5 Basic Fundamentals Of Life And Success | Jim Rohn Motivation

now what I'd like to give you is what I think are the five major pieces to the life puzzle five major pieces to the life puzzle if we can study each of the pieces and then put it all together the chances of it running well are just a lot better Mrsow gave me a simple formula when I first met him let me give it to you he said there's usually about a half dozen things makes eighty percent of the difference there's about a half dozen wealth things about a half dozen health things that can give you the 80 percent solution to the problem then Mrsoaf said be a student of those half dozen basic things pretty good advice success is not doing extraordinary things success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well so if you just learn to do it well key things well learn to speak well poor people can talk and rich people can talk looks like rich people talk better learning to speak is called survival learning to speak well is called success so let me give you what I think are fundamental pieces to life and um we'll take it from there here's the first one philosophy philosophy in very simple terms is simply what you know and what you know greatly affects how your life works out we might also add what you don't know greatly affects how your life works out the idea you miss could be the missing number in trying to put the numbers in the lock so what you don't know will hurt you to correct an old cliche and to correct another one ignorance is not Bliss it's important to know it's important to get the information now we do something very important with what we know we weigh it that's another good word we weigh everything before you do it before you buy it before you try it make sure you weigh it everything you get ready to do you get to decide whether it's a major or a minor and you don't want to give minor things make your time you don't want to give something insignificant significance amounts of your energy so we simply use the phrase way before you pay sophisticated people learn to weigh everything and what we all need is a good set of mental scales to weigh everything what if you've got information and your mental skills were off and insignificant things to you were significant wouldn't that be a major handicap the rest of your life when you weighed something important things weighed unimportant we would call that a great handicap so it's very important to weigh everything properly and that's the reason for sermons and songs and lyrics and lectures and seminars and conversations and professors and teachers it's one of the reasons why we confirm we converse with each other and we debate and we think about and we Ponder and we perceive and we weigh and and we try to find out where the values are because you don't want to proceed and give big chunks of your life to something that's insignificant okay so we get information we weigh it then we come to conclusions about values big question in forming your life where are the values what is important what should weigh heavy on my mind and I should give it significant time and significant energy and significant money Trump said to me poor thinking habits keeps most people poor not for a working habits most people work hard but they don't think hard they don't use their mind to really try to perceive where the values are so that they don't waste any time it's easy to spend big chunks of your life on insignificant things it's one of the major pieces of the life puzzle what you think about knowledge how you weigh it the conclusions you come to the values you've perceived thinking if you really want to help somebody change their life you have to start changing their mind change their philosophy change how they think somebody says well just motivation that'll do and the answer is no motivation won't do it if a guy's an idiot then you motivate him you've got a motivated idiot say no that's not what it takes now it's very easy to make errors in judgment errors in judgment now that teaching people even even after they're out of school University College they should read at least uh one or two books a week it's easy when you get out of school right and get a job to just sort of let that all slide not keep up the learning process but if you don't keep up the learning process a lot of values become fuzzy if you don't keep trying to perceive what's important what's not important and then start spending major effort on minor things so we have to keep learning what if a guy spent his book money on Donuts right we would call him greatly deprived mentally in 10 years the guys bought two tons of donuts and only two books right mostly with pictures right and he wonders why his life isn't working well reason after he got out of school he didn't keep up the flow of ideas that can help to refine your business and help to refine your decisions and help you come to better conclusions you've got to keep up the learning curve even after you're out of school to make sure that you're not making errors in judgment the reason why most people wind up average at age 40 instead of rich is simply an error in judgment about what to do with your money what would you suggest a 15 year old start as a plan to do with their money so that by 40 they're rich instead of average I have a good plan right if you start making errors early with your money those errors can can make your life mediocre instead of Rich you wind up with pennies instead of Fortune and you want you wind up with crumbs instead of a feast simply because early you made errors on what to do with your money the guy says well it's only ten dollars so what does it matter what I do with it and the answer is it that's when it really matters is when you don't have much the guy says oh if I had a fortune I'd really take good care of it but I've only got a paycheck so I don't know where it goes we call those great errors in judgment it's so important to make sure you've got a good plan when the amounts are small but it's easy to make errors it's easy not to know it's easy to miscalculate and if you miscalculate some things keep adding and adding and adding I got a good phrase for you life is accumulated good phrase to know life is accumulative our errors either accumulate into what we don't get or our wise decisions accumulate into what we do get now the key is to correct the errors as early as possible fortunately Mrsow caught me at age 25 started asking me major questions at age 25 he said MrOwen how long have you been working and I said I've been working uh six years I started working when I was 19. he said well six years how much money have you saved and invested in the last six years I said not any he said Who Sold you on that plan wow six years is enough time now to check and see if you've got a good Financial philosophy and the time to catch the errors is early early so Mrsow started asking me those tough questions at age 25. combat your money how about your resources how about your Investments and you say well I've got plenty of time to worry about that and be concerned about that later and the answer is probably not Now's the Time to fix it wherever you hear the good information that's the time to start fixing so we're teaching kids now a good wealth philosophy starting at age 50 15 will make you Wealthy by age 40.

