The third major piece of the life puzzle is activity. Taking action. Doing what you can do and doing the best that you can do.

Jim Rohn outlines what happens when we neglect to act in the first chapter of his “How to Have Your Best Year Ever!” seminar

5 Major Pieces of the Life Puzzle – #3: Activity

00:51:18: Now in transforming our lives, we don’t start with attitude.

We don’t start with the inspiration here.

We start with education.

Somebody says, “Well, I expected to just come get motivated today.”

Well, that probably won’t do it.

Somebody says, “By now we should be standing on the chairs, waving the flag, singing the ‘Old Grey Mare,’
get it going here.”

No, that’s not where you start.

Life change does not start with inspiration. Life change starts with education.

You’ve got to be educated to the point of where you might have messed up.

My teacher put it in blunt, simple language. He only went to the ninth grade in school, so, he put it in
simple language I could understand.

He said, “Mr. Rohn, after six years living in America, healthy, American male, 25 years old, been working
six years, one year of college, pennies in your pocket, nothing in the bank. Behind on your promises.”

Shoaff said, “I just got one simple explanation for that: You’ve messed up.”

Now I can understand that kind of language.

Substitute a Hershey bar for an apple, means you’ve messed up.

Should walk around the block, could walk around the block, won’t walk around the block—you have messed up,
and all you’ve got to go is right down through the list.

Don’t need some teacher to come by and tell you.

Be your own best teacher saying, “Hey, let me make a list of some places I’ve messed up. Because if I let
this down, let this down, that probably affects the rest.”

And the answer is, that’s true.

So we don’t start with inspiration. We start with education.

Somebody says, “Well, just motivate this guy, he’ll be alright, just motivate him, get him turned on?”

Probably not. If a guy’s an idiot and you motivate him, now you’ve got a motivated idiot.

No, it won’t be all right.

So we start with education.

What’s the first education?

If it isn’t going well, and you live in America, you have messed up! You don’t need to change countries.

You say “Well, the country is messed up.”

That’s like cursing the soil, and cursing the seed, and the sunshine in the rain, which is all you got.

Don’t curse all you got.

When you get your own planet, you can rearrange this whole deal.

But this one, you got to take it like it comes.

So number two is attitude.

Here was number three, activity.

This is the work part, the labor part.

Taking action.

And the activity is the miracle-working piece.

A miracle being something we don’t quite understand how it works—doesn’t mean it doesn’t work—means we just
don’t quite understand how it works.

Miracles work.

God says—now, I’m an amateur on God, but here’s my best analysis–God says, “If you’ll plant the seed, I’ll
make the tree.”

Now, that’s a good arrangement!

Number one: Gives God the tough end of the deal.

What if you had to make the tree?

That would keep you up late at night trying to figure out, how do you make a tree?

Say—no, I’m telling you—the mystery of the miracle of this stuff has already been set up.

God says, “I got the miracle going and I got the seasons going. I got some sunshine and some rain, and I’m
God. But the way I’ve arranged it, I just need somebody to plant the seed. Not chant.”

In California they’re trying to chant to get this stuff done.

Forget this California stuff. You don’t have to rub a crystal and sleep under a pyramid.

This stuffs too easy. Getting rich is too easy, changing your life is too easy. Forget all that.

Massive bombard—affirmation—forget all that.

My opinion.

Ocean waves and seagulls? Come on, this stuff is too simple. Just simple, easy stuff.

But if you neglect it, that’s how it piles up year after year.

But if you’re willing to straighten it out—and here’s one of the keys—it’s called activity. It’s called
disciplines.

Turning wisdom, from your philosophy, and inspiration—the strengthening of attitude and faith, courage,
commitment, and all the stuff that comes from attitude—if you’re willing to take these two qualities,
philosophy and attitude and invest it into activity. You could have a miracle.

Anything short of that?

No miracle.

Wisdom doesn’t perform a miracle. Attitude doesn’t perform a miracle.

The only thing that performs the miracle of increase, called equity, is called putting wisdom and attitude
into discipline, into labor.

And this labor, now, can perform a miracle.

Do What You Can, and Do the Best You Can

00:56:01: And here’s the two parts to the labor.

One, do what you can.

Number two, do the best you can.

Can’t give you better advice than that.

Number one, do what you can. You just got to go home and make a list after today.

And here’s the question to ask as you make this personal list.

“What am I not doing that would be easy to do? That could greatly change my health, my wealth. What am I
not doing, I’m neglecting, that would be easy to do?”

Just go home and answer that question personally.

You don’t have to put the answers on a public bulletin board, this is just all personal stuff.

From the walk around the block, to the apple, to what to do with your money, which we’re going to cover
today.

What does a child do with $1? We’re going to cover that today.

Errors and judgment, disaster!

Few simple disciplines, wealth, beyond imagination.

