The Resilient Mind - Take Responsibility for Your Life - Jim Rohn

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

A timeless message from Jim Rohn®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 Now⁠⁠Get Started with HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.com/resilient SUCCESS® presents: Jim Rohn®. To discover more powerful messages and timeless teachings from Jim Rohn, visit: 👉 https://www.success.com/subscriptions/. Licensed for use from https://mindsetdrm.com/.🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channels for more:The Resilient Mind: https://www.youtube.com/@TheResilientMindPodcastThe Resilient Mind Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@TheResilientMindInterviews🌍 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.

I used to have that long list of reasons why I wasn't doing well. To explain. You got to explain, right? Otherwise you're going to look bad. I used to have this funny list called reasons for not looking good. I used to blame the government. I mean, you can believe that or not. It was at the top of my list. I had a lecture second to none. The government. That was on my list. I used to blame taxes. Look what you got left after they take everything. And they expect you to do well. That was on my list there.

Prices, that one's easy, right? You walk into the supermarket with $20, come out with a little half bag. I had that on the list. I used to blame the weather. I blamed the traffic. I used to blame my car. I blame the manufacturers. I used to blame the company.

I blamed company policy. I used to blame the training. program. I blame my negative relatives. They were always putting me down. I blame my cynical neighbors. They're just selfish looking out for themselves. Won't loan your money? They were on my list. I used to blame the economy. I blame the community. That's a pretty good list for not doing well, isn't it? I thought it was good. I'll never forget one day. Mr. Schope is very kind, but he was also very blunt, and this was no exception. And I'm glad he was blunt. There's a lot of things I'd have missed if he hadn't have been blunt. One day with sort of a curious look on his face, he said,

Jim, just out of curiosity, tell me, how come you haven't done well up until now? Excellent question. I thought, well, so I won't look too bad. I'll go through my list. And this list I just gave you, I put that on him. And he was very patient. He let me go through the whole thing, the government, the weather. I went through this whole thing. When I finished, he looked my list over very carefully.

He said, Mr. Oan, big problem with your list. You ain't on it. How brilliant. When I went to work for him a few months later, I learned very quickly to tear up my list, reasons for not doing well, and I threw it away, and I got me a fresh piece of paper. And I put one word on it. Me! There's a black heritage spiritual that says it's not my mother, nor my father, nor my brother, nor my sister,

but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. See, I used to blame everything outside. And then let me give you a little philosophy that helped turn my life around for your notes. Here it is. It's not what happens that determines the quality or the quantity of your life. It's not what happens. And the reason is because what happens happens to about everybody. No different.

The sun went down on all of us last night. A common event, a happening. And I found out that the same things can happen to two different people, one gets rich and one stays poor. Why is that? It's because it's not what happens, but rather it's what you do that changes everything. So that's a key phrase. It's not what happens. It's what you do.

What happens is about the same. You might put that in parentheses here. Same. What people do, that's what's different. Anything can happen, right, everything can happen. I've heard all the stories. I've been one of the stories. Hey, we could all tell stories all night long, right?

Happenings? Anything can happen. Have you heard of Murphy's laws? Anybody here heard of Murphy's laws? Okay, most of you have? Murph had these laws. One of them was, if anything can go wrong, it will. That's one of Murphy's laws.

He was not one of the great positive speakers of the day. But anyway, it's still true, though, right? Anything can go wrong, everything can go wrong, for sure. I've fallen out of the sky so many times. Once to the tune of a couple of million. It took me a while to survive that one. Now, it wasn't all that much, but it was all ahead. I mean, that's when it's much, right?

When it's all you got. If you got three, two go, you got one left. You ain't looking that bad. but when it all goes. Has anybody been there when it all went? Anybody? Come on, the rest of you liars. Hey, we've all been there, right?

When it all went. Of course, it used to be a long time ago, right? When you ran out of money, got to zero, you were all through. Heck, now you can whistle right on by zero, right? They will bury you. That's what they will do. But see, the way. Those are the happenings, right?

Everything can happen, anything can happen. But it's not the happenings. It's what you do about it. Somebody says, yeah, but you don't understand the disappointments I've had. Come on. Everybody's had their share. Disappointments are not special gifts reserved for the poorer. Everybody has them.

