DON'T WASTE ANOTHER YEAR OF YOUR LIFE. DISCIPLINE YOURSELF - Life-Changing Motivation from Jim Rohn
22:28 Share

The Hoover Dam wasn't built in a day. And the GMC Sierra lineup wasn't built overnight. Like every American achievement, building the Sierra 1500 heavy duty and EV was the result of dedication. A dedication to mastering the art of engineering. That's what this country has done for 250 years.

and what GMC has done for over 100. We are professional grade. Visit GMC.com to learn more. Assembled in Flint and Hamtramck, Michigan and Fort Wayne, Indiana of U.S. and globally sourced parts.

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want is a great feeling. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

If there is one magic word that stands out above all the rest, it is discipline. Discipline is the bridge between thought and accomplishment, between inspiration and achievement, between necessity and productivity. Remember, all good things are located upstream from us. The passing of time takes us adrift and drifting only brings us the negative, the disappointment and the failure. Failure is not a cataclysmic event. It is not generally the result of one major incident.

but rather of a long list of accumulated little failings. If your goal requires that you write 10 letters today and you write only three, you are down seven letters. If you want to make five calls and only make one, you are down four calls. If your plan calls for saving $10 today and you save none, you are down $10. The danger is looking at an undisciplined day and concluding that no great harm has been done. But add up these days to make a year and then add up those years to make a lifetime

And it will become apparent how repeating today's small failures can easily turn your life into a major disaster. Success, on the other hand, is just the same process in reverse. If you plan to make 10 calls and you end the day having made 15, you are up five calls. You can see what a massive difference this sort of thing could make in a year and what wealth and accomplishment await over a lifetime. Discipline is like a set of magic keys.

that can unlock all the doors of wealth, happiness, culture, high self-esteem, pride, joy, accomplishment, satisfaction and success. The first key to discipline is awareness of the need for and value of discipline, especially the discipline to make the necessary changes. What will it take? What must I do? And what must I become to get all I want from life? The second key is willingness.

More than that, it is the eagerness to maintain your new discipline deliberately, wisely and consistently. The third key to discipline is the commitment to master the circumstances of your daily life, to see and harness the opportunities to make something of the good as well as that which comes in the guise of misfortune. Discipline does many things, but most important of all is what it does for your mindset. It makes you feel better about yourself. Even the smallest discipline can have an incredible effect on your attitude and the good feeling you get.

That surging feeling of self-worth that comes from starting a new discipline is almost as good as the feeling that comes from the accomplishment the discipline brings. A new discipline immediately alters your life direction. You don't change destinations immediately. That is yet to come. But you can change direction immediately. And direction is very important. Discipline cooperates with nature. Everything strives. It is a common life function. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it can.

Everything strives to become all it can possibly be. And that is what discipline is all about. Striving to fulfill our natural potential to become all that we can be. The human will in action, driven by inspiration, enticed by desire, tempered by reason, guided by intelligence, can bring you to that high and lofty place called the good life. Discipline attracts opportunity, which is always attracted to ambition and skill in action. Discipline taps the unlimited power of commitment.

Those unique steps of intelligent thought and activity that put a lid on temper and a faucet on courtesy. That develop the positive and control the negative. That encourage success and deter failure. That shape lifestyle and control frustration. That enhance health and curb sickness. That promote happiness and manage sadness. The continuing process that brings all the good things. Remember, anyone can start the process. It's not

If I could, I would. Rather, it's if I would, I could. If I will, I can. So start the process. Begin a new habit no matter how small it is. Size isn't important. Whether or not you start and whether or not you continue are all that matter. What's at the core of achieving the good life? It is not learning how to set goals. It is not learning how to better manage your time. It is not mastering the attributes of leadership.

Every day in a thousand different ways, we are trying to improve ourselves by learning how to do things. We spend a lifetime gathering knowledge in classrooms, in textbooks, in experiences. And if knowledge is power, if knowledge is the forerunner to success, why do we fall short of our objectives? Why, in spite of all our knowledge and collected experiences, do we find ourselves aimlessly wandering, settling for a life of existence rather than a life of substance?

There may be many answers to this question. Your answer may be different from that of everyone else you know. While there may be many answers to this question, the ultimate answer may be the absence of discipline in applying our knowledge. The key word is discipline, as in self-discipline. It doesn't really matter how smart you are if you don't use your knowledge. It doesn't really matter that you graduated magna cum laude if you're stuck in a low-paying job.

