The Resilient Mind - Stop Making a Living & Start Designing Your Life - Jim Rohn

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Jim Rohn was a renowned motivational speaker who has been widely regarded as one of the best in his field during his time. He had an incredible ability to inspire and motivate people from all walks of life with his speeches and teachings. One of his most notable achievements was serving as a mentor to Tony Robbins, one of the most successful and well-known motivational speakers in the world today.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to Stop Making a Living and Start Designing Your Life with Jim Rohn. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. Okay, the next subject is setting goals. Let me show you what turned my life every way but loose. Mr. Schof dropped this idea on me, changed me completely. Setting goals.

Here's what can easily happen if you don't set goals. It's easy to let life deteriorate into making a living instead of designing a life. And we all have a choice, make a living or design a life. It's easy to get trapped by economic necessity and settle for existence rather than substance. That's easy. But the best advice I can give you on how to break out of that trap is to learn

how to set goals. Mr. Schof put it to me this way. He said, Jim, if you had enough reasons, you could do the most incredible things. I never forgot how he put that. If you have enough reason. See, reasons will change your whole life. Mr. Shoeff said to me, said, Mr. O'n, I think you've got plenty of intelligence, you've got plenty of talent, you've got plenty of ability, probably what you lack is plenty of reasons. He said, I don't think your current bank balance is a true indication of your level of intelligence. I was happy to hear that. He said, I think you're much smarter than your present bank balance indicates.

And that turned out to be true. I was much smarter. But of course, my first question was, well, then why isn't it bigger? And he said, you don't have enough reasons. You've got enough intelligence, but not enough reasons. So see, reasons can change your life. Here's what else I found out. Reasons come first, answers come second.

You don't get the answers to do well till you get the reasons. Life has a mysterious way of hanging on to all the answers and only gives them up to the people that are inspired by reasons. So reasons make the difference in how your life works out. Now, what are some of the reasons for doing well? Let's go through a quick list called reasons for doing well. First is personal reasons.

Some people do well for recognition. Some people do well for respect. Some people do well for the way it makes them feel. They love the feeling of being a winner. Those are good reasons. I have some millionaire friends that keep working 10, 12 hours a day, making more millions. And it's not because they need the money. It's because they need the joy and the satisfaction and the pleasure that comes from being a constant winner.

And see, it's not just the money anyway. It's the journey, not the money. Once in a while somebody says to me, boy, if I had a million dollars, I'd never work another day in my life. That's probably why the good Lord sees to it. They don't get their million, right? They'd quit. They'd quit. Okay. Next is family reasons. Some people do extremely well for other people. And that's powerful.

Human beings can greatly affect each other. Sometimes we will do things for somebody else. We will not do for ourselves. We're made that way. I met a man one time who said, Mr. Owen, to do all the things I want to do with my family around the world, he said, I got to have at least a quarter of a million dollars a year. I thought incredible. Could a guy's family affect him that much? And the answer is, of course. How fortunate are the people that find themselves greatly affected by somebody for personal achievement? And we are affected. The writer of a recent song said,

if not for you, the winter would hold no spring, couldn't hear a robin sing. I just wouldn't have a clue if not for you. So we can be affected. That might be one of the most stimulating reasons to do well, finding somebody. When Andrew Carnegie died, the wee little Scotsman that built a big steel industry. When he died, they opened up his desk. and in one of the desk drawers they found a slip of paper. On that piece of paper, Mr. Carnegie had written his goal for his life,

and he wrote it when he was in his 20s. And on that piece of paper, it said, I'm going to spend the first half of my life accumulating money. I'm going to spend the last half of my life giving it all away. What a goal. He got so inspired by that goal that the first thing. first half of his life, he accumulated $450 million. And the last half of his life, he gave it all away.

Good question tonight. What's got you turned on? What's got you bombed out of sight to get up early and stay up late and hit it all day? Next question. What's got you turned off? When I found the answers to those two questions, my life exploded. into change. I finally found out what had me turned off, and I got that cured. And then I got me a long enough list of reasons to turn me on. And once the lights went on for me, age 25, they've never gone

out. I've fallen out of the sky a few times, but I've never lost that drive to make something unique out of my life. See, reasons altered my whole life. Now there's another list of reasons called Nitty gritty, hard little reasons. Sometimes those little reasons are the most powerful reasons that can change your life. Sometimes it doesn't take much. I now carry several hundred dollars in my money clip. It's only a few hundred dollars, but it was one of those reasons. Turn my life around.