The difference is what you do about. It's not the weather. I used to blame the weather. and I discovered it rains on the rich. So see, that won't help. Two men wake up one morning. There's a rainstorm on. One of them looks out his window,

sees the rainstorm, and he says, Wow, what a storm. With weather like this, they can't expect you to grot and make sales. He stays home. Same morning. The other guy looks out his window, sees the same storm, says,

Wow, what a storm. But he says, you know what with weather like this. What a great day to go out and make sales. Most everybody will probably be home, especially the salesman. See, that's the difference in how your life works out. It's not what happens. It's what you do. So here's one of the key questions of the evening.

Starting tomorrow, what are you going to do that will make a change in your life's direction? Good question. What are you going to do starting tomorrow that will make a difference? Now, see, if you don't do something, starting tomorrow that'll make a difference, guess what? It's going to be the same. And see, that way you can guess what the next five years are going to be like. Look at the last five. Because the next five are going to be like the last five unless you,

made your key tomorrow, change it all. Or change a little, or change something, or don't change. It's choice time. You can do whatever you want. But it's nice to know any day you wish you can change your whole life. What can you do? starting tomorrow that'll make a difference. Good question.

What can you do with economic chaos, massive disappointment? What can you do with a broken card? What can you do when it won't work? Good question. So if I had a word with you tonight one-on-one, just you and me, I think my personal advice to you would be this year, 1981, reach down inside of you.

and come up with some more of those remarkable human gifts. They're there waiting to be utilized. And then change anything for you you want to change. And I challenge you to do that because you can change. If you don't like how it is for you, change it. If it doesn't suit you, change it. If it doesn't please you change it. If it isn't enough, change it.

And I challenge you to do that because you can change. See, you don't ever have to be the same again after tonight, only by choice. If you don't like your present address, change it. You're not a tree. Now let me give you three steps to personal development. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. What does it take to really make the changes starting tomorrow? It takes more than philosophical pronouncement.

I know that. It also takes more than enthusiasm. I know we're hearing a lot about enthusiasm these days, but see, that just won't do the job. We're still here on the old cliches of the 30s, right? To be enthusiastic, you must act enthusiastic. But see, that's not going to help. After you have leaped about, there are some things you've got to do, or it isn't going to change.

See, you can get all excited about lifting 200 pounds until you get to the gym. And then you need a new excitement. And the new excitement is called discipline. Major step to human progress. Discipline. If there's one thing to get excited over, that's it. Get excited over your ability to make yourself do the necessary things. What could you make yourself do starting tomorrow that would change it off?

No, telling. Now, see, that's exciting. On any given day, you can massively change the direction of your life. Murder is a clear example that anyone person on any given day can forever alter the course of their life. just happens to be a negative act. But just as sure as you can commit a negative act, you can also commit a positive act and forever alter your life. Whenever you wish. Now that's exciting. And whatever that act might be that changes your life, the guy finally takes a shotgun to his car and blows out every window, destroys every tire, puts a hundred rounds in this shabby old thing.

And he says, I have driven this embarrassing thing for the last time. And not only will I never drive it again, nobody else will ever drive it again. And he lets that shuddering thing stand there for a while as a monument to the day he said, the day my life changes. Now who can do that, anybody, when can you do it, whatever day you pick? Now here's the key to discipline. Start with the little disciplines, get excited over the little disciplines, and get right on those because those will lead to the big ones. You can't handle the big challenges in life unless you take on the little ones.

Make a list of all the things you can do. Get right on those. Discipline yourself for those, both for the results and for the muscle and for the practice. So that when life hands you some big challenges, you'll be ready, you'll have the muscle. But see, if you don't handle the small ones, you can't take care of the big ones. Okay, here's what else it takes for life change. Self motivation. Key phrase, self motivation. I don't know why we call it self motivation. It's really the only kind there is. You've got to motivate yourself. Because I found out you can't change people. They can change themselves, but you can't change them.

Lord knows some I've tried. But see, it won't work. People have to change themselves. I learned some of those lessons early. I built a little sales organization way back in those early days. I'm 20, And I had some nice people. I said, I'm going to make these people successful if it kills me. I almost died. I mean, you can't do that. See, I discovered this. Good people are not trained.

They're found. You find good people. You don't make them good. You find them good. Training really is for the purpose of finding good people. You don't need much instruction for a good person. Too much training probably means you've got the wrong. So you've got to find the right people. That's the key to getting a good job done.

One of the major things we learn in management, lesson one, don't send your ducks to eagle school. Because it won't help. I mean, I'm telling you, it won't help no matter how good your school is. And the little eagle badge and little eagle hat, I'm telling you, it won't help. It won't help. You can tell whether your school has done any good, right, is when it's over, right? The duck goes, for his first rabbit and makes him a friend. You say, no, no. No. Anyway, so it takes self-motivation to really alter your life.

