In designing a better future the major focus of our plan should be on becoming more than we already are. If we are not happy with our current results, then the place to begin is with ourselves.
Everything we have in life – the tangibles as well as the intangibles — is a direct result of who we are. The answer to the good life lies in becoming more than we currently are so that we can attract more than we currently have.
If we lost everything tomorrow, we could easily replace it all; because we acquired those things as a result of what we are. Assuming “what we are” has not changed; in time we will attract back into our lives everything we may have lost. The same applied knowledge, the same attitude, the same effort and the same plan will always produce the same results.
Jim Rohn believes that this fundamental should give us cause for both elation and alarm. The elation comes from the fact that any day we choose, we can begin to make changes within ourselves that will attract even more good things into our lives. The alarm comes from the fact that unless we make those necessary changes, unless we convert our errors into new disciplines and our dreams into well-defined plans and intelligent, consistent activity, we will always have exactly what we now have. We will always experience the same frustrations and set-backs that we have alwaysexperienced because we have not changed.
“The results will always be predictable because results are always determined by what we are in the process of becoming.” Doing moreis 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.
ATTRACTING SUCCESS
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 havingmore 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. By giving careful attention to our PHILOSOPHY, our ATTITUDE and our ACTIVITY, we are making a positive contribution to what we are becoming, and in the process of becoming more than we now are we will attract more than we now have.”
BETTER PERSON BETTER RESULTS
We become and then we attract. We grow personally and then we advance materially. Unfortunately, the vast majority seems to have the plan reversed. Their philosophy is “If I had more money, I would be a better person.” But that is not the way life is designed to work, Rohn cautions.Having more doesnot make us more. It merely magnifies what we already are. Those who cannot save a few pennies out of meager earnings will never be able to save dollars out of future fortunes.
“The same discipline it takes to put a few coins in a jar every week is the same discipline it takes to open a savings account or manage an investment portfolio.” Conversation about our intended progress will only take us so far and promises about the future will only buy us a little time. Promises must soon be matched by performance. If the results do not appear in a reasonable amount of time we run the risk of losing the trust of others in addition to our own self-respect. We may find that those who once believed no longer believe, and we will one day be left only with our well-intentioned, but unfulfilled pronouncements.
A loss of this magnitude is worth preventing. It is on the day when we discover our losses that we will taste the bitter pill of neglect. It is on that day when we will finally experience the agonizing consequences of self-delusion, procrastination and promises not kept.
As certainly as we oncedreamed, we can dream again. As surely as we once believed, we can believe again. No matter where we are right now, we still have the ability to change it all.It begins with the awakening of our sleeping spirit brought on by dreams of all that could be.
Any day we choose we can stand up and take that first step on a journey that can lead us to a new and better way of life. We must not expect the results merely because we have begun the activity, but with continued effort and certain steps will surely come our future rewards.
THE VALUE OF NEW SKILLS
The development of new skills is vitally important if we expect to make major progress and improve the level of our performance. Be an expert of the subject of YOU. Learn everything about your strengths and your weaknesses. Focus your efforts on building those strengths and managing your weaknesses. Your strengths are areas you have innate talent. To turn a talent into strength, you must develop new skills. Life and labor get easier when knowledge is combined with new skills. Skill is the refinement of our current abilities added to the acquisitionof new talents. It is the result of investigation driven by curiosity. It is the result of creativity and imagination intelligently applied to new methods. It is a product of refined attempts as emerging quality rises to new levels. Skill is also a thorough understanding of the task at hand that comes from patient study and serious observation. Skill is what is acquired when a person becomes the master of a task. It is having full confidence in our ability and in our command of the many intricacies of our jobs. Skill is the process of learning. Skill is the result of accumulating a mountain of experience and the never-ending dedication to making good things better.
Those who would possess happiness and success must first master as many skills as they can gather up; blending each into all of the rest until finally a unique talent emerges. With the accumulated value of our skills and talents, all things become possible.
GETTING BETTER RESULTS
How dramatically we can change our results is largely a function of imagination. In 1960, it was a technological impossibility for man to travel into outer space. Within ten years, however, the first man stepped out onto the surface of the moon. The miraculous process of converting the dream into reality began when one voice challenged the American scientific community to do whatever was necessary to see to it that America “places a man on the moon by the end of this decade.”
“That challenge awakened the spirit of a nation by planting the seed of possible future achievement into the fertile soil of imagination. With that one bold challenge the impossible became a reality.” Of course a poor person can become wealthy. The unique combination of desire, planning, effort and perseverance will always work its magic. The question is not whether the formula for success will work, but rather whether the person will work the formula. That is the unknown variable. That is the challenge that confronts us all. We can all go from wherever we are to wherever we want to be. No dream is impossible provided we first have the courage to believe in it.