Just before I met Mr. Schof, I heard a knock at the door. I go to the door and there's a little bit of the door, and there's a little bit of those reasons. little girl standing there about this tall selling Girl Scout cookies. And she gave me one of the finest sales presentations I've ever heard. Special deal, several flavors, this whole package of stuff, two dollars. And with a big smile, she very politely asked me to buy. And I wanted to big problem. I'm broke.

I don't have two dollars. And to this day, I can remember the pain and the embarrassment. I'm a father, I'm a husband, I've been to college, I'm working, I'm 25, I don't have $2. And I didn't want to tell her that for some reason. So I did what I thought was next best. I lied to it. I said, hey, look, I've already bought lots of Girl Scout cookies.

I've still got plenty stacked in the house. which was not true. But it seemed to get me off the hook for the moment. She said, well, gosh, that's wonderful. Thank you very much. And she went away. When she left, I closed the door, and that was the day I said to myself,

I don't want to live like this anymore. I've had it with lion and I've had it with being broke. I'm never going to let this happen to me ever again. I promised that day I would work as hard as possible and would always carry plenty. It took me a little while, but now I do. It was one of those reasons. And I guess I carry plenty for two reasons.

One is the way it makes me feel, but also in case I bump into another Girl Scout selling cookies, right? I'm ready. I walked out of the Bank of America one time up in Saratoga. California, where I used to live. Two little girls selling candy right outside the bank. Good place. Like some girl's organization they're working for, right?

I come walking out of the bank. This first little girl walks up to me. She said, Mr. Would you like to buy some candy? I said, I probably would. What kind is it? She said, it's Alman Roca. I said, my gosh, that's my favorite. She said, wonderful.

I said, how much is it? She said, it's just $2. I thought incredible. I said, how many boxes of that candy have you got? She said, five. And her little friend was standing there. She was selling candy too. I said, how many boxes have you got?

She said, I've got four. I said, that's nine. I'll take them all. They said, really? I said, yeah, it's my favorite. I've got some friends. I'll pass them around. They got so excited, put all this candy together.

I reached in my pocket, gave them the $18. When I've got the candy and they've got the money, that first little girl looks up at me, she says, Mr. You are really something. How about that? Can you imagine only spending $18 and have somebody look at you somebody look at you in the face and say, you are really something. Now you know why I carry heavy, right?

I'm not going to miss anymore. It was just one of those reasons helped to change my life. One of my nitty gritty reasons was budget finance. Budget finance used to grind my soul. Way back in those early days, I had fallen for one of those consolidation loans. where you take all your little hard-to-pay bills, put them into one big impossible to pay bill, right? I would get four or five payments behind.

This one guy used to call me day and night. I don't think they're allowed to do that anymore. Harassed me. Threatened to ruin me in front of the judge. Threaten to ruin my credit. Threaten to embarrass my family. One day he said, we're going to come get your car, drag it,

rear end up, down the street in front of your neighbors. The guy even called me a flake. And back in those days, I'm broke, I'm pitiful. There's nothing I can do about it. But I never forgot how the guy treated me. And when I met Mr. Show and I got my life started, straightened out and the money started to flow, that was one of my first projects, budget finance.

I poured it on day and night. I finally put all the money together. I owed them, which was considerable. I picked a day for the payoff. And when the payoff day came, I put the money in small bills in a big briefcase. And I walked into the budget finance office on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The guy who harassed me so often, his desk was about three back. I walked right up to his desk, startled him.

He wondered what I was doing there. It was the first time I'd been there since I borrowed the money, right? Without saying a word, I opened up this briefcase, dumped this pile of money. all over his desk. I said, count it. It's all there. I will never be back. And I turned around and stormed out. No, that might not be noble.

But if you haven't tried it, you've got to one time, it can be the day that turns your life around. All you need is a reason that turns you on. One of my dear friends, Robert DePue, Bobby used to be a school teacher in Lindsay, Olive Capital of the World. Bobby taught school several years. Got a little weary teaching school.

One day decided he wanted to get into sales. So without telling anybody, he'd just up and quit his job teaching school and jumped into sales. When he did, his brother made fun of him. Laughed at. Put him down.

