16. 5 Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle - Jim Rohn (📱)
06 Apr 2017
Rating 9.5/10
Reading Notes:
It is by an intricate design of nature that success is a condition that must be attracted and not pursued. We achieve rewards and we make progress not by our intense pursuits, but by what we become, for it is what we are that finally determines the results we attract.
When the winds change, we must change. We must struggle to our feet once more and reset the sail in the manner that will steer us toward the destination of our own of our own deliberate choosing. The set of the sail, how we think and how we respond, has a far greater capacity to destroy our lives than any challenges we face. How quickly and responsibly we react to adversity is far more important than the adversity itself. Once we discipline ourselves to understand this, we will finally and willingly conclude that the great challenge of life is to control the process of our own thinking.
Each of us should be in constant search of people we can admire and respect, people after whom we can pattern part of our own behavior. Much of who and what we are at this very moment is a composite of the many people who have influenced us over the years.
We are all being influenced by someone. Since this influence will determine to some extent the direction of our lives, it is far better to deliberately choose the people we will permit to influence us than to allow the power of the wrong influence to weave its effect on us without our knowledge or conscious choice.
One of the major reasons why people are not doing well is because they keep trying to get through the day. A more worthy challenge is to try to get from the day. We must become sensitive enough to observe and ponder what is happening around us. Be alert. Be awake. Let life and all of its subtle messages touch us.
There is very little difference between someone who cannot read and someone who will not read. The result of either is ignorance. Those who are serious seekers of personal development must remove the self-imposed limitations they have placed on their reading skills and their reading habits.
Most men and women of accomplishment maintain and frequently review their personal journals. It is second nature to them. They seem to possess an inherent instinct that tells them that a life worth living is a life worth documenting.
What we think determines what we believe; what we believe influences what we choose; what we choose defines what we are; and what we are attracts what we have.
The formula for success is easy to follow: A few simple disciplines practiced every day.
One of the exciting things about the formula for success is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.
We can greatly change the course of our lives by spending more time and making a greater conscious effort to refine our personal philosophy.
But if it is so easy, why don’t more of us do it? Because while it is easy to do the things that success and happiness require, it is also easy not to do them.
The things that are easy to do are also easy not to do. The primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should can be summed up in a single word: neglect.
What we know determines our philosophy. How we feel about what we know determines our attitude.
Today brings to each of us 1,440 minutes; 86,400 ticks of the clock. Both the poor and the wealthy have the same 24 hours of opportunity. Time favors no one. Today merely says, “Here I am. What are you going to do with me?” How well we use each day is largely a function of attitude. With the right attitude we can seize this day and make it a point of new beginning. Today does not care about yesterday’s failures or tomorrow’s regrets. It merely offers the same precious gift – another 24 hours – and hopes that we will use it wisely.
We cannot move casually into a better future. We cannot casually pursue the goal we have set for ourselves. A goal that is casually pursued is not a goal; at best it is a wish, and wishes are little more than self-delusion.
It is this new attitude that will provide us with renewed ambition for progress and the faith that we really can move mountains.
Why are we so quick to see the value in others and yet so reluctant to see it in ourselves? Why are we always ready to applaud someone else’s accomplishment and yet so shy about recognizing our own?
How we see ourselves is a matter of choice, not circumstances, and the major determining factor in how we feel about ourselves lies in our personal philosophy.
If there is one area in the knowledge department where we cannot afford to be lacking, it is knowledge and awareness of our own uniqueness. We do not feel better about ourselves for the simple reason that we do not really know ourselves. For if we truly knew ourselves – our strengths, our abilities, our resources, our depth of feeling, our sense of humor, our unique accomplishments – we would never again doubt our ability to create a better future.
As we learn more about who we are, we begin to make better choices and decisions for ourselves and about ourselves. And as we have already suggested, as our choices improve, so do our results, and as our results improve, so does our attitude.
There are some people with whom we can spend a few minutes, but not a few hours. There are some with whom we can spend a few hours, but not a few days. Not when the achievement of our dreams is at stake.
In order to be effective the tapes must be used repeatedly. Their messages must be listened to again and again to give these new voices time to influence us. Repetition is the mother of skill.
It is the student who must seek out the teacher, for rarely does a good idea interrupt us. Success moves toward those who search for progress, not toward those who need or want its rewards.
In the final analysis, it is how we feel about ourselves that provides the greatest reward from any activity. It is not what we get that makes us valuable, it is what we become in the process of doing that brings value into our lives.
For the means to be filled by intense activity, we must be obsessed by the ends – by the promise of the future. The ends will not merely “justify” the means, the inspiration we get from seeing the ends clearly in our minds will enable us to produce the means.
The punishment for excessive rest is mediocrity.
Another important way to measure our results is to take a closer look at what we have become.
Doing more is only part of the answer. The real answer lies in becoming more than we are so that our increased potential becomes an integral part of everything we do. That is how life gets better –when we get better. We cannot have more without first becoming more.
Success Must Be Attracted, Not Pursued.
Personal value is the magnet that attracts all good things into our lives. The greater our value, the greater our reward. Since the solution for having more is becoming more, we must be in constant search for new ways to increase our value. Self-control, the practice of discipline, patience, planning, intensity of effort, the wise investment of a good portion of our results, the development of a well-balanced attitude, consistent activity, the gathering of knowledge, frequent reading and a sensible personal philosophy are all examples of ways in which our value can be increased.
It is the acquisition of more value that we must pursue, not more valuables. Our objective must be to work harder on ourselves than we work on anything else.
How many books have I read in the past ninety days? How regularly did I exercise last month? How much of my income have I invested this past year? How many letters have I written in the past week? How many times have I written in my journal this month? The answers to these and many other questions will provide us with vital information about our potential for progress and future rewards. If we cannot discipline ourselves in the small things, we will lack the discipline to capitalize on the great opportunities when they appear.
“Weak is he that permits his attitude to control his actions, and strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.”
Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation. And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can. All of us have that choice.
To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less or to be nothing at all.
The word “tip” is an abbreviation of the phrase “To Insure Promptness.” To insure promptness implies that the gratuity should be given before we receive the service, not after.
To live a unique life we must first become unique individuals by experiencing a broad range of human experiences and emotions.
Only when we have experienced the full spectrum of human existence can we begin to design and live a life of substance. All progress begins with an emotion. We do not attract a better life merely by wanting it, we attract it by adopting the emotions that those with the “better life” possess.
We can start right now by offering all that is within our power to share. Whether we offer our time, a shoulder to cry on, a word of sincere appreciation or our undivided attention, if we will just be there and really live that moment, what an experience that could be!
We must not let the years, and the chances, and the –small opportunities for creating moments of joy slip away. If we continue to wait until we have the resources to do the big things before we master the art of experiencing all that life currently has to offer, then we may find that we have -waited too long.