What is it you want? Do you want to be an outstanding salesperson? A better worker at your particular job? Do you want to go places in your company…in your community? Do you want to get rich? All you have got to do is plant that seed in your mind, care for it, work steadily toward your goal, and it will become a reality.

It not only will, there’s no way that it cannot. You see, that’s a law – like the laws of Sir Isaac Newton, the laws of gravity. If you get on top of a building and jump off, you’ll always go down – you’ll never go up.

And it’s the same with all the other laws of nature. They always work. They’re inflexible. Think about your goal in a relaxed, positive way.

Picture yourself in your mind’s eye as having already achieved this goal. See yourself doing the things you will be doing when you have reached your goal.

Ours has been called the “Phenobarbital Age”, the age of ulcers, nervous breakdowns and tranquilizers. At a time when medical research has raised us to new plateau of good health and longevity, far too many of us worry ourselves into an early grave trying to cope with things in our own little personal ways – without ever learning a few great laws that will take care of everything for us.

These things we bring on ourselves through our habitual way of thinking. Every one of us is the sum total of our own thoughts. We are where we are because that’s exactly where we really want to be – whether we’ll admit that or not.

Each of us must live off the fruit of our thoughts in the future, because what you think today and tomorrow – next month and next year – will mold your life and determine your future.

I remember one time I was driving through eastern Arizona and I saw one of those giant earth-moving machines roaring along the road at about 35 miles an hour with what looked like 30 tons of dirt in it…a tremendous, incredible machine…and there was a little man perched way up on top with the wheel in his hands, guiding it. And as I drove along, I was struck by the similarity of that machine to the human mind. Just suppose you’re sitting at the controls of such a vast source of energy.

Are you going to sit back and fold your arms and let it run itself into a ditch? Or are you going to keep both hands firmly on the wheel and control and direct this power to a specific, worthwhile purpose? It’s up to you. You’re in the driver’s seat. You see, the very law that gives us success is a two-edged sword. We must control our thinking. The same rule that can lead people to lives of success, wealth, happiness, and all the things they ever dreamed of for themselves and their families – that very same law can lead them into the gutter. It’s all in how they use it… for good or for bad. This is The Strangest Secret!

Now, why do I say it’s strange, and why do I call it a secret? Actually, it isn’t a secret at all. It was first revealed by some of the earliest wise men, and it appears again and again throughout the Bible. But very few people have learned it or understand it. That’s why it’s strange, and why for some equally strange reason it virtually remains a secret. I believe that you could go out and walk down the main street of your town and ask one person after another what the secret of success is and you probably wouldn’t run into one person in a month who could tell you.

Now, this information is enormously valuable to us, if we really understand it and apply it. It’s valuable to us not only for our own lives, but the lives of those around us – our families, employees, associates, and friends.

Life should be an exciting adventure; it should never be a bore. You should live fully – be alive.

You should be glad to get out of bed in the morning. You should be doing a job you like to do and because you do it well.