People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of
time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The
things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I
found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it
easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my
thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to
attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful
people. They said it probably really wouldn’t matter. If I had to sum it
up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not
to do. Six years later, I’m a millionaire and they are all still blaming
the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to
do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they
could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.

It is not the lack of money – banks are full of money. It is not the
lack of opportunity – America, and much of the free World, continues to
offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six
thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books –
libraries are full of books – and they are free! It is not the schools -
the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers,
leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and
sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take
advantage of all that we have is simply neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout
our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete
breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and
guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence
diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity
diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer,
our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift
from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more…
and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of “easy to” and “easy
not to” that you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, “easy”; but
potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.