The fourth major piece of the life puzzle is results. Jim Rohn outlines in his “How to Have Your Best Year Ever!” seminar that in order to have success you must have measurable goals that can show you results!
5 Major Pieces of the Life Puzzle – #4: Results
01:03:39: Here was number four: Results.
Results, every once in a while you’ve got to take a measure, see how you’re doing with these three
pieces—philosophy, attitude, activity.
Now we take a measure, called results.
What are the results at the end of the day? The results at the end of the week?
You can’t let too much time go by without checking.
When time goes by—six years—I’d been out there working when I met my teacher Mr. Shoaff.
Shoaff said, “Well, Mr. Rohn, let’s just go through a little summary here,” he said, “in the last six years
how much money have you saved and invested? Let’s go through a little tab list here. How much money have you
saved and invested the last six years?”
I said what? “Zero.”
He said, “You have messed up!”
You remember these notes? I like that.
Messed up.
He said, “Who sold you on that plan?”
I thought, my gosh, the man’s right! I’m a nice guy, I bought the wrong plan.
What if you were 50 and broke? Right? Didn’t need to change countries, bought the wrong plan.
What a sad scenario that would be.
But Shoaff said these questions, “Let’s go through some results.”
He said, “How many books have you read in the last 90 days?”
I said what? “Zero.”
Wisdom of the world available?
Change your life, change your future, wisdom of the world available, develop any skill you want, earn the
kind of income you want, have all the treasures you want, equities you want, relationship with your family
that you want, everything that you want available, and the wisdom of the world to help you get it.
I hadn’t read any books in the last 90 days.
My teacher said, “Mr. Rohn, you have messed up! I’m telling you, you’ve got the deal.”
Shoaff said, “Mr. Rohn, in the last six months, how many classes have you taken to improve your skills? Or
to develop new skills? Go for the American dream, become rich, and powerful, and sophisticated, and healthy,
and influential? How many classes have you taken in the last six months?”
I said how many? “Zero.”
He said, “You have messed up! You don’t need to un-mess the country. You don’t need to straighten out the
perplexed, you don’t need to straighten out any of this stuff. All you got to do is look within and let
results teach you a great deal about your own activity, your own attitude, and your own philosophy.”
I went through that process.
Take this phrase home: Results is the name of the game.
What other game is there?
Results.
Here’s all life asked us to do, make measurable progress in reasonable time.
Just take home that little phrase—good phrase—we’re asked in life, simply, to make measurable progress in
reasonable time.
We demand it of our children. How many years do you want your child to spend in fourth grade?
Approximately?
About one.
If it looks like they’re not gonna make it, we pour on the pressure. Called legitimate pressure. Lack of
results—peer pressure, family pressure, school pressure, community pressure, every other kind of pressure
we can bring to bear.
Why?
You can’t stay more than one year in fourth grade!
As parents, you’d have to leave the community. You say, “Well, what if they’re nice kids wouldn’t you give
him three or four years?”
The answer is no!
You’ve got to make better progress than that.
So you’ve got to check fairly often, some things you’ve got to check every day! Some things you’ve got to check at
least by the end of the week.
Salesman joins a little sales company, he’s supposed to make 10 calls first week, wouldn’t it be legitimate
calling him in on Friday and say, “John,” what…”how many calls?”
I mean, this stuff is simple.
John says, “Well…”
Say, “John, ‘well’ won’t fit in this little box here. Well?”
Now John starts with a story.
You say, “John, I made this little box so small, so a story won’t fit. I don’t need a story. I need what?”
A number.
A number. What will a number tell me? Everything!
John’s was supposed to make 10 calls? What if he made 20? You say, “Wow, wow, we got somebody?”
What if you only made one call? “Woah!”
Will that tell us something about John’s philosophy?
And the answer is yes.
Will it tell us something about his attitude? Of course.
Will it tell us something about his disciplines. Of course.
And if he wants a lesson in life change, all he has to do is be willing to face the numbers, and come up
with the results that will teach you to either celebrate if you got good results, or fix whatever needs to
be fixed in your philosophy, attitude, activity called disciplines.
You don’t need to go anywhere else.
I do believe in affirmations.
They are of value as long as you affirm the truth.
Because it says in ancient scripts, “The truth will set you free.”
Free to do what?
Amend your errors and pick up new disciplines.
That’s what the truth is for, to help us amend our errors, and pick up the disciplines for life change.
That’s what the truth is for. So I do believe in affirming the truth.
If you’re broke, best thing to affirm is, “I am broke.”
You put that up on the refrigerator where you can see it every day.
I mean, that’s how you do that.
Now if you need a little additional affirmation you just put up there, “I’m 40 and broke.”
I mean, you know that ought to do it.
And if you need just a little more put up there, “I live in America, and I’m 40, and broke.”
That’s enough to turn your life around.
It says, “Hey, something is wrong. Somewhere I have messed up!”
And I’m telling you that if you’ll start with that—it’s called the process of life change—and it doesn’t
matter how small the process is to start, one discipline starts and then one discipline feeds another, feeds
another, and the first thing you know, you’ve got this whole cycle in an upward positive motion.
And it’s called life change.
It’s called income change. It’s called health change. Relationship with your family change. Equities
unprecedented, that you can have in numbers that will stagger the imagination, if you do not curse what’s
available, and start amending what’s possible to get the results that you want.
I don’t think I could put it in any better language.
That’s it.
Kids can do it. Teenagers can do it. Parents can do it. Managers can do it. Right?
Government officials can do it, anybody can do it.
Anybody can do this stuff called personal change.
Wow.
Results is the name of the game, success is a numbers game.
Good note to make: Success is a numbers game.
You’ve got to go for the numbers, you’ve got to understand what the numbers are.
“How many pounds overweight should you be at age 50?”
Approximate?
John says, “I got big bones!”
We’ll give you 10 pounds—10 pound for big bones. Otherwise, come on John, 20 pounds, 25 pounds? Shouldn’t
we turn on the caution light at work and at home?
Blinking caution lights, and they say, “Well, what’s that caution light?”
“Well, John’s up about 20 to 25 pounds, we’ve got the blinking light going at home, got it going here at
work.”
To remind him what?
Wrong numbers.
Thirty-five to 40 pounds—red light blinking at home.
So they say, “What’s that blinking red light?”
“John’s up about 40 pounds!”
Fifty pounds! We’ve got the siren!
Waahhh, waahhh, waahhh…
“What’s that siren at home and at work?”
“John’s up about 50 pounds! Cholesterol, almost out of control!”
Come on.
Success is a numbers game. I’m asking you to be mature enough to start checking your own
numbers.
How many books have you read in the last 90 days?
Transform your life. Become cultured, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, all the rest of the
stuff you want.
How many books? How many classes?
How committed are you to taking what’s available, and turning it into equities unprecedented since we live
in a country that there’s been no such country in the last six and a half thousand years.
If you pick up that process, ladies and gentlemen, I’m telling you, it’s called life change of the best
order.
Continue reading Jim Rohn’s “How to Have Your Best Year Ever!” seminar transcripts:
- Chapter 1:
- Chapter 2:
- Chapter 3:
- Chapter 4: