Do something different the next ninety days
than you did the last ninety days like picking up the books to read. Do something different
like the new health disciplines, relationship with your family, whatever it is,
it doesn't matter how small it is, if you'll start doing different things
with the same circumstances. Since we cannot change the circumstances,
but we can change ourselves. We can change what we do. And then he gave me
another secret to success when he said, "What you have at the moment, Mr. Rohn,
you've attracted by the person you've become. What you have at the moment,
you've attracted by the person you've become." Few little simple principles here. Once you
understand these, it starts to explain so much. Now, sometimes it's a little tough to
take blaming yourself instead of the marketplace, taking responsibility instead of
putting it off on someone else. That transition sometimes
is a challenging mission. And this one was a little tough for me. He said, "Mr. Rohn, you've got pennies
in your pocket. You've got nothing in the bank. The creditors are calling.
You're behind on your promises." He says, "Here's how that occurs. You've attracted up until now, you've attracted
the things to you because of the person you've become." Now, I said, "Well, how can I change all that?"
He said, "Very simple. If you will change,
everything will change for you." You don't have to change what's outside. All you've got to change is what's inside. To have more,
you simply have to become more. And then he said, "Don't wish it was easier,
wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems,
wish for more skills." Start working on yourself,
making these personal changes. And he said,
"It'll all change for you." Shoaff said, "Here's a secret Mr. Rohn: Learn to work
harder on yourself than you do on your job." Once I got that, it turned my life around. Learn to work harder on yourself
than you do on your job. He said, "If you work hard on your job,
you'll make a living. If you work hard on yourself,
you can make a fortune." Wow! If you would have known me at age 25,
you would have said, "Jim Rohn's a hard worker." If you'd have known me,
you'd have said that. I'm the guy, I don't mind coming a little bit early,
staying a little bit late. I don't mind that. You'd have said,
"Well, Jim, Ron's a hard worker." You say, "Well, how come he's got pennies in his pocket
and nothing in the bank and behind on his promises?" Well, I was a hard worker
but I was working hard on my job, not on myself. I'm telling you, if you'll learn
that simple little principle and start the process today, latest tomorrow,
I'll give you tonight to think it over. And start this whole process of
personal development, work on yourself, make yourself more valuable
to the marketplace, I'm telling you, you can so dynamically
change your income. And economics is the least of the values
that you can start earning in terms of equity, if you'll start working harder on yourself,
than you do on your job. Work hard on yourself
and develop the skills. Work hard on yourself
and develop the graces. All of this stuff necessary to become
more valuable to the marketplace, I'm telling you, your whole life can explode
into change. Promotions, no problem. Becoming more valuable to the company,
I'm telling you, no problem. Money, no problem. Economics,
no problem. Future, no problem. If you just go to work on the right thing.
Not get things out there to change. Don't try to change the seed.
Don't change the soil. Don't change the sunshine. Don't change the rain. Don't change the mix of seasons. Let the miracle of everything
that's available work for you and start working on the inside. Work on
your philosophy. Work on your attitude. Work on your personality.
Work on your language. Work on the gift of communication. Work on all of your abilities. And if you'll start making those personal changes,
I'm telling you, everything will change for you. Success is something you attract
by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue,
chase, run after. Success is something you develop,
something you become. You attract success. So the whole key to unlock all the treasures, whether it's economic treasures
or spiritual treasures, financial, social, personal,
every way you can possibly think of is by your own personal development. Then he added one more,
which is so important and it's probably worth
the price of the seminar. Here it is: What you become is much more
valuable than what you get. What you become is much more
valuable than what you get. The major question to ask on
the job is not "What am I getting here?" The major question to ask on the job is
"What am I becoming here?" Not, what am I getting?
What am I becoming? So it's very important what you become. Because what you become attracts. If you become cynical,
you attract cynicism. What you become attracts. So this whole subject of personal
development was so vitally important to me. It changed my life. I was a millionaire by age thirty-one. And that was just the economic part of it. Took me six years from
age twenty-five to thirty-one. It was unbelievable. Mr. Shoaff for over a five year period
before he died at age forty-nine, who taught me some extraordinarily simple things,
he only went to the ninth grade in school, never finished high school, never went to
college, never went to university. So he put his ideas and his experiences
in very simple language, which I think for me, you know,
kid from the farms of Idaho, that simplicity was so important. Because if
it would have been technical, I'd have missed it. If it would have been mystic,
you know, I would have backed away. But it was just basic, blunt, A-B-C, familiar stuff
that I hadn't thought of before. And he did start to remind me and
those ideas changed my life. Mr. Shoaf was the one when I said,
"You know, this is all they pay." He said, "You've been working six years, Mr. Rohn.
