BELIEVE IN YOURSELF - Transform Your Life with Jim Rohn’s Motivational Speech
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Why pay the price? Why work this hard? Why go this far? Why try to learn this much? Why try to do it all? Why try to see it all? Why try to have it all? Why do it? Why learn it? Why study? Why put yourself out? Why try to take on this much responsibility? Why develop yourself to the full? Why try to become all that you can possibly become? Why try to earn as much as you can earn, share as much as you can share?

Develop every skill you possibly can. See every human you possibly can. Go to every class you possibly can. Touch everybody you possibly can. Why do that much? Why go that far? Why share that much? Why give that much away? Why try to see everything? Why try to do everything? Why try to become everything? That's a good question, why? And you're the only one personally that can answer that question for yourself. You've got to have your own list of why's.

Here's what I want you to do when you go home after you've left this extravaganza. Work on your list of whys. One of the big thrusts for success is to come up with a strong enough why. In leadership training, here's what we learned. If the why is powerful, the how is easy. But if the why isn't strong, if your goals aren't powerful...

If the vision isn't clear, the old prophet said, without a vision, we die. Without a vision, we perish. Without a dream, we're nothing. From the movie, The Professionals. I listened to Bill Heron give his testimony yesterday. From the movie, The Professionals, it said, we joined because we believed. We stayed because we were committed. We left because we were disillusioned.

But we came back because we were lost. Without a dream, we are nothing. Goals are important for a genuinely success-oriented person. Without them, you're just playing around. The difference between a goal-directed individual and someone without goals is like the difference between a Wimbledon champion and a kid batting a tennis ball around on a court with non-admissions.

No opponent to bring out the best in him and no way of keeping score. Despite everything that's been written about the importance of goal setting, very few people actually put it into practice. It's always amazed me the way the average person devotes more thought and effort to planning his or her two week vacation than to planning his life. Goals represent challenge in its most positive form.

Leaders have their personal goals as well as those of their organization clearly in focus. In fact, one of the principal responsibilities of leadership is defining goals for the vast majority of people who aren't able to do it for themselves. Over the years, I've developed some ideas about effective goal setting and I'd like to share those with you.

Do I also want to point out some traps of goal, directed behavior that aren't usually talked about, but certainly ought to be. When I was a kid, I used to dream what it would be like to buy a ticket on a train and just go someplace. I didn't really think about where I'd be going or how long it would take to get there. I just loved the idea of getting on the train and letting it take me someplace. I guess there's still something appealing about that idea, but it's not really the way you should live your life as a mature human being.

When you grow up, you buy a ticket on a train or a plane because you want to go someplace and you know exactly where you're going. You may have to change planes in a different city. Your flight may be canceled or you may have to switch to another flight. You may not feel like talking to the person seated next to you, but you will persist. You know where you're headed and you're quite determined to get there.

That's goal directed behavior in its simplest form. There are short-term goals and long-term goals. Sometimes you're flying across the country.

Other times, you're just walking down to the corner grocery store. Long-term goals are the equivalent of a major journey. When you reach the point where you've achieved your long-term goals, your life will be fundamentally changed and the process of getting to that point will have transformed you into a stronger, wiser and higher performing person. How can you identify your long-term goals? On a sheet of paper or in a notebook, write these five headings.

Under each of these categories, write down several possible long-term goals. Be very relaxed about this.

Just allow your mind to flow and come up with three to six ideas for each category. Don't worry about a lot of details at this point and don't spend too much time describing a particular goal. For example, refer to category one. Suppose you want to write a book about the history of your family going back to the arrival of your great grandparents in the United States.

Just quickly jot down family history. Then it occurs to you that you've always wanted to see the pyramids in Egypt, so you write pyramids. Keep writing down ideas as long as the list of categories continues to inspire you. You'll probably be surprised at some of the things that turn up.

You may have kept a great many desires and aspirations hidden in the back of your mind, but the opportunity to write them down will move them to the forefront of your consciousness. That's one of the benefits of this technique. When you're satisfied with your list of long-term goals, read through the list once again. Then beside each item, write the number of years that you believe it will take you to achieve that particular goal.

It's best to round off the numbers into one year, three year, five year and ten year time frame. For example, you may estimate that it will take you ten years to research and write the book on your family history. But you'll need only five years to reach a position where you can take a trip to the pyramids. Create a time frame like this for every one of your long-term goals.

When you're finished entering your time frames, there should be a fairly balanced distribution for all your goals. If there are many one and three-year objectives,

but only a few in the 10-year category. Maybe you need to think more about what you really want your life to add up to. What kind of life you really want to build over the long run. But if there's a preponderance of 10-year goals and relatively few of the shorter term variety, this may be an indication that you tend to put things off.

Keep working on your list, adding and subtracting goals with various time frames until you've created a more or less even distribution. Now comes the really challenging and interesting part. So far, you've just been adding things to the list but now it's time to start making some selections. Now you're going to start asking yourself, it's really important compared to what might just be fun. Choose four goals from each of the four time frames.

1 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year. You now have 16 separate goals. So far you've only referred to them in shorthand fashion. But now you're going to start seeing them very clearly in your mind's eye. You're going to see each goal just as if it were being realized this very minute. And you're gonna write down a detailed description of exactly what you see.

