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In response to a question as to why it has taken so long for today’s population to embrace this knowledge marketed as “secret” Rhonda Byrnes said: “As we look through history we can see colossal waves of consciousness at various points. We see these waves arising and then for some reason, from one generation to another, they diminish and then they arise again.” In my life authors and speakers ranging from Ernest Holmes to Iyanla Vanzant, Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino and Tony Robbins have all delivered a version of the same message that is sometimes labeled “The New Thought Movement.” It was a recording of Earl Nightingale’s “Strangest Secret” that was recorded in the lat 1950s that began to change my thinking and, therefore, my life.
So, what about Rhonda Byrne’s production of The Secret video and book one year later? Like the Thigh-Master, Tai-Bo videos, and other personal development items that are quickly embraced with promises to use them daily, closets, garage shelves and that dusty space under the bed is probably where hundreds of thousands now reside. The “secret” lessons have already been forgotten by many who continue to wonder and wander as far as their life’s purpose is concerned.
The chairman of a successful ad agency invited me and various friends to his home on January 1st, and I heard him give a piece of advice that we all should heed as the New Year unfolds. He had just sung (kind words) a Motown ditty in a Karaoke contest. After wrestling with the song, and when the plaintive wailing stopped, he turned and said, “You can be as bad as you can be but if you want to win you have to keep selling it.” That was simply another way of saying that persistence can be the thing that separates the trophy holders from the rest.
With over 350 days ahead of us in this year, what do you want to do with your time, energy and clear thinking? This morning I called an old friend in another country to wish her a marvelous year. She is recovering from breast cancer but has just produced a successful book, For the Love of Trees, and sounded completely energized. When I asked about that, she replied, “Nelson, I only do things that I love and that has served me well for the past 35 years.”
So the Nelson version of the “secret” has only two sentences. Think only about what you want and quickly discard thoughts of what you don’t want or fear. And borrowing a phrase from President Calvin Coolidge, I say “Nothing in the world can take the pace of persistence.” How secret is that?
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