Gold Record Award Winner: The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale

Earl Nightingale (March 12, 1921 - March 29, 1989) was an American motivational speaker and author, he was known as the “ Dean of Personal Development”. 

The Strangest Secret was a 1957 spoken word record by Earl Nightingale which sold over one million copies and received the first Gold Record Award for the spoken word, which helped launch the fields of business motivation and audio publishing. Today, it remains one of the most powerful and influential messages ever recorded. It continues to transform the lives of everyone who hears and heeds its advice.

In only 30 minutes, Earl Nightingale lays out the secret for achieving success in life & business. Speaking against conformity and aimlessness in one's career, Nightingale encourages us to set goals and put all our thoughts and creativity upon these goals. He quotes from many of the greatest thinkers of all time who have pointed to this formula for success. He closes the record with 5 steps for achieving success, along with ways to overcome doubt, negativity, and fear.

Key Points of this Audio:-

There are turning points in our lives & maybe this audio brings a turning point in your life. I heard The Strangest Secret around sometime back. It was then and still is, the most powerful and thought-provoking message I've ever heard & I keep listening to this whenever I feel.

If you’ve never listened to it, I highly recommend it. Here were some of the key takeaways from this audio.

• If you take 100 25 yrs, young people, look at them again at age 65, one will be rich and four will be financially independent (meaning that about 5% achieve success).
• Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.
• The opposite of courage is conformity, not Cowardice; don’t act like everyone else.
• People who succeed often continue to succeed and people who fail often continue to fail.
• People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.
• The key to success is the same as the key to failure - we become what we think about.
• If you think in negative terms, you will get negative results. If you think in positive terms, you will achieve positive results.
• Suppose a farmer has some good fertile land and plants a seed of corn and a seed of nightshade (a poison). Both will be returned to him, so think carefully about what you are planting.
• Decide now. What is it you want? Plant the goal in your mind like a seed, care for it and work steadily towards it.

Action Steps:-

Nightingale mentioned about steps you can take to achieve success. First, you have to pay the price for what you want.

1. You will become what you think about so think about only whatever you want
2. Imagine and let your mind soar
3. Have courage and concentrate on your goal every day
4. Save at least 10% of whatever you earn for your financial freedom.
5. Take action; ideas are worthless unless we act

Then, he directs us to write on a card something we want more than anything. It should be a single, specific, clearly defined goal, and for the next 30 days:

• Look at the card immediately after you wake up, every chance you get during the day and just before going to bed at night
• Think about it in a cheerful, relaxed, positive way
• Don’t worry about how you’ll achieve your goal, just focus on where you’re going
• Do more than you have to do during this month, give more of yourself and persist
• When you start thinking about what you fear, replace those fears with thoughts of your goal

Conclusion:-

The program concludes with a few thoughts on being of service.

• Your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render. Most people will tell you that they want to make money, without understanding this law. The only people who make money work in mint, the rest of us earn money
• The only way to earn money is to provide products or services that are needed and useful
• Making money is the result of success — be of service first, then the money will come (likewise, you have to put fuel in the fire before you can expect heat)

And lastly, he cites Dr. David Harold Fink and six steps to realize success.

1. Set yourself a definite goal.
2. Quit running yourself down.
3. Stop thinking of all the reasons you can’t be successful and start thinking about all the reasons why you can.
4. Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to think of where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful.
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.

Don’t start your test until you’ve made up your mind to stick with it. If you should fail during your first 30 days and by that I mean suddenly find yourself overwhelmed by negative thoughts and simply start over again from that point and go 30 more days. Gradually, your new habit will form, until you find yourself one of that wonderful minority to whom virtually nothing is impossible.

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.

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 whole life to win.

You can listen this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FIegdzdVTg&t=44s