Said Roberts lost his mind. Had a good job teaching school. Now he thinks he's a sales. He's going to go down the drain, lose everything. Just put him down something fierce. Bobby said, the way my brother acted when I got into sales,

he said that made me so mad. I decided to get rich. And my question for you tonight is, is it possible to get that mad? Of course. Wealth is not a matter of intelligence. It's a matter of inspiration. Today, Robert happens to be one of my millionaire friend.

Bobby's rich. Frank Sinatra said one time, the best revenge is massive success. Hey, get you a long enough list of reasons so that after tonight you never lack for inspiration. You might not have all the answers right away, but you can get the answers if you can get the reasons. Now let me give you a little simple formula for goal setting. Okay? We take two two and a half hours on the weekend for the whole 10 year plan. We don't have time for that tonight, but let me get you started with a little simple formula Mr. Schof gave me. And maybe this will be helpful. First of all, I've divided goals into two parts. First is long range. Long range goals. That's your dreams. Your dreams for the next three, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, actually the rest of your life. Your dreams.

You've got to keep dreaming. Ronald Reagan, president, said to the joint session of Congress a few weeks ago, the republic is a dream. And if we don't keep dreaming, we will lose the republic. Your better future is a dream for yourself and for your family. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What do you want to be?

What do you want to see? You've got to dream dreams. There's a Bible phrase that says, without dreams and visions, people perish. You've got to have something to go for that inspires the heart and the soul. Dreams from the children of Sanchez. It says, take the crumbs from starving soldiers. They won't die. Take the bread from hungry children.

They won't cry. But without dreams, we all will die. You've got to dream. Don't lose your dreams. For yourself, for your future, for your family, the dreams of love and enterprise and travel and doing things. and doing things, becoming something unique on your journey here, don't lose your dreams.

Do some dreaming. That's long-range goals. You've got to have those. So that's number one. Here's the second part of goals, short-range. Short-range goals. That's your goals for tomorrow this week, this month, this year, the immediate future. We call these confidence builders.

Because if you set up something short-range, go for it. Get it. Flatch on to it. Work hard. accomplish it. That starts building your strong feelings to go for your dreams. Now I've divided goals into three categories. Here they are. Number one is economic. That's your goals for money, income, business, profits, production. Economics. Make sure you've got your economics well planned.

Economics plays a major role in everybody's life. Economics is major, which means that often to be meticulously well planned for tomorrow this week, this month, this year, long range. What if you ask somebody tomorrow if you could see their meticulously well planned list of economic goals? What would they probably say? They say you some kind of a nut? You must be weird.

Hey, I found out what success is. Success is doing what the failures won't do. Make sure you've got your economics well planned. It'll put you in the top 5 percent. One of the key little subjects we talk about on the weekend is the seven fundamentals for wealth and happiness. And that's one of them, well-planned economics. It's a fundamental, if you want to do well, join the top 5 percent. Anybody in this room can join the top 5 percent, if you will. Now here's the second category of goals, things. Make a list of the things you

want. And on my list of things, now I put everything, little things as well as major things. It doesn't matter how small it is. It goes on my list. I used to just put major things, cars, homes. I don't do that anymore. I now load my list with everything. Everything. And the reason is part of the fun of having a list is checking it off. That's it.

Boy, at the end of the day, if you can go, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. Whatever it is, right? You get into the habit. So load up your list, the things you want. Now, when you check off something, major, celebrate. That's an important point to make. Celebrate your achievements. Live it up. Have a party when you reach something you've worked for for a while. See, we all grow from two experiences. One is called the pain of losing. The other one is called the joy of winning.

We need birth of them. Amplify them as much as you can, which also means make losing painful. If you set up something fooled around, didn't get it, put it on yourself. On the other side, if you did get it, congratulate yourself. Self-congratulations is a sign of maturity. Seeking congratulations is a sign of immaturity. But, hey, winning and losing, see, that's what it's all about. That's the name of the game. Now, some people lead such mediocre lives.

At the end of the day, they don't know whether they're winning or losing. They got no clue. Guys just going through the day with his fingers crossed. There's a better way. Okay, here's the third category of goals. Personal development. Put those goals together. Personal development goals.

That's your goals to be stronger, more decisive, be a speaker, be a leader, learn a language, all kinds of skills. Okay, the whole weekend seminar was designed to improve all your skills so that you walk away, more skillful. And that's what you want, the personal development skills. That's what attracts. That's what brings good things to your life, the person you've become more skillful.

