Achieving Your Dreams

by Jim Rohn

A Red Ferrari having tires changed. One symbol of
achievement for people who were able to own one. 

( As you well know, Jim Rohn is my #1 virtual mentor. It is unfortunate that I never got to meet the man. We are lucky that the people behind www.jimrohn.com continues to share his widom and legacy. This article is one of those that makes you think hard and act to achieve whatever you desire most in your life. Read On. To Your Success! )

While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What’s the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?

Despite all of the factors that affect our lives—like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in—none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.

Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid.

If you’ve ever hiked a 14,000-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind: “How did the settlers of this country do it?” How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day’s supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you... mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn’t focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain.

In their minds, they were already on the other side–their bodies just hadn’t gotten them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way.

You’ve got to be a dreamer. You’ve got to envision the future. You’ve got to see California while you’re climbing 14,000-foot peaks. You’ve got to see the finish line while you’re running the race. You’ve got to hear the cheers when you’re in the middle of a monster project. And you’ve got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Because that’s how you realize your dreams.  

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The Great Leadership Challenge

The bee at work at a sunflower
in Burnham Park in Baguio City

by Jim Rohn

( I have been through highs and lows in my career. One thing constant though is my belief that I am a leader and a good one at that. I have led from as many as thirty-three engineers at one point and three nationalities at another. I am at a point in my career that I am not exercising much leading as I don't have subordinates reporting under me. Still, the leadership growth is a never ending process ...the only time I will stop being a student is when I have come to the end of my journey on this earth. Let's keep growing! ) 

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:

Learn to be strong but not impolite. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.

Next, learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

  

Next, learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. Like the farmer, if you want any rewards at harvest time, you have got to be bold and face the weeds and the rain and the bugs straight on. You’ve got to seize the moment.

Here’s the next step. You’ve got to learn to be humble but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease. It’s an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.

In addition to reading and listening, you also need a chance to do some talking and sharing. I have some people in my life who help me with important life questions, who assist me in refining my own philosophy, weighing my values and pondering questions about success and lifestyle.

Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars.

Here’s a good tip: Learn to be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to build your ambitions. It takes pride in your community. It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is to be proud without being arrogant.

Do you know the worst kind of arrogance? Arrogance from ignorance. It’s intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.

The next step is learning to develop humor without folly. In leadership, we learn that it’s okay to be witty but not silly; fun but not foolish.

Next, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony of delusion. Just accept life as it is. Life is unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating.

Life is unique. Leadership is unique. The skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. However, the fundamental skills of leadership can be adopted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.

To Your Success! See you at the finish line my friend =)

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Life is Art

 by Jim Rohn

( This post shows how remarkable Jim Rohn's wisdom is. He was able to transform some of the most complex ideas and make it easily understood by ordinary men like us. About accumulation of wealth and living life analogy with life and art is simply genius. My take away is the getting rich is an exact science while living a wonderful life is like coming up with a painting on a blank canvass...it is up to you and that's the beauty of it. Now, live a remarkable life! Would want to see the masterpiece that you will make of it! )

In my years teaching people to be successful, I have seen that basically people break their lives down into two major parts: wealth- building and the rest of their lives. Having done a lot of reflection on these two topics—wealth and life—I am coming to some new conclusions about how to perceive the two.

Until recently I thought that there was a significant difference in how we should tackle the two areas. In fact, I thought that the two topics should be addressed in almost opposite fashion.

You see, wealth-building is just math. While life—Life is art.

Think back with me to high school. Most of us were required to take math and most of us probably took art as well.

Now, think about your final exams in the two areas. Your math paper was graded on hard facts:

Ten times ten is always one-hundred.

Thirty divided by three is always ten.

Seven plus seven is always fourteen.

Fifty minus twenty-five is always twenty-five.

   

There is always just one answer in math. The answers are hard fact, set in stone. Math is a science. It is formulaic. You can know the outcome before it happens, every time.

But what about your final art project? Art is much more subjective. "Beauty," they say, "is in the eye of the beholder." There is no one right answer.

Think of the different styles of the famous artists:

Renoir. Monet. Picasso. Rockwell. Warhol.

Different people find different styles beautiful, and that is what makes art, art.