How come you're not doing better?" And I said, "This is all the company pays." He says, "Well, that's not true." I said, "No, this is my paycheck. This is all the company pays." He said, "No, this is all
the company pays you." I thought, "That's a new way
to look at it, right?" He said, "Doesn't the company pay two, three, four, five times this amount to other people?" I said, "Well, yes." He said, "Well, and this is not all
the company pays. It's all they pay you. And if you're qualified, wouldn't your income
grow two, three, four, five times?" I said, "I suppose." So he said, "We don't have to work
on the company. We have to work on you." See, that was the beginning of what
he called the phrase 'personal development'. I told him, "Things cost too much."
He said, "No, you can't afford them." I thought, "Well, that's a new concept. I hadn't thought about that." You know, we put some of the
valuable things on the high shelf so you can't get to’em until you qualify. If you want the things on the higher shelf,
you got to stand on the books you read. Every book you read, you get to stand a little higher
so you can get the things on higher shelf. See, I learned those concepts.
It was so incredible. And here was the most important one: Success is something you attract
by the person you become. See, that phrase
changed my life. Success is something you attract
by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue. It's like chasing a butterfly,
you can't quite catch it. Success is something you attract
by becoming an attractive person. See, those were new concepts to me. I'm just working hard
trying to make a living. Here's what he said to me,
this changed my life. I got a chance to teach this in Moscow
and across Russia, three visits, now the fourth. Here's what Shoaff taught me:
Profits are better than wages. Nobody taught me that in high school. Nobody taught me that,
I went to one year of college. Nobody taught me. Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living,
profits make you a fortune. And how could you work on both,
a living and a fortune? He said, "Well, you could start part time
working on your fortune while you're working
full time on your living." I thought, "Wow." Now, he said, "It's fun to
get up in the morning, not just getting up,
go to work to pay the rent, but to get up to go to work,
to make a fortune. Ffirst to make a living for my family,
second, to make a fortune. And he taught me how to make both
a living and a fortune. Guess what I did? I learned how to make both,
a living and a fortune. And I found out anybody could do it
once they get the information. And at age twenty-five, I started receiving
this extraordinary information. Here's what he said, "Your income is directly related
to your philosophy, not to the economy." I thought, "No one ever told me that." I kept hoping the economy would change.
He said, "No, your philosophy has to change." I assured him that I had my fingers crossed.
He said, "That won't help." Then what could I do to change my income
and multiply it by two, by three, by five, by ten and then multiply it by ten again?
What could I do? And he started giving me the disciplines and the process of learning the skills to change my life. This was an extraordinary man. Those were extraordinary times for me. Life changing in every manner
that you can imagine, but very simple A-B-C concepts. Here's what I learned: Not to search for the exotic
until you've discovered the basic. And those basic philosophies that he shared with me, during that time were life changing. Now, if you're excited
and you're ready to change, let me give you three steps
to start life change that can change your life, your personality,
your lifestyle, everything can change. Here's the steps: Number one, find out how things work. The first key to doing
better's find out. To change your life really,
you need ideas. There isn't anything
an idea can't change. And Shoaff taught me, "The major problem
is lack of an idea, not a problem." At first I didn't have any money. I said to Mr. Shoaff, "I don't have any money."
He said, "That's not a problem." Now see, up until then,
I always thought it was. Right? I was confused. He said, "No, no. The problem is lack of an idea
on how to create money and wealth." It isn't lack of money,
it's lack of ideas. So if you get the idea,
see you can change anything. Now, to get ideas, you need
a constant study of finding out. Now, Shoaff also said, "When you find out something
that works, put the information in your journal." Don't use your head for a filing cabinet. Put it in your journal so that
you can do the next best thing: Repetition. Repetition.
