The Strangest Secret (5)

30-DAY ACTION IDEAS FOR PUTTING THE STRANGEST SECRET TO WORK FOR YOU

For the next 30-days follow each of these steps every day until you have achieved your goal. I'm posting this today on purpose. It's my prayer that posting this on the leap day of this year will motivate you to LEAP into achieving your goals. The other reason is so you have 30 of the 31 days in March to take these steps, have a day's break and then restart in April before you know it, this will be part of the way you live each day..."AMEN!" to both.

1. 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. The key thing is that it is YOUR goal.

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. Motivate yourself to get up & go for it!

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 really yours the moment you write it down and begin to think about it. A wise unknown person said: "Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; can'ts into cans; dreams into plans; and plan into reality. Don't just think it - ink it!"

LEAP!

Wow! Today is the "Leap Day" in this unique year...

While praying this morning, I felt led to encourage us all to consciously LEAP as a way of life.

Leaping is: "a light springing movement upwards or forwards"* and that's my point exactly...it is an action. We need to always be moving upwards and forward to accomplish our purpose in life.

To truly LEAP, I recommend at least 4 things:

The Strangest Secret (4)

AS YE SOW — SO SHALLYE REAP
The human mind is much like a farmer's land. The land gives the farmer a choice. He may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care what is planted. It's up to the farmer to make the decision. The mind, like the land, will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant. If the farmer plants too seeds — one a seed of corn, the other nightshade, a deadly poison, waters and takes care of the land, what will happen?

The Strangest Secret (3)

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 promulgated 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.

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, said:

"A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."

Disraeli said this:
"Everything comes if a man will only wait ... a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfillment."

The Strangest Secret (2)

GOALS
Have you ever wondered why so many people work so hard and honestly without ever achieving anything in particular, and why others don't seem to work hard, yet seem to get everything? They seem to have the "magic touch." You've heard people say, "Everything he touches turns to gold." Have you ever noticed that a person who becomes successful tends to continue to become more successful? And, on the other hand, have you noticed how someone who's a failure tends to continue to fail?

The difference is goals.

People with goals succeed because they know where they're going.

Interestingly, the prophetic theme in our church this month is: "I will reach my goal." The way I see it, to reach your goal, you must be "willing" to. It's that simple. Failures, on the other hand, believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances...by things that happen to them...by exterior forces. Failures let things happen to them instead of making things happen for them. Are you a "let-ter" or a "maker" like God?

Think of a ship with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take — it has a definite goal. And 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get there. Just like Geoffrey F. Abert said: 

"The most important thing about goals is having one."

Now let's take another ship — just like the first — only let's not put a crew on it, or a captain at the helm. Let's give it no aiming point, no goal, and no destination. We just start the engines and let it go. I think you'll agree that if it gets out of the harbor at all, it will either sink or wind up on some deserted beach — a derelict. It can't go anyplace because it has no destination and no guidance. Mark Victor Hansen put it succintly:

"You fail at a 100% of the goals you don't set."

Heart truth

Every month should be "Heart month" and the reason is simple...

we need our hearts every day (of our lives).

To get the best out of our hearts, we need to give the best to our hearts. In other words, if you want your heart to treat you well, treat it well too.

People usually talk about the hard truth as a difficult thing to pass on. Well, in this case, I might as well share the hard-Heart truth with us:

The Strangest Secret...

I got this excerpt of "The Strangest Secret" by Earl Nightingale* last year. It's a rather lengthy piece so I'll share it in five "manageable" bits...
as usual, italics, comments in green font and pictures are mine:

Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, "Doctor, what's wrong with men today?" The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, "Men simply don't think!"

It's about this that I want to talk with you. We live today in a golden age. This is an era that humanity has looked forward to, dreamed of, and worked toward for thousands of years.

We live in the richest era that ever existed on the face of the earth ... a land of abundant opportunity for everyone. However, if you take 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, do you have any idea what will happen to those men and women by the time they're 65? These 100 people believe they're going to be successful. They are eager toward life, there is a certain sparkle in their eye, an erectness to their carriage, and life seems like a pretty interesting adventure to them.

4 words you must never forget...

I remember a story I heard from my husband: A man went to church and all the preacher kept saying as he read some of the verses in Genesis chapter 5 was:

"And the man died..."

Sitting in the congregation, the man tried his best to but just couldn't understand why the preacher had nothing ("better") to say other than: "And the man died."

When he got home, the phrase kept ringing in his mind - he couldn't sleep, nothing could erase the phrase from his mind. He eventually gave his life to Christ...and then had peace.

God is amazing in how He makes His word come alive to us as individuals - that man couldn't have been the only one in church that day. Let's think about it, reading Genesis 5 can sound like a broken record....however, I believe (and know for a certainty) that God put all that information in there so we can all remember that irrespective of what we achieve or don't achieve on earth, one day "the man" will die...and after that judgement. It clearly says so in Hebrews 9:27: "We die only once, and then we are judged" (CEV) - an undebateable fact.

As final (and maybe fearful) this sounds, the good thing is that God has given us what I carefully call "room to maneuver" because He does not want anyone to perish (2 Pet 3: 9). He is not happy when a person dies a sinner (Ezekiel 18:32) because once the person dies, that's their judgement day. In essence, "we should judge ourselves. Then we would not be found guilty" (1 Cor 11:31). What that says to me is I need to take the time to do a thorough self-assessment and make the necessary amendments – there is no opportunity for such “amendments” after death. What a "blank cheque" of opportunity to decide where you want to spend eternity...a decision that only you can take for yourself and only while alive.

What a wonderful God we have - He always provides us with a way of "escape" because He wants us to be with Him forever. Whatever your aspirations and accomplishments on earth, plan for your eternal destination. Never forget: "and the man died"...after that judgement.

Tick-tock

Tick Tock, Time is moving faster on the clock...

Watch, and hear the knock at the door,

 and we are going to soar on wings, as the angels sing…

Pay attention, and watch, as the clock ticks another tock…

As the door opens, the wind blows with a shout,

and it’s time to wake up, and never doubt…

Tick  tock  goes the clock,

and it’s time to walk with the Lord our rock…

Watching  for King Jesus Christ

 as the clock cries out tick tock,

and the Lord arrives for his faithful flock,

 and those left behind shall be in a state of shock…

 

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31112688/Tick-Tock-Time-Poem