Now, this is quite a package to work on economics, things, personal development. For tomorrow, this week, this month, this year, long range. Okay, that'll get you started. Now, here's the simple formula for setting goals. It goes like this. A, work on your goals. That's step one. Work on them. And I put the word work there deliberately. Setting goals is plain hard work.

I don't want to kid you. He haven't come here tonight to kid each other. It's work. I know it's work. That's why a lot of people just let it slide. It's work. Many people work hard on their job, but they don't work hard on their future. They just let that slide. And the work involved is making plans. I know most people don't. I understand that, but don't let that be you. Guy says, well, yeah, you work where I work,

but the time you struggle home, it's late. You've got to eat and buy to supper watch a little TV. Get to bed. You can't sit up half the night, plan, plan, plan. And the guys be high. Good worker, hard worker, sincere. But you've got to be better than sincere, working hard. You've got to be better than a good worker.

You've got to be a good planner. Somebody once wisely said, the people who fail to plan are planning to fail. Well said. So work on your goals. Here's step two. Write your goals down. That's so important.

I teach my staff around the world. Put your goals in your journal. because one of the major people you want to study is yourself. Say here's the list of goals I put together three weeks ago. Here's the list of goals I put together two years ago. Here's some of the changes I made, rearrangement of my priorities. I scratch these off. I put these on.

I've gotten these. Study your accomplishment. Study what your desires are. Put them on paper. Write them down. Here's another reason for writing your goals down. It shows you're serious about doing better. And to do better, you gotta get serious.

You don't have to be grim, but you must be serious. Everybody hopes things will get better. Everybody horrors. Poor people harp. That ought to tell you something. It means the future does not get better by hope. It gets better by plan. I used to have the affliction called passive hope.

It's an affliction. It's bad. Probably what's even worse than that is happy hope. Now that is really bad. That's bad. Happy hope. But guy's 50 and he's broke and he still smile. See, that's not good.

So get serious about your goals. Put them on paper, write them down. There's all kinds, his goals, her goals, their goals, business goals, financial goals, financial independence goals, family goals. I mean, there's so many things to work on on this that if you don't get busy and work on it, sure enough the time will pass. And sure enough, five years from now you'll wind up where you don't want to be, wearing what you don't want to wear, driving what you don't want to drive, being what you don't want to be. Now's the time to fix it. Now here's the third step to your goals. check the size of your goals and the kinds of goals.

How big they are, what kind they are, affects you. And here's one of the important phrases of the evening. Your goals are affecting you whatever they are. Your goals affect your handshake. Your goals affect your attitude, personality. Your goals affect the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you dress. All day long. we're being affected by our goals.

Now some people have goals, but they have such lousy goal. The effect is bad. I asked a guy one time, what are your goals for this month? The guy said, look, if I could just scrape up enough money to pay these lousy bills. That was these goal. I'm not saying it isn't a goal. It's a goal, but it's such a lousy goal.

The effect is bad. You don't jump out of bed on Monday morning and say, oh boy, another chance to go out and scrape up the money to pay my lousy bills. See, you don't do that. Usually you say, oh, not another Monday. And some people have so given up on life. They have joined the thank God it's Friday.

Club. How sad. Surely those are the same people when life is over for them will say, thank God it's old. Let me give you a Bible philosophy that teaches how to get whatever you want. That's the title of the next set of notes. How to get whatever you want from the Bible. Now, again, I'm an amateur when it comes to the Bible.

I'm not a pro, but this I can quote and I think that'll be sufficient. How to get whatever you want. Here's what it says if you're ready. It says, ask. That's it. End of notes. Ask. If there's one art in life to learn extremely well, that's got to be one of them.

The art of asking. What does ask mean? Ask means. What do you want? And the formula is staggering. It says ask and what? A guy ought to look into that. He says, yeah, but you work where I work

by the time you struggle home. It's late. You've got to eat about a supper watch a little TV get to bed. You can't sit up half the night. Ask, ask, ask. And the guys be, huh? See, you've got to be better than a good worker. You've got to be a good asker.

Now let me give you three key points on asking and receiving. This can do it. Number one, asking is the beginning of receiving. Asking starts a unique process, mental and emotional. I don't even know how it works. All I know is it works. It's like pushing a button and all this machinery starts working. I don't know how. It just works.

