[0:00]The promise of the future is an awesome force. We look back for experience, but we have to look forward now for inspiration, and what gives us inspiration to get up in the morning and do our job, learn skills, develop all that we can possibly be. is the promise of the future, and it can be so powerful that it can overwhelm any adversary you might have, any difficulties you might have. Here's a key phrase, reasons make the difference in your appetite and zest for taking on the challenge, doing the job, becoming successful. You can overcome the most unbelievable challenges if you have enough reasons. There's an ancient phrase, here's what it says, if you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you will lose your life, meaning if you will invest your life, that's the best way to save it and to multiply it many times over. So here's the phrase, investing life into life has the potential of creating miracles. Investing life into life creates a new baby. But investing life into life with ideas, information, association, influence, can create. Enterprise can create a corporation, can create a business, can create a movement, can create something that benefits many more people than just those few that might have invested in each other's lives. So make this note now, you never know who's in the audience. So you don't know who's out there that's going to make an impact on the world, that's going to do extraordinary things. So here's what you must always do, always be sincere and always do your best, no matter who you talk to, because you just don't know. You just don't know who's there ready or when the timing is right. So jot this down, it takes more than one voice to help us, to see, help us to think, help us to make decisions, helped us to evaluate. It takes a variety of personalities, messages, points of view, the weight of experience, if it comes from several sources, it can be just incredibly value, when you sum total it. Okay, let's talk about setting goals. When I first met Earl Shoaff, not long after we had met each other, he asked me, Mr. Rohn, maybe here's one of the best ways I can help you. He said, let me see your current list of goals and let's go over them and talk about them, he said. I've got the experience. And he said, let's do it. And I said to him, I don't have a list. He said, well, a list of your goals. He said, if you don't have a list of your goals, he said, I can guess your bank balance within a few hundred dollars, which he did. And I thought, isn't that something? Then I said to him, you mean if I had a list of goals, it would change my bank balance? He said, drastically. So that got my attention. And all those years ago, I learned how to set goals. We're primarily affected by five things. Number one is the environment, the political environment, the social environment, the physical environment. Whatever surrounds us affects us. The city, the country, the countryside, the village, the office, the people.
[3:25]We're constantly affected and shaped by our reaction and decision making. A lot of it depends on the environment. And for the physical environment, we all need to pay attention to that. Make every contribution you can. It's one little small planet. Remember those first pictures from space? Looking back on Earth, it looks so fragile, it looks so small. We thought, wow, so many people live there. How can that be? We must take care of it, it's you know, right now it's the only planet we got. Do everything we can. My mama taught me those little things, right? Pick up, don't leave your trash. You know, if you a little thing like, I remember I I got a toothpick once at the cafe, and I took the little cellophane off the toothpick and I just dropped it on the floor. Mama said, no, no, you wouldn't do that at home. I thought, wow. She said, just put it in your pocket, and then when you get home, you put it in the trash. And somebody said, well, what difference does that make, you know, the little cellophane on the toothpick? Here's what makes the difference, the habit. And the habit makes the difference primarily for you now. Yes, it makes a contribution and a little small contribution by not leaving trash. But here's what it does, mostly give you the incredible feeling of self-worth because you have good habits. That's the deal. The habit of turning out the lights when you're finished with your hotel room, you leave the hotel room, turn out the lights. It just makes a small contribution. But what if everybody did it? I'm telling you, the energy requirements would be less. You say, well, the hotel gets the benefit. Hey, it doesn't matter to you who gets the benefit. Guess what's the greatest benefit? Being a person of unique habits, habits that not only make you perform as