The Strangest Secret

by Earl Nightingale

It’s free and things that are given to us for nothing, we place little value on. Things that we pay money for, we value.

six steps that will help you realize success: 1) Set yourself a definite goal. 2) Quit running yourself down. 3) Stop thinking of all the reasons why you can’t be successful and instead, think of all the reasons why you can. 4) Trace your attitudes back to your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea you couldn’t be a success, if that’s the way you’ve been thinking. 5) Change the image you have of yourself by writing out a description of the person you would like to be. 6) Act the part of the successful person you have decided to become.

Four things, all of them simple: 1) Remember that our rewards in life will be in exact proportion to our service. 2) By giving your work a larger percentage of your capabilities and talents, you will, you must, increase your income substantially. 3) Since our lives depend on others, treat others in every facet of your life exactly as you want others to treat you. If you expect others to give you excellent products and services for the money you and your family spend, then you should make certain that your job is handled as excellently as it is possible for you, since it is the money of others which pays your salary. 4) Try to find some way, every day, in which your work can be improved.

It’s been established that creative people are intelligent. But, conversely, intelligent people are not always creative.

Characteristics of Creative People Our studies show that certain characteristics

Now, in order to combat this type of negative behavior, here are a few thoughts you might like to remember. One: Ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Ideas, like babies, don’t pick their parents. So, be a sponge for ideas. Two: Ideas, particularly in their early stages of development, demand care and attention. They can be crushed all too easily. And three, ideas need encouragement or rather people need to be encouraged to think up ideas and communicate them to us. Try never to be guilty of uttering idea killers. You can never tell when or where you’ll find a good idea.

Absorb, recall, judge, and imagine.

The best way I know to practice asking open-ended questions is to try out a few on myself. If this sounds like a good idea, you might want to try it too. Ask yourself who has a greater knowledge of my job than I? What can I do to learn some of the things he knows that I don’t? Why must my job be done this way? And, if there is a better way to do my job, what would it be?

First, think association.

Next, think combination. Almost everything in nature is a combination of elements.

Next, think adaptation.

Next, think substitution.

When you think substitution, you ask yourself how you might substitute a different material or thing for the one now used.

Next, think magnification. Think big.

And now, to keep your mind moving, think rearrangement.

Summing up, if you want to spur your mind into new action, think combination, association, adaptation, substitution, magnification, mini-fication, and rearrangement.

Creative Problem Solving

problem solving, decision-making, and goal achievement are all closely related functions of creative thinking.

The first step in solving any problem is to define it.

write down everything you know about the problem.

see. List the names of people and organizations that are recognized authorities on the problem. This is your opportunity to go all out for facts.

Now here are the four rules for brainstorming. One: No negative thinking. Two: The wilder the ideas, the better. Three: A large number of ideas is essential. And Four: Combination and improvement of ideas is what you’re after.

after all the possible solutions are in, screen them as you did earlier for their predictable effectiveness and ease of implementation.

your first step toward the solution of any problem is to define it clearly.

A good working definition gives you a clear target.

He builds big ideas and little ones, new ideas and old ones, associating ideas, combining them, adapting, substituting, magnifying, minifying, rearranging and reversing ideas.

What was good enough for dad is not good enough for us today. And, what’s good enough for us won’t be good enough for our youngsters. That’s the way this old world improves itself and that’s the way it should be.

When you get an idea you think is good, hang it up on an imaginary hook and walk all the way around it. Look at it from every angle, poke it, pull it, twist it, stretch it in new directions, try to improve it.