There's a lot of things. You don't need to know how. Just work them. Some people are always studying the roots. Others are picking the fruit. I mean, it depends on what end of it you want in on. Asking is the beginning of receiving. So start the process. Here's number two. Receiving is not the problem. Receiving is automatic. Now, if that's true, receiving is not the problem. What's the problem? Failure to ask might be. one of your major problems. I don't know. Check it out. The guy says, oh, now I see it. I got up last

year and hit it every day, but there's not a scrap of paper with my goals. Good worker. Poor ask. So you've got to change that. Here's number three. Receiving is like the ocean. There's plenty. It's like an ocean here. Success is not in short supply. It isn't rationed, and you stepped up to the window and it was all gone. No, no, no. It's like an ocean here.

Now, if that's true, what's the problem? Well, some people go to the ocean with a teaspoon. Have you got the picture? See, what you want to do in view of the size of the ocean is trade your teaspoon for at least a bucket, and you'll look better down at the ocean. Kids won't make fun of you, right? Okay.

Now, there's two ways to ask, and we'll wrap up goal setting. Two ways. Here's number one. Ask with intelligence. It didn't say ask intelligently, but I'm sure it meant that. Don't mumble. You don't get anything by mumbling. Be clear, be specific.

Intelligent asking means how wide, how high, how soon. When, what size, what color, how much? Define what you want and describe what you want. That's powerful. In the weekend seminar we teach, goals become like a magnet. They pull you that direction, and the better you describe them, the more they tell.

So ask intelligently. Here's number two. Ask with faith. That's the childish part of the equation. Believe you can get what you want like a child. Not an adult. Adults are two. skeptical. So the formula really reads, make plans like an adult and believe in them like a child.

And the most incredible things will happen. Just try it for 90 days. Just try it. You can always go back to the old ways. Just try it. Just try it. Just 90 days. 90 days. Now here's the last qualifying praise on goal setting as we promised to qualify everything. And it simply goes like this. Remember, you won't get everything you want. And we've already studied the reason for that. Simply, sometimes it hails on your crop and rains on your parade. It's that kind of planet. So you won't get everything you want, but if you will work this goal-setting formula, you can get plenty for wealth and happiness. Okay, that's goal-setting.

We use it around the world. We recommend it. Now, maybe it won't work as well for you as it has for me. I don't know. Maybe not. But what if it did? You've got to try. Okay, here's the last subject the day that turns your life around.

Let me just quickly give you a list of four emotions that can change your life in one day. Emotions are powerful. Sometimes it doesn't take much to alter your whole life direction. Okay, here they are. Number one, disgust, powerful emotion. Disgust says I had Had it. See, that could be the day.

The day you can say, I've had it. And whether you've had it with something small or something major, the day you can say I've had it. May not be the day it ends, but the day it begins. That's what I said when that little Girl Scout left my door when I'm 25. I give her the big lie. She leaves. I say, I don't want to live like this anymore.

I've had it with lion and be a little. broke, powerful day. The man's finally had it with mediocrity. He's had it with being a loser. He's finally had it with those awful sick feelings inside, knowing his wife is at the grocery store looking at two cans of beans, one mark 37 cents, one mark 39 cents, and the guy sick inside knows his wife's going to buy the 37 cent can and she doesn't even like the brand. Do you know why she's going to buy the 37 cent can?

To save two cents. The guy sick inside finally says, I've had it. Being on my knees in the dust looking for pennies? We're not living like this any. Moe. Could be the day that turns your life around. The day you can say, I've had it. He walks into his closet and rips everything in it to shreds.

and says, I've worn this embarrassing stuff for the last ton. And not only will I never wear it again, no one else will ever wear it again. Commit an act that says, I've had it. Here's the next one, decision. And decision making is powerful and it's emotional. That's those knots in the pity your stomach, right? waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, trying to decide. We sometimes call it inner civil lure.

What shall I do? Well, for progress, you must decide. The best advice I can give you came from a wealthy friend of mine who said, If it's easy, do it easy. If it's hard, do it hard. Just get it done. If you went home tonight and in the next few days cleaned up a whole list of decisions, that might furnish enough inspiration for the next 10 years.

I found this out. Many times after you've decided getting on with it is easier than deciding. Sometimes decision is the toughest part. Here's the next emotion, desire, wanting to bad enough. And I don't know how to tell you to want to. That's something you've got to come up with. There's two things I know about desire. Number one, it comes from.

inside, not outside. You don't send off for it. Number two, I know desire can be triggered by something. Who knows what it might be? Sometimes desire waits and sleeps for something to happen. Maybe it's a book, maybe it's a song, maybe it's a sermon, maybe it's a lecture, a seminar, maybe it's the conversation of a friend, a happening and event. Who knows? The best advice I can give you is what I give my staff. It goes like this, welcome every human experience. You never know which one is going to turn it all on. Even the bad experience. Sometimes from the bitterest experience comes the greatest awakening. So let down the barriers, take down the walls.

