Motivational speakers, writers, and their courses are members of a billion dollar industry. Whether you want career advancement, dating success, or manifestation of dreams, there are dozens of options today.
It’s easy to get trapped into chasing after the latest techniques from the coolest life coaches. It’s no accident that self-help is a major career choice in its own right. Having gotten caught in the web of self-help several years ago myself, I observed a few common threads shared by most of the movers and shakers of the field.
What has taken place is a lot of repackaging of the grandfathers of the movement. The old mainstays are Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, and Earl Nightingale. If you have ever read their milestone works, you will recognize their ideas. They show up in new packaging from contemporary motivators on the Web, in print, and in their seminars/webinars.
One of the first works in the motivational field is Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. If you are after material success, you need go no further than this gem. Dale Carnegie has several classic books that can help anyone live a more fulfilling life. You cannot go wrong if you take the basic Dale Carnegie Course. Earl Nightingale was prolific in the scope and depth of his work. If you have ever listened to an amazing audio course on self-improvement, chances are, it was published and distributed by Nightingale-Conant, Inc.
If I had to offer only a little advice regarding the vast self-help topic it would be this: Study the works of one of the masters–Hill, Carnegie, or Nightingale. Concentrate on the message and actually, physically do what is recommended. Don’t wander away–stay focused. Don’t become a self-help junkie. Don’t get caught up in hype.
The gist of all three of these great thinkers encompassed a few basic steps: Know what one thing you want most of all. Make an outline or path to follow which defines the key accomplishments you must actually accomplish. Don’t be afraid of succeeding. When you act on your desire to serve the needs of others, you will be doing your dream.
Ciao
The Blue Jay of Happiness ponders an idea from Earl Nightingale. “You become what you think about.”
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