The Strangest Secret - The Magic of Intentional Thinking

Nightingale-Conant corporation has been producing audio tapes, and disks for many years, ever since Earl Nightingale recorded his famous "The Strangest Secret". That secret was that "We become what we think about". Today we see the new book and movie "The Secret", which is basically a rehash of the same principle with lost of intrigue and Hollywood graphics (oh, yes, and don't forget Oprah fawning all over it as if it were some new thing....)

The truth is this secret is not. It has been know for thousands of years, it is even in the Bible (Proverbs 23:7). It is not so surprising that we become the person that reflects what we think about, because it is the ability to think that is so uniquely human. It is what gives us the ability to create vehicles, and skyscrapers, and artificial hearts, and poems and music, etc. It is not so surprising that our success or failure is also tightly linked to this capability.

James Allen wrote the classic book "As a Man Thinketh" way back in 1902 and gathered together many of the important aspects of how thinking correctly and with focused intent is so very important. Many great men and woman have recognized this little book as a starting point of their personal success.

Thinking is hard work, at least focused thinking is. Most people do as little of it as possible, the problem is, the thinking motor of the mind never really stops, so if a person is not thinking in a focused way, then that motor is just running wildly and grabbing any unrelated impulse and sense that floats by. When this happens the person becomes unfocused, and his life becomes unfocused.

The analogy of a rudderless boat has been used in the past, but I submit the boat has a rudder, just that no-one is holding onto it. The rudder handle is flailing back and forth, and the ship is meandering all over the waters until it runs into a reef and the boat, like the life, sinks.

I have discovered in my own life, that when I listen, I am gripping the rudder. If I listen to something worthwhile, I am not only gripping the rudder, I am steering it. If I listen with the intent of going to a specific location (or achieving a specific goal) I am steering the boat for all it's worth. But first I listen because that focuses my thinking motor. I have discovered that listening to audio about success or business opportunity, or uplifting music, or news or what ever is a very good way to get into tune. This gets the hands on the rudder and starts the mental juices flowing. That is why I personally like success tapes so much, and talk radio, and my MP3 player!

It is so much better than TV which to me seems to just take the place of the thinking motor, you feel like a zombie many times...

Getting back to the original premise of this article, I wanted to show how listening to success oriented material is a good way to put into practice the principles that James Allen laid out so well in his book. While I don't agree 100% with everything Mr. Allen wrote, I agree with much of it and have used it myself.

- David T. McKee