The same wall that keeps out disappointment, keeps out happiness. Let life touch you. Don't let it kill you, but let it touch you. Here's the last one. This one's powerful. Resolve. Resolve says I will. Two of the most powerful words in the language, I will. Benjamin Disraeli once said, nothing can resist a human will. That will stake even its existence on the extent of its purpose. Shortly put, I'll do it or die. See, that's powerful. That could be the day that turns your life around.

The world has a strange way of stepping aside when somebody says I'll do it or die. The man says I will climb the mountain. They've told me it's too high, it's too far, it's too rocky, it's too difficult. It's never been done before, but it's my mountain I will climb it. Pretty soon you'll see me, waving from the top. Or dead on the side, because I ain't coming back. The best definition I ever got from the word resolve came from a little junior High girl in Foster City, California up north.

I'm talking to the junior high kids one day. I love to ask kids definitions. They come up with beauties. I got to the word resolve and I asked, who can tell me what resolve means? And I got several hands and they were all pretty good. But the last one was the best. Little girl, about three rolls back, held up her hand. She said, Mr. Roe, Mr. Rowland.

I think I know what resolve means. I said, darling, what do you think? it means. She said, I think it means promising yourself you will never give up. I said, that's it. Webster, stand aside. That is the definition. Promise yourself, you will never give up. I asked the kids, how long should a baby try to learn how to walk? How long? How long would you give your average baby before you shut them off? How long? See, any mother in the world would say, You're crazy. My baby's going to keep trying until it learns how to walk. What a magic formula. Now let me show you what triggers all emotions into activity that brings results.

And results is the name of the game. Here it is. Action. Finally, you must do something about how you feel. Jesus the master teacher said, don't just be listeners. Be doers. The world admires the doers. Whatever it takes to get you to try harder, read more, set your goals, and go for it. Here's the next attitude disease. Over caution. Some people never will have much. They're too cautious.

Now, you can also be too reckless, but you can also be too cautious. This is called the timid approach to life. And my caution was always the risk. Risk used to drive me right up the wall. I used to say, what if this happens? It's called the language of the poor. What if this happens? And on top of that, if this was to happen,

look at the fits I'd be, and I better not try. I could always ace myself out. Then I'll tell you what changed my whole life when I finally discovered. It's all risky. The minute you were born, it got risky. If you think trying is risky, Wait till they hand you the bill for not trying.

If you think investing is risky, wait till you get the tab for not investing. See, it's all risky. Getting married is risky. Having children is risky. Going into business is risky. Investing your money is risky. It's all risky. I'll tell you how risky life is.

You're not going to get out alive. That's risky. The Englishman says, well, if that's a way it's going to work out, let's give it a go. Right. That's what it's for. Give it a go. Somebody says, yeah, but I'm looking for safety and security. Fine, then huddle in a corner.

We'll cover you with a sheet, bring you three meals a day. And we'll protect you, feed you, look after you, care for you, we won't let anything happen to you, and you'll probably live to be 100. The guy said, well, yeah, I'd live to be 100. But what a way to live. Right. What a way to live, safe and secure. Don't ask for security.

Ask for adventure. Better to live 30 years full of adventure than 100 years safe in the corner. And see, it's not important how long you live. What's important is how you live. Here's the next attitude disease. We're almost through with this motley list. In fact, we're almost through. Hang on. The next one is pessimism. Pessimism, the deadly disease of always looking on the bad side, the problem side, the difficult side, checking all the reasons why it can't be done. The poor pessimist leads an, He doesn't try to figure out what's right. He tries to figure out what's wrong. He doesn't look for virtue.

He looks for fats. And when he finds him, he's delighted. How ugly. This is the poor guy looks through the window, doesn't see the sunset. He sees the specs on the window. And this is the poor guy, right, who rushes up, takes such leave of his senses. This guy rushes up and he says, I've got five good reasons why it won't work. He's so dumb he doesn't know all you need is one.

He's got five. To the pessimist, the glasses always have empty. To the optimist, the glasses have full. Why would the same measure affect people two different ways? Answer, it all depends on how you look at it. Our lives are mostly affected by the way we think things are. Not the way they are. The way we think they are affects us most.

