The Resilient Mind - The 5 Abilities That Will Change Every Area of Your Life - Jim Rohn

Episode Date: May 29, 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.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/.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_JournalExplore tools from past guests of the podcast. Some links below are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you:💓 HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.com/resilient 🧠 Muse: https://choosemuse.com/resilientmind 🌿 Brain Ritual: https://www.brainritual.com/THERESILIENTMIND🌍 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.

Make this list called the five abilities. Of all the skills to learn, personal development, for parenting, for leadership, for management, sales. Recruiting, building an organization. Affecting the community, affecting people's lives. Here are some extraordinary abilities. If you'll learn them, they will serve you so well the rest of your life. Let me give you the list.

Here's number one. Develop the ability to absorb. Part of your challenge being here today is try to absorb it all. Try to drink it all in, try to take it all in. Both the scene, the capestry of the scene, the situation, what's happening here as well, the ideas that are coming forth. Here's what you must learn to do. Absorb the whole drama.

Because when you want to relate it later, you need both the emotion and the idea. Not just the idea without the emotion, but you need the emotion, the power, the vitality. What happened here as well as what you heard here. That's what's important. So soak it all up. What we're involved in right now is what we call group dynamics. You only had to bring one person, which was yourself,

and yet you got to carry away the spirit and the vitality and the power of the whole audience. What a deal that is, a contribution of one. You get to carry away all the rest. Almost more than you can carry emotionally. Powerful. Learn to absorb it. Don't miss the occasion.

I've looked at this room now dozens of times already because I want this room and the group here and the people that sat before me today. I want this firmly registered in my brain. I want it burned on my consciousness. I want to be able to recall this event as the years unfold. I want the tapestry of all that happened here to be part of myself, my intellect, my spirit, my heart, my soul. I want to soak it all up so that later I can recall and make it useful for someone else. I was there. I was there. I used to come here when I lived in northern California.

I used to come here two or three times a year. I'll describe in some of my later sessions with you. I used to come here part of my day of appreciation. I used to call it. You know, I never had any tragedy in my life. What do I know about tragedy? I was an only child. My parents spoiled me.

I graduated third in my high school class. Had friends still my friends from high school. I just bought another farm in Idaho. One of the kids I went to school. I'm telling me, being an only child, my parents spoiled me. I met Schof when I was 25. I was a millionaire by 31. Yes, I fell on the sky, but I put it all back together, and I've made millions since then.

I've made friends around the world. I get to travel everywhere from Israel, Tel Aviv to South Africa to Tokyo, you name it. Almost. I've been there. I have the most extraordinary. life being able to deposit a piece of my experience in this many people's lives at one time. It's an awesome experience. My largest audience, 41,000, January, 19 languages.

I don't know tragedy. What do I know about tragedy? So I used to come here a couple of times a year, sometimes three, and walk the tenderloin. A couple of blocks from here. If you've listened to some of those tapes, you've heard me describe the story. Just two blocks from here, I met Frank, the bartender, and one of the sleaziest little bars you ever saw called the bottom of the loins. world. That isn't the real name, but that's it. Taylor and Turk Street. I met Frank, the bartender.

Frank used to see more tragedy in a week than most people see in a lifetime. And I'm trying to appreciate tragic life. Now, you can't really know what it's like to live in the tenderloin unless you really live there. But guess what you can do? You can try. I heard some stories. You wouldn't believe sitting in original Jones. But I wanted to have a sense. What's it like to live a tragic life? I'd been sheltered all my life. I don't know anything about the tenderloins. I used to come here and try to find out, at least try. That's when Frank told me about cookie.

See, that lady sitting over there in the bar stool one evening? And I said, yeah, Frank. He said, that's cookie. He said, how old do you think she is? I said, she's in her 40s. He said, no, she's in her 20s. I said, whoa. He said, that's cookie.

He said, Cookie used to be a go-go dancer. back in the go-go-day. And then she got this bone disease in her hips and legs and became a cripple. And so her go-go days were finished. But he said, Cookie also has a little boy five years old, and he's dying of leukemia. And he said, Cookie comes and sits on this stool

almost every night, tries to play a little music on the Jeepbox, cheer herself up. And he said, usually she gets so wasted, I have to call a taxi to come, put her in, take her home. And I thought, Cookie. I get to travel around the world. Cookie can't even make it home without help.

