The Strangest Secret

by Earl Nightingale

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. If a man is working towards a predetermined goal and knows where he is going, that man is a success. If he’s not doing that, he’s a failure. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a predetermined job because that’s what he decided to do deliberately. But only 1 out of 20 does that.

Here’s the key to success and the key to failure: We become what we think about.

‘believe and succeed’.”

William Shakespeare put it this way: “our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” George Bernerd Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.”

Everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free: our mind, our soul, our body, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children and friends. All these priceless possessions are free, but the things that cost us money are actually very cheap and can be replaced at any time.

Think about your goal in a relaxed positive way. Picture yourself in your mind’s eye as having already achieved this goal. See yourself doing the things that you will be doing when you’ve reached your goal.

One, you will become what you think about. Two, remember the word imagination. Let your mind soar. Three, courage -- concentrate on your goal everyday. Four, save 10 percent of what you earn, and ACTION! Ideas are worthless unless we act on them.

Don’t concern yourself too much with how you’re going to achieve your goal. Leave that completely to a power greater than yourself. All you have to do is know WHERE you’re going.

Sermon on the Mount, “ask and it shall be giveth, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

The only way to earn money is by providing people with services or products which are needed and useful. We exchange our product or services for the other man’s money. Therefore, the law is that our financial return will be in direct proposition to our service.

Success is not the result of making money. Making money is the result of success and success is in direct proposition to our service.

We’ve got to put the fuel in before we can expect heat. Likewise, we’ve got to be of service first before we can expect money. Don’t concern yourself with the money.

Be of service. Build. Work. Dream. Create. Do this and you’ll find that there is no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you.

No man can get rich himself unless he enriches others.

An outstanding medical doctor recently pointed out 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. The doctor who wrote those words is a noted West Coast psychiatrist, David Harold Fink, M.D.

pay the price by becoming the person you want to become.

“our rewards in life will be in exact proportion to our service.”

No matter what it is you do during the working day, try, in every case, to do a little more than you have to, more than you’re being paid for, because, unless you do more than you’re being paid for now, you can’t hope for or justify an increase in pay.

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.

Your brain is always ready for instant use. It thrives on exercise. How about giving it some right now? The best way to exercise your brain is to ask yourself questions. So, try these. 1) How can I improve myself so that I can become a better person? 2) How can I get along better with my customers, colleagues, friends, family? 3) What can I do to increase my value and advance faster in my organization? 4) How can I come up with new ideas for advancing my profession or improving the business I’m in? Think about how you can create something in your work, in your life. Remember, nothing is done. Nothing is final and complete. You’ve done important and significant things in the past and you can do more if you will use more of your full brainpower now and in the years ahead.

Absorb, recall, judge, and imagine. When you consciously use this formula for a while, it quickly becomes a habit. And, it’s a habit you’ll be pleased to have.

Questions are the creative acts of the intelligent. And the questions that work hardest for us and bring us the greatest amount of useful information are the open-ended questions. Now these questions that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no, they’re asked by using the six W’s, H, and I technique; who, what, when, where, why, which, how, and if.

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