Repetition. Go over it. And if you repeat it, go over it, sure enough,
some day, some mysterious day, the idea takes root, starts to grow,
and shows up in your bank account and your address and your personalilty
and your lifestyle. But capture the ideas in your journal. Find out how things work. Shoaff gave me this word for
my life change, he said, "Study." Great word. if you wish to be successful,
study success. If you wish to be happy,
study happiness. If you wish to be wealthy,
study wealth. Don't leave it to chance. Make it a study. Some people just go through the day
with their fingers crossed. See that won't do it. You've got to study the things that can change
your economic, social, spiritual, personal life. Now, here's a qualifying phrase, and we'll have several of these
qualifying phrases throughout the seminar. Here's the first one: You may not be able to do
all you find out. I understand that. You may not be able to do all you find out,
but you should find out all you can do. See, you don't want to wind up at the end of your life
and discover that you've lived only one tenth of it, and the other nine tenths
went down the drain, not for lack of opportunity,
for lack of information. So that's number one:
Find out how things work. Now, here's the best human virtue
for finding out: Curiosity. Make a note of that
Curiosity, be curious. You might add a word to it,
it'll help: Childish curiosity. What will kids do if they wanna
know something bad enough? Bug you. That's the phrase. They can ask a thousand questions. You think they're
through, they got another thousand. They'll drive you to the brink. It's a virtue. When you gotta know.
Be like a child. Now, if you're curious, let me give you three ways to find out
how to change anything, any life direction, any dimension. Here's three ways to find out
how to change anything. Number one is to read. Become a good reader. All of the successful people I know and work with
around the world, they're all good readers. Curiosity drives them to read. They gotta know. They just read, read, read,
read, read, read, read, read, read. Become a good reader. Now that's my opinion. Listen to the other lectures and
listen to me and make up your own mind. Don't be a follower,
be a student. Okay? I say really, for life change,
you gotta read. One way to learn is from
your own experiences. But another way to learn
is from other people's experiences. See, one book might save you
five years, if you read it. Did you know there's books on
how to be stronger, more decisive, be a speaker,
be a leader, have a better affect on other people,
develop your personality? Did you know there's books on that? And people don't read them. How would you explain that? And they can read. Did you know that hundreds
of successful people have written their stories in books
and they wrote down how they did it? And people don't read it. How would you explain that? The guy is busy, I guess. You know, you get tied up. The guy says, "Well, yeah, you work where I work.
By the time you struggle home, it's late. You got to eat by the supper,
watch a little TV, get to bed. You can't sit up half the night,
reading, reading, reading, reading." And the guy's behind on his car payment. Good worker, hard worker, sincere. But you got to be better than
sincere and work hard. Otherwise, at the end of your life,
you'll wind up cold, stony broke. You got to be better than a good worker. You got to be a good reader. My opinion. Now, you don't have to read
half the night. Okay? Although if you're broke,
that's not a bad place to start, right? Get on with the cure. But put this in your notes:
Thirty minutes a day. Just devote thirty minutes
a day to reading. Stretch it to an hour if you can,
but at least thirty minutes. Thirty minutes a day, read something positive,
something challenging, something inspirational, something instructional,
at least thirty minutes a day. And here's the next clue: Every day. Don't miss. Once you set this up,
just don't miss. Miss a meal but not your thirty minutes. Because you can get along
without some meals but you can't get along
without some books. There's a Bible phrase that says humans
cannot live on bread alone or just food. It says the next most important
thing to food is words. Words nourish the mind, makes us different than
animals and dogs. Words nourish the soul. So humans have to have food and words
in order to be happy and healthy. I told my staff the other day, "Some people read
so little they've got rickets of the mind." They're undernourished mentally. So to get a good diet of words, I suggest
good reading habits, thirty minutes a day. Now, some people don't read
because they don't read well. I understand that. And the national average is fairly poor.
People have fairly poor reading skills. They're still trying to operate on awkward old skills
of the past, right? Reading one word at a time. And with such poor skills, when you read,
the mind usually wanders because you can think about a lot of things.
