How Successful People Think - Taking the Earl Nightingale Challenge by Generating Great Ideas - Update

At the beginning of March 2017, I shared wisdom and a challenge from Earl Nightingale, to use our minds to develop ideas for our own benefit.

Providing an update in April proved more challenging than I had anticipated. June is as good a month as April for updates.

Earl Nightingale encourages us to purposely plan time to focus our minds on the activity of generating ideas. We should spend an hour, if possible, each day, immersed in writing down ideas which come to mind. By making this a deliberate act, we cultivate and exercise our brain's capacity to look for ways we can create opportunities to improve ourselves, and earn through thought.

I decided to take this seriously.

I wanted all my ideas to be recorded in the same place, so I selected a pocket sized note book, small enough that I could take it anywhere, yet sized so I could write comfortably. Why not my mobile phone? I will say something about this later on.

I selected a note book with no lines on the page, so my thoughts would not be limited, nor influenced by the page style.

I experimented with the time of day, to find a time where I could condition my mind to get ready to work. I tried the first thing in the morning, all the way through to last thing at night. My schedule during March proved quite erratic, so I wrote mostly while I was travelling by train. This gave me about an hour each week day.

Sometimes, I sought inspiration by listening to recordings from great speakers and reading positive messages prior to setting my mind to work.

I also took time to clear my mind on occasion, to see if there was a difference in the quantity, or quality of ideas produced.

As stated by Earl, the first attempts to generate ideas yielded little as my brain felt unprepared, being forced to create on demand, but as I got past this initial feeling, I started writing everything, as thoughts came to me.

At first, my thoughts were about physical things, mostly something I could design, or make. I had seven ideas on my first attempt.

I thought about everyday problems and how I could solve them.

Then came the challenges. Life getting in the way. I found it quite challenging to force my mind to become, or remain creative, while I had life challenges fighting for the same resource.

There were several days where I could generate one, or two ideas at best.

I kept putting in the time though.

Some ideas were duplicated along the way, but I generated over 60 ideas and a system.

So what did I learn?

I am capable of generating great ideas, and with practice over time, I will generate a few brilliant, possibly life changing ideas, provided I keep this going.

I stopped myself censoring my ideas. It is so easy to dismiss our own ideas, judging them before even writing them down, so I committed them to my note book regardless of how naturally successful I felt they would be.

Keeping all these ideas in one place may appear risky, but I have trained my mind to get working on ideas every time I see the note book. It is inspirational to me to see all these ideas flowing from my mind. I can look through them and select an idea to act on, knowing if it does not blossom into an immediate success, I can relax. There are many more where that idea came from, already written down, and I can always go back to my mind at any time to generate even more.

Generating ideas is actually fun. I observe everyday occurrences with the possibility that an idea will formulate, should something happen unexpectedly.

Some of the world's greatest ideas came to life that way.

Some ideas just arrive. No preparation, no warning, so carrying a note book and pen, ensures I can capture them.

I tried capturing my ideas on my mobile phone a few times. The interface of my phone, and the battery dependency of electronic devices, forced me straight back to the note book. This is before I get to the interruption of emails and texts.

Pen and paper provide an instant, flexible and unrestrained way to record thoughts.

I am still writing ideas in my note book. I carry it around with me and review my ideas whenever I hear a great idea, generated by someone else. I compare it to mine and usually, my ideas appear more useful than they originally were written down.

I encourage you to take Earl Nightingale's advice. Set time aside to regularly engage your mind to come up with ideas.

Who knows, the next big idea may be one of mine, or yours.

Thank you Earl Nightingale.

Thank you for reading.

Patrick Nairne

Starting Your Self-Improvement Journey Part 1

Starting out with Self Improvement Part 1

As with any journey, starting, is most important part. The pursuit of self-improvement requires an investment of both energy and time, to make sure there is a start.

Have you observed how sprinters meticulously seat themselves into their starting blocks with ritual focus, wiggling their way into the perfect starting position? 

The starting block enables the sprinter to channel as much of their their energy as possible into the start of their race, which is crucial to the sprinter's moving from stationary, to maximum speed, as quickly as possible. 

There is a lot more to sprinting than the start, of course, but the reference here, is all about making a connection to starting out with self-improvement.

Starting out with self-improvement is closer to starting a sprint race, than an endurance race, although actual self-improvement is definitely not about quick fix. 

If you ever ran races as a child, you most likely did not use a starting block. You probably assumed a standing start, or crouched into a start position. You probably noticed some of your energy was not utilised in getting you moving forward as you slipped, or tentatively started out, ultimately preventing you unleashing your maximum potential.

As with sprinting, you can choose a starting block, or work with the flat bare track. 

Judging from the uptake by all the World's best sprinters, starting blocks deliver some great advantages over going without.

When starting out with self-improvement, just like starting a sprint race, the aim is for all of your energy to propel you in the intended direction only. No slips, no slides.

The starting block is only effective if adjusted to fit the physical dimensions of the sprinter if they are to provide the best start, reducing, or even removing the slipping and sliding, which can prevent you achieving your best start.

Once you have started running, the starting blocks are no longer needed, until the start of the next race.  

So what are these starting blocks in relation to self-improvement?

Acknowledging your current strategy cannot take you where you want to go, and that You, need to upgrade yourself, to be able to take you where you want to go.


Sprinters need their starting blocks adjusted to fit them perfectly for the greatest effectiveness. A little off, and the sprinter could false start, start poorly, or in the extreme, injure themselves trying to launch into their start. 


Starting your self-improvement is much the same.

What is your current strategy? Spend the time to honestly detail your approach right now. This will be a lot more challenging than than it may at first appear.

This is the true start of your self-improvement journey.

I look forward to you joining me for Part 2.