Winners never quit and quitters never win.
We Can’t Wait
In 2008 then Senator Barak Obama in a speech in Philadelphia speech started using the “We can’t wait” theme. He spoke about not waiting to fix our health care system, not waiting for good jobs and good wages and not waiting to deal with street crime. Whether you agreed with his politics or not the question, “Am I waiting on me?” is one you must be asking yourself! In this article expert Jim Rohn says that there are only three places to look if you aren’t getting the results you want: your activities, your attitude and your philosophy.
Three key words to remember: weigh, count and measure. Now why weigh, count and measure? To see what your results are from your activity, your attitude and your philosophy. If you find that the results are not to your liking there are only three places to look.
Your philosophy needs to be fine-tuned; your attitude needs to be strengthened or your disciplines need extra skill. But that’s it. Activity, attitude and philosophy create results.
Now on results I teach that life expects you to make measurable progress in reasonable time. But, you must be reasonable with time. You can’t say to someone every five minutes, how are you doing now? That’s too soon to ask for a count. Guy says, “I haven’t left the building yet, give me a break!” Now you can’t wait five years – that’s too long. Too many things can go wrong waiting too long for a count to see how you’re doing.
Here are some good time frames:
Number one – at the end of the day. You can’t let more than a day go by without looking at some things and making progress. New Testament says – if you are angry, try to solve it before the sun goes down. Don’t carry anger for another day. It may be too heavy to carry. If you try to carry it for a week, it may drop you to your knees. So some things you must get done in a day.
Here’s the next one – a week. We ask for an accounting of the week so we can issue the pay. And whatever you’ve got coming that’s what you get; when the week is over. Now in business there are two things to check in the course of the week. Your activity count and your productivity count. Because activity leads to productivity we need to count both to see how we’re doing.
My mentor taught me that success is a numbers game and very early he started asking me my numbers. He asked, “How many books have you read in the last ninety days?” I said, “Zero”; he said, “Not a good number.” He said, “How many classes have you attended in the last six months to improve your skills?” And I said, “Zero.” He said, “Not a good number.” Then he said, “In the last six years that you’ve been working, how much money have you saved and invested?” I said, “Zero” and he said, “Not a good number.” Then here’s what he said, “Mr. Rohn, if these numbers don’t change your life won’t change. But” he said, “If you’ll start improving these numbers then perhaps you’ll start to see everything change for you.”
Success and results are a numbers game. John joins this little sales company. He’s supposed to make 10 calls the first week just to get acquainted with the territory. So on Friday we call him in and say what? “How many calls?” He says, “Well.” You say, “John, ‘well’ won’t fit in the little box here. I need a number.” Now he starts with a story. And you say, “John, the reason I made this little box so small is so a story won’t fit. All I need is a number because if you give us the number we’re so brilliant around here we could guess the story.” It’s the numbers that count. Making measurable progress in reasonable time.
Here’s the best accounting. The accounting you make of yourself. Don’t wait for the government to do it, don’t wait for the company to do it. But you’ve got to add up some of your own numbers and ask, “Am I making the progress I want and will it take me where I want to go now and in the future?” You be the judge!
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Contributed by: Jim Rohn from getmotivation.com
Resources
Any links appearing in red were links our contributor included in the original article.
How to Change Your Attitude>How to Change Your Attitude
Begin Your Work Day at the End of It
Philosophy and Personal Development
More about Jim Rohn
Why Personal Development – Jim Rohn
About Our Contributor: Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn (1930-2009) graduated 3rd in his high school 140. Despite strong academic abilities he dropped out of college after a year and a half and joined the work force. At 25, he was struggling as a stock clerk for Sears collecting a weekly $57 paycheck. He had personal ambitions and goals but was unable to see the path to accomplish them. A friend invited him to see John Earl Shoaff, an entrepreneur and the VP of Sales for AbundaVita. Shoaff impressed Rohn with his wealth, business accomplishments, charisma and life philosophy. Shoaff become Rohn’s mentor and died one year before Rohn reached his personal goal of becoming a millionaire, which happened to him at the age of 31. Rohn began his speaking career by telling his ‘rags-to-riches’ story to his rotary club. He went on to present seminars all over the world for more than 40 years telling his story and teaching the personal development philosophy he felt had led to his accomplishments. Among his students are Tony Robbins, who worked for Rohn, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and T. Harv Eker.
About Our Quotester: Vince Lombardi
Vincent Thomas “Vince” Lombardi (1913-1970) was an American football coach who was best known as head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s. Lombardi led the team to three straight league championships and five in seven years. His victories included winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons.
Today, the National Football League’s Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor. Lombardi was enshrined in the NFL’s Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. He never had a losing season as a head coach in the NFL, compiling an impressive regular season winning percentage of 73.8% and 90% in the postseason.
On a personal note the three constants throughout Lombardi’s life were sports, particularly football, family and religion. Lombardi attended Mass on a daily basis and nearly became a priest. Despite coaching in the midst of civil unrest, Lombardi remarked that he “viewed his players as neither black nor white, but Packer green.”
Our Quotester Image is linked from goodreads.com.
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
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