Follow Your River

An excerpt from the bestseller
“How to Completely Change Your Life in 30 Seconds”
By Robert C. Worstell - edited from the talks of
Earl Nightingale
Listen Now: http://livesensical.com/go/cyl-follow-river/

Follow Your River - 1
Are you immersed in your “river of interest” or simply
watching your life from the shore ... afraid to get your feet
wet?
There are two distinct kinds of successful people. There are
what I call the river people and the goal people. Let's take a
good look at the river people. River people are those
fortunate people who find themselves born to perform a
special task. Mozart and da Vinci were river people. There
are thousands of river people living today. They're the
people who know from childhood what they want to do with
their lives.
River people seem born to spend their lives in pursuit of
their interest. And they throw themselves into their rivers
100 percent, busying themselves with whatever it happens
to be. They don't tend to think about the idea of success or
the making of money; they simply spend their lives doing
the best they can in their river of interest. And they're often
responsible for some of the largest achievements and
institutions on earth.
We all know the stories of Alexander Graham Bell and
Thomas Edison. The businesses that have grown from their
inventions encircle the globe and are among the largest on
the planet. Einstein was such a person, of course, but there
are thousands of them that we never hear of. They are
people who would be perfectly content in their fields of
interest with only a modest maintenance diet and a roof
over their heads. Their work is everything. But because they
usually render a very valuable service in the performance of
their work, be it in the arts or sports or commerce, they're
usually well rewarded for their efforts, though they may
struggle for years before recognition and success come to
them.
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river/

Dr. Abraham Maslow talked about such people. He said,
“One could say a good match is like the perfect love affair or
friendship in which it seems that people belong to each
other and were meant for each other. In the best instances,
the person and his job fit together and belong together
perfectly, like a key in a lock, or perhaps resonate together
like a sung note which sits in a sympathetic resonance, a
particular string on a piano keyboard.” And Maslow said,
“Simply as a matter of the strategy and tactics of living well
and fully, and of choosing one's life instead of having it
determined for us, this is a help.”
It's so easy to forget ultimates in the rush and hurry of daily
life, especially for young people. So often, we're merely
responders, so to speak, simply reacting to stimuli, to
rewards and punishments, to emergencies, to pains and
fears, to demands of other people, to superficialities. It
takes a specific, conscious effort, at least at first, to turn
one's attention to intrinsic things and values. Perhaps
seeking actual physical aloneness. Perhaps exposing one's
self to great music, to good people, to natural beauty, and so
forth. Only after practice do these strategies become easy
and automatic so that one can be living totally immersed in
his or her river.
I believe that each of us, because of the way our genetic
heritage is stacked, has an area of great interest. And it's
that area that we should explore with the patience and
assiduity of a paleontologist on an important dig where it's a
region of great potential. Somewhere within it, we can find
that avenue of interest that so perfectly matches our natural
abilities, we'll be able to make our greatest contribution and
spend our lives in work we love.
Report excerpted from How to Completely Change
Your Life in 30 Seconds

If we can find our river of interest, we need only throw
ourselves into it, fully committed, and there spend our days
learning and growing and finding new emerging fields of
interest within its boundaries.
The River or the Goal
For some, the river may be a particular branch of science;
for others, one of the arts. There are some physicians, for
example, who are so wrapped up in medicine that they hate
to leave; even after a 16 hour day, they can't wait to get back
to it.
These people are happiest and most alive when they're in
their river - in whatever business or career or profession it
happens to be. And success comes to such people as
inevitable as a sunrise. In fact, they are successes the
moment they find their great field of interest; the worldly
trappings of success will always come in time. Such people
don't have to ask, “What will I do with my life?” Their work
is a magnet for them, and they can't imagine doing anything
else.
We all know such people, or about such people. Doing what
they do is even more important to them than the rewards
they earn for doing it.
The second group of successful people are those who are
goal-oriented. These people have not found a particular
river, necessarily, and can be quite happy doing a number of
things. It's the goals they set that are important to them,
and they're quite aware that there are many roads that can
lead to their goals.
Someone once said, “Americans can have anything they
seriously make up their minds to have. The trouble is that
river/

most of them never make up their minds about anything.”
Goal-oriented people do make up their minds about what
they want, and they keep their eyes and their enthusiasm on
the goal they've established until it becomes a reality in
their lives. Then they set a new goal, if they're wise.
One of the problems with this latter group is that after
achieving a number of goals and becoming quite successful,
they can run out of goals and become listless and unhappy.
But not the river people. Their interest in what they're doing
never fades.
So if you're going to be a big success, chances are you need
to be a river person or a goal-oriented person, or both - the
two groups are not mutually exclusive.
Tips for Setting Goals
A clinical associate professor of psychiatry, Dr. Ari Kiev,
writes, “Observing the lives of people who have mastered
adversity, I have noted that they have established goals
and sought with all their effort to achieve them. From the
moment they decide to concentrate all their energies on a
specific objective, they began to surmount the most
difficult odds.”
Dr. Kiev continues, “The establishment of a goal is the key
to successful living. And the most important step toward
achieving an objective is first to define it. I'm sure you have
at least 30 minutes a day in which to list your thoughts. At
the end of that time, choose from the possible objectives
you have listed, the one that seems the most important, and
record it separately on a single card. Carry this card with
you at all times. Think about this goal every day. Create a

concrete mental image of the goal, as if you've already
accomplished it.”
The doctor points out, “You can determine your special
talents or strengths in a number of ways, ranging from
psychological tests to an analysis of the unexpressed wishes
in your dreams. No method works for everyone. You might
start, for example, by clipping and posting newspaper
articles that interest you. After 30 days, see if there isn't
some trend suggestive or a deep-seated interest of natural
inclination. Keep alert to the slightest indications of any
special skills or talents, even when they seem silly or
unimportant.
“From this exercise, you should be able to get some sense of
potential strengths. Whenever you discover a strength or
talent, think of five possible ways to develop it. Write these
down on a card as well, and check them periodically to keep
them fresh in your mind.”
So take the good advice of psychiatrist Dr. Ari Kiev, and
don't be afraid of failure. As Herodotus wrote, “It is better
by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of
the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly
listlessness for fear of what may happen.”
river/

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