Do you intend to open a handmade furniture store in three years? What will the store look like from the street? Will there be gold leaf lettering on the windows or will there be a sign hanging over the door instead? How many square feet will the store contain? Will there be a showroom area for the furniture in front and a workspace in back? Or will the furniture be built at a different location? Do you intend to have any employees?

Or will you run the business entirely by yourself? Think of all the questions that need to be answered in order to see your goal with absolute clarity and then write the information down. That written record will become one of your most important personal possessions. But that's not all. Any goal is a powerful motivator only if there's a powerful reason behind it. Why do you want to achieve your goals?

Why do you want to own a handmade furniture store or a private airplane or a newspaper in a small town in Vermont? Why do you want to compete in a triathlon or visit the Australian Outback or be the first woman in your family to earn a PhD?

Write down your reasons for wanting each goal in the same degree of detail that you use to write your descriptions. If you can't find a clear and convincing reason for each of your 16 goals, do some serious re-evaluating. You may have more whims or pipe dreams than real goals and now is the right time to make that discovery.

Keep working on your list until you have 16 clearly envisioned, strongly motivating long-term goals. At regular intervals, review what you've written and keep careful track of your progress toward these objectives. Above all, persevere. Goal setting is a very important first step, but goal achievement is a continuous lifelong process.

That's what makes it so challenging. That's also why it's so extremely rewarding to finally attain your long-term goals. Some people never will have much. They're too cautious. Now you can also be too reckless, but you can also be too cautious. This is called the timid approach to life. And my caution was always the risk. Risk used to drive me right up the wall. I used to say, "What if this happens?" It's called the language of the poor.

What if this happens? And on top of that, if this was to happen, look at the fix I'd be in. I better not try. I could always ace myself out. Then I'll tell you what changed my whole life when I finally discovered it's all risky. The minute you were born, it got risky. If you think trying is risky, wait till they hand you the bill for not trying.

If you think investing is risky, wait till you get the tab for not investing. See, it's all risky. Getting married is risky. Having children is risky. Going into business is risky. Investing your money is risky. It's all risky. I'll tell you how risky life is. You're not going to get out alive. That's risky. The Englishman says, well, if that's the way it's going to work out, let's give it a go. Right. That's what it's for. Give it a go. Somebody says, yeah, but I'm looking for safety and security. Fine, then huddle in a corner.

We'll cover you with a sheet, bring you three meals a day and we'll protect you, feed you, look after you, care for you. We won't let anything happen to you and you'll probably live to be 100. The guy said, "Well, yeah, I'd live to be 100." But what a way to live. Right. What a way to live safe and secure. Don't ask for security. Ask for adventure. Better to live 30 years full of adventure than 100 years safe in the corner.

And see, it's not important how long you live. What's important is how you live. I have two rules for setting goals. By following these rules, you will achieve a great deal and become more than you ever could have imagined.

Here's the first rule. Don't set your goals too low. In leadership training, we teach a similar guideline. Don't join an easy crowd. You won't grow. Go where the expectations are high. Go where the demands are high. Go where the pressure is to perform, to grow, to change, to read,

to study, to develop new skills. I belong to a small group of people that conducts business around the world. You would not believe what we expect of each other in terms of excellence. Why? So that we can each grow. So that we can contribute something unprecedented to the benefit of the group. It's called living at the summit. Go where the demands are high.

Go where the expectations are so strong that they motivate you, push you, urgently insist that you not remain in the same place. That way you will grow and change. So don't set your goals too low. What about the guy who says, "Well, I don't need much." He is guaranteed not to become much. Here's rule number two for setting goals. Don't compromise. Don't sell out.

There were some things back in the early years for which I paid too big a price. If I had known how much it was gonna cost me, I never would have paid that price. But I didn't know it at the time. Don't sell out and as the old saying goes, count the costs. Remember in that ancient story, Judas got the money. That sounds like a success story and it is true that 30 pieces of silver in those days

was a sizable fortune. But having a name that is synonymous with traitor is not what I would call a success story. Interestingly enough, when Judas got the money after becoming a traitor, he was unhappy. He wasn't unhappy with the money. He was unhappy with himself. You see, the greatest source of unhappiness doesn't come from the outside world.

The greatest source of unhappiness comes from within. To alleviate his unhappiness, Judas tried to return the money, but no one would take it back. So he decided to just throw the money away. Why would he throw his fortune away? Because he was so unhappy with himself. Of course, that wasn't the end of the scenario. Throwing his fortune away did not change what Judas had become, a traitor. In total frustration, he hung himself,

Why did Judas have such a tragic end? Because he was so unhappy with himself. He sold out. He paid too big a price. Don't compromise your values. Don't compromise your virtue. Don't compromise your philosophy. There are two words from ancient scripture you need to keep in mind. The first is beware. This is the negative word.

Be aware of what you become in pursuit of what you want. Don't sell out. Indeed, if Judas were to advise us today, he would tell us to beware. The second word behold is the positive one. Behold the possibilities and the opportunity. Behold the drama. Behold the awesomeness. Behold the uniqueness. Behold the majesty. What a positive word. Behold. Set the kind of goals that will transform your life.

That will make you far better than you are, far stronger than you currently are. And you will behold. This episode is brought to you by Bank of America. What if your business could see beyond what is and into what can be? And what if you had a partner as visionary as you are? Bank of America gives customers access to trusted experts, real-time insights, and digital tools to make every move matter. What would you like the podcast

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