and courageous.
    • If you want to eliminate disease, concentrate on good health.

Chapter 18

  • Like attracts like.
  • Thoughts reveal character. 
  • You have to put your mind to work and direct your thoughts. Consciously choose to think certain thoughts rather than letting your mind wander.

Chapter 19

  • Every experience you have is a result of the thoughts you have. Experiences are feedback. Change the thought, change the experience.
    • If your thoughts are positive and powerful, it will be evident in your health, business, environment, and life conditions.
    • If your thoughts are weak and negative, it will manifest in the body as fear and anxiety. Your environment and everything else will also be weak.

Chapter 20

  • The imagination is your workshop to visualize.
  • You have the power to think and visualize. It’s up to you if you want to use that power or not. It requires effort and attention. 
    • If you think thoughts of limitation or fear, you will bring that to you. 
    • If you think thoughts of success and positivity, you will bring it to you. 
    • It’s an ability that you can use to create what you want. It’s your choice. Choose how you want to think.
  • Control your mind. Don’t let it control you. You do this by choosing your thoughts, feelings, and attitude. You always have the power to choose.

Chapter 21

  • Think big. Large ideas tend to drown out smaller ideas.
  • Life is a reflection of our dominant mental attitude and thoughts.
  • Every thought creates an impression on the brain. 
    • These impressions lead to mental tendencies. 
    • These tendencies create character, ability, and purpose. 
      • Our character, ability, and purpose create our environment. 
  • Art of Visualization — Picture what you want. Hold it in your mind.
    • If you don’t like the pictures, change them. 
    • See yourself as strong, courageous, powerful, brave, etc.

Chapter 22

  • Look back at times in your life when you were in a good vibration — you were feeling good, thinking good thoughts, ect. Think back on these times and try to channel that feeling.

Chapter 23

  • If you aren’t moving forward in life and developing, you’re going backwards. 
  • Be unselfish in life. Give. 
    • Help people. Focus your thoughts on helping others.
  • Focus on what you want, now what you don’t want.

Chapter 24

  • All thoughts are energy — a rate of vibration.
    • Vibration attracts people and things and events in similar vibrations.
  • Quote: “Your ability to think is your ability to control it and make use of it to the benefit of yourself and others.”

Chapter 28

  • Love everything and everyone. Your thoughts must be right if you are always thinking with love.

Chapter 29

  • Most people are busy thinking and picturing failure. Very few people are thinking and picturing strength, success, power, etc. 
    • You always have the choice of how you want to think!