The mind is an incredible mechanism. And if you read poorly, the mind wanders around
thinking of other things while you're trying to read. Did you ever read a page
and wonder what it said? Right? Say, I had to read that again. Right? That's because the mind is just doing
this job, right? Just wandering around. Did you ever read yourself to sleep? See, that's another problem. The mind says, "Who needs it,"
just shuts off, right? Poor skills. Well, a guy looks at a book, 500 pages and says, "No use starting, right, I mean, I'd never get through this one." Anyway. In our weekend seminar, we take a whole section about
two, three hours, and we go through readings skills. 'How to read a book
a day' is the title of that subject. And I'll tell you what, if you can read a
book a day, it'll change your whole life. I mean, a book a day
will change your whole life. Expose yourself to
a whole variety of things, spiritual, moral, personal, economic,
history, geography, everything. I mean, you can really change
if you read a book a day. So you might wanna attend the weekend,
get in on those reading class skills. It's incredible. A book a day will change your life. But hey, whether you read slow or fast,
or whether you read awkwardly or whether you read well,
here's the key: Read. Don't Miss. Here's what reading is: Reading is tapping the treasure of ideas. That's what reading is,
tapping the treasure of ideas. And ideas can change
any part of your life. And if you've got a good excuse not to tap
the treasure of ideas at least thirty minutes a day or spend the money and get the books, I'd love to hear it. Some people have excuses,
you wouldn't believe. I say, "John, look, I got this gold mine. I got so much gold, I don't know what to do
with it all. Come on over and dig." John says, "I ain't got a shovel." I say, "Well, John, get you one." He says, "You know what they want for shovels?" Let me give you the two books
that started my library at age twenty-five. My library now is worth many, many, many
thousands of dollars, but it started with two books. Mr. Shoaff recommended these to me,
got me started. Shoaff said, "Become self educated." He said, "Standard education will
get you standard results. And you can check those numbers
and see if that's what you want, but if you wanna go beyond that, you
now have got to become self educated." So he got me started on my library.
He said, "One of the ways is build your library." Now, I had a Bible, right, that was sixty-six books,
so that's a pretty good deal. But here's what else he recommended. He said,
"Number one, get the book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill." Think and Grow Rich,
if you don't already have it. The title should intrigue you,
Think and Grow Rich. I found that book in a
secondhand bookstore. I paid forty-seven cents for it. I've still got it. It's one of the
rare hardback covers. I read it several dozen times. Shoaff taught me,
"Repetition is the mother of skill." Some of the ideas in that book
helped to change my life. As I look back on it now, the book was
worth several hundred thousand dollars and I bought it for forty-seven cents. What a lesson I learned the difference
between cost and value. Before I met Mr. Shoaff, I used to ask,
"How much does it cost?" After I met Mr. Shoaff, I asked,
"How much is it worth?" I started basing my life on worth
instead of cost and everything changed. But that was book one, Think and Grow Rich. The second book he recommended
I get was the book on nutrition. Shoaff said, "Study nutrition." I think that first book
was by Adelle Davis. Eat Right to Keep Fit. I think I've got lots of now,
but I think that was the first. Shoaff said, "Study nutrition." And there's
all kinds of books on nutrition. Just read them all. Some are a little weird. But read them all, right? If you're weird,
do the weird stuff. I mean, whatever. But read them. Then make up your own mind.
Remember, don't read and become a follower. Read and become a student. Make up your mind. Find a plan that works good
for you, but get the books on nutrition. Here's what Mr. Shoaff said to me: Vitality plays an important part
in doing well, vitality. He said, "Some people don't do well
because they don't feel well." It's not that they're not intelligent.
It's that there're ill. They don't have the zing
and the fire and the vitality to do well. So he put it right on me
about studying nutrition. He said, "Jim, you wouldn't believe it." He said,
"I got this friend of mine, raises racehorses." The guy's got nine books on
how to feed horses. He does not have a
book on how to feed himself. He said, "My friend studies
horse nutrition, studies it, vitamins, minerals,
trace minerals, protein, amino acids,
carbohydrates, fats, enzymes. Proper balance for his horses.
Shoaff said, "He's a fanatic." And he said, "You ought to
see these horses. They're magnificent, beautiful, powerful
animals. They can run like the wind." And he said, "You ought to see him.
He's a wreck." He said, "The guy feeds his horses better
than he feeds himself." Do you believe that? In my later studies, I discovered some people feed their dogs better than they feed their kids,
if you can believe that. Anyway. I didn't mean to give you
a health lecture here tonight, Okay? But hey, take care of yourself. Work on that part
because it's one of the answers to doing well. There's even a Bible phrase that says
many times the spirit is willing, but the body's weak. Now, see, you're in trouble. And that is a problem. You wake up in the morning
and the mind says, "Let's go get them." And the body says,
"I can't even get out of bed." So you got to work on both sides
of this, right? Okay! But get your library started.
