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This episode is brought to you by Amazon Business. How can you free up your team from time-consuming office tasks? Amazon Business empowers leaders to not only streamline purchasing, but better support their teams so they can focus on strategy and growth, free up your teams, and focus on your future. Learn more about the technology, insights, and support available at amazonbusiness.com. If you keep up your present disciplines and keep up the present pace that you're on, where will you be in five years?
Boy, it's easy to say, "Hey, I haven't really thought about that." So now make this note. In five years, here's the probability. You will either arrive at a well-designed destination or an undesigned destination. Well-designed or undesigned. And I promise you, five years from now, you really don't want to arrive at an undesigned destination. Because you may very well wind up wearing what you don't want to wear, driving what you don't want to drive, living where you don't want to live, maybe doing what you don't want to do.
simply because you didn't design a better destination. Neglect starts as an infection. And if you don't take care of it, it becomes a disease. And one neglect leads to another. And the worst of all, when neglect starts, it diminishes our self-worth, our self-confidence, our self-value. You say, well, how can I get back my self-respect? I'm telling you, you don't have to go to 29 classes.
All you have to do is start the smallest discipline that now corresponds to your own philosophy like I should and I could and I will. No longer will I let neglect stack up on me so that I will have the sorry scenario six years from now giving some excuse instead of celebrating my progress. That's the key to discipline, okay? Self-reliance is basically counting on yourself, taking responsibility for whatever happens to you.
Knowing that you have consciously made the decisions that are now affecting you. Knowing that what is happening now, today is the direct result of your activity, what you did yesterday. Now, being self-reliant doesn't mean you can't work with others or trust others. Self-reliance means counting on yourself, trusting yourself, being confident with yourself, being responsible to yourself, trusting your own instincts.
Trusting the conclusions that you have developed from your study of experiences and philosophies. Taking the credit that is due you. Learning from the mistakes that you have made. Being self-reliant. Self-confidence also comes from the ability to rise above your circumstance. To rise above what happens. The petty little things. The discouraging things that would sink everyone else's ship except yours.
that would cause someone else to quit early in the day but you keep going. That kind of willingness to overcome all circumstances, whether it's the little challenges or the big challenges. If you're willing to do that, I promise you, this kind of power will work for you and in you the variable, it'll make a difference.
Turning wisdom from your philosophy and inspiration, strengthening of attitude, faith, courage, commitment, all this stuff that comes from attitude. If you're willing to take these two, quality, philosophy and attitude and invest it into activity, you can have a miracle. Here is one powerful way to change and grow. Cultivate your self-reliance. Take responsibility for your own life. Take responsibility for whatever happens to you.
Know that you have consciously made the decisions that are now affecting you. Know that what is happening now, today, is the direct result of what you did yesterday. Being self-reliant doesn't mean that you can't work with or trust others. In fact, it can make you a much more valuable teammate, partner, friend. Self-reliance means counting on yourself, trusting yourself, being responsible to yourself, trusting your own instincts,
Trusting the conclusions that you have developed from your study of experiences and philosophies. Taking the credit that is due you. Learning from the mistakes that you have made and then passing that value on to others. There's adult psychologists give an example of being self-reliant. They say that you're responsible for getting caught in the rain.
They say that by deciding not to carry an umbrella every day, you have made the decision to endure an occasional drenching. By not being prepared, you make the choice of getting caught in some of life's unpleasant circumstances. Be they rain, failures, economic losses, relationship losses, professional losses or personal losses or personal losses. By not being prepared, by not thinking ahead, you have made your choice.
Here's the other side of it. By being prepared, you increase your chances of success. You increase the likelihood of seizing opportunities when they come your way, of being ready within yourself to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime situations. Some people tend to blame others for their mistakes and failures. They will say, "It's not my fault the report isn't done, so... and so didn't do their part."
Of course, it's your fault. It's your report too. It's your responsibility to see that everyone you delegated work to does their part. You can't control what others around you do, but it's in your own enlightened self-interest that you stay on top of things. Especially if those things are going to affect your future. Do you think your boss cares that John didn't do his part? Do you think he sees John as the bad guy? Of course not. All he sees is the bottom line.
The report isn't done. Be responsible for the things that affect you. You can make sure you're more responsible by checking in with those people who are working with you, the people who make up your team. You can be more responsible by saying, "Hey, John, how are you doing with your part? Do you need some help? Can we put somebody else in here to help you finish?" If John consistently doesn't handle his part, you've got to replace him.
If he isn't doing his share, you've got to find somebody who will or what? It will negatively affect you. You can't wake up the morning the project is due hoping and wishing that John has done his part. You've got to be responsible because it's going to affect your career too. My approach for a better future very early on in my career was to just go through the day with my fingers crossed.