There's a subject we don't have time to get into tonight called better thinking habits. One of the major things Shope taught me when I met him, he said, poor thinking habits keeps most people poor, not poor working habits. Most people work hard, but they don't think hard. And Shope taught me that the mind is like a factory, a mental factory. And whatever you think about all day long pours ingredients into this mental factory. and that's what builds the economic, social, financial fabric of your life. He quoted me a Bible phrase that says,

As you think, so you become. How awesome. When he talked about poor thinking habits, he had me. I used to start the day reading the morning newspaper. I mean, you can believe that or not. I'd get a cup of coffee and read the paper. I'd load up on wars and riots and murders and stabbings and. killings and bank robberies and muggings and car wrecks and tragedies.

I'd even read the back pages. I seem to like that stuff for some weird reason. I'd live upon all that and then I'd start the day. You can imagine the kind of days I used to have. You walk around on your financial knees. They call you economic pee-wee. The guy says, I want to be a great leader. Wonderful. The first thing we do is following to his house. When we get there, we walk in and check.

check his library, number one. Somebody says, well, why check his library? The reason is because what a man reads, pours massive ingredients into his mental factory, and the fabric of his life is built from those ingredients. You would not believe what some people have got in their house to read. You would not believe. One of the best-up words I know for a lot of it is,

trash. Can you imagine dumping a barrel of trash into this mental factory every day and coming out with a rich dynamic positive life? It can't be done. You might as well try making a cake with cement. The kids back in Danbury, Connecticut, high school. They're asking me questions one day. I'm talking to the kids. Kids got good questions these days.

One of them said to me, Mr. Owen, how do you build the good life? I said, it's simple. It's not easy, but it's sinful. Here's how you build anything. Select the right ingredients. Keep out the wrong ingredients, and it starts with thought. Everything starts with thought.

So you must be wise and careful what you think about because that starts everything. You've got to be wise and careful. I asked the kids, what would happen if somebody dropped sugar in my coffee. They said, well, you'd be okay. I said, what if somebody dropped strychnine in my coffee? They said, well, you'd be dead. I said, correct. Lesson one. Life is both sugar and strychnine. You've got to be careful. I said, what if my worst enemy drops in the sugar? They said,

will you be okay? I said, what if my best friend, even by accident, drops in the strictine? I said, what if my strict nine. They said, well, you'd be dead. I said correct. Lesson two. Watch your coffee. You got to be careful. See, it doesn't matter who hands you the bad stuff. It doesn't matter where you get the bad stuff. It'll still do its damage on your bank account. Wherever you get it. Mr. Schof gave me one of the greatest phrases when I first met him when he said, Jim, every day, stand guard at the door of your mind. How important. Stand. Stand. guard at the door of your mind. And you decide what goes into your mental factory.

Don't let anybody just dump anything they want to in your mental factory because you've got to live with the results. Okay, here's the last disease and we're through with this list. In fact, we're almost through. Hang on. The last subject is very brief. The last disease, but this one is deadly. Engage in this one, indulge in it even slightly and you might as well forget the future because it's going to forget you. Complaining, crying, whining, griping, a Bible word called murmuring. See, that'll ace your future.

Spend five minutes complaining and you have wasted five. And you may have begun what's known as economic cancer of the bone. Surely they will soon haul you off into a financial desert and there let you choke on the dust of your own regret. I hope I said that well. So you won't forget. It's a deadly disease. If you don't think it's bad, ask the children of Israel of Old Testament fame. Typical of us all, their story just happened to get in the book. Story says, children of Israel were slaves. God performed a series of dazzling miracles and got them out.

And now they're heading for the promised land. Remember the story? Heading for the promised land. Tragedy of the story. They never got there. Reason. From day one, they started to complain. They griped about the water. They griped about the weather. They whined and cried and griped about the food. They griped about the leadership. They whined and cried because it was too far, too cold, too hot, too difficult, too miserable. I mean, they whined and cried for years. Finally, God said, I've had it tripped. canceled or something like that. The story says they died in the desert never got to the promised land, which I think means two things indulge in this long enough you get your future

canceled and I guess it also means even God himself can only take so much just be on the lookout of the things that can destroy all the good you start the war is on and this evening, tomorrow, mentally, personally, socially, economically. You got to make sure you're winning the roar, and this is part of it. Thank you for tuning into this episode. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.