If you know the roots of self improvement, you are aware that the teachings in the vastly popular The Secret DVD
Earl Nightingale was running a sales team in Chicago back in 1956. Every week, he would give them pep talks to motivate them and help them perform better. One week, Nightingale was to be away, and his staff of salespeople weren’t too pleased that they wouldn’t get a talk that week, as they became dependent on them. His solution was to create an audio recording to be played while he was away.
Nightingale’s inspiration for that recording apparently happened while he was sleeping. He suddenly woke up, rushed to his desk and typed it up. It’s incredible the ideas that can come out of our sleep. I know I have had many ideas and concepts that came to me while I was sleeping. Imagine if we could remember everything that passes through our head during sleep! As you see, even with the very little percentage that we do in fact remember, magic can be found in it.
When Nightingale played the recording for his staff, they were mesmerized by it. Soon, his office was hounded by tons of people on the outside for copies, as the staff shared their experience with everyone they knew. The simplicity yet power that it contains was something that really touched people back then, and even in our generation today, that same ideology within The Secret has made a tremendous impact in our society.
Before there was “The Law of Attraction”, another equally powerful phrase existed, which came out of that famous recording: “You Become What You Think”. Basically, your thoughts have a strong influence on your actions, which have an immediate effect on your life. As simple as this seems, why is it so complicated for so many people to do it?
Such people with these victim-like, pity “poor me” attitudes never seem to grasp the power of such a statement. How can something so simple solve something so seemingly complex? Truth is, no problem or issue is complex, merely your interpretation of it appears complex to you. Change your perception, change your world (one of my favorite sayings by the way!)
It’s logic pure and simple. If you think that you are unlucky, and that you were dealt bad cards for this lifetime, and that you have a life of constant struggle, this will be your reality, and it will not change. The ones that do make it out of their struggles are the ones that have initiated this change in their thought pattern. They “get it”. They can visualize themselves in a better position, which then puts the wheels in motion for it to actually happen.
Your thoughts are the foundation. Whatever else that is built upon that foundation will be a direct result of it. If the foundation is terrible, how can you expect something solid that will last? It won’t happen, and then you will be back at square one.
We’ve all been there. Negative thoughts has happened in all our heads. We are humans after all. Although, we can learn from our experience and mistakes, and make sure that what we feed our psyche is nothing but the best quality. It’s a choice. Your mind doesn’t care what you feed it, it will take it. It is your responsibility to ensure that what you feed it is the best choice possible. In the video I am about to point you to, a great analogy is made with the human mind and the land.
Earl Nightingale’s famous recording ended up selling over 1 million copies and became the first spoken-word recording to go gold. It was called The Strangest Secret, which I find appropriate because it is strange that something so simple still cannot be fully understood by all of us! In any event, this ideology has influenced pretty much every other teachings on the topic of self improvement that came afterwards, it’s that enlightening. See for yourself in this sample of the recording:
The Strangest Secret