What is life all about? What turn in the road did she take that I didn't? Where did I go right and she went wrong and I somehow got it and she miscalculated? I had a friend that cared and she didn't have one. What is life all about? I tell you, I got some of my best education in the tenderloin two blocks.

And I'm asking you to absorb the drama of the contrast of life, both the tragedy and the triumph, the sorrow and the joy, both success and failure, so that it will temper your communication for the future. Absorb the full drama. Don't leave this skill unlearned. Don't be lazy here.

If you want something to deliver, you've got to absorb it, you've got to learn it, you've got to absorb it, you've got to take it in. So that's my first skill. Learn to absorb. I've got one friend who's so good at this. More exciting to have him go to Acapulco and come back and tell you about it, than it is to go yourself. And the reason is because if he goes,

he won't miss anything. He sees the colors, he sees the people, he talks to the kids, he fills up on the trip. Then he's got the gift of language. When he comes back and tells you about it, when he talks, you can feel the water lapping on your feet. You can smell the aromas.

You can see the colors, you can see the people, you can see the sight, you can see the sounds. And the reason he can deliver it so well is because when he was there he wasn't lazy. When he was there, he didn't drift. When he was there, he soaked it all up like a sponge, and he's got it in his heart and his soul and his head and his spirit. I'm asking you to be so intense, not to miss the drama or the occasion. Because one of your best recruiting tools when you leave here is going to be, I just got back. From what?

And then tell them. Just got back from meeting the most extraordinary people, chandeliers, ballroom. You can't believe the stories. You can't believe what I heard and what I saw and what I felt. Look at my notes. Fabulous. So I'm asking you to soak it all up like I'm going to.

I want this day stamped on my memory forever. Each day is a piece of the mosaic of your life. Don't let the pieces be missing as your life unfolds. They will be treasures for you to recall someday. know whether you're talking to a child to amplify the vision of the future, whether you're talking to a prospect or whether you're talking to the president. It doesn't matter. Who you're talking to. Absorb this day so you won't lose it. You'll have it. Heart, soul, mind, spirit. What an ability. Here's the next one. Develop the ability to respond. Let life touch you. I walked the tenderloin and let life touch me. I sat on the curb and listened to those stories and let life touch me.

I've walked in a senator's home, let life touch me. Wherever you are, let yourself be touched by the drama of life. Here's what it means. Let yourself be affected. To affect other people, you've got to be affected. To touch other people, you've got to be touched. To stir other people, you've got to be stirred. Let it happen to you.

So here's the key. Let life touch you. Don't let it kill you, but let it touch you. Two things said about Jesus, made his ministry so powerful, I think. in my amateur way. Here's what it says. Number one, he was moved. He was moved with compassion.

What he saw moved him. And the other one said he was touched with people's situations. He was touched with their story. He was touched with their plight. He was touched by the drama. Here's what I'm asking you to do as the years unfold.

Be touched and be moved. Don't let yourself be unmoved. Don't build a wall around nothing can get through. Don't put up all the shields and all the barriers. The same wall that keeps out disappointment, keeps out happiness. You can't have it both ways.

You've got to be touched. You got to take the risk. Respond. I'm one of the greatest guys in the world to take to the movies. I respond to a movie. I love a good movie. Make me laugh, make me cry, shake me over hell, scare me to death, but don't leave me unmoved.

I saw an advertisement many years ago in Melbourne, Australia. It said, see Dr. Javago on the big screen. I thought I got to go see it one more time. I'd seen it several times, one more time. You've got to go see it on the big screen, right? I love the big screen. I love the drama of the big cinema. Chandeliers, draperies, balcony.

These little cracker boxes leave a lot to be desired. Popcorn two inches deep. You walk out of your shoes. They stick to the floor. Cracker boxes. Sure enough, downtown Melbourne big old theater. Dr. Javis. One more time, I'm swept away by the saga of the Russian Revolution, Dr. Zhivago, the poet, and the whole story.

