How’s the World Treating You? by Earl Nightingale

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We live in a world of words. We have a word for everything, and some of these names and labels mean a great deal to us. Words such as “love,” “happiness,” “success,” “achievement,” “joy,” and “ability” describe conditions all of us want, but there is one word that controls them all. That is, there is one word that describes a condition that will bring us all of these things or keep us from getting any one of them. 

If your youngster asked what this word is, could you tell him? If, from all of the many thousands of words in the language, you were asked to select the one that would influence your life more than any other, could you pick the right word? I call it the “magic word,” and it is “ATTITUDE!” Once we are grown and on our own, this word actually controls our environment, our entire world. 

If you are curious about what kind of an attitude you have, a simple test will tell you what it has been up to this point in your life. Just answer this question with a “yes” or “no”: “Do you feel the world is treating you well?” If your attitude toward the world is good, you will obtain good results. If your attitude is excellent, excellent will be your results. If your attitude is negative, little that is positive awaits you. And if your attitude is just so-so, you will live in a world that is not particularly bad, nor particularly good, just so-so. 

Our environment, which is another way of saying how the world treats us, is nothing more than a reflection—a mirror, actually—of our own attitude. 

One of the most pitiful aspects of society is the really large percentage of people who lead dismal, narrow, darkened lives, crying out against what appears to be a cruel world, which they believe has singled them out for a lifetime of trouble, misery, and bad luck. Those who find themselves in such a prison of discontent should face the fact that they have very probably built their prison with their own hands. And unless they change, their cell will continue to grow smaller and darker. 

The world doesn’t care whether we change or not. Adopting a good, healthy attitude toward life doesn’t affect life and the people with whom we come in contact nearly as much as it affects us. As it says in the Bible: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” 

It would be impossible even to estimate the number of jobs that have been lost, the number of promotions missed, the number of sales not made, the number of marriages ruined by poor attitudes. But you can number in the millions the jobs that are held but hated, the marriages that are tolerated but unhappy, all because of people who are waiting for others, or the world, to change toward them, instead of being big enough and wise enough to realize that we only get back what we put out. 

In 30 days, you can change your world and your environment by taking this simple test. For 30 days, treat every person you meet, without a single exception, as the most important person on earth. You will find that they will begin treating you the same way. You see, every person, as far as he or she is concerned, is the most important person on earth. How does the world look at you? Exactly as you look at the world. 

his 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. 

The Mystery of Life by Jim Stovall

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Control is an illusion. We seek to plan, organize, and manage every area of our lives. While I am a big advocate of financial plans, exercise and health habits, as well as managing the various areas of risk, life is often chaotic and unpredictable. The poet Robert Frost said, “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”   

In psychological studies of happiness and satisfaction, researchers found that people with predictable and mundane lives were unhappy, but, ironically, people with some of the most adventurous and unpredictable lives were also unhappy. As in most things, the researchers found that people with a moderate amount of adventure combined with periods of stability were found to be the happiest and most fulfilled.  

The only things we can control are our efforts and our attitudes. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can always determine what we are going to do about it. Recently, I’ve undertaken a study of stoicism, and I’m finding that the philosophy has a lot of merit. Stoics are people who endeavor to face life without emotional swings. Mr. Spock of Star Trek-fame comes to mind. Stoics understand that the best of times are fleeting and the worst of times are often filled with great opportunity.  

Success is more about making the whole world a better place than trying to improve our own world. 

There’s an element of faith in finding the silver lining within every raincloud. I had the privilege of interviewing the legendary football coach Lou Holtz. He expressed his faith and optimism by saying, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” 

Long-time readers of these columns know that I believe we need only three things to be happy: something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. We can find all of these elements in the best of times as well as in the worst of times. Success is more about making the whole world a better place than trying to improve our own world. Happiness and joy are much more of a decision than a condition of life. We must enjoy the good times, remain optimistic during the bad times, and celebrate it all. 

As you go through your day today, accept every mystery of life as a grand adventure. 

Today’s the day!  

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books, including The Gift of Giving, co-authored with Don Green, executive director and CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor).

The Proven Secret to More Wealth and Happiness by Noah St. John

Most people focus on trying to make money and trying to be happier. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s just one teensy problem… 

It doesn’t work. 

Why not? Because both money and happiness are the RESULTS of other things. 

Therefore, rather than focusing on trying to make more money and trying to be happier (which are results or outcomes), the truth is that we need to focus on what causes money (income) and what causes happiness. 

As illustrated by the Income-Happiness Scale above, there are two main factors that cause Income and Happiness: Activities and Aptitude. Activities are the things you do every day—what you actually do with the minutes and hours of your day. There are two kinds of Activities you can do each day: Low-Value Activities and High-Value Activities. 

Aptitude means two things: how good you are at doing a certain Activity and how much you enjoy doing it. Therefore, there are two aspects of Aptitude: things you Suck At (and don’t enjoy doing) and things you’re Great At (and enjoy doing). 

The Hobby Quadrant 

Let’s start in the lower right-hand corner of the Income-Happiness Scale. When you have a Low-Value Activity that you’re Great At (and you enjoy), you have what’s called a Hobby. What’s the definition of a Hobby? It’s something you enjoy that you don’t get paid to do. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with having hobbies. There is, however, one slight problem, and it comes when I ask my clients a simple yet profound question: Do you own a business, or do you own a hobby? 

How can you tell the difference? Simple. With a hobby, you’re having fun—see how it’s high on the Happiness axis—yet you’re not making much (or any) money—see how it’s low on the Income axis. As it relates to your business, that’s why it’s crucial to ask whether you own a business or whether you own a hobby.  

The Busywork Quadrant 

Moving to our lower left quadrant, we have Low-Value Activities that you Suck At (and don’t enjoy). That’s what I call Busywork. We live in a world of infinite distractions. You can watch cat videos on YouTube until the end of time. You can waste countless hours on social media. Or you can simply spend the days of your life doing Activities that don’t grow your business and don’t give you either the Income or the Happiness you want. 

Notice that in the Busywork quadrant, your Activities aren’t producing much money, and you’re not enjoying them either. So you don’t even get the benefit of having a Hobby. In fact, one of my clients told me on one of our coaching calls, “Noah, I own a Busywork!” 

Do YOU “own a Busywork”? Or are you just spending too much of your valuable time there? Why is this such an important question to ask? Because TIME is the one resource that can never be replaced. 

The Golden Handcuffs 

Moving to our upper left quadrant, we have High-Value Activities that you Suck At (and don’t enjoy). That’s what I call the Golden Handcuffs. This is where you hate the work you’re doing and feel unhappy and unfulfilled but make good money so feel like you can’t leave your job. It’s called the “Golden Handcuffs” because it’s awfully hard to leave a job that pays well, even if you hate it. 

Living Your Dream 

And finally, we get to the place where we all want to go: where you are doing High-Value Activities that you’re Great At (and that you enjoy doing). That’s where you’re in the quadrant I call Living Your Dream. Why do we call it Living Your Dream? Because when you’re doing High-Value Activities that you’re great at AND that you love doing, you’re not only living your dream… 

It’s like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying!  

When you’re Living Your Dream, notice what’s happening to your Income. Your Income is going up, but your Happiness is going up too. In fact, there is no limit to the amount of Income you can create and no limit to the amount of Happiness you can experience. 

This article originally appeared on ValueWalk.com. 

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