So how does this fit with wealth-building and life? Wealth-building is like math:

If you add $1,000 to your retirement account each month and gain 7 percent interest over 20 years, you can know now how much you will have then. It is math. If you buy a rental property for $200,000 now and it increases in value by 3 percent a year, you know exactly how much you will be able to sell it for in 10 years. The beauty of math is in the knowing. You can work the system, set it on auto-pilot and the math does the work for you, and you know the outcome.

But life? Life is art. And that is the beauty of life. You do not know how it is going to turn out. Life, like art, is always changing. Different people provide different colors. When you make a mistake, you can go back, erase it or even paint right over it. You can change the scenery. Life, like art, is ever evolving, and what looks good to one person is of no interest to another. And that is what makes life beautiful.

Another lesson I think we can draw is that in life we should do our math, of course, but life isn't made up of just wealth-building. Wealth-building should serve our ability to live our lives. Jesus, the master teacher, said that our lives are not made up of the abundance of our possessions. He didn't mean that possessions aren't good, just that wealth isn't what life is all about.

So let me ask you: Are you spending more time on your math or your art? Do your math. Everybody should do their very best at their wealth-building plan so they can take care of themselves and their families. 

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Creating Opportunity

This man peddles his native delicacies on a bike.
His income possibilities only limited by his creativity and imagination.

Intro

I usually hear people always complaining about lack of opportunity. May it be career or additional income. Jim Rohn always cuts the chase and goes direct to the point on what is the right mindset in order for this scenario to be a thing of the past on a person's life. To your Success!  

by Jim Rohn

An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It’s to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves... regardless of the economy.

A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what’s to come.

Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it. And enterprising people aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them; they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

Enterprise is two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to see what’s out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.

What goes hand in hand with the creativity of enterprise is the second requirement: the courage to be creative. You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.

And lastly, being enterprising doesn’t just relate to the ability to make money. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self-worth to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future. And by doing so, you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth—your enterprising nature.

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Love the Opportunity

by Jim Rohn

Somebody said you have to love what you do, but that’s not necessarily true. What is true is that you have to love the opportunity. The opportunity to build life, future, health, success and fortune. Knocking on someone’s door or making that extra call may not be something you love to do, but you love the opportunity of what might be behind that door or call.

For example, a guy says, “I’m digging ditches. Should I love digging ditches?” The answer is, “No, you don’t have to love digging ditches, but if it is your first entry onto the ladder of success, you say, ‘I’m glad somebody gave me the opportunity to dig ditches and I’m going to do it so well, I won’t be here long.’”

You can be inspired by having found something; even though you are making mistakes in the beginning and even though it is a little distasteful taking on a new discipline that you haven’t learned before. You don’t have to love it, you just have to learn to appreciate where you live, appreciate opportunity and appreciate the person who brought you the good news—who found you.

Appreciate the person who believed in you before you believed in yourself, appreciate the person who said, “Hey, if I can do it, you can do it.”

If you will embrace the disciplines associated with the new opportunity you will soon find that your self-confidence starts to grow, that you go from being a skeptic to being a believer. And soon, when you go out person to person, talking to people, you will find it to be the most thrilling opportunity in the world. Every person you meet—what could it be? Unlimited! Maybe a friend for life. The next person could be an open door to retiring. The next person could be a colleague for years to come. It’s big-time stuff. And sometimes in the beginning when we are just getting started we don’t always see how big it is.

So, before you are tempted to give up or get discouraged, remember all success is based on long-term commitment, faith, discipline, attitude and a few stepping stones along the way. You might not like the stone you are on right now, but it’s sure to be one of the stones that lead to great opportunities in the future.

                         

 To Your Success!    

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15 Challenges to Pursue in Life

by Jim Rohn from the 2004 Jim Rohn Weekend Leadership Event . In life, this is one of my important realization, we are designed to pursue dreams and face challenges along the way. It is a never ending dream, attainment, new dreams, new goals, achievements and yet breeds to new more desires and dreams. Let us all enjoy the journey and I know you - The Smart Pinoy is up to it =)

1. Review Your Performance. Whether it’s communication, whether it’s activity, whether it’s a CEO, whether it’s on the job. Here’s what my father said: “Always do more than you are paid for to make an investment in your future.” Now some unions would argue with that. My father was so unique. Review your performance—your language with your children. Say, “Have I been too harsh, too strong, too stubborn? Should I have learned to be easier and mixed more compassion with the tough stuff I have to deal with?” And yes, prayer will help. Ask for help to say the right thing, not to ruin it all by poor communication.