I had always missed the significant ending of that story until this time. Comrade General said, Tanya, how did you come to be lost? And she said, well, I was just lost. He said, no, how did you come to be lost? And she said, well, my father and I were running through the city, and it was on fire and we're trying to escape. And I was lost. He said, well, how did you come to be lost? She didn't want to say. Finally, she did blurt it out. She said, well, my father let go of my hand and I was lost. That's what she didn't want to say. Comrade General said, Tanya, I've been trying to tell you. Kamarovsky was not your real father.

This man, the poet, my relative and your father, I'm telling you, this was your real father. I found you. And he said, I promise you, Tanya, if this real man had been there, your father, he would never have let go of your hand. The other times I'm eating popcorn waiting for the movie to finish. I'm telling you, I'm asking you, don't. be that casual. Key phrase, casualness leads to casualties. Don't be casual in gathering information. Don't be casual in the experiences of life. Don't be casual in your contact with human beings. Don't be casual in observing and absorbing and being affected by the drama of life. Don't be

casual. Your life will be so narrow. Your mind will be so empty. Your spirit will be lacking. You won't have the equities of heart and spirit to deliver to a child when it needs it. A daughter when she needs it. A son when he needs it, it'll be lacking. It'll be missing. I'm asking you to be touched, absorb, feel it. And you'll be ready to walk into the 21st century with some stuff. Now here's number three. Learn to reflect. This is an interesting skill.

Reflect simply means go back over. Run the tapes again, I call it. Go back over your experiences. Go back over where you've been and what you've seen and what you've heard. Let me give you some good times to reflect. Here's number one at the end of the day. Take some time at the end of the day. Go back over your calendar.

Go back over your to-do list. Go back over the events of that day. Who did you see and what did they say and how did you feel? Run those tapes again, both the emotion and the experience. It'll make that day valuable if you'll reflect on it at the end of the day. Next, at the end of the week, take a few hours. And go back over the week. Making that week more valuable to serve you.

in the future. Next, at the end of the month, take half a day at the end of the month. Go back over your calendar. Go back over your trips. Go back over the meetings. Go back over the occasions. The good ones and the bad ones. The high ones and the low ones. The happy ones and the sad ones. Make that month valuable. At the end of the year, take a weekend called Time to reflect and ponder and go back over. That'll make the next year so valuable if you can grasp the essence of the year just past. In ancient times, they worked six days, six years, and took the seventh year as a sabbatical. Seventh year sabbatical.

And yes, it might have been for change of pace. Yes, it might have been to rest and relax a little bit. But I think one of the reasons for the sabbatical was to go back over the last six years. Go back over the last six years. The triumphs and the failures. The wins and the losses. So that what? You can invest that last six years into the next six years and make the next six years a lot more valuable.

Here's what's valuable about the past. It's commodity, it's coin, its currency. You can invest it in the next experience. You can invest it in the next recruiting situation. You can invest it in the next meeting. Don't just let the past go. Reflect on it. Absorb it some more.

Remember it. It's powerful. There's an interesting scenario in the Bible. Here's what it says. Every once in a while you should go to your closet. And here's what else it says. And shut the door. Isn't that interesting?

Now, not necessarily to shut yourself in, but to shut everything out for a while. And when you get in there, here's what you should do, wonder and ponder, and think about your life and think about your days and think about your business and think about your people and think about your organization. Just reflect, think, ponder, wonder. It's a good place. My closet is a Jeep trail's around here. Got my motorcycle hit for the Jeep trails.

That's my closet. Shut the door. No traffic jams. No traffic lights. My motorhome in my motorcycle. Great escape for me. I can't wait now. I'm putting me a fax machine in my motorhome.

I can't wait for satellite telephone. We got satellite TPN beaming into the home. I want satellite to beam down give me telephone privileges. So I can be off and gone and still be in touch. My mode for the future is to be in touch and out of reach. I want them to say, yes, you can contact him, but you can't find him for a while. Not forever, for a while.

Shut out everything for a while and ponder your life, ponder your past and ponder your future. And you walk out of the closet and you come down off of the jeep trails and you walk away from a time alone and now you're powerful. Now you're almost invincible.

