Work on Your Mind | Jim Rohn Personal Development

just a few little pointers on the Mind here's number one it needs to be nourished needs to be fed there's an Old Testament phrase that says humans cannot live just on bread alone or food alone dogs can a crocodile can a spider can humans cannot exist just on food here's what it says humans also need words words nourish the Mind words give life words create Insight because there's more than one way to see if we see with our eyes we call that sight but there's another way to see called Insight that's why we come gather

for a couple of days attend the classes go to the training read the books do all the stuff is to develop more insight letting our mind be nourished to think Ponder and wonder and conceive ideas projects purpose give structure to something for the future whether it's better health or better career better future next the Mind needs to be exercised and we talked a bit about that earlier exercise by debate exercise by reading both sides of the debate both sides of the question major life issues major political issues don't leave yourself out of the great debate

one the Mind needs to be nourished by ideas second it needs to be refined and stimulated and exercised by debate we need both sides of the human drama represented the reason why the Bible is such a classic book in studying all kinds of stories is because the Bible is full of Stories on both sides the evil side and the good side the Bible said Old Testament said this King came to power and he was a good King and he ruled for 18 years and then it says the next king came to power and he was

a bad King and he put up Idols he became the bad King so the it reads good King bad King showing both sides of the human spectrum and drama some stories that we read in the Bible of people to admire others are people to despise in your library you need a book on Gandhi and you need a book on Hitler one book to show you how Noble someone's aspirations can be and the other book to show you how Despicable and how evil someone's goals can be both sides we study good and evil one we love

and one we hate hate we study illness we study Health someone says well you can't study the negative things you have to study the negative things you have to give voice to and mind to and time to both sides of the issue so that you can strengthen your side of the argument in raising our kids we have to pose both sides what's the dangerous side and the safe side in one of the seminars that I'm sure some of you have attended I talk about philosophy that makes the difference philosophy does two things each person's personal

philosophy so jot this down our personal philosophy does two things one helps us to see the dangers on one side so we can avoid or minimize those then our personal philosophy needs to be developed so we can see the opportunities on the other side so we can maximize those and for the balance of your life that's going to be the twin challenge in developing IDE ideas and philosophy and strengthening all of it so that you can avoid the dangers maximize the opportunities because the dangers never go away the dangers to our ship of State called

the country the danger to the Enterprise the danger to the corporation dangers always lurk both inside and out dangers lurk on the inside of our own mind when I was a kid they used to have those little cartoons have a little boy with a gremlin on one side and a little angel on the other side and the little devil a little Gremlin said go ahead and do it it's okay little angel said no no no so when kids are young they've got this debate to engage in should I or shouldn't I one voice says go

ahead and the other one says no no so we hope as the years pass and as the classes pass and as we go from grade 1 to grade two to grade 5 to grade 10 we will learn more as Abra abam said to listen to the better angels of our nature to appeal to our conscience and let our conscience help along with God and whatever else you belong in that has good influence on helping to make right decisions avoiding the evil one avoiding the danger the dark side and appeal to ourselves to engage in the

positive side the opportunity the battle of the mind is significant for us every day what to think what not to think my mentor Mr scha said stand guard at the door of your mind and you decide what enters you decide what to fill up your mind with because it becomes the material with which you build your future so engaging the mind to make rational decisions about life Beware of the thief on the street that's after your purse but also Beware of the thief in your mind that's after your promise the thief in your mind that

says you're too short you're too tall you've never done it before what makes you think you can do it now it's not going to work for you someone else can find the Book You'll Never Find the book If you found the book you wouldn't read it if you did read it you wouldn't understand it that's stuff that goes on in our mind so jot down this key phrase it's one of the best for the day whatever you do don't become a victim of yourself as you engage in this debate what to eat what not to

eat where to go where not to go what to say what not to say what to do what not to do make sure that you strengthen the positive side of this argument with yourself so the day by day you become healthier day by day you become stronger day by day you become wiser day by day you build a better Shield an immunity an inside immunity to ward off disease but an outside immunity to ward off all the negative and all the trash and all the stuff that would not enhance your personal development nor your promise

for the future so this is so important in understanding the Mind feed it we call it food for thought that's what a big share of this whole seminar is all about these three days is providing food to think about thoughts to think about and then ideas to debate and it's not necessarily what's right or what's wrong but what's better what's best this is okay but this would be better with this yes you can manage but with this you can flourish with this you can exist with this you can live a fantastic life so exercising the

mind now to develop the mind you need a good Library let me give you three parts to your library number one is your visual libr Library Zig and I and others have put things on video so you can see it we ask you to come here today and see what's going on so part of it comes by visual come and see and then if it's on video you can see it again and again and again key phrase repetition is the mother of learning repetition is where if we hear it again we see something we didn't

see when we heard it the first time we see something something different that we didn't see the first time next is your Listening Library Zig Ziggler's right turn your car into a mobile classroom you can have a university education in a fairly short period of time just using the traveling time to listen key phrase is to listen to voices of value discriminate in your listening time listening to someone of reputation someone who has good ideas someone that's been recommended that has some value don't waste your time listening to things that don't count much hey there

are some things that are not worth spending the time you know they create more poison than they do benefit so be careful if somebody says to me these eggs are rotten I'm not going to make an omelet and try it I'm going to take their word for it so feed the Mind exercise the mind and build your Library I recommend three books that were recommended to me when I started my library when I was 25 years old in those accelerated days of personal development for me about seven years worth so fantastically changed my bank account