And you don't want to give self-motivation away to somebody else and make it somebody else motivating you. The guy says, boy, if somebody just come by and turn me on, what if they don't show up? See, you've got to have a better plan for your life. Okay. 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 is find out. To change your life really, you need ideas. There isn't anything an idea can't change. And Schof 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. Schof, 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 ideas, see, you can change anything. Now, to get ideas, you need a constant study of finding it. out. Now, Schof 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, someday, some mysterious day, the idea takes root starts to grow and shows up in your bank account and your dress and your personality and your lifestyle.

But capture the ideas in your journal. Find out how things work. Shof 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. 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 of your life and discovered 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 that'll help. Childish curiosity. What will kids do if they want to know something bad enough? Bug you. That's the phrase. They can ask a thousand questions. You think they're through? They've got another thousand. They'll drive you to the brink. It's a virtue when you got to know. Be like a child. In fact, Jesus, the master teacher said, unless you can become like little children, you might as well forget it. You don't have a prayer. Excellent advice. You've got to be like children. Four ways,

in my opinion, to be like a child. Number one's curiosity. Number two is a excitement. Get excited like a child over your ability to make yourself do anything for change. Third is faith. Have faith like a child. Adults are too skeptical. And fourth is trust. Trust is a childish virtue, but the rewards are incredible. So 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 got to know. They just read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read.

Become a good reader. Now, that's my opinion. Listen to the other lecturers and listen to me, and make up your own mind. Don't be a follower. Be a student. I say, really, for life change, you've got to 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 effect on other things. 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's busy, I guess. You know, you get tied up. The guy says, well, yeah, you work where I work, but the time you struggle home, it's late. You got to eat a bite a supper, watch 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. The whole world is governed by laws, the universe, in fact. Laws. We call it the law of electricity. We call it the law of gravity. There's mathematical laws.

There's physical laws. Speed and velocity laws. Agricultural laws. There's all kinds of laws. Now that we find ourselves on the spinning planet, you just have to learn what I call the setup. Learn the setup. life's set up. Now we didn't set it up, but we're here, so you got to learn it. And we should learn

the setup for two basic reasons. Number one, to keep from getting hurt. It's one of the major reasons for learning so you won't get hurt. See economically, socially, personally, you can get hurt just not knowing. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is poverty. Ignorance is tragedy. You've got to know, or you're going to get hurt. It's good to know not to walk out the 10-story window. That's excellent information. Now, what if a guy didn't know when he walks out? No, he's dead at the bottom.

Somebody says, well, the poor guy didn't know. You got to know or you're going to get hurt. Now, here's a parenthesis. You don't have to like the setup. I don't ask you to like how it is. That's not what's important. But it is important. to learn how it is.

So you don't have to like it, but you should learn it. That's what I tell the kids, right? Make sure you get the information. What you think about it, that's up to you. What you're going to do with it, that'll soon be up to you. But make sure you get it. So make sure you get the information. It's key.

You don't have to like it, but learn it. If this big monster's thing lifts up in the sky, hangs there for a little while, cuts loose, comes crashing down, boom, shakes the ground for five miles. And then this big monstrous thing, lifts back up in the sky, hangs there for a little while, cuts loose again, comes crashing down, boom, shakes the ground for five miles. It just keeps doing that this big monstrous thing. Lifting up and then crashing down, boom. Now, you might come along one day and say, that's got to be a stupid arrangement, which is okay. You're entitled to your opinion, but the first thing,

thing you should learn to do is get out from under it, right? That's number one. You might have a great moral argument. You might want to shake your finger at the sky, but do it from over there, right, so you don't get smashed. It's called your basic smart. So number one, learn so you won't get hurt, whether you like it or not. Learn. Now here's the second reason for learning, the setup, to benefit.

It's called the plus of life. And that's what life is, right? Both minus and plus. The minus is tragedy, heartache, misery, failure, unhappiness. But life is also happiness, prosperity, good feelings. So here's the key. Learn to get on the good side of the way things work. Now here's two of the basic laws and we'll take our break. Shof taught me these. They come from the Bible. Now again, I'm an amateur, okay, when it comes to the Bible, I'm not a pro. So you'll sort of have to take my way of putting it. But here they are. The first one is the law of use.

