Speeches and other things

Your 30 Day Challenge

I’ve explained the strangest secret in the world and how it works. Now on this side, I want to explain how you can prove to yourself the enormous returns possible in your own life by putting the secret to a practical test. I want you to make a test that will last 30 days. It isn’t going to be easy but if you give it a good try, it will competely change your life for the better.

Back in the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and natural philosopher gave us the natural laws of physics which applies much to human beings as they do to the movement of bodies in the universe. One of these laws is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Simply stated as it applies to you and me, it means that we can achieve nothing without paying the price.

The results of your 30-day experiment will be in direct proportion to the effort you put forth. To be a doctor, you must pay the price of long years of difficult study. To be successful in selling and remember that each of us succeeds to the extent of his ability to sell. Selling our families and our ideas, selling education in schools, selling our children on the advantages of living the good and honest life, selling our associates and employees on the importance of being exceptional people, to, of course, the profession of selling itself.

To be successful in selling our way to the good life, we must be willing to pay the price. Now what is that price? Well, it’s many things. First, it’s understanding emotionally as well as intellectually that we literally become what we think about, that we must control our thoughts if we are to control our lives. It’s understanding fully that as ye sow, so shall ye reap.

Second, it’s cutting away all fetters from the mind and permitting it to soar as it was divinely designed to do. It’s the realization that your limitations are self-imposed, and that the opportunities for you today are enormous beyond belief. It’s rising above narrow-minded pettiness and prejudice.

Third, it’s using all your courage to force yourself to think positively on your own problem, to set a definite and clearly defined goal for yourself and
let your marvelous mind think about your goal from all possible angles, to let your imagination speculate freely upon many different possible solutions, to refuse to believe that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong to defeat you in the accomplishment of your purpose.

To act promptly and decisively when your course is clear and to keep constantly aware of the fact that you are at this moment standing in the middle of your own acres of diamonds, as Russell Conwell used to point out.Fourth, save at least 10 percent of every dollar you earn.

It’s also remembering that no matter what your present job, it has enormous possibilities, if you’re willing to pay the price. Now let’s just go over the important points and the price each of us must pay to achieve the wonderful life that can be ours. It is, of course, worth any price.

1. You will become what you think about.
2. Remember the word ‘imagination’ and let your mind begin to soar.
3. Courage. Concentrate on your goal every day.
4. Save 10% of what you earn.
5. Action. Ideas are worthless unless we act on them.

Now I’ll try to outline the 30-day test I want you to make. Keep that you have nothing to lose by making this test, and everything you could possibly want to gain. There are two things that may be said of everyone. Each of us wants something and each of us is afraid of something.

I want you to write on a card what it is you want more that anything else. It may be more money. Perhaps you’d like to double your income or make a specific amount of money. It may be a beautiful home. It may be success at your job. It may be a particular position in life. It could be a more harmonious family.

Each of us wants something. Write down on your card specifically what it is you want. Make sure it’s a single goal and clearly defined. You needn’t show it to anyone but carry it with you so that you can look at it several times a day. Think about it in a cheerful, relaxed, positive way each morning when you get up, and immediately you have something to work for, something to get out of bed for, something to live for.

Look at it every chance you get during the day and just before going to bed at night. As you look at it, remember that you must become what you think about and since you’re thinking about your goal, you realize that soon it will be yours. In fact, it’s yours really the moment you write it down and begin to think about it.

Look at the abundance all around you as you as you go about your daily business. You have as much right to this abundance as any other living creature. It’s yours for the asking.

Now we come to the difficult part, difficult because it means the formation of what is probably a brand new habit. New habits are not easily formed. Once formed however, it’ll follow you for the rest of your life.

Stop thinking about what it is you fear. Each time a fearful or negative thought comes into your consciousness replace it with a mental picture of your positive and worthwhile goal. There will come times when you’ll feel like giving up. It’s easier for a human being to think negatively than positively. That’s why only 5% are successful. You must begin now to place yourself in that group.

For 30 days, you must take control of your mind. It will think about only what you permit it to think about. Each day for this 30-day test, do more than you have to do.

In addition to maintaining a cheerful positive outlook, give of yourself more than you’ve ever done before. Do this knowing that your returns in life must be in direct proportion to what you give. The moment you decide on a goal to work toward, you’re immediately a successful person. You are then in that rare and successful category of people who know where they’re going. Out of every 100 people, you belong to the top 5.

Don’t concern yourself too much with how you’re going to achieve your goal.

Leave that completely to a power greater than yourself. All you have to know is where you’re going. The answers will come to you of their own accord and at the right time.

Remember these words from the sermon on the mount, and remember them well.

Keep them constantly before you this month of your test. “Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth. He that seeketh, findeth. To him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

It’s as marvelous and as simple as that. In fact, it’s so simple that in our seemingly complicated world, it’s difficult for an adult to understand that all they need is a purpose and faith.

For 30 days, do your very best. If you’re a salesman, go at it as you have never done before, not in a hectic fashion, but with the calm cheerful assurance that time well spent will give you the abundance in return that you want.

If you’re a homemaker, devote your 30-day test to completely giving of yourself without thinking about receiving anything in return, and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your life.

