The question is “Where?”.
Man, I'm listening to Rohn this morning and he's LIGHTING ME UP. If we keep up our present disciplines and keep up the present pace we're on where will we be in 5 years? In 5 years here is the probability. In 5 years we'll arrive at an either well designed destination or an undesigned destination. Well designed or undesigned… do we want to arrive in 5 years with an undesigned destination? According to Rohn, probably not.
When I'm thinking of this for myself, no, I'm not interested in living my life by chance. Not interested in just “Seeing what happens”. What if I can do something about it? And I can… we all can… we really can.
He goes on, “And I promise you 5 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.
Key phrase: Up front, the decisions are easy. Now sometimes after we've lived a few years now to repair our mistakes and get back on track, seems like a tough job… if you've messed up your health for 10 years it takes more than 10 days to get it back. But here's the key, “If you start early, the fortune belongs to you. “Where will we be in 5 years?
Another key phrase… “We go the direction we face. And we go in the direction we design. Destination is determined by direction… not by hope, not by chance but by design.”
And another thing I've gotten by listening to Jim Rohn, if someone truly doesn't have a choice, that's when I'll step in… that's called charity… but most people, can make the changes. And the ultimate excuse people make is “It's too late. What's the use? I've messed up so bad there's not hope. I don't have much time left…”
Jim Rohn said that with all the travel he does the skill of knowing several languages is immense. He grew up with a father who spoke German, but never taught it to him. His mother spoke French, but didn't feel it really mattered, being that they were living in America and didn't really anticipate traveling to places they'd use their native languages… Jim says, “If I had known how valuable that would have been, and how easy it would have been to teach a kid…” and he goes on, “And here's my advice to anybody who thinks it's too late for themselves to learn another language… give the gift of a 2nd language to your children.” Wow… that is so profound… when I heard that it completely took me out of myself, thinking about others… Stop worrying about what *I* didn't get… how it's too late for me… and you know what? I ended up buying the Rosetta Stone German course, (being that I'm going to Germany on tour this summer).
I went from feeling like I didn't have time to thinking while I was walking through the mall one day, “Why not? Why not just listen during the times I had time… waiting for a plane to catch… driving Connor to school in the morning laughing hearing how you pronounce “Milk” in German!
Suddenly, it went from thinking “Too late… too busy…” to “Let's have some FUN!” But getting back to the point earlier of changing our health, changing our finances, changing our lives… for anybody who thinks it's too late, what about setting an example for the next generations? By not being the generation that just wasted away… who had troubles and let it defeat them.
As my buddy Tony Horton told me a good friend of ours told him… “Leaders finish strong”. Think about that… we all have a chance… we all were put on this earth with a chance… some with worse conditions than others, but that's where the books come in… buy a book on Lincoln if you want to see what it's like to be truly hated, but forge on for the greater good.
I look around and see so many of the heroes we've had on the pedestal… stars, celebrities… growing up in the 60's and 70's the perception of what we were watching, listening to… we started to see these figures, events, show their signs of vulnerability… we saw people we thought would be on top of the world forever… who didn't plan… didn't have a design… I've been that guy in my life… but thank heavens to get some advice, some perspective… to be shown some things that speak the truth and that is our future is ours… ours to design…Leaders finish strong… I let myself go, and still struggle with it from time to time… but I've put myself in. In the game. Out of the stands and on to the field… because that's what I want my kids to see… not where I've been but where I'm going. I'm headed in the direction I'm facing, forward. And I've found a crew that is headed in that direction and I cling to them…I want my kids to see a guy who had it all, was at a point in his life, middle age, and was losing it… but turned it around.
I want to be a part of our generation that changes. Doesn't throw in the towel… it would be easy for me to say it's too late… a lot of people my age do. But when we're looking back when there really isn't that much time… I can see the vision… of seeing that moment when I decided it would all change.
In the book “How to Stop Worrying”, which was written back in the 30's I believe?, and Dale Carnegie said that insurance companies calculated that we will most likely live 3/4 of the length of years we have left between our present age and 80 years old. So for me that means, (I'll round it off at 50 years old), 30 years until I'm 80, which leaves me 22.5 left. If I divide that into quarters, what are my next 5 years going to be like? Doesn't seem like that much time to spend angry, resentful, talking about what a bad hand I've been dealt… if the last year, which is really the first year I dove into the books, and audio of personal development, is any indication, (and why wouldn't it be? tip of the iceberg), of things improving, I can only imagine how good it gets… what a far cry from thinking I'm past my good years… I haven't capitalized on my opportunities… again, HOGWASH! (I love saying words that an old man would say!). It's all the perspective… but man, 22.5 years? With the right attitudes and disciplines in place? A lot can happen in that time.
So here we go… it's working so I'm going to keep going with it. Sure beats the alternative… Jason