And if you’ll pick up the activity part, the miracle working part, plant the seed part, take care of your
part. The soil will take care of its part, the seed will take care of its part, the seasons will take care
of their part, the miracle will take care of its part, if you’ll take care of your part called putting it
into activity. Action.

Works miracles.

Two thousand years ago on April 13th, one of Jesus’ disciples—now again, I’m an amateur on the Bible, but
as best as I can remember it—one of Jesus’ disciples said to Jesus, “It’s time to pay our taxes and we don’t
have any money.”

That’s how come I know it was about April 13th.

To this statement by his disciple, Jesus said—best as I can read the record—Jesus said, “No problem.”

Now, why could he say no problem?

Well, word has it, word has it, he was a miracle worker.

Word has it—if you’re a good student of history—word has he was a miracle worker.

If you handed a problem to a miracle worker, what would he be inclined to say? “No problem.”

You’ve got to hang out with folks like that.

I belong to a small group like that, we do business around the world.

You hand these guys a problem, they say, “No problem.”

How many books would they read to solve it? As many as it takes.

How early would they get up? Early as it takes.

How much information would they get? As much as they needed.

So, it’s what? No problem.

You’ve got to hang out with folks like that.

He said, “This will be no problem,”—the tax thing—he said to His disciples, “It’s simple, go fishing.”

“Wow.”

Now, that was easy for this particular disciple. His name was Peter. And Peter was a fisherman. How clever.
How clever.

But here’s the real problem, If you should fish and you could fish and you don’t fish, you got no miracle.

You could change, you should change, you won’t change. That’s called “accumulated disaster.”

In six years you’ll be explaining, instead of celebrating.

Having some ragged list like I had, reasons for not doing well, pennies in my pocket.

Could, should, don’t: disaster.

And if you’ll just start the process of change: could, should and will.

You can start this whole process, and if you will then put it into action, the miracle belongs to you.

Jesus said to His disciples, “It’ll be simple. Go fishing and the first fish you catch look in his mouth.

Peter said, “Okay!” He was used to strange things happening in this relationship.

Peter goes fishing catches the first fish looks in his mouth, guess what’s in the fish’s mouth?

Coins!

Peter says, “Wow, coins!”

He starts counting the value of these coins and he adds it up, guess how much it added up to?

Exactly enough money to pay his taxes and Jesus’ taxes.

Which gives you Jesus’ position on taxes.

Now, we call that what? A miracle only because we don’t quite understand how it works, it doesn’t mean it
doesn’t work. It simply means we don’t quite understand how it works.

But here’s how you get a miracle going for your life.

Number one, do what you can.

Get a list of the stuff you could do, and you haven’t done, postponed, and start cleaning that up.

You can’t start at a better place for personal change.

It’ll affect your bank account, affect your future, affect your income, affect everything. You can’t start
a better life change process than cleaning up what you should be doing.

A man says, “Well, my mother lives down in Florida. I should have written her six months ago. I just can’t
seem to get that letter written.”

I’m asking you to get that letter written, clean that up. And don’t walk like other people walk, don’t
postpone like other people postpone.

You say, “Well, is it as simple as writing a letter?”

And the answer is, yes!

Where else would you start for life change, personal change?

You don’t need a pink package to fall out of the sky.

You don’t need massive bombard pre-conscious, subconscious.

Practice channeling, find a 2000 year old guru.

I mean, you don’t need any of that stuff.

Pass on all that. Kids are afraid of that stuff.

Too much of it, you’d be out on a limb with Shirley. I mean don’t, pass on all that stuff.

This stuff’s too easy, this stuff’s too simple. It’s called take action—number one—on neglect, on errors in
discipline.

Number two, start setting up some disciplines.

And if you’ll do that, you’ll perform a miracle.

Now here’s the second part of the miracle. Number one is do what you can. Here’s number two, do the
best you can.

If that’s not your philosophy, I would ask you to amend it.

Let me give you the best of ancient script. Here’s what it says, “Whatever your hands find to do, do it
with all your might, do it with all your strength, and do it with all your power.”

What a good philosophy!

That kind of philosophy will revolutionize your life. If you haven’t picked it up late.

Guy slips in late, company doesn’t seem to mind, slips out early, first one in the parking lot heading for
happy hour, stretches his break comes early for lunch, late back from lunch. Company doesn’t seem to notice.

Guy says, “Best as I can calculate, I’m putting in about a half a day’s work. And I’m collecting a full
day’s pay.”

And the guy says, “I got it made.”

Little does he know, the seeds of his own disaster are already being sown by the weakness of his own
personal philosophy.

It’s not the economy that’s going to determine your next six years. It’s your philosophy, about labor and
about activity, and about miracle, and soil, and seed, and sunshine, and rain, and the economy, and the
banks, and the money, and the companies, and the schools, and what’s going on.

It’s your philosophy, your attitude, and then your ability to take action—all of that we call the process
of life change, miracle working.

Number one, do what you can.

Number two, do the best you can.

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