Earl Nightingale set forth success principals in audio media and on the radio. He taught the principals of The Science of Getting Rich and the law of attraction. Directline is another of his products.

Earl Nightingale is a great success teacher, in this episode of Directline he introduces the purpose of the program and talks about how to live life at it’s best.

Many people today have never heard of Earl Nightingale and that is all of our loss. Earl brought out the best in people with his messages. All of us lose if this drumbeat is not heard by everyone. So here again is Earl Nightingales most famous message, The Strangest Secret In The World:

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“Peace, be still!”

Serenity

The result of applying the principles of As A Man Thinketh. Of recognizing that your thoughts are the creators of your world. James Allen writes:

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the
result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is
an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary
knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.

The things that you think about are what you become. If you think empowering thoughts, if you see the result that you want, then not only will you have achieved but you will gain serenity. Allen in As A Man Thinketh echo’s many of the same ideas that Wallace Wattles expressed in The Science of Getting Rich. The idea of thoughts controlling your experience in the world is a common theme in the books. These two books go together in putting your mind and actions in harmony with the law of attraction.

Earl Nightingale expressed it as: “you become what you think about all day long.” Earl has a wonderful presentation called “The Greatest Secret” that also picks up the theme and echo’s Allen’s words. Earl talks about the heard mentality that exists whereby we do the same things we see the other guy do. At the end of it all we have passed through life but haven’t really contributed to it. We grow old watching TV after a hard day at work. Not much to show for 80 or so years of life.

So in what way should we turn, James Allen says it all comes down to your thinking. Examine your life and think about what you want to accomplish. Really examine it. Remember what Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Examine your life and it’s trajectory. Perhaps you want to pick a new target, start visualizing that target and being grateful that you have already hit it.

The belief that it is already done will give you confidence to take the action you need to take and lead you to the serenity that Allen writes about in chapter seven. He ends the chapter with the words of Jesus, “Peace Be Still.” Words to keep in mind when the storms of life hit. Words that Jesus used to still the waters, words that have been handed down to you still energized with power. Serenity is yours: “Peace Be Still!”

by Michael Griffin

Jan 6th 2009 Podcast

What do you believe and why do you believe it? What part of what you believe is true? Have you examined your beliefs?

“Every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought”

Is this why some people, after reading books like Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” do become rich – new seeds of thought have been planted? Has Hill provided information that the person didn’t know or has Hill unleashed their thinking, allowing them to dream beyond the present conditions. It’s not an either-or proposition is it, clearly Hill provides both conditions to the reader.

Why then doesn’t Think and Grow Rich cause everyone who reads it to become rich? Isn’t life just a crap shoot? Some who Read Think and Grow Rich believe it and to others the words just pass by. What is magical is not the book or the words but the effect those words have on the mind that recieves them. And how open that mind is to believe that “thoughts become things” and “anything the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Does the reader have so much junk stored in his mind that he cannot get to the beliefs necessary to move forward? Those seeds of thought can be good seeds and bad. Earl Nightingale talked about seeds of the deadly poison plant, nightshade, being planted and those seeds growing to full pushing out the good crop. And this is what Allen is saying in “As A Man Thinketh”

The seeds of thought planted in our minds first by our parents, our families, our friends, the media, what kinds of seeds are those? Even church and religious services of all kinds, what seeds are these really bringing. In the Christian traditions there is the preaching of fire, damnation, and judgment – of a God of retribution — and there is the teaching of a God of love who intends the very best for you. All of these ideas taken from the same book. So it is in life, one person sees life as an endless opportunity while another sees life as a struggle for existence. One sees and participates in an abundant feast while another sees only the scraps that fall to the floor.

Why is this? Allen says, quoting scripture: “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” When a person picks up Think and Grow Rich and begins to read through with what eye is he seeing the book? What beliefs does he have to overcome to accept the ideas that if he changes his thinking then the whole world opens to him. What has gone into that mind before these new ideas? What mental baggage has to be overcome? How much does he “know” that just isn’t true?

Before the great runner Roger Bannister everyone knew it was impossible to break the four minute mile. Yet within weeks of Bannister’s record other runners had beaten it. Since then the record has even been broken in high school events. Many point to this as a psychological barrier that runners couldn’t cross. Then after the idea was out, after the belief was in the minds of the runners then their training, their work was able to attain new levels of performance.

“We become what we think about all day long,” as Earl Nightingale put it. We generally think about things that have been put there by family, friends, teachers, media — have we examined those thoughts? People shook with and were paralyzed by fear in their homes after hearing Orson Well’s 1938 broadcast of “War of The Worlds,” and believing that Martians were actually invading the world. What might you believe about your business that isn’t true? Do you believe in a bad economy that your business can’t grow? If so why would you get up and try? The fact is plenty of people are going to get rich in bad times while others will loose out. What do you believe about the challenges of the economy, about the challenges of life?

Are challenges supposed to destroy us or are they a way to make us stronger? “As A Man Thinketh” says:

The act is the blossom of thought and joy and suffering are it’s fruits – thus does a man enjoy the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

What will your act be in response to a challenge? Will you hunker down in your house in fear? Or will you go out to discover what the truth about it is? Allen quotes scripture when he says:

He that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Thats a promise of a way, of an answer if you are looking for a way to meet the challenges. But if you shiver in your home, if the covers are pulled up over your head as you wait for – what is it you are waiting for? If you are waiting then you are not looking, you are not seeking, and nothing good can come of it. Your mind will take on the mantra of the world, of the media.

As A Man Thinketh is a challenge to all to examine your thoughts, they are probably not even your thoughts. You will be controlled by those thoughts, by that message, you will act in accordance: “the act is the blossom of thought…” If you are not happy with your life, with circumstance, put some new thoughts in.

Do you believe that change is bad or is it opportunity? Is a crisis bad or is it an opportunity? Shakespeare said, “there is nothing either good or bad, but only thinking makes it so.” Do you want to go back to the good old days, or are these the good old days?

Change and crisis are forces in the world that beckon us to look again at what we believe. To look at the habitual thoughts that cycle through our conciousness, drive our actions, and produce our results in the world.

Another YouTube Treasure — Some great insights from Earl Nightingale and a great piece to watch to wrap up the year. It’s all about the law of attraction – Earl says, “we become what we think about all day long.”

Earl describes how a person is born and grows up and why he may fall into a Lemming’s life, a life lived without thought following along the same path as everyone else and not even understanding why.

“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
–Socrates

Earl concludes that a person may become who he wants to be by awakening his mind, by setting the thoughtful goals that he wants to achieve and: “we become what we think about all day long.”

The YouTube poster says that the video was rescued from an old videotape copy of the film. It runs about 30 minutes and is broken into 3 pieces. It’s well worth the watch

Earl calls this “The Strangest Secret:”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

You can find Earl Nightingale programs at Nightingale-Conant.