The Strangest Secret
Welcome to Thinks™ on Books, where I share the golden lines from the books I believe hold invaluable insights for the world today.
This time we are doing the book called “The Strangest Secret.“
The Strangest Secret: An Official Nightingale Conant Publication by Earl Nightingale
Let’s get to the golden lines:
We become what we think about.
George Bernard 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.”
The problem is that our mind comes as standard equipment at birth. 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.
The paradox is that exactly the reverse is true. Everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free: our minds, our souls, our bodies, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children and friends and country. 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 you will be doing when you have reached your goal.
We are where we are because that is exactly where we really want or feel we deserve to be — whether we’ll admit that or not.
…we can achieve nothing without paying the price.
…we must control our thoughts if we are to control our lives.
It is rising above narrow minded pettiness and prejudice.
it is using all your courage to force yourself to think positively on your own problem.
To set a definite and clearly defined goal for yourself …
To refuse to believe that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong to defeat you in the accomplishment of your purpose.
…save at least ten cents of every dollar you earn.
The moment you decide on a goal to work toward, you immediately are a successful person.
Don’t concern yourself too much with how you are going to achieve your goal. Leave that completely to a power greater than yourself. The answers will come to you of their own accord and at the right time.
All you have to know is where you are going.
Persistence is simply another word for faith.
…our financial return will be in direct proportion to our service.
Be of service…build…work…dream…create!
Success is really nothing more than the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. This means that any person who knows what they are doing and where they are going is a success.
Whatever the great majority is doing under any given circumstance, if you do exactly the opposite, you will probably never make another mistake as long as you live. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.
The problem with most people is that they are playing the world’s most unrewarding game, and the name of the game is: Follow the Follower.
That our rewards in life will always be in exact proportion to our contribution to our service.
If we want to amount to anything as individuals, we need: individual goals, individual thinking, individual actions, and we must never conform to the big group. We must love them. We must help them. We must serve them because our entire success will depend on our ability to do these things, but never lose our individuality and our identity by permitting ourselves to become submerged in what has historically proved itself to be little more than a suffocating sea of indirection and purposelessness,…
And remember to think. Imagination is everything, and we can become what we can imagine.
We become what we think about.