Your Best Year Ever – by Jim Rohn: Part 1

Just to show you how good I think this is and how much value you can get out of it, this talk by Jim Rohn is 4.5 hours long and I have listened to it at least 5 times (probably 7).

And I will listen to it again.

This last time I took 15 pages of notes which I am posting here. After you are finished reading them, go listen to the talk for yourself.

Jim Rohn on How to Have Your Best Year Ever

Some do and some don’t. Why? We don’t know.

Sincerity is not a measure of truth.

3 Ways to Get the Most Out of This Talk

  1. Be Thankful – for what we already have, it opens up. Cynicism locks the doors.
  2. Listen Well
  3. Take Good Notes – be a good student

Don’t be a follower, be a student.

Make sure what you do is a product of your own conclusions.

5 Major Pieces – the Fundamentals

#1 Philosophy – the major determining factor

It is what we know and think.

Got to think and process ideas.

The set of the sail. Can’t change the wind so change the sail.

Don’t blame all you got to work with.

Start with your mind, your thinking, your philosophy.

Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day. It is accumulated disaster.

Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

#2 Attitude

It is how we feel, about the past, about the future. The promise of the future is an awesome force.

How we feel about everybody else – appreciation
How you feel about yourself – self worth
Place high value on yourself. If somebody else can do it, I can do it.

Life change starts with education, not inspiration. “If a guy is an idiot and you motivate him, now you’ve got a motivated idiot.”

Get educated to the point where you messed up.

#3 Activity – the work, the labor

If you will plant the seed, God will make the tree. Give God the tough end of the deal.

Invest philosophy and attitude into action and you get a miracle. Turn wisdom, faith, and discipline into action to perform a miracle.

  1. Do what you can.
  2. Do the best you can.

Could change, should change, won’t change = Disaster
Could change, should change, will change = Miracle belongs to you

Just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Get a list of the things you should be doing and clean it up (do them).

Don’t postpone like other people postpone (procrastinate).

Take action on neglect in disciplines. Start forming disciplines.

Do the best you can. Your philosophy on activity will determine you next years.

#4 Results – gotta measure every once in a while

Don’t let too much time go by without checking the results. See if you got the wrong plan.

How many books have your read, how many classes have you taken, what does your bank balance look like?

Results is the name of the game.

Life only asks that we make measurable progress in reasonable time.

Some things you got to check everyday, others weekly.

Got to be honest with yourself. The Truth will set you free.
The Truth is for amending our errors and finding new disciplines.

Don’t curse what is available and start amending what is possible to get the results you want and you will have great personal change.

Success is a numbers game.

How many pounds overweight should you be at 50 years old? Start checking your own numbers.

#5 Lifestyle – learning how to live well

Ultimate challenge of life after applying philosophy, attitude, and action to get results is how to fashion for yourself a good life.

If you wish to be wealthy, study wealth.

If you were to show me your current economic plan, would it excite me so much that I would want to travel across the country teaching it to others? Why not?

If you wish to be happy, study happiness.

Happiness is something you design, not an accident. Happiness is within the grasp of all of us.

Happiness is a study. Wealth is a study. Don’t be lazy in learning. Learn how to do well and learn how to live well.

If 2 tip amounts come into your mind, always go with the higher amount. Become the higher thinking person. Money doesn’t make you happy.

Personal Development

It is hard to give up blaming everything but yourself for your current economic, social, and emotional woes. But it is not what happens that determines the major part of your future. What happens happens to us all. The key is what you do about it.

If you will start the process of change, even a small one, everything will change.

What you have at the moment, you have attracted by the person you’ve become. You got to transition to taking responsibility for where you are in life.

If you will change, everything will change for you. To have more, you have to become more.

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

Start with money. It is not the only value but it is easy to count and measure.

We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value, but we don’t get paid for time. We get paid for value.

Is is possible to becomes 2x, 3x as valuable and make 2x, 3x the money in the same amount of time? Of course. Simply become more valuable.

The facts: If you are not very valuable, you won’t get much money. You can’t get rich by demand.
Become more valuable.

Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job!

If you work hard on your job you will make a living. If you work hard on yourself you will make a fortune.

Develop the skills. Can’t change the world and how it works, so work on yourself.

Life and business is like the seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself.

Things are not going to change. The next 10 years will be pretty much like the last 10 years.
Short description of human history: Opportunity mixed with difficulty.

If you change though, everything will change for you.

  1. Learn how to handle the Winters (they come after Fall) – emotional, social, economic, personal. What do you do about them? Get wiser, stronger, better. Wiser – read more, listen, watch. Stronger – workout, practice. Better – develop the skills.
  2. Learn how to take advantage of the Springs (they follow winter) – Spring = Opportunity. Got to take advantage. The key is to plant in the spring. Seize the day. Life is brief.
  3. In the Summer, nourish and protect – become capable and powerful. Bugs and weeds will take the garden unless you protect it. Nourish the garden and kill the weeds. Summer is a scenario of opportunity and threat. If you just think positive that is too naive, got to think negative too. Deal with your enemies in the summer.
  4. Reap in the harvest (Fall) without complaint or apology – must take personal responsibility. No apology for doing well and no complaint for doing poorly.

Physical Personal Development – take care of yourself

Treat your body like a temple, not a woodshed.

Some people don’t do well because they don’t feel well.

Vitality is a major part of success.

Some people take better care of their pets, take more care in what they feed their animals than they do of themselves.

You never have a second chance to make a first impression with you appearance.

God may look on the inside, but people look on the outside. Its the world we live in.

After people get to know you they will start to judge the substance, but they see the outside first. So make sure the outside is a major reflection of what is going on inside.

Spiritual – study it and if you are a believer, practice it

Mental – learn, study, grow, change

Human development takes time. Wildebeest only have a few minutes after birth to learn to run because of the lions. A human baby, after 16 years we are not sure if ready to survive.

Feeding and nourishing the mind takes time. Get ready to debate great life issues. Got to be able to defend your philosophy, virtues, and values.

Need a good library. Most homes over $250,000 have a library.
Your library needs to show you are a serious student. Can’t live on mental candy.

Some recommended books.

  1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – great book, has some weird stuff in it.
  2. Richest Man in Babylon – good book on wealth fundamentals
  3. How to Read a Book – has list of “best writings ever written”

Your library needs to be balanced. Some sections for your library.

  • History – recommends Lessons of History by Durant
  • Philosophy – recommends Story of Philosophy also by Durant. Don’t just read the easy stuff, you won’t grow.
  • Novels – philosophy often interwoven into the story. Skip the trash
  • Biographies – stories of both successful and unsuccessful people, examples and warnings, good and evil
  • Accounting – at least a primary understanding
  • Law – need to know what to sign and what not to sign, don’t need to be a lawyer but knowing a little law will protect you
  • Economics – how to become financially independent
  • Culture and Sophistication – it is part of the fabric of the nation, be a student of dance, art, music
  • Spirituality – study it, and if you are a believer, study and practice

Keep a Journal – don’t trust your memory.

If you hear something or come across something important, write it down.

Buy empty books and fill them with valuable notes. Go back over them and let it instruct you and feed your mind and soul again.

3 Treasures that you leave behind

  1. Pictures – take a lot of pictures
  2. Library – books that taught you to become healthy, wealthy, powerful
  3. Your Journals – the ideas you picked up, be student enough to write things down

Part 2 to Come

I just realized that this post was over 1500 words and I am only about half way through my notes. That is a lot for one post so I will be breaking these notes into 2 parts. Tons of value here and while you wait on the second part you can go watch the talk for yourself.

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better (and get better).

I Want to Be a Better Developer