This month has been like a history lesson for me as I outlined the trail of the past great ones in the field of self-improvement. From Russell Herman Conwells book Acres of Diamonds a generation of self-help gurus sprang up including Og Mandino, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, W. Clement Stone and Earl Nightingale. These were the founding fathers of self-help. It was Earl Nightingale who said, It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is created. Nightingale pioneered the use of electronic media to broadcast self-help material which is partly responsible for the immense success and growth of the multi-million dollar self-help industry that exists today! Who could know? Even Nightingale could not see what hindsight shows us so clearly today that his destiny was indeed created from his moments of decision.
I dont like to use words like destiny too lightly. In this quote Nightingale would have us believe that our destiny is governed totally by our decisions. Other similar quotes have treated the subject of destiny with the same disregard to an eternal principle which says, time and unforeseen occurrences befall us all. (The Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11) Though I...