2. Face Your Fears. That’s how you conquer them. Don’t dismiss them; face them. Say, “Here’s what I’m afraid of. I wonder what I could do to change that.”

3. Exercise Your Willpower to Change Direction. You don’t have to keep doing what you’ve been doing the last six years if it’s not yielding the benefits you want. My mentor helped me review the last six years so I wouldn’t repeat those errors the next six. Pick a new destination and go that way. Use your willpower to start the process. You don’t have to repeat last year. Clean up the errors. Invest it now in the next year. Watch it make the difference.

4. Admit Your Mistakes. Sometimes you have to admit them to others. Parents have to do it. We ask our kids to do it. We have to do it. Here is one of the best phrases in the English language: “I’m sorry.” The reason those are good words is because they could start a whole new relationship. It could start two people going in a whole new direction. Simple, not easy. You get this done, the turnaround can be dramatic. The early years can be big in payoff. Here’s the big one. Admit your mistakes to yourself. You don’t have to babble about them to everyone in the neighborhood. But it doesn’t hurt to sit down and have a conversation with yourself and say, “There’s no use kidding myself. Here’s where I really am. I’ve got pennies in my pocket and I’ve got nothing in the bank.” That’s what I said after a Girl Scout left my door. I had a conversation with myself and I said, “I don’t want this to happen anymore.”

5. Refine Your Goals. Start the process. Set some higher goals. Reach for some higher purpose. Go for something beyond what you thought you could do.

6. Believe in Yourself. You’ve got to believe in God and you’ve got to believe in the community. You’ve got to believe in the possibilities. You’ve got to believe in the economy. You’ve got to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. Here’s the big one. Believe in yourself. There isn’t a skill you can’t learn; there isn’t a discipline you can’t try; there isn’t a class you can’t take; there isn’t a book you couldn’t read.

7. Ask for Wisdom. This is communication of the highest source. Ask for wisdom that creates answers. Ask for the wisdom that creates faith to believe things are possible. Ask for wisdom to deal with the challenges for today and tomorrow, to deal with the challenges your family brings you. Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better.

8. Conserve Your Time. Sometimes we get faked out. Bill Bailey says the average person says, “I’ve got twenty more years.” No, Bill says you’ve got twenty more times. If you go fishing once a year, you’ve only got twenty more times to go fishing, not twenty years. That fakes you out.

9. Invest Your Profits. Here’s one of the philosophies that Mr. Shoaff gave me. Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living, profits make you a fortune. Could we start earning profits while we make a living? The answer is yes.

10. Protect Your Family. These are troublesome times. At school—troublesome times. Protect your family as best you can from the hidden dangers, the lurking evil one.

11. Live with Intensity. You might as well turn it up a notch or two. Invest more of you in whatever you do. Be a little stronger; be a little wiser. Step up your vitality contribution. Put everything you’ve got into everything you do and then ask for more vitality, more strength and more vigor, more heart and more soul.

12. Find Your Place. If you just work on a job, find the best place you can serve well, and sure enough they’ll ask you to occupy a better place. And if you keep doing a job well, do the very best you can. That’s your best way out. Here’s a Bible phrase. If you work on your gifts, they’ll make a place for you.

13 Demand Integrity from Yourself. Integrity is like loyalty. You can’t demand it of someone else; you can only demand it of yourself. Be the best example of loyalty, and you’ll get some loyal followers. Be the best example of integrity, and you’ll have people around you who have integrity. Lead the way.

14. Welcome the Disciplines. Can’t give you much better advice than that because disciplines create the reality. Disciplines build cities. A well-disciplined activity creates abundance, creates uniqueness, productivity.

15. Fight for What’s Right. It’s a fight we’re in. The storyteller says “And there was a great war in heaven.” One of the writers of later Scripture said, “I fought a good fight.” That’s extraordinary to be able to say. I fought for my kids, and I fought for what was right and I fought for good health, and I fought to protect my company and I fought for a good career that would bless my family. I fought a good fight. It’s good to fight the encroachment. Opposites are in conflict, and you’re in the middle. If you want something valuable, you’ve got to fight for it. Then this writer also said, “I fought a good fight and I kept the faith.” See, that’s the deal. Keep faith with your family. Fight the enemy and keep faith. Fight the illness and keep faith. Fight the evil and keep faith. I can’t give you much better advice.