Learn to do that, reflect. Now here's number four. Now you must act. for learn how to put all of this experience now into a plan, into a program. Acting is what makes all of the three I've talked about before valuable. Produces life, produces equity, produces profit, produces bottom line, produces success, produces progress, produces productivity. And that's what life is all about to produce. So now gather up the past and invest it in the future.

Now gather up your experiences, what you remembered and what you've felt and what you've seen and what you've heard. That's what makes an experience valuable on the stage and the movies. A well-written script, yes. But those emotions near the surface that can be mixed with a well-written script and affect somebody's life and touch somebody's heart and soul and move the mind and move the intellect and touch the spirit. I'm telling you, if you'll work at this, you can get good at it. It's called personal development of the best kind.

Don't get lazy here. Now one more point on acting. The time to act is when the emotions are hot. when the feeling is there, when the power is there. That's the time to put the plan together. Not in some lazy moment when you've been drifting. I'm telling you'll make too many mistakes putting your plan together. Put a plan together when the emotions are hot.

After you've left here before the feeling and all this stuff passes, lay your plans, the calls you're going to make and the meetings you're going to conduct and the things you're going to do, the people you're going to contact, the disciplines you're going to undertake, the new things you're going to do. Get that stuff going. Get that stuff going while it's hot. Because if you don't, here's what's liable to be your experience. experience. And that's called the law of diminishing intent. We intend when it's hot, but intent

starts to diminish. The minute you leave here, it'll start to cool. You've got to make sure before it cools completely that you put it into action, you put it into work, you put it into labor, you put it into a meeting, you put it into an invitation, you put it into a call, put it into a structure. Now here's the last one on the abilities, and that is develop the ability to share. Sharing is one of the most extraordinary human experiences available. Part of sharing we call enlightened self-interest. You say, well, how would it be in your self-interest to share? Here's why.

The people who share usually get the greater benefit. We call that enlightened self-interest. Now, enlightened self-interest means everybody wins. If you share an idea with ten different people, they get to hear it once. You get to hear it. 10 times. Think of what it does for you. I want you to capture that. Develop this ability to share. Now that you've got an idea, share it.

Now that you've got something that could change someone's life, share it. Now that you've got an opportunity that helps someone with their financial future. Share it. Now you've got something that'll help a father walk with dignity and pays bills on time. I'm telling you've got it. Now share it. Don't bottle it up. Share it. Pass it along. Touch someone else's life. Here's the clue. If you save your life, you'll lose.

it. If you just protect yourself, you're lost. Self care leads to poverty. Self-investment leads to fortune. And I'm asking you to make the most extraordinary investment here, depositing an idea in someone's experience and let them toss it around. And if they like it, go for it. No telling you might help them walk out of the shadows. And someday they'll say, Mary, that morning we had breakfast and you pass along this idea. I'm telling you, that was the day that started to change my life forever. thank you very much. I'm telling you, join in the experience of sharing.

It's one of the major reasons why I'm here. I don't need the money. I take the money. But guess what I do need one more time, the experience of sharing. I've already had several people here who say, Jim Rone five years ago, Jim Rone 10 years ago.

Jim Rone, remember 20 years ago, 25 years ago, you touched my life. Here's what happened. One man said, I made a million dollars the year after you touched my life. And that was only the beginning.

Someone says, right, save my marriage. Someone says, caused me to develop some new skills, got me off the dime, got me going. 20 years ago, 25 years ago, 25 days ago. Can you imagine what that's like? A vice president of a very well-known company in America in Toronto, Ontario, three months ago, said, Jim Rone, I got to show you something.

He's a very successful executive, and he showed me the notes that he took in Los Angeles, California, from my seminar 21, years ago. He said, I was 18 years old when I took these notes. And he said, I've used these notes all these years in my personal and my business life and you won't believe the success I've had. Thank you very much. He showed me the notes. Number one, you got to be around 21 years ago. And number two, you got to laugh for 21 years. So you get to go and collect the story. I'm asking you to share.