far as skills are concerned, but habits that make you feel good about yourself. If it's so easy to do, why not do all the easy things that make a contribution? And who knows what the total contribution could be if we all did it? But even if everybody doesn't, if you do it, and if I do it, it just makes us better human beings. It makes us feel better about ourselves. And if I know you do it, it makes me feel better about you. And if you know I do it, I think it makes you feel better about me. Here's two excellent questions to jot down. And this is for mature people now, because these are kind of tough questions, especially one. Here's the first question, what's got you turned on? That's a good list to make. what's got me turned on, here's what's got me up early, staying up late, maximizing my abilities all day long. Here's the list of what's got me turned on. Now, here's the next question. What's got you turned off? How come you don't have the zest and the vitality and the appetite for daily accomplishment? I started making a list of the things that had me turned off, and once I got that settled, and then started making a list of what had me turned on and what would turn me on in the future, I'm telling you, my life has never been the same. It was like a revolution, a personal revolution, a 180 degree turn. Wow. I can't say it strong enough. It's easy to get lazy in designing the day and designing the year, and designing the future, what you want to accomplish, and just cross your fingers and hope it'll all work out that the favorable winds will blow it all your way. I'm telling you, it's not going to happen. Now, here's the next exercise. This will take now just a little bit of time. And the question is why, why are those four goals important to you? So make these notes now, when the why gets stronger, the how gets easier. When the why gets big, powerful, strong, how seems to be so much easier without a strong enough. Why, the how seems to be too difficult almost to accomplish. How do you manage your time? Hey, if you had strong and powerful enough goals, you'd figure out how to manage your time. You'd get a book on the subject. You know, you would do something to manage your time if it was worth it. If it's not worth it, why would you bother studying the art of managing your time if it really doesn't matter? But if it really mattered in the accomplishment of your goals and why you wish to accomplishment, see, you can do anything. You can get up any hour, read any book, take any class, make any change, develop any skill, do any discipline. I mean, you can do it all when this. How and the why, or when the why starts to grow, the how gets simple. Little note, maybe one of your goals was to have a million dollar home on the hill overlooking Snake River Valley. Okay, that'd be a good goal. a million dollar home. Here's the next question, what for? What for? I mean, a house is a house is a house with bricks and wood and walls and roof. the key? Yes, million dollar home, that'd be wonderful, but what for? So now jot this down, purpose is stronger than object. The object will be the house, and that'll pull. That's a worthy goal to go for, the object of the house. But here's a stronger goal, the purpose for the million dollar home is a world. You say, well, it'll be the centerpiece of all the family's activity, with all kinds of unique people coming and going and the influence and things will be happening in this place. See, now we're getting somewhere. So we got that line, it's one of my best for the whole day. Purpose is stronger than object. It's okay to have plenty of objects to go for on your goal list, but always keep asking yourself the question, and sometimes it's good to just write it out. Here's why I want this money. Here's why I want this place. Here's why, and you start developing those reasons. And I'm telling you now, this starts to become incredibly powerful. Some of your goals should be personal development, the person you wish to become. Develop skills that make you attractive to the marketplace, develop the temperament that makes you attractive to the business world. The attitude and the temperament that makes you a splendid father, studying the art. Because here's what's important, it's not what you get that makes you valuable. It's what you become that makes you valuable. I keep saying this year after year for the last 39 years publicly, it's the person you become. The idea of becoming an attractive person, a skillful person, a good friend, a good colleague, a good partner, a good member of the round table, a contributor. See, that's the key, the person you become. I mean, this, I'm telling you, this stuff changed my life, altered the course of my life. From milking cows to sitting on this stool.