I used to say something like, "I sure hope things will change for the better." Then I found something out. They're not gonna change unless I change. It's the same for you. You can't put it on someone else. You can't hope that someone else will change it for you. You need to take responsibility. You can't change the circumstances or the seasons or the wind. But you can change your reading habits. You can change whether or not you go for the skills. Burn the midnight oil.
Turn yourself around. Multiply your value by 2, 3, 5 or 10 that you have control of. You don't have control over the constellations, but you do have control over whether or not you go to night school, take adult classes and learn some new skills. If you don't do it, that's your fault. You've got to take personal responsibility. You've got to be self-reliant. How do you know when you're successful?
Do you have to be a millionaire? No. All we ask of you is that you earn all you possibly can. If you earn $10,000 a year and that's the best you can do, that's enough. God and everything else will see to it that you're okay. The key is to just do the best you can. If it's $10,000 a year, wonderful. If it's $100,000 a year, wonderful. If it's a million dollars a year, wonderful.
It doesn't matter whether you earn $10,000 a year or a million dollars a year as long as you've done the best you possibly can. The essence of life is growth. It is doing the best you possibly can. Here's what is interesting. Humans are the only life form that will do less than they possibly can. Humans are the only life form that will settle for less.
All other life forms, except human beings, strive to their maximum capacity. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. You've never heard of a tree growing half as high as it could. No, trees don't grow half. Trees send their roots down as deep as possible. They stretch their limbs up as high as possible and produce every leaf and every fruit possible.
As a matter of fact, you've never heard of a human growing halfway physically. That is, we keep growing until we're done. It's genetically coded. That's a part of life that we can't control. It's the growing of our minds that we can control, but we tend to neglect this. It tends to get away from us. All life forms inherently strive toward their maximum potential except human beings.
Why wouldn't we strive to become all we can be to fulfill our potentials? Because we have been given the dignity of choice. It makes us different than alligators and trees and birds. The dignity of choice makes us different than all other life forms. And here's the choice: to become part of what we could be, enough to get by, or to become all that we can be. My best advice for you is to choose the all. Earn all you can.
Make all the friends you can. Read as many books as you can. Develop as many skills as you can. See and do as much as possible. Make as much fortune as possible. Give as much of it away as possible. Strive for the maximum.
There's no life like it. I'm telling you since I've gotten on track. I've never looked back. Pick up the challenge. Go for it. When you're focusing on growth, it's easy to do all you can. It's easy to succeed. It's easy to have financial freedom. The more you do, the more you get. Here's what I think would be a pitiful scenario. If your income grew and you didn't grow,
When your income takes some jumps, it's vital that you quickly grow up to where your income is. Why? Because otherwise, your income will soon come back to where you are. Somebody once said, "If someone hands you a million dollars, it's best you become a millionaire so you get to keep the money."
I'm telling you, success doesn't want to hang around an incompetent person. The problem with winning the lottery is the lack of self-development the person has gone through to be able to master and keep the money. The fortune is bigger than the person rather than the person being bigger than the fortune. If you're a parent, use the challenge of parenting to personally grow. See what you can become. If you want to reach your children, you can't lack stories and illustrations.
You can't lack wisdom and power. And the only way you can become the best kind of parent is by personal development, becoming better than you are, stronger than you are, wiser than you are.
You are growing so that your investment grows. As your children grow, you grow. Your power grows. Your influence grows. Your wisdom grows. Your command of the language grows. You see, that's what is challenging. To be involved in a situation that makes you grow. If that situation is success, keep growing to be bigger than your fortune.
If that situation is failure, keep growing until you're bigger than the problem. Keep growing, keep becoming. There are four ifs in the area of growth and change that make life worthwhile. First, life is worthwhile if you learn. There is nothing worse than being stupid. Learn from your personal experiences. Learn from other people's experiences. Second, life is worthwhile if you try.
You've got to take what you've learned and see if you can try your hand at it. Somebody says, you can't try. You have to do. No, you have to try. I put the bar up two feet and asked the kids who can jump two feet. I can, some say. I can't, some say. I don't know, some say. How are they going to know? They've got to try. Just back off and run at it.
What if they knock the bar down? Does that mean they can't jump two feet? No, they have to try it again another way. Maybe they need to start lower and build up to that height. When the record book on you is finished, let it show your wins and your losses. But don't let the record show that you didn't try. Third, life is worthwhile if you stay. You've got to learn to stay. You don't have to stay forever, just until you see it through.
A guy builds a foundation, then he wanders off somewhere and builds another foundation. He's got these foundations scattered all across the country. No walls, no roofs, just a bunch of foundations. That's not a good reputation to develop for yourself. Stay until it's over. Fourth, life is worthwhile if you care. Caring is a unique human experience that is vital, powerful, all-encompassing and far-reaching.
If you care at all, you'll get some results. If you care enough, you can get magnificent results. To lead a life worth living, you've got to learn. You've got to try. You've got to stay. And you've got to care. Remember the four ifs and you'll be on your way to building a life worth living.
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