45 at the latest if you're a little slow doing wise things with your resources when when would you suggest people should do wise things with their resources answer as soon as they get the better information now you can't do what you don't know but the key is to keep learning so that good ideas keep occurring to you now you can do more wise things okay but philosophy is where it all begins what you know now to know Wise things you simply have to study as you're doing keep up the reading keep up the conversations keep up the listening to lectures keep going through the information keep stashing it away taking the notes right there's no better way to adjust your philosophy than to have a continual flow of ideas but that's the first piece of the life puzzle philosophy now here's number two philosophy determines attitude attitude is simply how you feel first what you know sets the sale of your life now how you feel starts taking you there attitude now there's all kinds of ways to feel right you can feel good or you can feel bad here's one attitude if this is all they pay I'm not coming early and I'm not staying late on the job that's an attitude right if this is all they pay I don't come early and I don't stay late now do you suppose that that attitude if you carried it through the rest of your life do you suppose that attitude would greatly affect your life as the years unfold the answer is overwhelmingly of course it's another attitude no matter what they pay I always come early and I always stay late to invest in my own future isn't that fascinating attitude is by choice you can either choose to come early or you can choose to come late you can either choose to leave early or you can choose to stay late attitude's a matter of choice now to make wise choice we need educated attitudes emotions must go to school to learn where the values are okay good phrase emotions let's go to school when kids are young right a three-year-old you know falls on the floor and kicks his feet and screams we say well that's okay when you're three but it isn't okay when you're 30. right as a little kid right you can retaliate and punch somebody out but when you're 23 we say no no you got to learn now to take that emotion and send it to school and find out where the values are it's okay to feel strong but you've got to learn to restrain yourself in a society if you want life to go well for you so attitudes now become a matter of educated Choice educated choice but how we feel is going to greatly determine how our life works out now it's how you feel about a variety of things let me give you that list number one it's how you feel about the past now when you're young you haven't got that much past to feel about but I'm sure you've had some ups and downs you've had some wins and losses so part of our attitude is based on how we feel about the past some people are still carrying the burdens of the past they're affected by some difficulties some losses whatever they're carrying it around like a burden instead of using the past as a school they're using it as a threat to their life so part of it is solving the attitude about the past how you feel about it number two it's how you feel about the future facing the future very important key part of our life now there's two ways to face the future here they are one anticipation that's one way to face the future anticipation here's the other way apprehension now most people face the future with apprehension primarily because they bought somebody else's View they don't have their own future well designed so in the absence of having your own future well designed you have a tendency to be persuaded to buy somebody else's future here's what's going to happen here's what's going to happen boy it's easy to let your days be clouded by all of that so some days somewhere along the line you've got to start settling for sure how you feel about the future and how you feel about it greatly determines what you do if you don't feel good about the future by having goals set you take what we call uncertain steps it's difficult to be confident about the day if you don't have your future well designed so here's one of the keys to do about your future set goals write them down the future where do you want to go what do you want to do what do you want to be what do you want to see what do you want to have what do you want to share even if it all changes 12 months from now the key is to start making a list now the cities you want to visit the people you'd like to meet your health goals your investment goals all that stuff start writing it putting it in a journal somewhere and let it all change as time unfolds something that you think is very important right now two years from now you'll say that was kind of foolish how come I thought that was so important right because you'll grow beyond that but right now it's important to get as clear a picture if you can as you can of the future set your dreams set your goals because it's important how the day goes is greatly determined by your confidence about the future now here's another attitude it's how you feel about each other it's how you feel about society and the community in the country it's very important it's not that difficult to be a cynic and cynicism greatly influences how