The law of use. And it goes something like this. Whatever you don't use, you lose. Lack of use causes loss. On this planet. Maybe not the next one, but on this one. If you tie your arm to your body, leave it. that they're long enough, you'll never use it again. It's over for the arm. Now may not be over,

but it's over for the arm. The only way to keep the use of this arm is what? Keep using it. If you quit, you lose automatically. They don't bring it up for a vote. You lose automatically when you quit. Now, the same thing that goes for your arm goes for your brain, mentality. The same thing goes for all the human virtues. Ambition, unused declines. Strong feelings. Unused, diminish. It doesn't grow. It diminishes. Faith unused decreases. It's a law. Vitality unused diminishes. Energy unused decreases. The guy says, well, I'm going to save up my energy. You can't do that. That's like trying to save today, put it on the end of the year.

See, you can't do that. They'll come take you away. If you don't use today, what? It's lost. The guy says, well, I work twice as are tomorrow to make up for it. See, that's foolish. You could have done that anyway. Today unused is lost.

A talent unused is lost and ability unused is lost. So here's one of the key expressions of the evening. Take a new inventory of yourself. Starting tomorrow, new project. Take a new inventory and make sure that all of your talent and ability and mentality and ingenuity and vitality and strong feelings. Faith, courage, make sure that all you've got is being used. Otherwise, you lose. Now, one of the best illustrations of the law of use is a Bible story called the Parable of the Talents.

The Talents story. Interesting story if you haven't read it in a while. Just review it. It's a good story. An ancient story says there was a master with three servants. He got him together one day and he said to the three, I've got these talents. And in those ancient days, a talent was a measure of gold. And he said to the three servants, take these talents and see what you can do with them while I'm gone.

He said, I'm taking a journey and I'll be gone for a while. When I come back, we'll get together, go over the book, see how you did. He said, here's five of these talents for you. Five. Here's two of them for you, two. And here's one for you. One. The master said, take those talents, see what you can do with them.

When I come back, we'll get together, we'll go over it all. The servant said, okay, master takes off. According to the ancient story, the master comes back from his trip. When he gets back, he gets the three servants together. And as he said he would, he asks, how did it go with those talents? You're five. What happened? That servant said, well, I took the five talents you gave me and I put them to work. A little shaky at first, but he said things finally got rolling and he said, I poured it on. And he said, my talents grew to seven, eight, nine, ten.

He said, I doubled my talents from five to ten. Books will show. Master said one heck of a job or something like that. He said, I gave you two talents. What happened? And that servant said about the same thing happened to me. I put those two talents to work, poured it on. They grew to three and then to four. He said, I doubled my talents from two to four. Books will show.

Master said, well done. He said, I gave you one talent. What happened? That servant said, well, I took the talents you gave me, and I carefully wrapped it, and I dug a hole and buried it. And camouflaged it, I suppose. So nobody would steal it. And he said, fortunately, nobody got it.

And he said, I knew you were going to be here today, so I dug it up. Here it is, safely wrapped. I did not lose it while you were gone. According to the ancient story, the master said, take that talent away from him and give it to the man that's got tin. Now you might say, well, I don't like that arrangement. The poor guy's only got one talent. He's already got it.

It ought to be more even. Remember, I didn't ask you to like it. But this one I would ask you to learn because it simply means, whatever you do not employ, you forfeit. It's a law. So learn well the law of use. Now here's the second one and we're going to take our break. Second law from the Bible. This one we've heard since we were small, I'm sure.

It's called the law of sowing and reaping. In fact, we probably heard it so often we could quote it. It says whatever you sow what? You shall reap. Fairly blunt, hopefully clear. Here's my first suggestion on the law of sewing and reething. Don't try to beat it. You might as well try sitting on the sun in the morning. Keep it from coming up. You'll have better luck. Whatever you sew, you reap. Now, for a fair share of my life, I'm a bit mixed up on how all this applies,

among a lot of things I was mixed up on. I knew I wasn't reaping too good. That I understood. My problem was I was confused about what was causing it. Remember me with a funny list? I thought those are the reasons why it isn't working out well. And then Mr. Schof gave me the clue that helped me figure it all out. He said, Mr. Owen, I have another answer for you.

There's another way to quote this law that'll show you where the problem is so you can go to work on it right away. All you need to know is where the problem is, then you can go to work on it. So he quoted me the law another way, and I found out what my problem was. Here's the way you quote the law. whatever you reap is what you've sown now I knew what my problem was whatever you reap

is what you've sown if you don't like the crop who do you look up answer whoever planted it and where do you find who planted your crop answer in the mirror thank you for listening continue strengthening your mind by subscribing and listening to our other episodes

Thank you.