It doesn't really matter that you attend every seminar that comes to town if you don't apply what you've learned. We spend our lives gathering, gathering knowledge, gathering skills, gathering experiences. But we must also apply the knowledge, skills and experiences we gather in the realms of life and business. We must learn to use what we've learned. And once we've applied our knowledge, we must study the results of that process and refine our approach. Finally,

By trying and observing and refining and trying again, our knowledge will inevitably produce worthy, admirable results. And with the joy and results of our efforts, we continue to fuel our ambition with the positive reinforcement of continued progress. Pretty soon we'll find that we're swept into a spiral of achievement, a vertical rise to success. And the ecstasy of that total experience makes for a life triumphant over tragedy, dullness and mediocrity.

But for this whole process to work for us, we must first master the art of consistent self-discipline. It takes consistent self-discipline to master the arts of setting goals, time management, leadership, parenting, and relationships. If we don't make consistent self-discipline part of our daily lives, the results we seek will be sporadic and elusive. It takes a consistent effort to truly manage our valuable time. Without it, we'll be consistently frustrated.

Our time will be eaten up by others whose demands are stronger than our own. It takes discipline to conquer the nagging voices in our minds. The fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of poverty, the fear of a broken heart. It takes discipline to keep trying when that nagging voice within us brings up the possibility of failure. It takes discipline to admit our errors and recognize our limitations. The voice of the human ego speaks to all of us.

Sometimes that voice tells us to magnify our value or accomplishments beyond our actual results. It leads us to exaggerate, to not be totally honest. It takes discipline to be totally honest, both with ourselves and with others. Be certain of one thing. Every exaggeration of the truth once detected by others destroys our credibility. It makes all that we say and do suspect. As soon as a business colleague figures out that we tend to exaggerate, guess what? He'll think we always exaggerate.

And he'll never quite hold us in the same regard again. Never. The tendency to exaggerate, distort or even withhold the truth is an inherent part of all of us. It starts when we're kids. Johnny says, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it." Well, maybe Johnny didn't do it, but he probably had something to do with it. And then it continues when we're adults. Exaggerating the benefits of a product to make a sale, exaggerating our net worth to impress old friends, exaggerating how close we are to closing a deal to impress the boss.

Only an all out disciplined assault can overcome this tendency. It takes discipline to change a habit because once habits are formed, they act like a giant cable, a nearly unbreakable instinct that only long term disciplined activity can change. We must unweave every strand of the cable of habits slowly and methodically until the cable that once held us in bondage becomes nothing more than scattered strands of wire.

It takes the consistent application of a new discipline, a more desirable discipline to overcome one which is less desirable. It takes discipline to plan. It takes discipline to execute our plan. It takes discipline to look with full objectivity at the results of our applied plan. And it takes discipline to change either our plan or our method of executing that plan if the results are poor. It takes discipline to be firm when the world throws opinions at our feet.

And it takes discipline to ponder the value of someone else's opinion when our pride and our arrogance lead us to believe that we are the only ones with the answers. With this consistent discipline applied to every area of our lives, we can discover untold miracles and uncover unique possibilities and opportunities. Discipline is a constant awareness of the need for action paired with a conscious act to implement that action. If our awareness and our implementations occur at the same time, then we begin a valued sequence of disciplined activity.

But if considerable time passes between the moment of awareness and the time of our implementation, that is called procrastination. Putting off until tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is almost the exact opposite of discipline. The voice within us says, get it done. Discipline then says, do it now to the best of your ability. Heed this voice always and the habit will become instinctive. Procrastination says later, tomorrow, whenever I get a chance.

It also says, do what is necessary to get by or to impress others. Do what you can, but not what you must. In every circumstance we face, we are constantly presented with these two choices. Do it now or do it later. Discipline or procrastination. Bearing the fruit of achievement and contentment. Discipline or living with the bare branches of mediocrity. Procrastination. The rewards of a disciplined life are great, but they're often delayed until sometime in the future.

The rewards for a lack of discipline, on the other hand, are immediate, but they are minor in comparison to the immeasurable rewards of consistent self-discipline. An immediate reward for lack of discipline is a fun day at the beach. A future reward of discipline is owning the beach. Unfortunately, most of us would choose today's pleasure over tomorrow's fortune. So how can you get rid of the easy distractions? How can you keep your mind on what you're trying to do? How can you keep an attitude of doing it all and doing it now?