your life works out but it's also important to understand that if you want to do well it takes all of us to help each of us good phrase it takes all of us to help each of us do well you can't succeed by yourself it's hard to find a rich hermit you can't succeed by yourself you need to Market you need a society we need each other's ideas we need each other's Collective ideas Collective participation in the marketplace Society okay so how we feel about each other very important now here's the big one it's how you feel about yourself how you feel about yourself self-esteem understanding your own value foreign starts to unfold for you that you've got the brains you've got the talent all you need is instruction all you need is some coaching all you need is some help all you need is some advice some experience if you're headed down the wrong road hopefully somebody's already been down that road where the bridge is out and they come back saying don't go this way anymore the bridge is out so we take somebody else's advice and we say wow I'm glad you came along I'm heading down this road so learning from other people's experiences picking up all the ideas so that we can feel good about ourselves now self-esteem primarily becomes from comes from engaging in the disciplines that lead to value self-esteem comes from engaging in the disciplines that lead to value we don't lack potential but to bring value from potential we need the disciplines now one of the major things that makes us not feel good about ourselves is not engaging in the disciplines if you keep letting yourself off the hook or just whole humming it and letting it all slide then you don't feel good about yourself best as the ant philosophy right to feel good about yourself do your best gather all you can during the summer we call that the ant philosophy ants don't settle for half they go for all all you possibly can do the best you can it's the greatest lift of self-esteem is doing the best you can okay so attitude plays such an important part in the five pieces of the life puzzle now what's next number three versus philosophy second is attitude philosophy and attitude determines activity activity is what you do key phrase success is a doing you actually now have to do it it seems as though God has designed but the major part of the value of our life is less to is left to our own mental genes you've got to decide what you want to become then you simply have to go do it engaging in the disciplines now the now that is so important how hard should you work when you get ready to labor when you get ready to try to be successful in the marketplace spend how hard should you work well let me give you an Old Testament phrase to consider it says six days Activity one day rest now that's called a philosophy on activity right what should be the ratio of rest activity Old Testament suggests 6-1 now I know that goes back a long ways some people say no six six one's old-fashioned five two is better well you got to take a look at five two and see if it's okay you don't just want to buy somebody's philosophy without seeing if it if it leads to Fortune and if it leads to unique things wonderful it's probably good but you have to check out if 5'2 is okay would uh four or three be better I don't know you gotta check everything I do know this good phrase don't rest too long I got a good point for you make rest a necessity not an objective the objective of life is not to rest the objective of life is to accomplish to growth full growth full accomplishment just the outer limits of your abilities that's what life is all about see what all you can do that's what life's all about see what you can do with the seasons in the soil and the seed see what you can do with your brain see what you can do with your talent and your gifts and your skills that's what life's all about see what you can do now we need rest but you must make rest a necessity not an objective if you make it an objective you start falling into what we call the average syndrome right people who live mediocre lives are always looking forward to getting off successful people are always looking forward to getting on successful people don't want off they want on they want to get on with the job they rest only enough to gather strength so consider that in your argument in your debate on how hard should you work let me give you another Bible philosophy I'm my parents made sure I was a pretty good scholar by the time I was 18. and I'm an amateur on the Bible but here's another good philosophy whatever your hands currently find to do do it with all your might whatever you're doing do it with all your mind we call that philosophy on activity how hard should you work as hard as you can in the time allotted to labor in leadership management lectures we teach when you work work when you play play don't play at work and don't work at play right make best use of your time when you're working pour it on and when you're playing have a good time but don't play at work okay so activity very important piece in this whole life puzzle in working so you've got to test how hard you can work part of it is physical your own physical limitation some people can take 14 hours no problem some people tend stretches pretty much their physical limitations