Get the books, put it together. Books are the trademark of civilization. It's fascinating to walk into someone's home
and browse through their library because your library says
something about you. So put your reading together. Very important! Here's the second way to find out
how to change your life, and that's to listen. Get around successful people and listen. Now, you can also learn from unsuccessful people.
Take notes on both, negative and positive. On the negative, the notes are
called: What Not to Do. And you got to learn what not to do
as well as what to do. So learn from the negative
as well as the positive. Okay? Find out what poor people
read and don't read it. Alright? That's good information.
Learn from the negative. But now you can also learn from the positive.
Get around successful people. Listen to what they say.
Listen to how they say it. It's important. We've all got about sixteen waking hours. Practice listening those sixteen hours. And I say practice listening
because listening isn't easy. I found out it's easier to talk
than it is to listen. But if you will practice listening
the sixteen hours you're awake, sure enough from surprising
sources comes great ideas. In sales training, we teach: If you wanna
learn sales, listen to the kids. Kids have got to be the master
salespeople of all time. They have no equal. Father tells his young son,
"No, you cannot have an ice cream cone." Thirty minutes later he's licking on one. That'd be thirty minutes worth listening to.
They got moves, you wouldn't believe. Persistence runs deep like the ocean, and the kids never took a class
on how to overcome objections. They already know how,
they don't need classes. So listen and learn. Now, here's some of the best advice
I've got for the whole evening. It won't get any better than this. This is it: Poor people ought to take rich people
out to dinner and listen. That's some of the best I got. If a guy's not doing well, one of the first things
he ought to do is find a guy that is doing well and offer to buy him his dinner. Spend fifty, sixty, eighty, hundred dollars,
go for the full nine course. Start him on the juices and hors d'oeuvres. Get him started talking. The salad takes fifteen minutes.
Keep it rolling. Biggest steak in town takes forty-five.
Keep it rolling. Pour on the dessert. Stretch
that meal out about two hours. If you get a successful person
to eat and talk for two hours, they're liable to drop ideas in your lap,
change your life, multiply your income by two,
by three, by five. But you're right. Poor people don't usually take
rich people out to dinner. That's the problem. The guy said, "He's rich. Let him by his own dinner.
I'm not coming up with any money." And he says, "Besides, you work where I work,
by the time you struggle home, it's late. You're lucky to get your own supper, let alone
running around trying to find a rich man to feed.” And the guy's behind on his house payment. Good worker, hard worker, sincere. But you got to be better than
sincere, work hard. You wind up broke. You got to be
better than a good worker, you got to be a good listener. And remember what you read
and what you hear, put the good stuff in your journal. Now, here's the third way to find out
how to change your life. And that's to observe. You can pick up a lot of ideas
just by watching. Get around successful people and watch. Here's why: Success leaves clues. Watch how the man shakes hands. Watch how the lady responds. People who do well do certain things
over and over and over and over, and if you're clever,
you can pick them up. Watch it all. If a guy is making $10,000
a month, I'd watch how he walks. Maybe that's it.
Copy his funny, little walk. Somebody says, "Well,
that's kind of a silly walk." Say, "It's 10,000." I haven't got the money yet,
but I got the walk. It's bound to start somewhere. What I ask you tonight is to be unusual
and be a good observer of what's going on. You can pick up ideas that can change
your life starting tomorrow. Just be a more careful observer. Now, remember, there's two ways to see. One is called sight. See with your eyes. The other one is called insight. See with your mind. See with your eyes, you'll see things. See with your mind, you'll see answers. Put your eyes and your mind to work. And the best advice on developing
sight and insight is pay attention. Don't miss anything. In the weekend seminar we teach: One of the greatest
fatalities to success is preoccupation, lack of concentration. The guy's mind wanders. See, you wind up average. You've got to learn to zero in
and concentrate. I read a good article one time,
Reader's Digest. The title was: Wherever You Are, Be there. Excellent. Don't miss anything. Now, we've lingered a little bit long on
number one here for personal development. Find out how things work,
but it's so very important finding out. And I've given you three ways to find out. Now, here's the second step
to personal development. Okay. Number one was
find out how things work. Here's number two:
Go to work. You must now take action
on what you found out. In doing business around the world, we call it
game plan. Put together your game plan. One of the major things we teach on the weekend
seminars: Game plans, how to game plan your office. If you're in sales, you need a game plan.
