How to Get What You Want by Earl Nightingale
A very wise man once said, “If you can tell me what you want, I can tell you how to get it.” He was a wise man because he knew that the problem with people is not their ability to achieve what they want. The great majority of people who are dissatisfied with their lives, who feel the world is passing them by and that they are not getting anywhere, are not suffering from a lack of ability—far from it. They are suffering from not having decided where they want to go.
William James, the father of American psychology, put it this way: “If you would be rich, you will be rich; if you would be good, you will be good; if you would be learned, you will be learned. Wish, then, for one thing exclusively and not for a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.”
So the secret to achievement is to decide on one thing you want very much. Yes, there are lots of other things you want too, but one thing at a time. Write down all the things you want and then pick the one, just one, that you want more than the rest. Stick with that one thing until it is achieved; then go on to the next item on your agenda. A man following this course can accomplish more in five years than the average man accomplishes in forty. This is because the average man never seems to make the one decision that would give direction and purpose to his life.
“Decide on one thing you want very much.”
A gentleman by the name of Edward Bulwer Lytton put it this way: “The man who seeks one, and but one, thing in life may hope to achieve it; but he who seeks all things wherever he goes, only reaps, from the hopes which he sows, a harvest of barren regrets.” This is the whole point. Seek one thing, not two or more…one thing at a time.
The next question: “How do I know I have the ability to achieve what I want?” The answer is that we do not seriously want things we don’t have the ability to achieve. We all seem to have a built-in governor that keeps us from wanting things beyond our capabilities. That is why one man sets his heart on becoming a lawyer while another applies for a job with the forest service or in an automobile factory. The wide spectrum of occupations and accomplishments shows us the diversity of human desires. Seeing a man working atop the dizzying heights of the steel skeleton of a skyscraper, you have probably said to yourself, “I wouldn’t do that for all the money in the world.” But he enjoys the work and will do it for so much an hour.
Have no doubt that you can accomplish your goal. It is deciding on the goal that can be the most crucial decision of your life. It has been written, “Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.”
This is an excerpt from Earl Nightingale’s Successful Living in a Changing World, an official Nightingale-Conant publication. Known as the “Dean of Personal Development,” Earl Nightingale grew up in California during the Great Depression. Because his family was very poor, Nightingale educated himself in his local library. His main focus: what makes people turn out the way they do in terms of their wealth, their career achievements, and their happiness. After beginning his career in the US Marines during World War II, he was hired as a radio announcer. He eventually became a popular daily broadcaster for CBS. Through his interest in both personal development and audio, he partnered with Lloyd Conant to form the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, the world’s largest producer of audio programs. Sign up to receive free samples from Sound Wisdom’s Nightingale-Conant Collection here.