You'll have some extraordinary stories when someone says you touched my life and led me out of darkness into light. Before you got there, I was blind. Now I can see. Now I've touched other people's lives. I'm asking you to have that kind of experience. You will be the greatest benefactor if you'll share with others. A lady asked me one time, St. Louis, Missouri. She said, Mr. O'n, I've been to five of your seminars over the last two or three years. And she said, I've got a question. I said, well, if you've been here five times, you deserve an answer. What is your question? She said, My question is, how do you stay so excited all the time? She said, every time I've seen you, you're on top, you're going great.

Things are exciting for you. She said, how do you stay that way? That's what I need to know. And I said, well, I think one of the reasons is I attend all these seminars. You get about five of these in one month and you'll be flying. Now, that's what I'm asking you to do. Go out and share the good news. Go out and share your life experiences.

Help people not just with their job skills, but help them with their life skills. They'll come back and thank you forever. and your heart will grow and your experience will grow. There's nothing like it in the world, sharing with someone else and being the beneficiary of their respect and their care, their love and their concern, and their thanks. It's an awesome experience. What you've gotten your hands now, share it.

What you've gotten your heart, pass it on. What you've gotten your soul, deliver it. Some mistakes you've made you've benefited from, help somebody. Save them from the errors of their ways. Save somebody from despair. before you get there, the light won't shine. There are some people that will walk in darkness until you walk into their house.

There are some people that won't be able to pay their bills on time until you get there. There are some people that won't have the joys of success and power and future until you arrive. So I'm asking you to make haste. Walk out of this building in haste. Walk out of this building and get on the phone in haste. Walk out of here in haste to conduct the next meeting,

to invest in the next person's life. You'll be rewarded. Not only monetarily, who cares about the next thing? the money. We're all going to get rich. What matters is richness of the spirit, richness of the heart, richness of the soul. That's why I came here. This will help me to struggle today with the language. Help me to find more sentences that'll work. Help me to find another story that'll fit. Help me to refine my heart and soul so that the mixture is right. Not too hard, not too soft, not too strong, not too easy. Words that count. Words that give life. Words that give life. Words that give

I'm telling you, one of the reasons I came here is to see if I can't grow a little bit more from the time I started until the time now when I'm about to finish. This has been an extraordinary experience for me. I want you to enjoy it. I started one at a time at breakfast. So can you. Somebody says that breakfast we had changed my life. You got me thinking. You got me pondering.

You dug me out. You wouldn't let me go. You gave me one call and then another call and then another call. Finally, the lights went on. Thanks to you. Here I am. Thanks. for my children, thanks for my family, thanks for my organization.

Go get the job done. This is part of your legacy and opportunity, and that is to share. One more thing on sharing. Here it is. When you share, it makes you bigger. If the cup is full, can it hold anymore? The answer is yes. If you pour some out, surely today will have filled you up.

meeting the people you've met, thinking about the things we've pondered here while we've been together, some more yet to come. I'm asking you now, if you've been filled up today, I'm asking you to leave here now and go pour it out, go pour it out. Why pour it out? So you can hold more of the next experience. If you don't pour some out, you don't get any more. But here's what else is exciting. Unlike this cup, if you pour some out, it doesn't get any bigger. Not true as human beings. Make this note. Humans have infinite capacity. No telling. In later series, we'll talk about the capacity of a child. How many languages can a child learn?

Here's the startling truth. As many as you'll take the time to teach them, they do not lack capacity. They only lack teachers. And the same is true with all human beings. We don't lack capacity. We've got the most incredible capacity, but it cannot be expanded and expanded and take advantage of unless you pour out what you've got with patience and joy.

with anticipation, with excitement. Whether they respond or don't respond, you can't change people, but they can change themselves. Just pour out, pour out. When you pour out, you get bigger. When you pour out, you get bigger. Why wish to get bigger? So you can hold more of the next experience. And then when opportunity is poured out in 1995, if you'll share what you got, no telling what you'll be able to hold.

But the time this year winds down, and we have four more years left called countdown to century 20. and let's go work miracles with everyone we touch. God bless. Thank you for listening. Continue strengthening your mind by subscribing and listening to our other episodes.