Jim Rohn said the future is not something you go to, it's
something you create. That's exactly why we put
together self-discipline Hacks for Everyone, A fast, no
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If you're building a better future, start here.
Tap the link in the description. We need to take a look into the
future. There are four things to
consider in terms of attitude. 1 is how you feel about the past.
Best advice I can give you on that is treat the past as a
school. Let it teach you the mistakes
you've made, the things that went wrong, the things that
didn't work. Don't use the past as a burden
to carry and don't use the past as a club to beat yourself to
death. Past losses, past failures, past
mistakes. But let the past be a school.
Tough school. Maybe we've all been through
some tough stuff. So if you feel good about the
past, draw from it for experience and let it teach you.
Then next is how you feel about the future.
We've got to have the future well designed.
The future is called the Promise, and here's what we
teach in our leadership series. The promise of the future can be
an awesome force for your own future.
The promise of the future designing the future There's two
ways to face the future One is with apprehension and the other
is with anticipation. I promise you in my travels
around the world, most people face the future with
apprehension. And here's why they don't have
it well designed. They've sort of left that up to
someone else to fix. But here's the best way to face
the future with anticipation. And you can You can face the
future with anticipation if the future is clear, if the future
is well designed. And I would like to have you
consider some thoughts with me that help me to really change my
future by giving it some thought and some consideration.
And here it is in setting goals. It's very simple.
Number one, decide what you want.
You just take a little time, you sit down and say, what do I
want? What kind of skills do I want?
What kind of income do I want for the future?
What would I like? Where would I like to go?
Places I'd like to visit, habits I'd like to acquire, skills I'd
like to have. You just take a little time to
think about what you want. Economics, friendships, people
you'd like to meet, places you'd like to go.
You just take some time and then I suggest, when you've thought
about what you want for the future, make a list.
Just jot it all down. It's a really a very simple
process. And then here's #3 keep all the
old lists. I'm telling you, this served me
so well, keeping my old list of goals.
I look back now, 1020 years ago at goals I set, lists I made,
and I smile now because here's what I thought was so important,
you know, 20 years ago. Now, some of those things aren't
even on my list. I've got a new list.
I've grown, I've changed, I've matured, but I give you that
advice. Decide what you want #2 write it
down #3 keep the old lists. And then here's #4 when you get
something that's on one of these lists, check it off.
Part of the fun of having a list is checking it off.
And then if you can, add some drama to checking it off.
See, that's what really helps. I set a goal to go to Spain
many, many years ago. And when I finally made my first
trip to Spain, I had that journal with me that had that
list in it. And while I had my journal on my
lap waiting for the wheels to touchdown in Madrid, I waited
until the wheels touched the runway and I checked it off.
Just adding a little drama. So part of the fun of having a
list is checking it off. Now here's what's important
about the lists and designing your future.
If the future gets clear, the price gets easier because you
got to remember, for every promise, there's a price to pay.
Everybody's got to pay the price.
Everybody's got to do the deal. Everybody's got to do the
disciplines. Everybody has to pay.
But here's what I've discovered. If the promise is clear and
powerful, the price is easy to pay.
The price is some classes, the price is a few books.
The price is a few disciplines. The price is finding something
that'll make your life better, make you grow, make you change,
make you develop. So the first part of the key is
to design the promise. Then what is the price to pay?
I'm telling you, the price will be easy.
Anybody in my audience can pay. No matter where you are, where
you come from, color doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter,
where you grew up doesn't matter, Circumstances don't
matter. I'm telling you, if you'll make
the promise of the future clear for yourself, the things you
want, the places you want to go, the things you want to have, the
person you want to become, the skills you want, the homes you
want, the future you want, the friends you want, all of the
values of life that you could possibly want.
If you'll make that clear, make those lists and be serious about
it. I promise you, it's an easy
price to pay. Anybody can pay it.
And the best advice I can give you is if I can do it, you can
do it. Farm boy from Idaho, raised in
obscurity. I changed my life, turned it
upside down, turned it all around, found economics, found
future, found promise. And if I can do it, you can do
it. So start setting your goals and
see if you can't get a better excitement going for the things
you want to accomplish for the future.
Now, here's my third subject, and that's called financial
independence. Oh, by the way, before I get to
financial independence, let me cover one more point.
One of the major reasons for setting goals is for what they
make of you in achieving them. My teacher advised me when I
first got started at age 25. He said, Jim, why don't you set
a goal to become a millionaire? He said it's got a nice ring to
it. You know enough zeros to impress
your accountant. And he said, I'm here to help
you. You're only 25 years old, you've
been to one year of college, you've got a beautiful family,
every reason to do it. Why don't you set a goal to
become a millionaire? And he said, here's why.
And I thought he doesn't need to teach me.
Why wouldn't it be nice to have $1,000,000?
He said no, then you'll miss it. He said here's why.
For what it will make of you to achieve it.
I'm telling you, that statement changed my life.
Set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve
them, he said. Now, once you become a
millionaire, what's important is not the money.
I thought that's kind of strange teaching.
He said, honest, it isn't important.
He said. You could just give the money
away. Now, I did better than that.
I lost it all. By the time I was 31, I was a
millionaire. By the time I was 33, I was
broke. And I'll tell you a little bit
about that story later. But when I lost all my money,
guess what? I found out Mr. Schoof was
right. What was valuable was not the
money. What was valuable was what I
became to earn the money, the skills I had, the knowledge I
had about the marketplace, the values that I had going for me.
They were more valuable than the money.
And here's an important statement to remember.
It's not what you get that makes you valuable, it's what you
become. So part of the key here is to
set the kind of goals that will make something of you.
Don't set them too low so that you don't have to grow and you
don't have to read and you don't have to try and you don't have
to stretch. Don't set them too low and then
don't sell out. Don't go for something that's
going to cost you your virtue, or cost you your values, or sell
out your principles. There's a good middle Rd. here
to follow. Goals that will inspire.
Goals that'll help you grow, change, develop and become
better than you are. OK.