so everybody has to sort of decide how hard you can work how much time you can put in when you come to University right you got to sort of find out how much workload you can handle how many classes can you go through how much can you unravel how many study hours do you need how much effort have you got when you're going to run out of gas right and you need to replenish the supply so we all have to study our own activity habits but let me give you what I think is the best philosophy it is simply do the best you can inactivity we call it doing your best a man asked me one time he said I'm making about fifty thousand dollars a year isn't that enough what would you tell somebody a businessman said to me he said my kids aren't starving and he said I got my bills paid and he said we're doing pretty good and I'm making about fifty thousand dollars a year isn't that enough he asked me what do you suppose I told him I said yes it's enough if it's the best you can do we don't call an amount enough we call your best enough I said if you're capable of making a half million dollars a year and you make fifty thousand dollars a year we call you loser and we don't call you loser because of the difference between fifty thousand and a half million we call you loser because you're not doing your best if you do your best and you make ten thousand a year that's enough if you do your best and you make a million dollars a year that's enough enough is not the difference between ten thousand and a million enough is simply doing the best you can so that's the key to the good life when the day is finished if you say did I do my best and if I'm not doing my best why not do I have I got some errors in My Philosophy that says hey half effort's okay just slide by a whole hermit cross your fingers and everything will work out hopefully say no I don't want to take those kind of chances I don't want to drift okay so activity just put a big question mark on activity and say Here's a major piece of life to keep checking make sure I'm doing my best that's all I require my best a group of psychiatrists asked me to come and lecture for them in Los Angeles one time which I thought was interesting since I only went to one year of college and then in the middle of my lecture I had the audacity to say ladies and gentlemen let me tell you what I think most messes with the mind they said what do you think most messes with the mic I said I think what most messes with the mind is simply doing less than you can it sets up all kinds of psychic problems doing less than you can guess when you really feel good about yourself when you've done the best you can you don't even have to win the full price if you do the best you can we call that the ultimate winning doing the best you can wow there's nothing like the soaring self-confidence that comes from putting out what we call full effort in whatever you do it's called full effort philosophy activity attitude leads to number four results and that's what life is all about putting the first three together good philosophy attitude High activity to get the ultimate called results I got a good phrase for you results is the name of the game now the challenge of life is a very simple phrase Let me give it to you I think you'll find it interesting to at least Ponder the challenge of life is to make measurable progress in reasonable time measurable progress in reasonable time first we don't want to be unreasonable with time if you and I agree to do something five minutes later I'm asking you how are you doing you say I haven't left the building yet you can't ask in five minutes five minutes is too soon that's unreasonable now if I don't ask you for five years we call that too late you can't wait five years and you can't go five minutes right you we all have to learn what is reasonable time to expect somebody to make progress to grow to change to develop so all of us have to learn especially if you're going to become leaders entrepreneurs if you're going to have management responsibilities and work with people you've got to understand what is reasonable time we don't want to be unreasonable with time but here's what else we expect measurable progress in reasonable time how many years should the child spend in fourth grade approximately about one you say well if they're nice kids would you give them three or four you say no you can't spend four years in fourth grade it's unacceptable we put on the family pressure we put on peer pressure right we put on all kinds of pressure you can't spend four years in fourth grade now wouldn't that be interesting if we applied the same kind of social pressure all of our lives what would be acceptable to society for wise Investments to have been made by age 30.

so that you can really properly take care of yourself and your family somehow we've missed those standards right shouldn't it be popular to be Wealthy by age 40. and shouldn't we look at somebody who by age 45 is not at least financially independent saying Where Have You Been Tibet or Bangladesh you probably have spent you mean you've been here all this time right shouldn't we make it a bit unacceptable not to be well off in what we call reasonable time but what if a guy spent his potential fortune on non-essentials from age 15 to age 45.