Chang my income revolutionized my future with the foundation my parents gave me meeting Mr cha at age 25 I'm telling you it's been a journey for me like no other ever since then I've had mentors along the way I'm telling you that keep my mind stimulated that keep my interest Keen that help me to evaluate into way what is good what is okay what is better and what is prosperous in terms of your life mentors and that first Mentor I had recommended these three books first was the Bible now I had an advantage there because

my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by age 19 a good book to serve you all of your life one of the major sources of ideas stories poetry history a major source for stimulation next he recommended the book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Think and Grow good words Think and Grow and Rich I went for it got the book paid less than 50 cents for it some of the ideas in it changed My Life Next Cho recommended the book the richest man in Babylon by George clayon helped me become

a millionaire by age 32 totally changed my economic future just the ideas in a simple little book amazing then he Rec recommended something for me to listen to by Earl Nightingale called the greatest secret that was my Listening Library to begin with The Greatest Secret by Earl Nightingale so your Listening Library and your visual library next now is your reading library and we won't go through a whole list of the best books but here's a good book to get if you want a good list of the best books it's called how to read a book

simple how to read a book by Adler Chief editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica Mortimer Adler he wrote a book called six great ideas that's excellent he wondered are ideas tangible are ideas real or are they nothing but he wrote this book along with a another author how to read a book now if you master this book you can get so much more from a book now it's a kind of a tough book to get through but it'll give you some ideas on how to take a book and get the most out of it take a

book and get the most out of it but in this book is also a list of what he calls are the greatest books ever written and I've used that book that list as a centerpiece for my library it's got the classics which I missed I only went to one year of college so I missed a whole bunch of stuff I started making up for that by collecting these best books ever written interestingly enough on that list is Old and New Testament on every Scholars list East or West you just can't miss those as major sources

in addition to that there's a book called lessons of History written by Durant and I offer it because it's one of the classic writings of all time you may not agree with his premise but you certainly have to agree that it's one of the best well-written books ever he and his wife wrote about 11 volumes on civilization take a speed reading course you can get through those but this little book lessons of history is sort of a summary of their ideas on on History it's a classic then a classic I think most everybody's got it's

called as a man thinketh by James Allen where each sentence is a a seminar and you may not agree with his premise either in certain instances you don't want to read just what you agree with and not just to read the positive make this note you cannot live on mental candy just like you can't feed your children ice cream all the time and hope that they will be healthy so you cannot live on mental candy someone says well I just read the positive stuff that's not enough and the reason is because you need to know

both sides of the issue so start your library like I did age 25 I mentioned in another seminar haven't read everything in my library but I feel smarter just walking in it right smart enough to buy it now I got to be smart enough to read it all then I got to be smart enough to sort through and decide what's valuable so make that the next part now in part of personal development for the mind you got to sort through what you read what you see and what you hear and decide which of all of

that is valuable for you to try and do and master this is where being a student comes in not a follower but a student you read one book on good health and it says do what this book says you'll live forever you read the next book on health and nutrition and it says if you do what that first book says you'll die young so someone says to me Mr ran which of these books should I follow jot this down neither one don't be a follower read both books and make up your own mind here's what's

important in the final analysis one of the best phrases for the day I got this from my Canadian friend Harold Dyke who gave it to me and I've used it all these years here's what he said make sure what you finally do is the product of your own conclusion make sure what you finally do is the product of your own conclusion meaning you don't just follow but you listen to both sides of the argument you listen to the controversy you try to master the points on both sides or three sides or whatever then you start

charting your own course it doesn't make you doesn't say you'll make always the right decision on what course to take or what to do you can refine as you go but make sure that what you do is the product of your own conclusions conclusions from the debate conclusion from what makes the best sense to you to try now jot this down also give yourself a chance to change some things I held on to that I thought this was it this was it I'm telling you after a while I gave it up found out it wasn't

it so give yourself a chance to change refine your philosophy refine your direction if you'll give yourself a chance to do that here's what will happen down the roadways a new door will open that you haven't discovered before give yourself a chance to change re-evaluate so let your library be a testimonial of your dedicated interest in accelerated personal development that you will read whatever you have to read you will hear whatever you must hear and you will watch and see whatever you must see in in order to make your life refined and worthwhile and achieve

all of your purposes it takes a lot of effort to learn takes a lot of effort to grow it takes a lot of effort to decide and debate but jot this down it's all worth the price whatever stimulates you to think whatever stimulates you to wonder whatever stimulates you to react or even to debate even if you hear something you say well that's not right see that's still valuable it means you're awake it means you're alert it means you're alive it means your mind is ready to take on something whether it's agreeable or not agreeable

something write something wrong who cares what it is we've got to listen to a variety of voices and some are going to come from the left and some are going to come from the right and some are going to come from mysterious sources and some will try to entice you with all kinds of stuff but that's okay just so you're alive and alert and awake ready to process anything that comes your way take the best of it and make it beneficial for you so that tomorrow you walk with a stronger step next month you see

a clearer vision and a month from now the purpose for your life is multiplied by 235