How can you make the choice of discipline over procrastination? How can you stay focused on your ambitions? How can you avoid conversations at the water cooler? You can keep your focus on your work. You can get it done today instead of tomorrow. You can do your socializing when your work is done. You've got to really work on your consistent self-discipline on a daily basis. Otherwise, you'll find yourself distracted. Distracted by negative thoughts. Distracted by negative people. Distracted by water cooler chatter.

And pretty soon, depending on the type of people you associate with, distracted by self-doubt. Never underestimate the power of influence and associations. And never underestimate the power of your own consistent self-discipline. Let me give you some keys to discipline. Start with the little things and work up to the big ones. The little things are minor things you can do to make your life better and make you feel better about yourself. Make a list of them.

Life will give you some pretty big challenges. But unless you practice on the small ones and master those, you don't have a chance on the major ones. A man strides out of his house to go straighten out the corporation. And he has not yet straightened out his garage. Who's he kidding? So work on all the disciplines, small as well as large, that will improve the quality of your life. And here is an important thought. Everything affects everything else. Every lack of discipline affects every other discipline. Mistakenly, the man says,

This is the only area I failed. It's obvious that's not true. Every failure, no matter how small, affects the rest of your performance. Now here is the positive side. Every new discipline affects every other discipline. Every new thing you try affects the rest of your performance. Isn't that exciting? So get started on every small discipline you can think of. You can't believe what it will do for your self-confidence. Remember, the greatest deterrent to success is lack of self-confidence.

And lack of self confidence comes from not doing what you could do. Next comes self motivation. Really, that's the only kind of motivation there is. I was on a lecture tour in Australia not long ago and the press interviewed me. They asked, Mr. Rohn, are you one of those American motivators? I said, no, I'm a businessman. I can share my ideas and my experiences, but people have got to motivate themselves. I've discovered that you can't change people. They can change themselves, but you can't change them.

Lord knows I've tried. I had a super group of salespeople back in those early days. I said, I'm going to make them successful if it kills me. Guess what? I almost did. It can't be done. Good people are found, not changed. If you want good people, you have to find them. That's the best answer I can give you. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them. The first rule of management is this. Don't send your ducks to Eagle School. Why? Because it won't work.

I've tried it all. I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full page ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad was, "We do not teach our people to be nice." Now that got my attention. The second line said, "We simply hire nice people." I thought, what a clever shortcut. Motivation is a mystery. Why are some people motivated and some are not? Why does one salesperson see his first prospect at seven in the morning while another sees his first prospect at 11 in the morning?

Why would one start at seven and the other started 11? I don't know. I call it mysteries of the mind. I give lectures to a thousand people at a time. One walks out and says, I'm going to change my life. Someone else walks out with a yawn and says, I've heard all this stuff before. Why is that? Why aren't they both affected to the same extent? I don't know. Mysteries of the mind. The wealthy man says to a thousand people, I read this book and it started me on the road to wealth.

Guess how many of the thousand go out and get the book? Very few. Isn't that incredible? Why wouldn't everyone go get the book? Mysteries of the mind. To one person you have to say, "You'd better slow down. You can't work that many hours, do that many things. Go, go, go. You're going to have a heart attack and die." And to another person you have to say, "When are you ever going to get off the couch? What is the difference?" It's called mysteries of the mind. Why wouldn't everyone strive to be wealthy and happy? I don't know.

- Mysteries of the mind. So be self-motivated. Don't give that job away to someone else. The guy says, "Boy, if someone will just come by and turn me on." Hey, what if he doesn't show up? You've gotta have a better plan for your life. You've gotta have discipline. - Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Ebbgliss.

After an initial dosing phase of 16 weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking EBCLS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin. And most of those people maintained skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. EBCLS, labricizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a

Prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema. Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglus can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Ebglus. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.

You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglys. Before starting Epglys, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about Epglys and visit epglys.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979.

You know that feeling when someone shows up for you just when you need it most? That's what Uber is all about. Not just a ride or dinner at your door. It's how Uber helps you show up for the moments that matter. Because showing up can turn a tough day around or make a good one even better. Whatever it is, big or small, Uber is on the way. So you can be on yours. Uber, on our way.

Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report.

This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. From streaming to shopping, Prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail-biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, and fast, free delivery, Prime makes it easy to get more out of whatever you're into or getting into. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to learn more.