Jim Rohn

The First Step For Getting Better Results

How dramatically we can change our results is largely a function of imagination. In
1960, it was a technological impossibility for man to travel into outer space. Within
ten years, however, the first man stepped out onto the surface of the moon. The
miraculous process of converting the dream into reality began when one voice
challenged the scientific community to do whatever was necessary to see to it that
America "places a man on the moon by the end of this decade." That challenge
awakened the spirit of a nation by planting the seed of possible future achievement
into the fertile soil of imagination. With that one bold challenge the impossible
became a reality.
THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO EVERY OTHER AREA OF OUR LIFE!
Can a poor person become wealthy? Of course! The unique combination of desire,
planning, effort and perseverance will always work its magic. The question is not
whether the formula for success will work, but rather whether the person will work the
formula. That is the unknown variable. That is the challenge that confronts us all. We
can all go from wherever we are to wherever we want to be. No dream is impossible
provided we first have the courage to believe in it.
Achieving Your Dreams
While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much
smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a
living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune.
Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group,
wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major
difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?
Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the
schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much
potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.
Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you.
Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you,
they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To
unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has
little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really
achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams
must be vivid.
If you've ever hiked a fourteen thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one
thought has surely come to mind "How did the settlers of this country do it?" How did
they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day's supply of food
and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with
you . . . mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big

dreams. They had ambition. They didn't focus on the hardship of getting up the
mountain.
In their minds, they were already on the other side - their bodies just hadn't gotten
them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths
along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the
land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything
and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their
way.
You've got to be a dreamer. You've got to envision the future. You've got to see
California while you're climbing fourteen thousand-foot peaks. You've got to see the
finish line while you're running the race. You've got to hear the cheers when you're in
the middle of a monster project. And you've got to be willing to put yourself through
the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Because that's
how you realize your dreams.
The Formula for Failure and Success
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the
inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more
simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to
repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.
On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor
decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable
impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our
deeds.
If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of
discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since
nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in
judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't
seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the
books is not even realizing that it matters!
Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health
problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It
does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on
making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to
matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed
for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until
the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor
choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.
Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors
don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes
these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and

prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant
consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next,
repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and
making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act
was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is
probably safe to repeat.
But we must become better educated than that!
If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in
on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act
would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner
despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience
accompanying our error in judgment.
Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is
why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better
choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become
more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does
matter.
Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success
is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.
Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors
in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The
answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.
Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards
or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more
people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up
in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards
of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough
to think about tomorrow.
But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to
look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending
consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we
would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new successoriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in
advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop
new habits to replace the old.
One of the exciting things about the formula for success- A few simple disciplines
practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily
change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very
short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just
a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately.
When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-

confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting
results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If
we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen
more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a
better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a
conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive
and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence not
once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!