Earl Nightingale's 'Strangest Secret'

An oldie but goodie to share today — because it's brand-new to me. Dan Miller mentioned on his podcast that "The Strangest Secret" by Earl Nightingale is one of the most influential pieces of writing he's ever encountered. I did a quick search and found it, and it's as good as Dan made it sound. The article sums up well a simple truth we've all heard thousands of times — that we become what we think about.

A sample:

A person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it, because that's what he's thinking about. Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety, fear, and worry will thereby create a life of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing ... he becomes nothing.

Simple advice — so why is it so hard to follow? Nightingale has some insights into that, too, in this article worth reading.

The first hour

From Dan Miller's 48 Days to the Work You Love:

Be very careful how you start your morning. You are planting the seeds for what the day will hold. If you get up late, grab a cup of coffee and a cigarette, fume at the idiots in traffic in your rush to work, and drop down exhausted at your desk at 8:10, you have set the tone for the day. Everything will feel like pressure, and your best efforts will be greatly diluted.

Miller writes about getting a good night's sleep, spending the first 30 minutes of the day on reading and reflection, then working out while listening to an audio book that involves "mental input and expansion." "I carefully protect that first hour of the day, making sure that all input is positive, creative and inspirational. Many of my most creative ideas have come from this protected hour of the day, often when I am in a full sweat."

You may have a different way to clear the day out in your mind and get started. But get the first hour down, when the mind is newly clear and a blank slate, and the rest of the day will flow more smoothly.

Staying focused

I'm going to pull dare2befree's comment from Thursday out of the comment section because it's so perfect (and this software makes you click one more time to find comments so you may have missed this) ...

Thank you. Your post had wonderful timing for me today.

Allowing yourself to be paralyzed is a choice. It can be hard to stay focused, but it is easier when you are able to recognize the fear as what it is. See it, analyze it, learn from it, and move on.

refuse to be afraid - dare to be free

The interesting thing is that dare2's post had perfect timing for me.

I've been a little scattershot lately. The lure of the Web is that you can be in the middle of a project and, if your mind wanders, you can be reading about something else in seconds. Why focus on the task at hand when you can be somewhere else entirely?

In the sense that procrastination can be an expression of fear, this wild wonderful Web (like any other instrument!) can be an instrument of fear. The next time I'm paralyzed by another review of Star Trek or even a worthy essay about freedom when my task is to finish my own writing, I'll think back to that thought: "Allowing youself to be paralyzed is a choice."

Everything is a choice, even the choice to make no choice. That's why freedom is our default position — every moment we are faced with choices and free to make one. Choose to be free — dare to be free!

Refuse to be procrastinating

I have recently devoured the book 48 Days to the Work You Love and started listening to the weekly podcast of the same name featuring author and career coach Dan Miller.

I started with the most recent show and started working backwards, and about midway through his Jan. 8 show Miller addressed the subject of procrastination, which regular visitors know is one of my worst habits.

It was a slap upside the head when Dan said:

If you find yourself going weeks and weeks and months and years and never acting, something else is going on. I mean, procrastinating is just another expression of fear, whether it’s fear of failure, fear of ridicule of family members and friends, whatever it is that’s holding you back — procrastination is not an admirable kind of trait. You need to break through that.

I saw — well, this is rather crude, actually, but bear with me, just in making a point — I saw recently a note relative to this that called it procrasturbation. Now again, I apologize for the crudeness of that but you get the point. Just being involved in activity that has no useful outcome — don’t get caught up in that; move through that. Take a idea that you know is good, and then go through a clear plan of action so you do get results on it.

This doesn’t have anything to do with circumstances, it doesn’t have to do with being too busy. It’s a personal issue. You can break that logjam and move into things that really are meaningful.

"Procrastinating is just another expression of fear." Hard words to hear for a guy who preaches and is writing a book on the subject "Refuse to be afraid." But he's right!

For me Dan's book is one of those "whoa!" motivational books that gets me off the dime and back in action. I'm thinking you ought to be noticing some results in, well, within 48 days.