No matter what your job, do it as you’ve never done before for 30 days, and if you have kept your goal before you every day, you’ll wonder and marvel at this new life you have found.

Dorothea Brande, the outstanding editor and writer, discovered it for herself and talks about it in her fine book “Wake up and Live”. Her entire philosophy is reduced to the words: “Act as though it were impossible to fail.” She made her own test with sincerity and faith and her entire life was changed to one of overwhelming success.

Now, you make your test for 30 full days. Don’t start your test until you have made up your mind to stick with it. You see, by being persistent you’re demonstrating faith. Persistence is simply another word for faith. If you didn’t have faith, you’d never persist.

If you should fail during your first 30 days, by that I mean finding suddenly yourself overwhelmed by negative thoughts, you’ve got to start over again from that point and go 30 more days.

Gradually your new habit will form until you find yourself one of that wonderful minority to whom virtually nothing is impossible, and don’t forget the card. It’s vitally important as you begin this new way of living.

On one side of the card, write your goal whatever it may be. On the other side, write the words we’ve quoted from the sermon on the mount. “Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

Nothing great was ever accomplished without inspiration. See that during these crucial first 30 days, your own inspiration is kept at a peak. Above all, don’t worry. Worry brings fear, and fear is crippling. The only thing that can cause you to worry during your test is trying to do it all yourself. Know that all you have to do is hold your goal before you. Everything else will take care of itself. Remember also to keep calm and cheerful. Don’t let petty things annoy you and get you off course.

Now since making this test is difficult, some will say, “Why should I bother?” Well, look at the alternative. No one wants to be a failure. No one really wants to be a mediocre individual. No one wants a life constantly filled with worry and fear and frustration.

Therefore, remember that you must reap that which you sow. If you sow negative thoughts, your life will be filled with negative things. If you sow positive thoughts, your life will be cheerful, successful, and positive.

Now gradually you will have a tendency to forget what you’ve heard on this recording. Play it often. Keep reminding yourself of what you must do to form this new habit. Gather your whole family around at regular intervals and listen to what’s been said here.

Most men will tell you that they want to make money, without understanding the law. The only people who make money work in a mint. The rest of us must earn money. This is what causes those who keep looking for something for nothing or a free ride, to fail in life.

The only way to earn money is by providing people with services or products which are needed and useful. We exchange our time and our product or service for the other man’s money. Therefore the law is that our financial return will be in direct proportion to our service.

Now, success is not the result of making money. Earning money is the result of success, and success is in direct proportion to our service. Most people have this law backwards. They believe that you are successful if you earn a lot of money. The truth is that you can only earn money after you are successful.

It’s like story of the man who sat in front of the stove and says to it: “Give me heat and then I’ll add the wood.”

How many men and women do you know, or do you suppose there are today who take the same attitude toward life? There are millions. We’ve got to put the fuel in before we can expect heat. Likewise, we’ve got to be of service first before we can expect money.

Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service. Build, work, dream, create. Do this and you’ll find there’s no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you. Prosperity is founded upon a law of mutual exchange. Any person who contributes to prosperity must prosper in turn himself.

Sometimes the return will not come from those you serve but it must come to you from someplace because that’s the law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As you go daily through your 30-day test period, remember that your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render, and money is a yardstick for measuring this service. No man can get rich himself unless he enriches others. Now there are no exceptions to a law.

You can drive down any street in America and from your car estimate the service that’s being rendered by the people living on that street. Have you ever thought of this yardstick before? It’s interesting. Some, like ministers and priests and other devoted people measure their returns in the realm of the spiritual, but again their returns are equal to their service.

Once this law is fully understood, any thinking person can tell his own fortune. If he wants more, he must be of more service to those from whom he receives his return. If he wants less, he has only to reduce his service. This is the price you must pay for what you want.

If you believe you can enrich yourself by deluding others, you can end only by deluding yourself. It may take some time, but just as surely as you breathe, you’ll back what you put out. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking you can avert this. It’s impossible.

The prisons and the streets where the lonely walk are filled with people who tried to make new laws just for themselves. We may avoid the laws of man for a while, but there are greater laws that cannot be broken.

An outstanding medical doctor recently pointed out six steps that will help you realize success.

1. Set yourself a definite goal.
2. Quit running yourself down.
3. Stop thinking of all the reasons why you cannot be successful and instead think of all the reasons why you can.
4. Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful, if that’s the way you’ve been thinking.
5. Change the image you have of yourself by writing out a description of the person you would like to be.
6. Act the part of the successful person you have decided to become.

The doctor who wrote those words is a noted west coast psychiatrist, Dr. David Harold Fink.

Do what the experts since the dawn of recorded history have told you must do. Pay the price by becoming the person you want to become. It’s not nearly as difficult as living unsuccessfully.

Make your 30-day test, then repeat it, then repeat it again. Each time it will become more a part of you until you’ll wonder how you could have ever have lived any other way. Live this new way and the floodgates of abundance will open and pour over you more riches than you may have dreamed existed.

Money? Yes, lots of it, but what’s more important, you’ll have peace. You’ll be in that wonderful minority who lead calm, cheerful, successful lives.

Start today. You have nothing to lose but you have a whole life to win.