[11:08]Incredible. What a journey. And part of the explosive stimulation started when I met Earl Shoaff and he asked me, have you got a list of goals and I said, no. And he said, then I can guess your bank balance. I thought, whoa! I immediately started studying the art and the accomplishments of it, it helped to change my life. Now, I want you to answer this question. What kind of person must I become to achieve all I want? And I'll give you time to write that down now. Now, what kind of person must I become to achieve all I want? What you become helps you to achieve, and what you achieve helps you to become. And the more you become, the more you can achieve, and the more you achieve, the more you can become. Who knows which affects the other the most? This is time for a little truth here. Maybe you need to become much wiser than you are at the moment. You need to become stronger. You need to have better health. Maybe you need a little coaching to really become the person I want to become, I'm going to have to have some coaching. Physical coaching, spiritual coaching, developing skills, coaching. to be the influence you want to be. You got to build an incredible reputation. What kind of person must I be to attract all that I want in my life and the people that I want and the opportunities that I want? When you knock on the door and opportunity opens, you must stand there as a very attractive person, or you may not be invited in. One of the most mysterious and unique phrases that Jesus ever used. Here's what he said, I stand at the door and knock. And if you open the door, would you probably invite him in? This extraordinary person? You say, wow, yeah. And he said, I'll come in and sit down, talk things over. For you to be that kind of attractive person, if you knocked on the door of opportunity and it opened and you stood there, would you be the kind of person that opportunity would say, come right in these notes. The key is to put everything on your list. Now, the key is to take it out of your head and put it on paper. You know, you can dream about what you want, but when you start committing it to paper, now, it more formalizes. Information now starts to make a composite of an idea. And ideas can turn into hotels, ideas can turn into enterprises, ideas can turn into a fabulous career. We need the information, we need the stimulation. But then you'll learn now later to start putting everything on your list. Now, jot this down, it's very important. If something's not that important to you, to take it off your list, it. You don't have to accomplish this whole list.
[14:15]But if you had 100 items on your list and you accomplished 80, who cares about the other 20? If you got the biggest share of what you went for, wouldn't that be enough? And the answer is probably yes, it'd be overwhelming. Okay, so you can rearrange this list. You can change it, you can tear it up and start over. You can say, oh, you know, last year I thought this was so important, that that's not important to me anymore. The things I've learned in the last 12 months, I've changed my whole goal list. I thought this was so it. There's two great words of antiquity, everybody should learn. Here they are, one's positive and one's negative. Here's the positive word from antiquity. Behold, that's the positive word. Behold the possibilities, behold the opportunity, behold the future and give it design. Behold and look at the chances you've got. Behold, spring has come, behold, the day has arrived, and the sun is shining in the shadows are fleeing away. Behold, the next person you can meet might be your friend for life. Behold, the next person might be a colleague forever. Behold, that's the positive word, behold. Now, here's the negative word. Beware. Now, I want to give you a sentence to jot down that's very valuable. Here's what it is, beware of what you become in pursuit of what you want. Beware. All of our lives we have to deal with, behold and beware. When a kid goes to school, it's behold the opportunity and beware the dangers, behold and beware. So beware of what you become pursuing what you want. Some things I went for in the very beginning, cost me too much. I got so obsessed with some things that I found out later, the price was too big to pay. If I would have known better, I never would have paid.
[16:13]But sometimes we learn when, after, after, after. So don't become so obsessed with something that you lose your sense of reason. Where it costs you your friends. Don't be so obsessed with something that you compromise your virtues and your values. Here's a key phrase, the greatest source of unhappiness is self-unhappiness. It's not from outside the things that make us unhappy. The greatest devastating unhappiness is to be unhappy with yourself. Now, a mild form of unhappiness is constructive. The desperate form of unhappiness is destroying. It's like worry, we should all worry a little, but not let it destroy our lives. If you're in New York about to step off the curb in downtown Manhattan and the yellow taxis coming, best you worry enough to get your feet back up on the curb, lest you get yourself wiped out. So it's called caution, but not undue caution. It's called fear and worry, but not the worry that kills you, not the worry that destroys you. It's like hate, you know, you don't need to hate your job. Save your hate for the important things like evil, like the weeds that attack your garden. Like the diabolical ideas that try to entice your children, right? You don't need to hate everything. I hate this, I hate that, that's the misuse of your hate. Save it for the things we really must hate. And now here's the last note. If you'll start this glorious journey of being meticulous, deliberate, and hardworking about setting your goals for the day, setting your goals for the month in the year, setting your goals for your family and yourself and your business and your colleagues. Start thinking forward, here's what you will become, a major contributor, not only to yourself, but a major contributor to others.
