I picked up this life changing tidbit from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill.

There’s a lot of great advice in that book. I’ve read it about 6 or 7 times now over the past 15 years.

The older I get and the more experience I get under my belt, the more valuable his insight becomes.

I think that’s why in my late 20’s when I found him, compared to now in my early 40’s, I matured enough to actually consider, then act upon the practice this post is about.

“Take the energy within thy pants and divert it to thy head”

I’m paraphrasing of course but it really worked! The sex drive is all-consuming for many of us. It underlies our every action be it overt or subtle. It can destroy us with its power to make any other task in our day undo-able.

This was not news to me but as I got older, I grew more frustrated with my lack of growth as businessperson. I started considering moves that didn’t rate as highly on the prioritization scale not all that long ago.

This one’s real simple. We’ll walk through fire, risk public ridicule and jail for the right person. We want love or its physical expression that badly.

What happens if you take that drive, that sometimes insane amount of energy, and devote it to building something to make the object of that lust or love, proud?

Instead of chasing that person all over town and impressing them and wooing them and thinking that way about them and doing whatever one might do in one’s private time, you kept it all inside you and then diverted it to the accomplishment of your greater goals?

I know what happened to me when I put this into practice

It wasn’t easy, at first. I am very driven in this area. I’ll just say that. But every time I began to think heavily on the topic or start to initiate some kind of action representative of it, I stifled that urge.

Then I trained my thoughts on using it to build my business bigger and more stable. I focused all that sexual energy on bringing my wife more security and happiness. And I got an incredible amount of work done!

Listen, it ain’t difficult to fit sex, or some derivative thereof, into your day. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever have sex. Perish the thought.

I’m just saying that you need to lessen the frequency of the act and lessen the frequency of any thought you give it.

It takes mental strength and self control to harness it and use it for loftier goals. To routinely satisfy that urge is to cement the death of the bigger dream.

It comes down to resource allocation.

Only so much time and energy in a day. Are you spending it on something that will possibly change your whole life and make you eternally happy, or are you spending it on a moment’s bit of joy, which ultimately leads to nothing much?

Fun, sure. Great, even. Good stress relief, too. But you can’t bank it. So limit it.

Sex is not a goal in its own right. It’s a reward

To recap, I knew this to probably be true in my 20’s and 30’s but the act still held too much value in my mind. Coupled with the hormones of youth, this practice never stood a chance of seeing the light of day for me then.

Can a younger person abstain and divert in order to build and lead a business? Sure. But based on my own experience, I think maybe this one can’t really take place until a bit later in life.

So, if you’re younger, I am simply sharing this as food for thought. If you can achieve this transmutation while in your younger years, then you are a stronger soul than I was. You’ll also be more successful, much faster than I was.

If you’re older and haven’t tried it yet, I’d give it some thought, if I were you. Just takes a perspective tweak and some willpower and you’ll end up with an empire.