Average Success is Normal

And everyone is entitled to it.

Now this runs counter to most modern thought, more or less. Because “Success” has been defined as something out of the ordinary, something extra-ordinary and extreme.

But look over the statistics for any society and you’ll find, relative to their norms, that the majority of people out there are making a decent living and scraping by.  There are always a very, very small number who are in serious trouble as well as a very, very small number who making an outrageous success of themselves.

Even politics is set up that way. There are usually two parties, one in and one out. And they swap places with regularity. In America, the liberals are wanting to say that everything is a “right” and government should prop up everyone to make sure that they have what they need. Conservatives, meanwhile are fighting for the right of people to wreck their own lives if they want to and to take the chances to make a ruddy fortune if they can.

(Our latest recession is just a follow-up to the idea that housing is a “right”, so government and financial institutions should give loans to people who can’t pay them back so they can live in houses much bigger than they need. And since that didn’t work exactly right – prices got too high – and so the solution was that the financial trading of commodities should be better regulated, as well as passing some law that everyone should get health care as another “right”. All to improve the lot of the average person.)

Some countries, like Norway, have it set up so that 50% of your income goes into the public coffers and if you ever lose your job, you instantly get an apartment and a car to drive. Huge safety net.

This idea that it’s easy to be an average success. There are all sorts of people trying to raise the standard of living for everyone. And if you go along with what the majority are doing, you’ll have a nice life and live out your years with no particular problems – and you can watch all the free TV you want with cheap beer and fast food.

Of course, this  idea of success as normal is supported in the majority of the self-help books. Earl Nightingale stated in his “Strangest Secret” that the economy was set up to keep pace with the slowest ship in the fleet. Dorothea Brande (mentioned by Nightingale in that recording), said to “Act as though it were impossible to fail.” 

Because when you need a solution to a problem it generally pops up if you don’t bat it away. This is that same intuition we are all built with from Day One. The one which keeps you safe most of the time.

Jesus the Christ gave it out in his famous Sermon on the Mount, “Seek and you will find, Ask and it will be given.”

Of course this runs contrary to all sorts of conventional wisdom. But you could consider that people are telling you that life is a struggle and the rich should pay more so that we can all live in comfort, so taxes are higher when you are an outrageous success, and so on. TV is filled with stories about how tough life is. (The current fad is cop shows and forensic science wizards who use computer tools that don’t exist yet.) If you look at any sport, you’ll find that all the rules are designed to make sure that being average is your best way to success.

While the tabloids are full of stories about people who are extreme in one way or another, they are always contrasting this with an average, safe, normal life.

The trick is to figure out what normal is and then do that. Not really a trick, though. Just pick up any how-to book and then scale it back about 15% or so.

Everyone wants you to be a plodding success and live out your life in relative comfort – relative to your neighbors on each side of you.

The safest route in this society is to not stand out, but just be “normal”. Do what you are expected to do. Dress like everyone else. And then you can live a very successful life of being average.

And if you want some excitement, then ask for some solutions which will make you stand out in some way. (Like the guy who put a KKK-draped figure on his lawn with another figure being lynched from his front-yard tree – all as Halloween decorations. Oh, he also flew a Confederate flag all year round.)

Or do the homework to make a fortune and then be pestered by people wanting you to give donations, or tax people saying you know owe even more. But guess what – people who have high-income lives tend to move into areas where they are average with their neighbors…

I’m just saying that life is easy. Success is guaranteed. All as long as you just want to travel in a pack with the regular herd around you.

9 Authors who have changed your life

There are 9 bestselling authors who continually sell and have changed your life.

You may or may not know their names - but someone you know has read their books and applied them to get incredible success, wealth, happiness, health - anything you could want, they have used the data in these books to find them.

Someone you know has read these authors and has changed their lives. And you look up to them or have been influenced by their own success.

These 7 authors comprise a personal development bible of sorts - composed of their books.

How to get inspired answers.

Here's how you would use them to take yourself to whatever heights you want, to achieve or acquire anything - anything at all - that you really want.

First, get copies of their books. This can be in any version, since they are all found in the public domain these days. I'd suggest you get the physical books, although you can also use digital versions.

Second, choose one book at random.

Third. in that book, choose a random point and start reading until you have an "AHA!" moment. This is where you suddenly have an insight on something you are doing, working at, or some way you have been acting.

Fourth, get a yellow pad and start writing down your inspired idea. Write down everything about it and don't stop until you've got it all down.

Fifth, put that plan into action - merge it into what you are already doing.

That's really the simplicity of it all. As you keep doing this, you will continue to refine your own purpose in life and the plan you are following to get it fulfilled.

It's just too simple. But it works - every time.

The 7 authors and their books.

Here's those authors and their bestsellers:

1. Napoleon Hill - "Think and Grow Rich", which was based on his 17 Volume "Law of Success" (Get both books.)
2. Wallace Wattles - "Science of Getting Rich"
3. Charles F. Hannel - "Master Key System"
4. Genevieve Behrend - "Your Invisible Power"
5. Dorothea Brande - "Wake Up and Live!"
6. Robert Collier - "Secrets of the Ages"
7. Claude M. Bristol - "Magic of Believing"

If you have the time to read all of these, you'll find (as I did) that they keep repeating the same basic data, although they give their own personal views of how this data applies to them and to people around them. You also get their distinct applications - how you can apply these into your own life, simply and easily.

I make no apologies for their writing styles or their influences.

I do tell you to keep an open mind as you read these. There are incredible data you are going to find for yourself that can make fantastic changes in your life if you let them.

A high-tech way to get inspired answers.

1. Get audio versions of these books and put them into an MP3 player or MP3-capable CD player.
2. Set this machine to play at random.
3. Play it in the background and keep your yellow pad to hand.
4. When you get that flash of inspiration - stop the recording and start writing.
5. When you finish writing, implement that new idea and it's plan into what you already have going.

Don't worry if you seem to find new things when you listen to these tapes. When you get an inspired moment, you tend to focus on that new idea and so quit receiving external inputs like listening or reading. What you should be doing at that point is writing down this inspired idea - so turn off that tape and bookmark that page so you have time to write it all down.

When do you do all this?

Probably you'd best be doing this at a set time daily - I like first thing in the morning, but it can be any time. If you are busy on your work - getting your plan done - then maybe you should do it at night when you're done for the day.

But you should do this daily and always keep your yellow pad to hand for the inspirations which strike you out of the blue.

And all the world's riches will become available to you...

Seriously.

Give it a try.

Update (9/27/08)

I would add:

Dale Carnegie: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
and
Earl Nightingale: "The Strangest Secret"

Brings it up to nine.