Kids need a game plan. You need a home game plan,
social game plan, a business game plan. Everybody needs game plans, financial independence
game plan, your investment game plan. Don't think in your head,
put it on paper. Don't operate out of your mind,
operate from paper. I often ask somebody, "What are you gonna
do the next six months?" And somebody starts to tell me.
I say, "No, don't tell me. Show me." Show me your game
plan for the next six months. Then I can look at things
and maybe I can help. But you got to operate from paper. Put it on a game plan. Take action on what you found out. Now, here's the best word
I know of to go with action: Massive. See, that'll change everything. Massive action is called the cure all. If you're gonna make calls,
make a few thousand. If you're gonna make contacts,
make a few thousand. If you're gonna knock on doors,
knock on a few thousand. See, that'll change everything. Here's the language of the poor: I'll try it a time or two and
see what happens. It's the way poor people talk. The guy says, "Well, I'll give it thirty days." Thirty days? You could
guess his bank balance. You've got to have a better game plan. So here's one of the major things to do,
starting tomorrow: Take a look at your game plan. If it isn't loaded with massive action,
change it tomorrow. Action. The formula really works like this:
Pick up a good idea, take heavy action. Pick up a couple of good ideas,
take heavy action. That's the formula
for success: Heavy action. It's a good thing
we can edit all this, right? The formula for success: Take heavy action on a good idea. Right? That's the ratio. Now, here's the key: Don't wait till you've learned
two or three thousand things, because that way
you'll use up all the time and you could wind up
smart and broke. And hey, it's okay
to be dumb and broke. But if a guy's smart and broke,
that's pitiful. Don't let your learning lead to knowledge,
you'll become a fool. Let your learning lead to action,
you can become wealthy. And there's many kinds of wealth. I understand that,
not just money. Money's one of the least of all values. I know some people with
a lot of money that are very poor. Evita sings, "As for fortune
and as for fame, they are illusions. They're not the solutions
they promise to be." So there's all kinds of wealth but to get a big share coming your way,
you've got to have a heavy action game plan. Now, here's the third step to personal development,
and we'll wrap up personal development. Step number three, it's just a little caution.
And all through life, we need little cautions. This one simply says:
Don't try to beat the system. Find out how it works, work it,
but don't try to beat it. Some people learn
just enough to start slicing it, shading it, thinning it, cutting corners
and looking for cheap answers. See, don't fall for that.
You'll wind up with a cheap life. Find out how it works best
and do it that way. Even though it seems to take a little longer,
to do it right. Don't compromise with the right. Now under this step, here's another key:
Be a quick learner. Don't let it take long to teach you. Learn quick. Don't run
at the wall too many times. Learn quicker. One guy said he broke his nose
seven times in the same place. Somebody says, "Looks like
you'd stay out of that place, right?" Learn quicker. Now, the third point here is
don't be stubborn. See, some people won't change
even when a better way comes. They say, "Well, I've been doing it
this way thirty years." Hey, be ready for change.
If it's a better way, go for it. But don't try to beat it, or you'll be like the guy that went to
Las Vegas. He didn't have much money. So he didn't wanna risk his money
gambling but he gets to Las Vegas and the jackpot bells are ringing,
the money's flowing, the lights are flashing. And he can't help himself.
He's got to gamble. But instead of gambling with his cash,
he decides to play the mental gambling game. And the brilliant scheme
he worked out goes like this: He'd pick a number like number three. Mentally, he would bet a certain
amount of money on the number. And whether it won or lost, he would
jot down that amount in his little pad. I would have won five dollars if I made that bet,
just to keep track of it, win or lose. That way, come midnight, he can calculate
how he's doing, winner, loser, how much. Only not his money,
keep his money. Just play this mental gambling game. So here he is around the gambling table.
Everybody else shelled out their hard earned cash. He's got this brilliant scheme. Instead of betting with his money,
he's betting with his mind. And he lost his mind. Which means don't try to
beat the system, I guess. Let's talk about some more parts
of personal development. Here's the first one: physical. The physical side,
gotta take care of yourself. Do not neglect to take care of yourself. Good phraseology used in the Bible, in my amateur way, but let me put it to you best I can. Here's what it says:
Treat your body like a temple. That's a good phrase, good suggestion. A temple meaning something
you take extremely good care of, a temple. That's a good phrase:
Treat your body like a temple. Not a woodshed, a temple, a temple.
