The Shelf Life Of An Idea
One of the first personal development speakers I had the privilege of hearing on audio cassette was Earl Nightingale.
It was in 1986, and the name of the tape was The Strangest Secret. Mr. Nightingale's words pumped me up so much that after listening to the tape a second time, I decided to order everything he had. Since then, I must have listened to his tape series called Lead The Field close to one hundred times.
On one of his tapes, he says the following:
"ONE IDEA CAN MAKE YOU RICH."
This statement was a bit challenging for me to believe, because I remember getting several good ideas in a single day, but I still wasn't rich. What about you?
Every day the average person has approximately 60,000 thoughts; however, about 99% of them are the same ones the person had the day before. Only about 1% of the thoughts are fresh and new.
This means that you get about 600 new thoughts per day. However, about 90% of those thoughts will be no good, meaning that they won't make much of a difference in your life. In fact, only about 10% of your thoughts will be good and can definitely impact your life. Unfortunately, only about ½% of that 10% has what I call the RP FACTOR attached to it (the Rich Potential).
In other words, you get approximately three new life-changing ideas per day. That's 90 per month or 1,080 per year. If you acted upon just one of your Rich Potential ideas, you could be richer than you ever imagined.
Here's the real kicker: Every single new idea you get has a shelf life, which means that after a certain period of time, the idea will evaporate into thin air. It goes back to the exact same place it came from -- The Universal Fort Knox of Ideas.
Now here's a key point: You can extend the shelf life of the new ideas that you get every day by simply taking some sort of immediate action the moment you get the idea. In other words, the next time this overwhelmingly incredible idea, which seemingly came out of nowhere, hits you, stop whatever you are doing and deliberately extend its shelf life. If you don't, then you may find that within moments, the idea is gone forever. The extended shelf life you receive will depend on the type and amount of action you take. So why not create what I call an RP Idea Log?
Basically, whenever you get that next new and hot idea that excites you, at the very least write it down. Be sure to carry a notepad and pen or a small personal recorder wherever you go so you can capture the endless number of life-enhancing and life-changing ideas that are constantly flowing your way. Remember what Earl Nightingale said,
"One Idea Can Make You Rich!"
Until Next Time...
Go, Go, Go!!!