The Strangest Secret

Earl Nightingale is considered the father of personal development and motivation.  As a youth, one of the early questions he posed to himself was “How can a person, starting from scratch, who has no particular advantage in the world, reach to goals that he[sic] feels are important to him[sic], and by doing so make a major contribution to others?”.

Over the ensuing years Nightingale pursued his passion and in 1957, at the age of 35 he retired.  As part of his legacy when he retired he recorded The Strangest Secret, which became the first spoken word recording to win a Gold Record by selling over a million copies.

Nightingale begins by asking, “Do you know what will happen to 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, and who believe they will be successful? By the age of 65, only five out of 100 will make the grade! Why do so many fail? What happened to the sparkle that was there when they were 25? What became of their dreams, their hopes, their plans … and why is there such a large disparity between what these people intended to do and what they actually accomplished? That is … The Strangest Secret.”

He says “We learn to read by the time we’re seven. We learn to make a living by the time we’re 30. Often by that time we’re not only making a living, we’re supporting a family. And yet by the time we’re 65, we haven’t learned how to become financially independent in the richest land that has ever been known. Why? We conform! Most of us are acting like the wrong percentage group — the 95 who don’t succeed.Nightingale proceeds to describe three habits used by the 5% who were successful.

• Have goals – people with goals succeed because they know where they are going.
• We become what we think about – a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it because that’s what they are thinking about.
• As ye sow, so shall ye reap – we are the sum total of our thoughts.  Like the farmer planting in the soil, the seeds we plant in our mind will return their harvest either poorly or abundantly.  Crops need to be cared for and nurtured.  Plant failure, reap failure, plant abundance, reap abundance.

He gives a 30 day action plan of steps to follow for success.  By following these steps every day for 30 days you will form a habit and achieve your desired outcomes:

1. Write your specific goal on a card – a single clearly defined goal

Look at it every chance you get; and first thing in the morning and last thing at night before sleep.

As you read it, begin to feel what it feels like to have it.

1. Stop thinking about what you fear – continue to replace any negative thoughts with a positive mental image of your goal.  Act as if it were impossible to fail.
2. Provide excellent service or effort – success is always in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of the service or effort we render.

He says “Above all … don’t worry! Worry brings fear, and fear is crippling. The only thing that can cause you to worry during your test is trying to do it all yourself. Know that all you have to do is hold your goal before you; everything else will take care of itself”.

He suggests to take this 30-day test, then repeat it … then repeat it again. ”Each time it will become more a part of you until you’ll wonder how you could have ever have lived any other way. Live this new way and the floodgates of abundance will open and pour over you more riches than you may have dreamed existed. Money? Yes, lots of it. But what’s more important, you’ll have peace … you’ll be in that wonderful minority who lead calm, cheerful, successful lives”.

Start today. You have nothing to lose. But you have a life to win.

 If you would like to a copy of this book please email me and I will send you a free PDF version of it.