Take good care. It's the only place
you've got to live currently. The temple Nutrition. My mother studied nutrition, passed it along to me,
passed it along to my father, my children, my grandchildren. What a legacy that was, learning to just take care of your stuff. Key phrase: Some people don't do well
because they don't feel well. They've got the gifts,
they've got the skills. Maybe they just haven't taken
care of themselves. They don't have the vitality. Key phrase: Vitality is a major part
of success, vitality. So take care of yourself. I know a guy that raises racehorses. I'm telling you,
the guy feeds his horses better than he feeds himself. He's so careful how
he feeds his horses. He's so careful what they eat. He's so careful that they get everything. And because of that extreme care, I mean, these are magnificent animals. They can run like the wind. But you oughta see this guy. Ten steps up a flight of stairs,
and I mean, he's all out of breath. His horses can run like the wind,
and he can hardly make it up the steps. The guy takes care of his animals
better than he takes care of himself. Some people feed their dogs
better than they feed their kids. Physical. Now, there's all kinds
of parts to physical. Here's one: appearance.
It's part of the physical. Never have a second chance
to make a first impression. Physical side. And here's some of the best advice on appearance
I can give you, comes from ancient script again. It says, "God looks on the inside.
People look on the outside." Isn't that good information? Now you say, "Well, people shouldn't
judge you by how you look." Well, let me give you a clue: They do. They do. You can't deal any shoulds and shouldn'ts,
you'd be tipped over the rest of your life. Now, of course, when
people get to know you, they'll judge you
by more than what they see. But at first they're gonna
take a look. So, here's the best advice I can give you:
Make sure the outside is a major reflection of what's going on inside. The physical side. Few minutes a day,
stay healthy. Little bit of nourishment,
little bit of study on nutrition. Stay healthy. Key. Now, here's the next part of personal
development: the spiritual part. I'm an amateur on the spiritual side. I do happen to believe that human beings
are more than just an advanced life form. An advanced species of the animal kingdom. I do believe humans are
a special creation. That's just my personal belief,
and I don't ask you to buy it. But here's what I do ask you to buy: If you do believe in spirituality
in any manner, here's my best advice:
Study it and practice it. Do not neglect your values.
Do not neglect your virtues. If you do believe in spirituality,
my advice is study it and practice it. Don't let it go unstudied. Don't let it go un-noursished,
if you do believe. That's my best advice
on the spiritual side. Now, here's the third part: the mental side. Part of this personal development
challenge is to develop mentally. Learn, study, grow, change. It's what schooling is all about. And the human development takes time,
incredible amounts of time. That's why we've taken the time
for this seminar. It just takes time. Some things you can't cover in
a twenty minute speech. You can't cover in a little
five minute talk, it takes time. For humans, it takes, seem like more time
than any other life form, human beings. The little wildebeest in Africa, guess how much time it's got as soon as it's
born to be able to run with the pack, so it doesn't get eaten by the lions. Guess how much time it's got?
A few minutes. Not hours. Not days. Minutes. Wow. But the human baby. Wow. After sixteen years, we're not sure, right?
Unbelievable amount of time, it takes. So it does take time
for personal development, does take time for spiritual development,
physical development. But here’s also what takes time, and that's your mental
development, feeding the mind, nourishing the mind. Some people read so little,
they got rickets of the mind. They couldn't give you a good, strong
argument as to their own personal beliefs. I'm telling you, you gotta
be able to pick up those ideologies. You gotta be able
to pick up the philosophy. And here's the next part:
You gotta be able to defend it. If you can't defend your virtues and if you can't
defend your values, I'm telling you even in the nineties, you'll fall prey to philosophies
that are not in your best interest. And we've gotta help our teenagers. We've gotta help our kids, especially
to be able to debate the major life issues, the political issues and the social issues and the religious issues and the spiritual
issues and the nutritional issues and and the economic issues,
and all of the rest of the issues that are valuable for us
to build the kind of equities we want. You gotta get yourself ready. And one of the ways you gotta get ready
is not just physical and not just spiritual, you gotta get ready mentally. And this is where Shoaff went to work
on me, to be ready mentally, to develop the philosophy and also be able
to defend your virtues and your values.
