Achieve Your Dreams with the Simplest Secret on Earth

In one of my early posts on this blog, I mentioned that I once had a list of seven books that I would give as gifts to young people, whom I felt would studiously apply them to their lives.  I feel that all of these young people, as they pursued their goals in life,  benefited from the books.  At least, I have seen them excel and achieve beyond the high goals they held as youth.  In that same earlier blog post, I also mentioned “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Conwell as being one of those books.  A second book from my list will be revealed in this post, because, as you would think, its topic is the fundamental core of the principle we will discuss today.

Today we are discussing the Simplest Secret on earth.  It is what the dean of self-improvement, Earl Nightingale, over half a century ago, referred to as “The Strangest Secret”.  The principle is a natural law of the nature of mankind.  It is summed up in the often partially quoted, thousands of years old scripture that was translated into the 1611 King James Bible.  Proverbs Chapter 23, verse 7 partially states, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”.  It’s easy enough to see and believe that if a person thinks mean thoughts and is mean of heart, that they will be a mean person on the outside.  And inversely, a person who thinks kind thoughts will be kind hearted and an outwardly kind person.  But, the concept goes even further than that.

There is a common saying among achievement gurus, that goes something like this, “What can be perceived, can be achieved.”  An alternate way of stating the principle is, “You must want it before you can have it.”  Earl Nightingale compared our minds to heat seeking missiles that guide us after whatever we tell our minds we want.  This principle of mental steering works both to our good, and sometimes against us.  As James Allen states in his great little book, As a Man Thinketh, “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.”

Some tout this principle as a law of attraction, saying that we attract what we dwell on the most, whether for our good, or our demise.  If we worry and dwell on what we fear most, then we supposedly attract that very dreadful thing; a self-fulfilling prophesy if you will.  I quite frankly don’t believe that.  I believe that we seek out what we get by unconsciously filtering everything else out of our cognizance, but that which we dwell on in our minds and hearts.  I believe that this principle applies to both the physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, and all other aspects of our existence.

I will give you a physical example from my own experience.  Many, many years ago, Mercedes Benz automobiles caught my eye.  I couldn’t afford one, but the more I admired them, and the more I learned about their marvelous engineering, the more I set my heart on one day affording one.  I even followed the advice of what I thought was a quacky advisor, who told me to tape a picture of a Mercedes to my steering wheel, and every time I drove my car to imagine that I was driving a fine Benz.  I was to smell the leather, feel the response in the wheel, and smooth ride.  I became pretty enthralled with the idea of someday, and the sooner the better, owning one of these fine cars.

One day, an opportunity was availed for me to purchase a used 240D at an extremely affordable price, with extremely attractive financing.   I took it.  Bought it, paid for it, owned it, and drove it.  For various reasons I found owning a car like that a real pain.  People always assumed you had money to spare and that’s just trouble, and frankly it embarrassed me.   Never mind the fact that this would be the last prestige automobile that I will ever buy.  Let’s get back to the point at hand.

Many of the success gurus would use that event as an example of what they call the law of attraction.  But, it’s not so much attraction as it is a filtering process.  To start with, if you set a goal and you really, really, really, want to achieve it, you will position yourself to learn all you can about the subject.  Secondly, you will be in places and around people that will expose you to the subject.  Thirdly, you will be open to opportunities when the shine of the slightest sliver of light through the tiniest crack shows.

Do you think I would have even looked into the opportunity if someone had mentioned that they knew someone with a beat up Chevy I could get at a great price?  Of course not!  I wanted a Mercedes Benz, and when out of all of the car ads and friends who knew someone selling something, I heard Mercedes, I perked up.  I paid attention!  I probably did hear about great Chevy clunker deals and Fords and whatever.  Meanwhile, all those ho hum cars being talked about flew right past my ears.  I filtered them out and zeroed in on the Mercedes.  I became so attuned to the idea of owning a Mercedes Benz to the point of ignoring just how shabby the Plymouth Champ I was driving had become.  I wasn’t obsessed, but it was the next thing to it.  Had I been looking for Chevy, Buick or Ford, I wouldn't have blinked an eye at the mention of a good deal on a car that I didn't think I could ever afford, such as a Mercedes Benz.  But, I wasn't looking to own a Chevy, Buick or Ford.

Do you get the point?  Not only do you zero in on what you want, but you also filter out what isn’t what you want.  If it wasn’t relative to a Benz, I didn’t want to even hear about it, much less discuss it and haggle over a price.  I simply wasn’t interested in any other car brand.  Have you ever seen a hound dog trail another animal or a blood hound trail a police suspect?  That is exactly what they do naturally.  They zero in on the scent of what they are after and ignore everything that isn’t the scent of their prey.  We are, after all is said and done, not all that much higher on the food chain, than our best friend, the dog.  Learn something from them! 

Your instincts work exactly like the instincts of a bloodhound, only you get to set your own prey.  Just don’t forget, that your heat seeking missile, blood hound, scent filtering, mind, will also work on what you fear, just as easily as what you long for.  Your mind seeks what you dwell on.  You become as you think, and you seek out what you dwell on.  Be careful of what you dwell on.

The simplest secret in the world, is the principle summed up and discussed in the little book that I have already mentioned, titled, As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen.  The book is now out of print, but has been placed on the Gutenberg Project list, and you can download a free ebook copy.  If you don’t have an ebook reader, you can download the Kindle software for your PC or Mac from Amazon, also for free. 
 

Now, be careful of what you think, how much, and how long you think it!

Surround yourself with people who love you, work that you love, and a cause that you believe in.

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