To your Success! 

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How Do You Attract Opportunity into Your Life?

by Jim Rohn

Someone once asked me the question: “How can I have more opportunities come
into my life?” Good question, but I think my answer surprised them a bit.


I bypassed the obvious (and necessary) points about hard work, persistence
and preparation. They actually were very hard workers. And they had the
great attribute of being seekers; they were on the outlook. But I felt
maybe they were missing this next and most valuable point: attraction.


I always thought opportunities and success were something you went after,
but then I found out that I needed to turn it around. Opportunities and
success are not something you go after necessarily, but something you
attract—by becoming an attractive person.


That’s why I teach development of skills. If you can develop your
skills—keep refining all the parts of your character and yourself, your
health, your relationships, etc., so that you become an attractive person
to the marketplace—you’ll attract opportunity. Opportunity will probably
seek you out. Your reputation will probably precede you and someone will
want to do business with you. All of the possibilities are there by working
on the philosophy that success is something you attract.


The key is to continue making yourself a more attractive person by the
skills you have, the disciplines you have, the personality you’ve acquired,
the character and reputation you have established, the language and speech
you use—all of that refinement makes you more attractive to the
marketplace.


Personal development is the never-ending chance to improve not only
yourself, but also to attract opportunities and affect others.

Attract opportunity in your life with the guidance of a team of
world-renowned success experts! Click on side banners for the best self development mentors/resources.


To your success!

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Why Network Marketing? 4 Business Authorities Explain.

What my virtual mentors have to say about this non-traditonal business model. 

Robert Kiyosaki- “successful people look for and build networks, while the poor look for work.”

                              

BRIAN TRACY: UNLIMITED POTENTIAL
"People don't trust conglomerates; they trust individuals. Network marketing brings trust and the quality of the relationship to the center of the business. And it enables you to expand indefinitely, simply by expanding the number of relationships.
"The future of network marketing is unlimited. There's no end in sight. It will to continue to grow, because better people are getting into it. They are raising the entire standard of MLM to the point where soon, it will be one of the most respected business methods in the world.
"Network marketing is based purely on relationship selling, which is the state of the art in selling today. Small and large companies throughout the country and the world are realizing that individuals selling to their friends and associates is the future of sales, because the critical element in buying is trust."


JIM ROHN (mentor to Anthony Robbins): THE NEW CAPITALISM
"Network marketing is the big wave of the future. It's taking the place of franchising, which now requires too much capital for the average person.
"Network marketing is really the greatest source of grass-roots capitalism, because it teaches people how to take a small bit of capital -- that is your time -- and build the American dream.
"I was involved with a network marketing company called Abunda-Vita for five years, starting when I was 25 years old. It opened up the world to me. I became a millionaire by the time I was 31. More valuable than the money were the skills it taught me. In the corporate world it's hard to rub shoulders with the megastars. Network marketing exposes people to good speakers, to positive ideas about setting goals, rendering service, managing time, training, and inspiring other people."


PAUL PILZER(well known economist, author): TREMENDOUS GROWTH    “The Next Trillion”
"For most people seeking wealth in the 1990s, the greatest opportunities lie in the distribution sector of our economy. In the future, technological developments like interactive television for ordering merchandise, and overnight or same-day shipping services for delivering it, may let many manufacturers bypass retailers entirely in physically distributing existing products to their ultimate consumers. This may one day eliminate the majority of retailers that concentrate on physical distribution, like Wal-Mart.
"I see rapid acceleration ahead in Network Marketing as more and more companies embrace it. As more companies come into being and product lines are expanded, I think growth in this industry will be exponential.
"I would be very surprised if we don't see Network Marketing sales doubling every three to five years.
"Large corporations have run into a significant bottleneck in their ability to expand -- they have reached the limit of their ability to educate consumers about new products and services and to update them about better ways to use them. The Information Highway won't solve this problem. If there are 50,000 channels, how do you know which channel you want to listen to? Network marketers, through their people-to-people focus, will custom tailor and deliver product information to the specific customers who need it." 

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